And the very earliest manuals on distance running laid great emphasis on the quality and quantity of food - plentiful roast beef, roast and boiled mutton or chicken, vegetables and stale crusty bread, all washed down with ale. The meat was usually taken before the longest work-out of the day. On the move, the athletes topped up with mutton stew, calf's foot jelly or eel broth, and drank beef tea, coffee, ginger ale, milk, and at times champagne and brandy. Today's experts believe that eating disorders are especially common among athletes because of the pressure on them. Competition reinforces characteristics such as perfectionism, obsessive behaviour, the desire to control physique and attention to detail.
Most successful athletes are more determined and disciplined than the average.
They set the highest goals and work extra hours to achieve them. The same pressure that will drive one athlete to bulk up by the illegal use of steroids is the engine that drives another to shed weight through anorexia and bulimia. They just see different paths to producing what they believe will be the perfect and winning body. The body images, thin or thick, come from the top. Every American schoolboy knows that Mark McGwire, the St Louis Cardinals' baseball super-slugger, bulks his body with the drug androstenedione.