What Novak Djokovic (39) Eats Every Day to Stay at the Top

There is something almost surgical about the way Novak Djokovic approaches food, treating a breakfast bowl with roughly the same precision he brings to a match point.

Djokovic just kept right on winning Grand Slams and moving like someone half his age well into his late 30s, and people finally want to know what actually fuels that.

It is not a rotating menu or a cheat-day system. It is close to the same plant-based routine, repeated with very little variation, for years.

The Diet Overhaul That Started It All

Djokovic’s relationship with food changed after a 2010 diagnosis revealed a gluten intolerance. Cutting out bread, pasta and other wheat products led to an immediate jump in his energy and mental clarity, something he later credited with turning his career around.

From there he removed dairy and refined sugar as well, and over the following years phased out animal products almost entirely.

He avoids the word “vegan” for himself, saying he simply does not like labels, but he has been open that he now eats plant-based food for most of every day.

The Same Breakfast, Almost Every Day

Djokovic starts each morning the same way: a glass of warm water with lemon, followed by celery juice, which he says helps his body detoxify.

After that comes what he calls his energy-boosting bowl — mixed seeds, nuts, gluten-free muesli, berries, banana and yogurt — followed by a green smoothie loaded with spinach, kale, celery and mint.

“A breakfast perfectly calibrated to my body for the day ahead,” he has written of the routine, “the same breakfast almost every day of my life.”

The Reason Behind The Light Mornings

Djokovic deliberately keeps his early meals easy to digest, because that is when his body needs the most energy for training rather than processing food.

“I don’t like to eat any food that would require much energy for digestion, especially during the first part of the day,” he has explained, favoring light grains like quinoa, millet and wild rice along with steamed sweet potato.

Lunch usually leans on a mixed greens salad and something plant-based like gluten-free pasta primavera, while dinner stays light, often built around soup or an easily digestible plant protein.

Djokovic’s whole approach boils down to eating the same simple, plant-based meals almost every day and never asking his body to work harder than it needs to before a match. No cheat days, no shortcuts, just the same green smoothie and the same bowl, repeated for over a decade.

Turns out one of the most dominant athletes of his generation runs his diet the same way he runs a five-set match: patient, consistent, and unwilling to waste energy on anything unnecessary.