FYI: Can Athletes Perform Well on a Vegan Diet? (NYT)
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Can Athletes Perform Well on a Vegan Diet? NYT, June 20th, 2012
By Gretchen Reynolds, the author of "The First 20 Minutes: Surprising Science Reveals How We Can Exercise Better, Train Smarter, Live Longer" (Hudson Street Press, 2012).
With the publication this month of "Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness," by the vegan distance runner Scott Jurek, vegan diets have become a wildly popular topic on running-related Web sites. But is going totally meatless and, as in Mr. Jurek's case, dairy-free advisable for other serious athletes, or for the rest of us who just want to be healthy and fit?
To find out, I talked with three experts about why, and whether, those of us who are active should consider giving up meat or more. None of the experts are themselves vegan, though two are vegetarian: David C. Nieman, a professor of health and exercise science at Appalachian State University, who's run 58 marathons or ultramarathons and has studied runners at extreme events; and D. Enette Larson-Meyer, an associate professor of human nutrition at the University of Wyoming, as well as a longtime competitive athlete and author of "Vegetarian Sports Nutrition." A third expert, Nancy Clark, who describes herself as "two-thirds
vegetarian" -- she doesn't have meat at breakfast or lunch, but does at dinner -- is a sports nutrition expert in Massachusetts and the author of "Nancy Clark's Food Guide for Marathoners."
Q. Will a vegan diet make someone a better athlete?
Q. Is it hard for someone who's training vigorously to get enough protein on a vegan diet?
Q. Is it true that you can combine plant proteins throughout the day to create complete proteins? You don't have to eat them all at the same meal?
Q. Is it hard for someone who's training vigorously to get enough calories on a vegan diet?
Q. Will vegan or even vegetarian diets help you to lose weight?
Q. Because of Scott Jurek's book and others, there's some sense out there that athletes should become vegans. Do you agree?
Q. So is there any compelling reason for those of us who are active but not necessarily running ultramarathons to decide to become vegan?
Read the Q & A: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/20/can-athletes-perform-well-on-a-vegan-diet/