Vegetarian diet, good or bad for a runner?

On a veg/vegan diet, 80-90 miles/week I developed severe anemia.

You need iron and b-12. Supplements are easiest, although you can get them in other forms.

Anytime you eliminate processed foods from your diet, you will feel better. But you should be careful.

Blood tests every 1-2 months is probably a good idea.

Neither good nor bad, but difficult to ingest sufficient and correct proteins during high level training. Best source of absorbable iron and proteins to build red blood cells and muscle is red meat.

Omnivore wrote:

Why or why not?

I am a vegetarianian. I find vegans rather stringy and their meat very dry, but lacto-ovo vegetarians are a great source of protein; making stew out of them is easy and their calves, quads, pecs are especially tasty.

probably irrelevant. my sister has been a vegetarian (does eat eggs and cheese but avoids other dairies) for many years and does very well in marathons for her age/sex. she pays close attention to what she eats to ensure appropriate levels of iron, protein, and so on. if you eat the right things, it doesn't really matter whether it comes from meat or soy or whatever.

Ditto re: vitamin B12. This nutrient is (naturally) available *only* from animal sources, and its absence from the diet can prompt pernicious anemia, a particularly nasty blood disorder.

Yes, B12 is available in supplements, but of course this undercuts the whole specious "vegetarianism is natural" argument. Human beings have evolved to be omnivores.

Do a search, there have been a few really good threads on the topic in the past.

A vegetarian diet or an omnivorous diet are neither more likely to be healthy for a runner. Watch what you eat. Lean proteins, healthy fats, tons of raw, fresh fruits and vegetables. As few processed foods as possible. I've seen vegetarians eat junk food all day and omnivores eat incredibly healthfully, and vice versa. The specifics of your diet are much more important than the category.

A note on B12: it's a concern for vegans, but not vegetarians. Vegetarians will get plenty from eggs and dairy.

rankler wrote:

A vegetarian diet or an omnivorous diet are neither more likely to be healthy for a runner. Watch what you eat. Lean proteins, healthy fats, tons of raw, fresh fruits and vegetables. As few processed foods as possible. I've seen vegetarians eat junk food all day and omnivores eat incredibly healthfully, and vice versa. The specifics of your diet are much more important than the category.

A note on B12: it's a concern for vegans, but not vegetarians. Vegetarians will get plenty from eggs and dairy.

Agree - My general sense of "health" and well-being has improved more by eliminating processed foods, DAIRY, salt, refined sugar, oil and fat. I now consume some animal protein, non-fat/soy yogurt, and an egg or two occasionally. This is doable in a modern urban world, even when dining out.

Difference between vegan and vegetarian guidelines - I find (emphasis on first person - your experience will be different) that "vegan" food in general makes me feel much better than "vegetarian" meals.

short answer: bad

Meat is a good source or zinc, iron, calcium, and complete PROTEINS. Maybe I'm a little anal, but I don't really get why anyone would eat vegan style.

Rankler is right on the money. But also do try a search on this topic--much has been said.

I've been a vegetarian for 25 years, vegan now. I've never been anemic. I ran 29:51 on a vegetarian diet when I was younger.

Getting off the twinkies, cheetos, and cheese whiz is probably just as essential as getting off meat. The "complete protein" found in meat comes from the animals eating plants.

The best book ever on the science of it is "The China Study" by Cornell bio-chemists Campbell and Campbell.

I've been a lacto-ovo vegetarian for almost a year now. It is perfectly healthy if you eat the right nutrients. At first, I felt tired a lot, but that was because I wasn't getting enough iron. Now I take an iron supplement and a B12 supplement. There is plenty of protein in eggs, dairy products, soy products, beans, nuts, etc. I still drink at least one soy protein shake a day (powder mix) that has about 25 grams of protein per serving and additional vitamins as well.

I used to be a vegetarian but I found that I missed meat. I came back to having a fish only diet but fish is sometimes hard to find conveniently. Now I eat fish and chicken. No beef and no pork. Those are the bad meats health-wise anyway. I call my diet the non-mammal diet and it works for me. My energy is higher now than it was when I was a vegetarian.

Also if you care about reducing your ecological footprint, chicken is the most efficient meat (vegan would be the best). "Beef and lamb are the most costly, in terms of fossil fuel energy input to protein output at 54:1 and 50:1, respectively. Turkey and chicken meat production are the most efficient (13:1 and 4:1, respectively)."

You are a pesco-pollo vegetarian.

Cool. But I don't consider that being vegetarian. I'd feel weird calling myself that. Maybe the meat-eaters are bovo-pollo-pesco-porko?-vegetarians. :-)

Rankler is right on a few points. It was found over 20 years ago that supplementation with the essential amino acids resulted in greater serum IGF-1 as compared to supplementation with non-essential amino acids. IGF-1 plays a role in tissue repair/protein synthesis (as well as stimulating osteoblasts/bone formation).

Animal protein is a source of complete protein, and thus contains the essential amino acids in the appropriate amounts. Soy is the only complete plant protein. When comparing the vegan (plant protein only), meat, and vegetarian (dairy and/or egg) diets, the vegan diet resulted in lower serum IGF-1. Of further interest-- serum IGF-1 was comparable between the meat and vegetarian diets. Thus, a vegetarian diet that includes dairy and/or eggs may be just as 'good' as a meat diet.

Chickens/turkeys are bipedal and have a closer 'protein-makeup' to humans (~closer on phylogeny tree).

No runner putting in high mileage needs to 'watch what they eat' in terms of fat, let alone protein. The right fats and proteins are certainly important. You are relying, moreso, on aerobic metabolism and need to supply the body with the fuel it's burning.

We overconsume meat anyways, but in comparison to our ancestors, they consumed nearly twice the amount of animal protein (source of endogenous acid) and 3x more plant protein (source of potassium-base). There is a mismatch at the moment between our genetic make-up and the modern diet, which is hypothesized to play a role in the development of several chronic diseases (~osteoporosis, renal failure, hypertension, heart disease).

steaks. wrote:

I don't really get why anyone would eat vegan style.

check out

that's why. animals suffer tremendously on factory farms, and supporting these industries is also supporting environmental destruction on levels much higher than any other human practice. and with all of the antibiotics, steroids and other hormones which are now fed to animals raised for food, you are potentially putting yourself at risk.

b-12 and iron are easy to get from a vegan diet, and it's incorrect to say that b-12 ONLY comes from animal sources.... b-12 is actually a bacteria found in soil, so it is, despite the common assumption, NOT an animal product. we usually get it from animals because it is stored for so long in their tissue. there have been studies done (no, i don't have the link... sorry) on some indigenous tribes who ate vegan diets, and one of the major questions raised was how did they get their b-12... turns out, that they basically ate their veggies straight from the ground, so they consumed enough bits of their organic soil to get plenty of b-12. sadly, our methods of farming destroy the soil and veggies usually arrive sand-blasted clean and waxed.

anyway, yes..... running while vegan is no big deal. ask scott jurek. and personally, while i ain't elite by any means, i've done 15:xx, 32:xx while vegan and in 17 years of it, have never been anemic or anything like that. and, for the record, i don't take any supplements.

my 2 cents....

I've been a lacto-ovo vegetarian for nearly 10 years. I do not take any supplements, although I do eat a lot of fortified foods (cereal -- think total raisin bran), and eat a lot of clif bars.

low 31:xx 10k, several sub 10:00hr ironmans, etc. All prs are faster since giving up the meat.

Isn't Jonathon Riley a vegan, or something?

I recently read that book - indeed, nothing more than a compilation of 20+ yrs. of data, but compelling, to say the least. The effects of animal protein on cancer growth - interesting stuff.