The numbers for Team Norway’s striker, Erling Haaland, have been, well, striking. He’s scored 62 goals in 54 appearances for the national team so far. That’s included seven goals in just four games at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. And now there are reports that the six-foot-five inch center-forward reportedly regularly consumes around 6,000 calories per day.
Eating 6,000 Calories A Day Would Not Be A Good Idea For Most People Not Named Erling Haaland
Yeah, you won’t be finding too many dietitians and doctors telling you to ingest about 6,000 calories worth of food per day. That’s a bit more than the 1,600 and 3,000 calories per day range that’s been recommended for humans in the Dietary Guidelines of America. In order to burn 6,000 calories calories, the average person would have to keep running for about six to seven and half hours, jumping rope for about five to six hours, having sex for about 20 to 30 hours or doing some combination of the three activities simultaneously for at least a few hours straight..
Most typical humans can’t burn 6,000 calories each day. But the 25-year-old Haaland, who once scored nine goals in a single match, is not your typical human being. Not only does he regularly play a physically demanding sport, his metabolism is likely quite different, too.
What Does Erling Haaland Eat?
Now, you may be wondering what specifically Haaland eats each day to get to the 6,000-calorie mark. Well, that would certainly not be a new questions. In fact, it’s an “ancestral” one. He’s been on an ancestral diet as opposed to the ancestral since there is not a single ancestral diet out there. A search of the Internet will instead return many different variations of ancestral diets from many different times and places out there.
That’s because the term ancestral diet is more of a general one, applying to any diet that is supposed to mimic the diet of our human ancestors. That means avoiding stuff that emerged in the more modern, post-Industrial Revolution era—such as processed foods, refined sugars, industrial seed oils and supplements— in favor of locally sourced, more natural whole foods—such as produce that’s currently in season and grown close by and different types of animal meats.
There are some slightly more specific overarching principles. One of them is the so-called “nose-to-tail” eating. That doesn’t mean that you should start stuffing food up your nose and rear end. Instead, it encourages you to eat the entire animal to supposedly maximize the different types of nutrients that you ingest. For Haaland, that apparently includes regularly eating cow hearts and livers, according to the 2022 documentary Haaland: The Big Decision that’s about him. The film also documented other items in his diet like raw honey, sea bass, asparagus and egg fried rice.
What Are The Benefits of Haaland’s Diet
Now, in general, it is better to see words like “natural”, “locally sourced” and “whole foods” rather than “artificial”, “from who knows where” and “really incomplete foods” when it comes to healthful eating. As I have written before in Forbes, studies have shown links between the consumption of ultra-processed foods and colorectal cancer and premature death. Processed foods can even lead to eat more, too, as I have also covered in Forbes.
That’s not super surprising since the steps involved in manufacturing, processing and storage can end up adding different substances to, removing good nutrients from and changing the structures and textures of the original food to the point that it no longer fully resembles what human bodies have gotten used to over many, many years. That could result in unexpected and negative reactions from your body such as inflammation and disruption of your hormones. That, in turn, might not be good for your body.
And if you want to the heart of the matter regarding the organ meats that Haaland consumes, they can be cheaper to purchase that premium cuts of meat like steak while being higher in nutrients as well. Sure, the specific types of nutrients can vary by the type of organ meat, whether it’s bone marror, brain, heart, kidneys, intestines, trip, sweetbread and tongue. But many of these are rich in iron, protein, alpha-lipoic acid, essential minerals like magnesium, zinc, and selnium and fat-soluble vitamins, namely A, D, E and K.
What Are The Drawbacks To Haaland’s Diet
But—such animals have big buts one cannot lie—such organ meats can be high in cholesterol and saturated fat. The levels can be higher than in leaner cuts of meat. Consuming too much vitamin A and iron is not necessarily A-OK either. An excessive amount of the former can lead to birth defects if you are pregnant. And being too much of an iron man or iron woman can result in iron overload disorder.
You may want to be really out of organ meat if you’ve got gout. Organ meats can be loaded with purines. And such purines can provoke gouty attacks.
Additionally, studies have suggested that the consumption of organ may be linked to higher risks of developing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and bladder cancer. The links are not well-established yet. More studies are needed to either confirm or refute such early findings. Nevertheless, if you do have other risk factors for such conditions, you may want to not play the organ meat thing.
Furthermore, beware of any ancestral diet that is completely lacking in particular nutrients and the foods that bring them such as grains that bring fiber and different vitamins and minerals. Yes, it is true that our ancestors got some things right—enough to survive and pass along their genes and discover and pass along things like clothes and underwear. At the same time, their life expectancies were much shorter than the life expectancies these days, and their lives certainly had more nutrient-deficient conditions. For example, you probably don’t spend your days worrying about getting scurvy.
So if you do want to go the way of eating like Norway’s star footballer, throw in some kickers. Tailor the diet to your needs, body and circumstances in more of a precision nutrition manner. Start off by cutting the daily calories way down from 6,000 unless you happen to be like Michael Phelps from the 2000s. Be careful about how much saturated fat and cholesterol you may be consuming. Make sure that your diet is balanced and broad enough to get the nutrients that you need as well. And finally, don’t feel obligated to meet the whole meat thing that Haaland does. What works for one person or footballer doesn’t necessarily work for another.
