U.S. swimmer Dana Vollmer 'lives on pizza'

NEW YORK - Ask any athlete what they eat and you'll typically get the same answer all around.

Chicken and lean meat.

Fresh vegetables.

Fish.

Rice.

In the case of U.S. swimmer Dana Vollmer, however, something else has piqued her interest: pizza.

Vollmer, who this year discovered she has food allergies, survives on a gluten- and egg-free diet. That means no bread and the all-American breakfast at her local Denny's (eggs, of course).

She lives in California with her husband and recently they found a solution in the form of gluten- and egg-free pizza crust. Venice Bakery in Los Angeles sent her some samples to try.

They were a rising success.

"I swear it tastes like normal pizza," said Vollmer, who we spoke with at the Speedo Fastskin3 launch in New York. "So basically I'm living on pizza, which I never thought that I would."

Vollmer said she even uses the crust as bread by folding or cutting it in half to make Paninis and other types of sandwiches.

Call it a crafty solution to what could have been a problem for an athlete that requires thousands of calories every day to maintain her fitness level. The biggest problem Vollmer has is when she travels, since there aren't a lot of gluten- and egg-free options when you're talking about on-the-go foods.

"It's not like you can grab something at the airport," she said. "Even here [in New York], we brought food in for me. A lot of times teams will go to sandwich shops and different things. So it's hard like that ... but I have a bag of food and I just travel with food."

These days, Vollmer's bag of food has almonds, banana chips and a gluten-free bar made by NoGii.

"I want to make sure I'm getting enough carbs so if I can't find it, I better have something in my bag," Vollmer said.

And when she returns home, there's sure to be a fresh pizza waiting for her.