When we talk about improving our skills at the game of bridge, thoughts leap to hard skills first.

Learning new bidding conventions, or putting time into playing better tricks in various situations. But what about things like the food and diet ideal for bridge?

Food matters.

If you’re going to be sitting down for a bridge tournament or casual game, food especially matters.

Loads of people go for convenience, while others prefer a hearty preparation meal; I’d guess that many readers don’t spare their pre-bridge diet a second thought.

What kind of bridge-eater are you?

Food has the ability to boost our mental performance. But at the same time, food also has the ability to increase the likelihood of high blood pressure, heart problems, cholesterol, and that’s just the tip of the potential iceberg.

I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out food. After several surgeries and a lot of Googling, I can say that food has a lot to do with how good you feel (and how well you might do).

Here’s a look at 3 different diet types that might be slowing your bridge game down.

1. The Carnivore’s diet

The carnivore’s diet is particularly high in meat.

While meat itself can be for good health, the devils lie in consumption amounts, preparation, and meat types. Let’s leave moral discussions for a later stage, and just assume that some people include meat and others don’t.

Include high-fat pork and beef cuts in your diet, and your risk of cholesterol and heart disease goes up. Eat meats that are high in preservatives, fats, or salts just before a bridge game, and you’re compounding your risk.

More than this, bridge games can be high-stress, high-heat environments. Adding the stress to your heart with the wrong diet can be a sure way to the emergency room.

2. The gluten-based diet

Bread might be one of the best things invented since sliced… Oh, well. Gluten can be found as a main ingredient in a lot of things. Many of these aren’t obvious, where gluten is used as an accompanying ingredient (such as spices).

If you are gluten-intolerant, expect an adverse reaction whenever gluten is consumed. An allergy-test is recommended! Reactions can be very serious.

For everyone else, a gluten overload isn’t healthy for the long-haul.

Bread, cookies, pasta, and other gluten-heavy foods turn straight into sugar. Sugar is quick energy for the body, but eventually runs low.

If you’re running on sugar before bridge, expect it to run out. Consequences can include feeling sluggish and tired.

3. The salted overload diet

Salt is an essential to the majority of human diets.

Simultaneously, salt can also increase the likelihood of health problems being triggered. The word salt often appears in the same paragraph as heart disease, water retention, stroke risk, and a handful of others.

(f you don’t want to believe it here, feel free to ask a dietary expert or your doctor about potential salt-consumption risks.

Short-term salt spikes can also lead to other, weird physical issues like increased urination. Doesn’t that sound great for bridge?

Limit your salt-consumption, and switch to healthier forms of salt for cooking and finishing meals.

Have you compared your diet to your bridge scores and found a possible link? Change your diet and see what your game looks like from here!