SAS NAGAR, OCT 11: Kiwis do not eat like birds but they are highly diet-conscious. Menus stick strictly to the list drawn up by the team doctor and physiotherapist and intake is not allowed to cross 1,500 calories per day.Oil and fatty stuff is kept to a minumum. Breakfast options include orange or lemon juice, muffins, spaghetti, baked beans, sandwiches, black coffee or tea. Lunch is more sumptuous: boiled/baked seasonal vegetables and rice, with grilled chicken or fish, or lamb flavoured with lemon as the main course.(As a journalist from New Zealand explained: "We have a human population of three million and a sheep population of 60 million that makes about 20 sheep per person. As you can guess, we eat a lot of red meat. But when I'm here I like to try local foods and salads.")Interestingly, dal makhni, rotis and nans also figure on the cricketers' menu and are relished by the players.Kiwi tea snacks are typically muffins, fresh fruit (bananas, apples, guavas are their favourites), fruit cake, juice and coffee.Dinner is lighter than lunch with chicken being the usual choice, augmented by tomato soup.They are also fortified with instant foods - "just-add-boiling-water" stuff similar to instant noodles. A Kiwi seen munching something in the pavillion is probably chowing down on a packet of instant.All this is pretty much what one might expect; the surprising quirk is their "fluid dynamics". The Kiwis consume 14 crates of mineral water a day to the vast astonishment of the waiters.
