Did you know that there are professional and non-professional vegetarian and vegan athletes? I personally never really thought about it before. I thought that in order to be a great athlete and obtain all the essential vitamins and nutrients, that athletes would have to consume meat sources. However, I quickly found out I was wrong. Since I am not a vegetarian or vegan myself, I hadn’t really thought about how these types of athletes could still obtain protein and other essential vitamins and minerals. I was being pretty naïve. Luckily after reading Fueling the Vegetarian (Vegan) Athlete by Joel Fuhrman and Deana M. Ferreri, I was educated and realized how credulous I was. Athletes can in fact be vegetarian and vegan and still perform just as well as those that are omnivores.
Fueling the Vegetarian (Vegan) Athlete discusses a lot about what nutrients vegetarian and vegan athletes may be lacking. However, it then explains what foods contain these nutrients, so athletes can consume foods to offset the nutrients they are lacking. For example, one nutrient that vegan athletes are typically lacking is calcium. Fuhrman and Ferreri recommend getting the calcium from plant rich foods like kale, tofu, kidney beans, and almonds.
Benefits to choosing a vegetarian and vegan diet for athletes are mentioned as well. Choosing a vegetarian diet is associated with many health benefits for athletes, which would include vegan diets as well. Vegetarian diets can lower the risk of death from heart disease, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels, blood pressure, rates of type 2 diabetes, body mass index, and rates of cancers. Also processed foods and animal products consist of 90% of the traditional American diet. This number is shocking. If everyone, not just athletes, lowered their consumption of these products slightly, then they could have better health outcomes like the vegetarian and vegan athletes.
In the article the American Dietetic Association (ADA) states that athletes that are on a vegetarian diet are nutritionally adequate. Vegan athletes show that without consuming animal byproducts, they can still be able to achieve high-level athletic performances. Some vegan athletes include Kansas City Chiefs’ Tony Gonzalez, Ironman triathlete Brendan Brazier, and Olympian track and field star Carl Lewis. However, the optimal diet for vegans has not yet been defined.
Something interesting contained in the article is a nutritarian and a flexitarian. A nutritarian is someone who “includes a large amount of high -macronutrient, unrefined plant food- based on vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and beans.” Oddly enough, a flexitarian is someone who “regularly follows a vegan diet, but occasionally consumes dairy, milk, meat, fowl, or fish.” Both of these terms were new to me and it was interesting to learn more about both. Plus I discovered that a nutritarian also tries to avoid foods that are refined grains, sugars, sweeteners and those that contain added oils. Fuhrman and Ferreri think vegan athletes that choose to live a nutritarian diet have an even greater performance advantage.
As a nutrition educator, I would use this information to educate vegetarian and vegan athletes about which nutrients to watch out for and make sure they aren’t lacking any of them in their diet. I would also use this information to explain to omnivore athletes that if they cut back on some of their processed and refined foods in their diet, that they could possibly have a higher performance level. Educating the vegetarian and vegan athletes about which foods are great sources for nutrients they can be lacking is an essential subject to get across. However, overall making sure vegetarian and vegan athletes know they can have just as good performance levels as other athletes who do consume meat products is the main point of education.