A Day on My Plate: Athletes’ Meals

Amidst London's Olympic fever creative duo Sarah Parker and Michael Bodiam graphically re-envision Olympian nutritionist Dan Benardot's diets for five star athletes. From the 2282-calorie diet for a 17-year-old gymnast including peanut butter and bagels to a male triathlete's blueberries and chocolate milk, the nutritionist behind USA's 1992 and 1996 gymnastic team, as well as marathoners in Athens 2004, shares the ideal eating regimes for sports stars looking to optimize their game. "Many of these athletes have such enormous energy requirements and they're so metabolically capable you could practically throw anything down the gullet and they'd be able to burn it," says Benardot of the seemingly counterintuitive food choices. Previously creating potent images for the likes of Mr Porter and GQ, set designer Sarah Parker used laser-cut MDF, card and paper to develop the place settings around the miniature-looking real food products. Says the creative: "I wanted people to be able to draw direct comparison between the diets, and to produce something quite playful that subtly hinted at the sport each athlete participated in."

Dan Benardot's latest book Advanced Sports Nutrition-2nd edition is out now.