After retiring from tennis in 2024, Nadal works out three times a week
Rafael Nadal, a two-time Wimbledon champion and one of the most successful tennis players of all time, recently revealed that his go-to breakfast is toast with anchovies.
Nadal, who retired in 2024, told The Wall Street Journal that he started incorporating anchovies into his morning meal while he was still a professional athlete.
“I was not a breakfast guy,” Nadal said. “But later on in my career with the nutritionist [I learned] you have to eat some protein, some carbs.”
Anchovies are saltwater fish that average about five or six inches in length and are typically preserved in salt and packed in olive oil. They have long been a staple of Mediterranean cooking, particularly in Nadal’s native Spain.
They have grown in popularity in the U.S. in recent years, along with other seafood in the tinned-fish category, as Americans increasingly seek healthy, convenient foods.
Anchovies are an absolute nutritional dynamo,” Sudi Pigott, a London-based anchovy sommelier and author of “Consider the Anchovy: A Journey in Pursuit of the Little Fish with the Big Flavour,” told Fox News Digital.
They are “surprisingly high in protein” for their size, according to the Cleveland Clinic. They’re also “packed with nutrients” and are “among the best fish sources of omega-3 fatty acids, a type of healthy fat your body needs to work well,” according to the medical institution.
Research has linked diets rich in omega-3 fatty acids to a lower risk of age-related macular degeneration, Pigott said.
The global tinned-fish market size is forecast to growat a compound annual growth rate of 5.18% between 2026 and 2031, market research firm Mordor Intelligence reported.
The demand for convenience foods that are not processed is also influencing consumer demand toward tinned fish, the company reported.