Tom Brady is a world-class athlete, and it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to reach the level that he has in his career. A big part of that is to live a healthy lifestyle with a good diet that allows him to stay in shape and at the top of his game. Brady has developed a top-tier diet over his long football career and eats almost exclusively healthy foods, but that wasn’t always the case for the six-time Super Bowl champion.

He frequently ate unhealthy foods when he was a kid, but now that he’s more knowledgeable about nutrition he’s not going to make the same mistake with his own kids.

Tom Brady’s unhealthy lifestyle as a kid

On an episode of Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, Brady discussed his childhood and how he didn’t eat healthily when he was a kid. He told Shepard that he looked at pictures of himself and realized he was “a chunky little kid.”

Brady liked to drink root beer floats and all he “ever wanted to eat was bacon cheeseburgers.” And, according to Brady, the foods he ate showed in his shape and his body. He continued to eat “terrible foods” when he got to high school.

Brady recalled in the episode a typical day for him started with “a big muffin with butter” for breakfast, a couple donuts and a hot dog at school, and clam chowder with a bread bowl for lunch. He’d “have like nachos with tub o’ cheese” after school before his mom would try to make something healthier for dinner.

Developing the TB12 method

Tom Brady’s diet is a lot different now than it used to be. As he has advanced in his career and gotten older, he has learned more about eating better.

He has even written a book about what he has deemed ‘The TB12’ method, a diet that works wonders for him but would be difficult for “regular people” who aren’t world-class athletes to adhere to. Brady’s diet is low in sugar and full of vegetables, lean meats, and water.

Not all vegetables get Brady’s seal of approval, though; he stays away from nightshades, a group that includes tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, and eggplants. He eats a lot of lean meats to make sure he’s getting a lot of protein.

His favorite meats include grass-fed organic steak, duck, chicken, and wild salmon. As for his water intake, Brady goes well beyond the recommended eight glasses a day. He can drink up to 25 glasses of water in a day.

What do Tom Brady’s kids eat?

Having grown up eating a diet high in fat and calories, Brady knows how bad that can be. Combine that experience with his current diet and fitness regimen, and he knows how to make sure his kids eat healthy meals.

In fact, the youngest members of the Brady clan stick to a similarly strict diet as their parents. The family’s personal chef Allen Campbell has described what the Brady kids eat, and it’s not the typical menu you’d expect a child to it.

According to an Insider article, Campbell said, “80% of what they eat is vegetables,” but not just any veggies. Campbell finds the freshest vegetables — and he says if it’s not organic he doesn’t use it. Campbell, who would know better than anyone, confirms that “90% of the time they [the whole family] all eat the same thing.”

How do the kids react to it? They’re fine eating such a healthy diet because that is essentially all they’ve known in their young lives. Campbell has been preparing the family’s meals since the kids were very young, and in fact, he says he gave daughter Vivi her first food because she was only 9 months old when Campbell started working for the Bradys.