Dwight Howard Ate So Much Candy There Was an Intervention
Ken Berger at CBS Sports has a piece up about nutrition in the NBA, which includes an interesting, but perhaps not too surprising, anecdote about Dwight Howard.
According to Cate Shanahan, a Napa Valley doctor and nutritionist who was hired by the Lakers to work with its players last season, Howard was basically a candy addict. Shanahan had Howard undergo a blood screening, and when the results showed a frighteningly high glucose reading, she, along with Howard’s friends and family, held an intervention.
An intervention. For candy and soda consumption. But it was needed, because Howard was consuming “the equivalent of 24 Hershey bars a day in the form of candy and soda”.
Here’s the best bit though:
Like an addict, Howard had candy and sugary drinks stashed everywhere -- from his kitchen cabinets to a drawer next to his bed to the backpack he toted to games and practices.
For those of us who follow the NBA closely, Howard’s love of sugar is well known – this is a man, after all, who once raved about a supposedly serious contract-negotiation meeting with Orlando Magic team officials because the team filled the meeting room with all his favorite candy – but even with that knowledge, the equivalent of 24 bars of chocolate a day is insane.
Howard has been described as “like a child” by many NBA reporters before, but this candy-addiction yarn takes it to a new level.
The good news is Howard seems to be changing. He handled his recent free agency plans more maturely than the 2012 fiasco, and, according to Shanahan, he has given up candy.
Also, in another sign that life isn't fair, Howard has managed to look like this all throughout his NBA career even though he ate like a fat kid.
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