Thank you for your explanation,
sneakers. I hope that they are allowed to drink plenty of water outside of training, because dehydration sounds scary to me.
On the other hand, prohibiting sweets is not shocking at all. However, I think that in general too strict a diet is not very good: after all, we need ALL of the nutrients to some extent (yes, even carbohydrates). The
food pyramid is what I'm talking about: I was told by a nutritionist that sweets and alcohol are the only things you can easily do without, whereas for the rest, your body needs smaller or greater quantities of everything. I understand that athletes have special needs, but they exercise A LOT more than the average person (and figure skaters do that in the cold!). Furthermore, if you don't eat enough, your metabolism slows down, so your body ends up burning calories less quickly.
Of course, skaters' staff must know what they're doing, still I mistrust draconian diets, and I would prefer skaters to be allowed to get personalized diets. For example , Daisuke Takahashi used to have his nutritionist cook for him for the whole week and leave the food, already portioned out, in his fridge.