The Vegetarian Athlete

The Vegetarian Athlete

Angshuman Dutta

Vegetarianism is fast catching up in the western world.

More and more athletes are giving up meat either for health, religious or personal beliefs. In India, of course a large populace is vegetarian. There is a lot of speculation among fitness coaches and athletes regarding the ability of a vegetarian athlete to compete with the non vegetarian ones.

One of the primary reasons for this view is because we generally tend to associate production of strength and power from meat or eggs. Of course eggs, poultry, fish and red meat are all excellent sources of proteins and a host of essential micro nutrients.

Any athlete would benefit from consumption of the same. However if for some reason you do not want to partake in the same, do not despair.

Vegetarian athletes have a host of protein sources where they can turn to. Milk and Dairy products, Soya, Legumes, Lentils, Nuts and Seeds are all excellent sources of proteins.

Soya consumption is a matter of great controversy among athletes and gym rats. Urban legends in gyms across the world label soya as bad for males and there are countless anecdotes on how consuming soy will turn you into females!

Relax; nothing is going to happen to you. Soya is a good inexpensive source of protein and you can consume it as a part of your diet. The bad boy or rather bad girl image of Soya comes from the fact that Soya contains phytoestrogens.

Now estrogens are the “female hormones” like testosterone are the “male hormones”. However males have estrogen too. And phytoestrogens are not necessarily going to produce elevated levels of estrogen in your body. Phytoestrogens have a number of health benefits and exhibit antioxidant properties.

And if you really are concerned about phytoestrogens in soya, then you would need to take a relook at your entire diet. A lot of commonly consumed food contains phytoestrogens including coffee, oats, apples, carrots, beer and rice.

Iron consumption may be a factor that vegetarian athletes, especially females may need to look into. Iron is vital for life in general in athletic performance in particular. Meats, especially red ones, are naturally rich in iron. However plant sources also have iron. If you consume a wide variety of plant based foods including cereals and pastas etc, you are probably getting your iron quota.

Absorption of iron from plant sources is limited. However the issue can be addressed by adding Vitamin C containing foods adequately in your diet. Vitamin C aids the absorption of iron from plant sources.

So, consuming some citrus fruits will always help. Females in high intensity training should take periodic assessments to check their iron levels. In case iron levels are low, then supplementation might be necessary.

If you are consuming milk and milk products you can easily get a lot of high quality aminos from them. As most of my clients know I am particularly fond of curd as a super food. It contains everything any athlete or individual would want from a food.

Nuts and seeds are great nutrient dense foods that should form a part of any athletic diet. Pumpkin seeds, walnuts, almonds, peanuts are all great choices to add in your diet. If you are training 3-4 hours a day you may consider adding some amino acid supplements especially post training sessions.

This should help you recover better from training sessions. Overall, however the goal should be to consume a wide variety of vegetables, grains, legumes and some fruits throughout the day to get in a wide variety of amino acids and micro nutrients for optimal performance.

(The writer Angshuman Dutta is a fitness educator, coach and consultant. He can be contacted at angshuman9@gmail.com)

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