BBC Radio 4 LW

Food for Thought

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Food & Drink

Nina Myskow discovers how attitudes to food affect individual lives

Series of conversations in which journalist Nina Myskow discovers how attitudes to food affect individual lives

Food for Thought: Series 2

Food for Thought: Series 2: Episode 5: Carlos Acosta

Carlos Acosta

Episode 5

Episode 5: Carlos Acosta

Series 2

BBC Radio 4 - Food for Thought, Series 2, Carlos Acosta

Dancer Carlos Acosta explains how what we eat, shapes the life we lead. With Nina Myskow.

A sweet tooth, chicken korma and the perfect mojito are some of the ingredients under discussion with ballet dancer Carlos Acosta. But eating badly could end his career.

In a rehearsal studio at the Royal Opera House, over an impromptu picnic of tostones (fried plantains) and moros y cristianos (rice with black beans), dancer Carlos Acosta recalls a lifetime of counting the carbs, and his blessings, during a successful career in ballet. 

From the food ration in his native Cuba, to the abundance of sugar on the island that left him with an explicably sweet tooth, Carlos tells Nina about stealing mangoes as a boy to fund trips to the cinema. He also explains how, arriving in Europe as a teenager, he had to adapt his tastes, his attitudes and his body. He eats a steak before each performance and avoids carbohydrates after six o'clock, despite the fact that he dances for over eight hours almost every day of the week.

Eating well is crucial to Carlos' livelihood and eating badly could end his career but the Royal Ballet's principal guest artist still chows down on ice cream, chicken korma and gets drunk, occasionally. He also tells Nina where you can get the perfect mojito.


Producer: Tamsin Hughes
A Wise Buddah production for BBC Radio 4.

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Journalist Nina Myskow discovers how attitudes to food affect individual lives

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