Do you feel like having a barbecue?

Depends on.

Yes, when it comes to rump steak, tuna and vegetables on the grill.

No when it comes to insects.

Resolute no.

So it is for many in this country.

Unlike in Asia, for example, the idea of ​​considering barbecuing as part of human nutrition meets with persistent reservations.

Bernd Steinle

Editor in the section “Germany and the World”.

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    It's different with Adam Ondra. This is less because the 28-year-old Czech also likes to eat unusual things, as he says. Rather, it is a purely rational decision. Ondra is a competitive athlete, for many he is the best climber in the world, whether on the rock or in the hall. He is a multiple climbing world champion, won the overall World Cup, was the first to climb a rock route in the previously highest level of difficulty 9c and is considered a favorite for the Olympic premiere of sport climbers at the Tokyo Games in the summer.

    For a professional athlete like Ondra, proper nutrition is a success factor. “It would be nonsense if I trained so much and then ruined a lot of things again with poor nutrition,” he says. This applies not only to performance in training and competition, but also to regeneration. "If I drink alcohol in the evening, for example, the quality of sleep drops and recovery suffers." So he leaves that with the alcohol. At least, most of the time.

    Diet discipline isn't a huge sacrifice for him.

    “I like most of what is healthy.

    And I don't like to eat a lot of what is not healthy anyway. ”Fast food, for example.

    Proteins, on the other hand, are an essential part of his diet - and that's where crickets come in.

    "Crickets are a sustainable, resource-saving way of supplying the body with high-quality animal protein," says Ondra.

    Energy bars and powder mixtures from grilling

    Compared to beef, for example, insect breeding only consumes a fraction of the water it consumes, there are fewer greenhouse gases that are harmful to the climate, hardly any agricultural land is used, and feed consumption is much lower. Because the sustainable production of food is important to him, because as a top athlete he depends on a rich supply of protein, and because he is convinced of the need for a more environmentally friendly protein source for the growing world population, Ondra works with the manufacturer Sens, which sells energy bars and Offers powder mixtures with protein obtained from grilling. The taste? Relative to chocolate or peanut butter bars anyway.Ondra likes to mix the protein powder in porridge or muesli at breakfast, for example - "you can hardly taste it anyway". As I said: It is less a gut decision than a head decision.

    If the training and nutrition at the Olympics should actually pay off for Adam Ondra, his strict nutrition regime could, for once, falter. During his climbing stays in Spain and France, he finally learned how to reward yourself appropriately for personal success. For example with a good glass of red wine.