Plant-Based Diets Might Be the Answer to Increasing Endurance

Trending News: Why It Might Be Time for Athletes to Adopt a Plant-Based Diet

How many of today’s top athletes do you think follow a plant-based diet? The numbers may surprise you. Formula 1 ace Lewis Hamilton and Tennessee Titan linebacker Derrick Morgan both go meat-free, as does tennis champion Venus Williams and former Olympic cycling medalist Dotsie Bausch.

Plant-based diets, while hip, have often come with a bunch of caveats, particularly when it comes to athletes. New converts are warned about deficiencies in vitamins D and B-12, zinc, iodine, riboflavin, and omega-3 fatty acids.

But a new scientific review published in the journal Nutrients adds fuel to the vegan fire, saying that athletes munching on a plant-based diet not only benefit from improvements in heart health, but that eating vegetable-forward meals can also up their performance in terms of endurance and speedier recovery times.

A Quick Look at Heart Health

By now, it’s pretty common knowledge that meat-free diets can be great for your heart. A 2017 study found that 44 percent of middle-aged and older endurance cyclists and runners (men and women) had coronary plaques. A low-fat vegetarian diet can reverse plaque while also addressing other key contributors to atherosclerosis, such as high blood pressure and body weight, diabetes, and elevated blood cholesterol and fats.

Plant-Based Diets Help Endurance and Recovery From Exercise

The heart stuff is straightforward, but plant-based eating’s boost to endurance also makes sense when you think about it. A vegan diet can be high in carbohydrates, and endurance — along with general aerobic performance — is enhanced by a high-carb intake. To put this in perspective, the Nutrients review references a 2016 study of (non-vegan) Ironman triathletes that found that fewer than half were getting the recommended carb intake for people training one to three hours a day.

As for recovery, researchers found that a plant-based diet increases blood flow and tissue oxygenation while reducing inflammation and oxidative stress (where the body starts losing its capacity to neutralize free radicals).

So What Should You Eat?

Now, the big question: What’s the meal plan?

To get all of the nutrients an athlete needs — including protein, calcium, and iron — the review’s authors recommend a varied diet of fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes, along with a vitamin B12 supplement. Still, at the end of the day, it’s a simple case of athletes needing more calories.

“Plant-based athletes just need more calories than less active people,” review co-author Susan Levin said in a new release. Levin is a specialist in sports dietetics and director of nutrition education for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. “If they are eating a wide variety of nutrient-dense fruits, vegetables, grains, and beans, they will easily meet all of their nutritional needs.”

“It's no wonder that more and more athletes are racing to a vegan diet,” adds review co-author James Loomis, M.D., M.B.A. “Whether you're training for a couch-to-5K or an Ironman Triathlon, a plant-based diet is a powerful tool for improving athletic performance and recovery.”

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