Fans have watched teams swiftly travel across the world on The Amazing Race for years. From catching the best flight to completing timed challenges in a new country, there’s no doubt contestants are anticipating some major stress. But it seems the food they eat while on the show is also less than ideal.
Here’s what one contestant shared about the terrible food she ate while competing for the grand prize.
An ‘Amazing Race’ contestant talked about trying to eat healthy on the show
It might be tough for health nuts to get around the lack of nutritious options when competing on The Amazing Race. While contestants are ultra-focused on completing their tasks in a timely fashion to get to the next leg of the race, they still have to eat. And many of their meals are at the mercy of the airline they choose to take their flights with.
Tyler Oakley, a past contestant, explained that while he tried to eat healthily, it was quite difficult to do so consistently. According to Yahoo, he told Men’s Health he’d get so hungry and exhausted that he never wanted to choose healthier options even when they were available.
“As soon as you’re on the race and you finish [a leg], it’s like you finish a marathon and you don’t want to go eat a salad, you want a big hearty meal,” Oakley noted. “And that was like everyday I wanted a burger and pizza and whatever I could get.”
There’s also the money aspect to consider. While teams can use their funds to purchase meals, that’s less money they’ll have for later legs in the race when they may need it more.
Another contestant said she ate awful food while filming
While Oakley had trouble finding healthy options, another contestant noted she ate a number of bad meals along the way. Contestant Hayley Keel talked to She Just Glows about her experience on the show, and she had a lot to say about the food.
“We really are eating random junk the whole time,” Keel said. “There were times we’d be eating an airplane meal, and I just wished I could have some fruit.”
Keel also noted that she and her partner didn’t want to spend her stipend on buying meals, so she figured out another way to get more bang for her buck. She’d ask the flight attendants for extra food, and she’d bring that with her in her backpack for when she’d get hungry further along in the race. While this meant she’d be eating mostly airline food, it was an easy way to save a buck.
Competitors are allowed to pack protein bars for on-the-go fuel
While Keel depended on extra airline food to get her through the competition, Oakley had a different approach. He depended on protein bars to fill him up in a pinch. They were easy to store in his backpack and light enough that they didn’t add much weight.
“So this time we brought protein bars, so many of them,” he shared with Men’s Health. “And not only is it perfect for travel and being active, but it also became a social currency. It was something that a lot of the teams that had never run the Race before didn’t realize that they should bring.”
Oakley added that he’d use the bars to negotiate and make deals with other teams. “So it was something that kind of gave us an upper hand, or a negotiation tactic, in the airport where there are people that are harvesting their money and they don’t want to spend it on anything because you might need it for a cab, so you can offer them a protein bar and it might put you in their good graces.”
It looks like future Amazing Race contestants should anticipate bringing a few protein bars along!
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