How about fist sandwich? wrote:
Danish Horse wrote:That's a cop-out argument... you can't be one of those cupcake and mountain dew omnivores either. You have to know what you're doing.
An idiot omnivore can blindly eat at 5 Guys Burgers and Fries and might end up with T2DM and heart disease, but they will NOT end up with protein, fat, iron and B12 deficiencies.
How many people do you know who have had a protein deficiency serious enough to kill them?
Reason's why i run and reason's why i'm vegan aren't on the same page.
What i have found is that going vegan i have generally recovered quicker, BUT this is most likely because before going vegan i ate nothing but $hit. Which is why its just as easy to not have the necessary diet need to run fast times as an omnivore and as a vegan. Going vegan meant i had to learn to cook, and learn to cook from scratch for most things.
I'm proud to be a vegan and proud to be a runner but i don't see why one should affect the other. Just eat fresh real food, train hard and dont be a d!ck.
Also i've found it funny how before going vegan literally no one cared what i ate, but now its like i need to publish a book to justify my Personal choices.
S. Canaday wrote:
First off i'm not totally vegan but I was a born and raised vegetarian and have been that way for the last 28 years (15 years of that competitive, year-round running which have been injury free). I'm made out of cheese and peanut butter...
Nowadays I'm nearly vegan, but I wouldn't pass up a nice omelet or milkshake/dessert/pizza from time to time. I also have honey on my toast usually.
Protein is not even close to being an issue IMO. Iron and B12 and vitamin D could be, but i've seen runners that chow down on burgers and steak all the time have problems with iron (and I'd bet half the US population is probably low in Vitamin D). People just don't eat enough veggies and fruit to fill up on first...that's really the main problem with the American diet.
Other things to consider: Global energy savings. Think about how much wasted energy goes into cattle farms and meat packing plants, etc. If the whole world ate meat there wouldn't be enough energy to go around (there still really isn't but things will get worse). Thank goodness most of the world can live on beans and rice....
As for health reasons, yeah you need a balanced diet. Can that diet be vegan? Of course! Can it have some meat and eggs? Of course (but I'd go farm-fresh, organic, and eat sparingly if that's the case)
Sage is the GOAT
Kenyans generally eat meat pretty infrequently, I'd say around once every four days or so. Knowing this, I don't think it would be hard for a good runner to have success off of a vegan diet.
Also, why are you so concerned about protein? It is well known that the Kenyans and Ethiopians traditionally eat a high carbohydrate diet (75, probably 80% carbs.) Also, running clearly isn't a strength sport and you shouldn't need more than 0.8-1.2g/lb of bodyweight per day, even as a strength athlete. And given that any runner doing decent mileage at all should burn at least 3500cals/day, you would have to have a pretty messed up diet to not get that much protein (even as a Vegan).
The only real shortcoming of a vegan diet is cost/inconvenience. Although you could probably eat a vegan diet for a cheap cost, it would still consume a lot of time to cook and prepare all of the food. For America, it is much easier to just get a $5 meal from McDonalds and not worry about preparing dinner.
There are many overall environmental benefits (global warming and animal agriculture plays a large part in it) and health benefits (mostly documented by cardiologists) that come from being a Vegan, so I don't really have a problem if someone goes Vegan.
S. Canaday wrote:
You don't think there's a problem with 'not enough energy to go around'? You probably also don't believe in climate change...
Think about what's going into feeding and raising thousands of farting cows just so you can enjoy some burgers and sirloin. Huge waste of resources.
Xfit_guy_the_real_1 wrote:Don't repeat everything you read in RUNNERS WORLD. Americans don't eat enough veggies, that's true. As for fruit, these artificially engineered super sweet Apples and oranges you can buy in the store these days lead to all kind of problems, from obesity to cavity, to just name a few.
Yes and the problem is...? Clearly there is a problem with population. If you don't see that there shouldn't be 7 billion people on earth then I can't help you.
People like to make up their on laws and beliefs, and feel that is how the world has always been, and that is how people should exist.
There was a time when everyone in the world ate meat, and was healthier because of it. Tribes ate meat. Indigenous people ate meat. Native people ate meat. Animals eat meat. Insects eat other insects, which is basically eating meat.
Life is about energy, and organisms need energy to operate. If it can be consumed and METABOLIZED, then it is a source of food or energy. Period.
That is how Nature works. Macronutrients and Micronutrients can be absorbed from meat, vegetables, fruits, nuts and grains. So they can be freely consumed.
Organisms consume organisms for energy. We are Heterotrophs : An organism that cannot manufacture its own food and instead obtains its food and energy by taking in organic substances, usually plant or animal matter. All animals, protozoans, fungi, and most bacteria are heterotrophs.
That tiger can consume you, just like you can consume that tiger.
Duhh wrote:
to meat or not to meat wrote:I noticed a trend among runners to follow a vegan diet. Usually the explanations are somewhere in between "healthier" and "poor animals".
It was always my understanding that with increased mileage, your protein needs increase, too. So why do so many runners make this "mistake"?
It sure works for me.... and that couple in their 60's who ran a mrathon each day for an entire day and for runnners like sage canaday and Scott Jurek. Or ppl from other sports like frank medrano, Or the only guy who won straight Iron Man Hawaiis, etc etc.
Oh it works for you. I'm sure you're not a 40 mpw hobby jogger.
Scott Jurek is slow. A marathon PR of 2:38, for an elite that's underperforming. Which is the point of this thread, you will run 20+ minutes slower than your potential on a vegan diet. Even vegetarian diets with eggs and dairy is a lot more sustainable to being a good runner.
24 years old. Went vegan almost 20 months ago, runner faster than I did in college with similar training but slightly less intensity and mileage. Love it
S. Canaday wrote:
First off i'm not totally vegan but I was a born and raised vegetarian and have been that way for the last 28 years (15 years of that competitive, year-round running which have been injury free). I'm made out of cheese and peanut butter...
Nowadays I'm nearly vegan, but I wouldn't pass up a nice omelet or milkshake/dessert/pizza from time to time. I also have honey on my toast usually.
Protein is not even close to being an issue IMO. Iron and B12 and vitamin D could be, but i've seen runners that chow down on burgers and steak all the time have problems with iron (and I'd bet half the US population is probably low in Vitamin D). People just don't eat enough veggies and fruit to fill up on first...that's really the main problem with the American diet.
Other things to consider: Global energy savings. Think about how much wasted energy goes into cattle farms and meat packing plants, etc. If the whole world ate meat there wouldn't be enough energy to go around (there still really isn't but things will get worse). Thank goodness most of the world can live on beans and rice....
As for health reasons, yeah you need a balanced diet. Can that diet be vegan? Of course! Can it have some meat and eggs? Of course (but I'd go farm-fresh, organic, and eat sparingly if that's the case)
Yep
I run for a mid-tier DI school, and I've been vegan for years. I didn't eat very much meat to begin with, and I had a bit of a moral crisis and stopped eating animal products altogether. It had absolutely no effect on me. I was worried about iron and B12 deficiency so I take those two supplements, but there are plenty of ways to get enough protein, carbohydrates and fat. Even at lower-tier dining halls.
Yep.. whole grain bread and almond butter...
Plenty of nuts and seeds
Quinoa, lentils, beans, avocados
Plant based diets are healthier. Cheaper. Make you feel better. I don't see any down side.
I live in a town infested with vegans. Lots of skinnyfat girlymen and chicks with paunchy beer-guts. It's a form of population control.
Bit late to the party here but I'm a 4:01/14:16 guy and ran both those times while being vegan. Easy peasy once you make it a habit.
I'd like someone to name a single olympic distance finalist who is vegan
Correlation and causation are diff things all together. In his last Olympics pretty sure Carl Lewis was following a vegan diet.
Any healthy diet will make a difference.
runrincerepeat wrote:
Correlation and causation are diff things all together. In his last Olympics pretty sure Carl Lewis was following a vegan diet.
You seem to have forgotten about his steroid and hgh use. Maybe that accounted for covering up his muscle mass loss?