The TB12 Way of Life

Courtesy of New York Post

Tom Brady will turn 43 in August, and he has shown no signs of slowing down. 

Last season, Brady became the oldest quarterback in NFL history to start every game in a 16 game season. He is also the oldest quarterback to lead the league in passing yards, to win the AP Most Valuable Player award, to be named first-team All-Pro, and to both play in a Super Bowl and win Super Bowl MVP. In his career, he led the New England Patriots to six Super Bowl wins in an eighteen year span. Over that time period, has thrown over 74,000 yards and 540 touchdowns, which each rank second all time.

These are among the many reasons Brady is heralded as the Greatest Of All Time, or G.O.A.T. for short, at the quarterback position. He has produced on the field and delivered titles over nearly a two decade span at a very high level, whereas most quarterbacks burn out before crossing the 40 year threshold. 

So what makes Tom Brady different? How was he able to sustain a peak level of performance for 20 years? Put simply, his very restrictive diet. His own hyper strict, plant-based, anti-inflammatory, alkaline diet, known as The TB12 Method. The berry and banana smoothies, the roasted vegetables, the infamous avocado ice cream. Brady’s self-made dieting regimen is one of the strongest reasons behind the longevity, performance, and success of his career, and it continues to help the longtime Patriot extend his career into his mid 40s.

The Best Ability is Availability

Brady changed his diet in 2004 during training camp at a young 27 years of age, following his second Super Bowl winning in New England, and experiencing soreness in his shoulder for most of the year. Former Patriots defensive end Willie McGinest convinced Brady that he needed to adjust his diet and nutritional habits if he wanted to reduce risk of injury. In a 2017 interview with NFL Network, coincidentally led by McGinest who is currently a reporter for the network, Brady opened up about the epiphany which changed his career:

When I was out here in 2004 and couldn’t go through a training camp practice without being hurt, [McGinest] said, ‘Listen, this is what you gotta do. You gotta go work with Alex [Guerrero] and you gotta start thinking about these things and start preventing these injuries because it’s no good if you’re sitting on the sideline. And from that day, my elbow hasn’t hurt, my shoulder hasn’t hurt, and you just incorporate those continuing treatments with the right diet, the right nutrition, you keep doing it. That’s what I love talking about, because I love playing football and I want to keep doing it for a long time.

Ever since changing his diet after 2004, Brady has reduced soreness and evaded injury throughout his career. Apart from the asterisk of the 2008 season when Brady suffered a torn ACL from a low contact hit to his knee, Brady has not missed a start due to injury.

Brady celebrating New England's Super Bowl XLIX in 2015 with his personal trainer, Alex Guerrero in Glendale, Arizona (Courtesy of Boston Magazine)

Brady accredits McGinest’s guidance for him to start working with Alex Guerrero, a medicine practitioner and alkaline diet advocate, and co-founder of TB12 along with Brady himself. Guerrero is widely regarded as a central figure in Brady’s innovative diet, and co-creator of the TB12 Method. Together, Brady and Guerrero developed a system combining “nutrition, hydration, brain training, and a special form of massage in order to create a state of ‘pliability,’ marked by soft, elongated muscles that are able to withstand injury." 

Read more about Tom Brady's decision to sign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

According to Guerrero, pliable muscles are resistant to injury, and is a crucial component of Brady’s regimen. Guerrero often substitutes Western medicine with pliable solutions, and encourages his clients to stay away from surgery and follow a workout routine. In 2007, for instance, Brady was recommended to have surgery in 2007 to alleviate groin pain but instead listened to Guerrero who installed a workout program for him to rehabilitate. Brady’s groin pain left and never returned. Guerrero’s role in the TB12 Method, specifically his pliability philosophy, has proven to be a groundbreaking innovation in Brady’s regimen, and has kept Brady healthy throughout his career. 

By the Book

In 2017, Brady documented his eating regimen in his self-published book, The TB12 Method, outlining his principles and guidelines for dieting towards a trajectory of “sustained peak performance." In an exclusive interview Brady gave with Men’s Health in 2019, Brady illustrated how the TB12 Method directs his daily life. 

Brady’s typical day begins around 5:30 a.m., maybe six o’clock if he decides to snooze the alarm. He will then drink 20 ounces of water mixed with his TB12 created electrolytes. After that, he makes a high-calorie, high-fat, high protein smoothie, usually in a combination of bananas, blueberries, nuts and seeds. For lunch at noon, Brady eats a plate of healthy protein, and more vegetables, notably whole grains and dark leafy greens. For the remainder of the day Brady makes two or three additional protein shakes, “a plant-packed dinner, and - not infrequently - a steaming cup of bone broth.” On game days, Brady keeps it simple, and makes himself a smoothie and an almond butter and jelly sandwich. Brady and Guerrero co-designed this regimen together to keep Brady at peak condition.

During the day, Brady drinks up to 25 glasses of water. Twenty-five. 

Alicia Romano, a clinical registered dietician at Tufts Medical Center, told The Boston Globe she “would never recommend [drinking 25 glasses of water in a single day] to a patient." The average consumer could not drink nearly that much water on a daily basis, as that could increase the threat of water intoxication. But Brady is a highly regimented professional athlete, and he offsets the 25 glasses of water fused with TB12 electrolytes per day with an intensive exercise training regimen, which inherently leads to a lot of sweating. Sufficient daily water intake also depends on a person’s weight, and Brady is 6’4” and weighs 230 pounds, which requires a higher intake of daily water than the average person.

Courtesy of New York Post

Brady’s book specifically outlines a list of foods which are “off-limits” because of the negative inflammatory effect on the body, which include but are not limited to:

• Gluten, refined carbs like bread, cereals, and pastas
• Dairy, milk, cheese
• Nightshade vegetables such as tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes, and bell peppers
• Caffeine
• Alcohol

According to Dr. Carolyn Williams of Cooking Light magazine, Brady’s diet is even more restrictive than it needs to be. In fact, Dr. Williams could not validate the scientific connection that dairy products have an anti-inflammatory effect on an average consumer, nor could she verify that nightshade vegetables trigger inflammation. 

Atlanta Hawks sports nutritionist Marie Spano echoed Dr. Williams’ findings, saying “unless you’re lactose intolerant or you have a sensitivity to dairy, there’s no reason to stay away from dairy." She restates the same regarding nightshade vegetables, which can be problematic for people with an autoimmune disease, but they otherwise do not cause an anti-inflammatory effect. Scientifically, dairy products and nightshades have no harmful impact on the body unless a patient has an allergy or sensitivity towards the product. Yet Brady steers clear from them anyway.

To learn more about the TB12 Method, visit TB12sports.com and purchase Brady's self-published book!

This hyper restrictiveness of the TB12 Method eliminates meticulous attention to general calorie intake and macronutrient dieting. Dairy is a valuable source of calcium and vitamin D for the body, but instead of monitoring calorie intake from dairy products, Brady chooses to remove dairy from the TB12 Method entirely. This extra step involves further sacrifice, and maximizes the inhibition of his diet. 

It is unsurprising that a man as competitive as Brady would craft a diet so restrictive that it was in fact much stricter than need be for the average Joe. Brady extends to even greater extremes to achieve the anti-inflammatory effect and equilibrium of peak performance which he is seeking, even though the science suggests he is doing too much.

Breaking Habits

You would assume that Brady’s diet is centralized in fruits and vegetables of all kinds, but even Brady is picky about one in particular. Prior to 2018, Brady had never eaten a strawberry. Brady is famous for his profound hatred of strawberries, which he told Men’s Health in an exclusive interview, an article on New York Magazine, and even Stephen Colbert on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. In a guest appearance on Colbert’s show in 2018, Brady told the late night host, “I hate strawberries. I hate the smell of strawberries.” 

To give Brady’s fans a taste of entertainment, Colbert challenged the six time Super Bowl champion to eat a strawberry, and even chug a beer. Brady accepted the challenge, and ate a strawberry, to which he said “Not that bad. I did it. Mom, are you proud of me?” Colbert followed up and asked Brady if he drinks beer in his “Superman diet.” to which Brady responded, “Rarely.” Unsurprisingly, Colbert then reached under his desk for two glasses of beer, and when Brady asked if he is supposed to chug it, Colbert responded, “Well I don’t know if you’re a competitive guy.” Guess what happened next.

While heavily regulated, Brady's "Superman" diet gives him flexibility to treat himself every once in a while. Even Brady cheats his diet on occasion. 

Brady told Men's Health in 2019 that “If I’m craving bacon, I have a piece. Same with pizza. You should never restrict what you really want. We’re humans, here for one life. What’s changed as I’ve gotten older is now if I want pizza, I want the best pizza. I don’t eat a slice that tastes like sh*t and then wonder ‘Why am I eating sh*t pizza?’” As the years have gone on, Brady has loosened up a little bit, and leaves him flexibility to cheat if he's craving some junk foods.

However, a centerpiece of the TB12 Method is one of Brady's go-to dishes: ice cream. Avocado ice cream, that is. Yes, avocado ice cream. 

Unbelievably, avocado ice cream is one of Brady’s favorite foods, and it was even served to Patriots reporters on his 40th birthday, according to The Boston Globe. If you purchase a copy of Brady’s book, you will find the homemade recipe to the infamous avocado ice cream, and anyone at home can try it themselves! 

Check out the recipe for Tom Brady's famous avocado ice cream published on The Boston Globe website.

While Brady loves the taste of his favorite dessert, members of the sports media were not as thrilled. Amy Parlapiano from Sports Illustrated followed Brady’s recipe and tried the ice cream herself, and wrote that “it smells like ‘Mother Earth’... and it tastes like actual dirt.” Graham Flanagan from Business Insider felt it tasted “closer to a frozen bowl of chili than ice cream” and noted the only similarity between ice cream and Brady’s dish was that they were both cold.

Does Brady actually enjoy the taste of avocado ice cream? He just might. But he loves playing football more than any dish, and he would eat avocado ice cream even if it was not tasty if it translated to reduced injury risk, kept Brady in shape into his mid 40s, and allowed him to extend his career beyond an age threshold nobody has been able to cross and replicate a similar level of success before him. 

Entering his 21st season in the NFL, Brady is not done yet. Even as a six time Super Bowl champion who owns an abundance of NFL records including most wins by a quarterback, most Pro Bowl selections, and most touchdown passes in postseason history, Brady aims to play football until age 45, and play at a high level. To reach this unprecedented threshold for NFL quarterbacks, Brady would be on the field for at least three more seasons, and would extend his tenure as an active NFL athlete to 23 years. Just two months ago, Brady inked a two year contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which will take him through age 44. 

The TB12 Method, compiled with 25 daily glasses of electrolyte fused water, unorthodox massaging, intensive workout regimen, eliminating of gluten, dairy, and nightshades, and the unforgettable inclusion of avocado ice cream, has innovated the quarterbacking lifestyle of Brady and extended his career beyond all measures of football fans’ imaginations. 

As long as Brady is healthy, and continues to play at a championship caliber and lead his team to the Super Bowl, he's sticking around. Besides, Brady isn't going out on a playoff defeat. He's chasing another championship. 

Follow Sam DeCoste on Twitter @thesamdecoste