EXCLUSIVE: Lionel Messi flies to Venice to visit his Italian dietician

Lionel Messi, World football’s biggest star, has returned to Barcelona in a private plane from Venice, where he spent a few hours consulting doctor Giuliano Poser. The Italian’s popularity soared after Messi started visiting him. Messi was also accompanied by Argentina national team physio and man of his confidence, Marcelo D’Andrea.

The Argentine had left at midday on Friday from El Prat to the Italian city to take advantage of the fact he is not playing on Sunday against Granada, through suspension, to visit the dietician. It was almost exactly a year ago, April 8, that he last visited Poser, that time with Pep Costa, who is Barcelona’s player liaison officer. 

Poser is a specialist in applied kinesiology and the professional doctor who has helped Messi create a diet plan for two years, which among other benefits, minimises the risk of muscular injuries. 

The nutritionist has worked with other sports stars, including Martin Demichelis, Gonzalo Higuain and Luciano Vietto, at his private consultation clinic in Salice, a few miles north of Venice. 

One of the changes Messi has made since visiting Poser is to consume much less red meat. The specialist recommends to consume ecological products where possible and nothing with a lot of sugar, conservatives, pesticides, fungicides, saturated fats, hydrogenated vegetable fats and other additives that aren’t healthy. 

Thanks to these recommendations Messi has improved his digestion, intestinal absorption and is better at muscle work. His capacity to recover is improved.

He also recommends only taking antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and painkillers when strictly necessary, with abuse of them harmful. Speaking to Italian radio, Poser said, regarding Leo: “The human body is a machine that should eat and feed well, so the muscles can work properly, and Leo Messi eats and works well. He’s a very intelligent and intuitive man. He’s a great athlete.”