Vegetarian sports nutrition

No different to non vegetarian sports nutrition really, just eat plenty of nutritious foodstuffs, eggs lentils beans nuts seeds and of course vegetables...

Hello to you too!

It's great to hear that your friend is getting involved in cycling. Even better that she's a veggie and hasn't been put off sport because of it. I'm a pescetarian, but encounter many of the same problems as vegetarians by restricting meat consumption to fish.

Personally, I use the Complete Guide to Sports Nutrition, which is brilliant! It's not veggie specific, but has good sections devoted to it and doesn't make a meal out of meat vs. no meat. in fact, it hardly recognises it at all, instead focussing on the important parts of true sports nutrition. Any references to vegetarianism are purely scientific.

There are some good meal plans, both veggie and non-veggie and the same can be said for their sample recipes. This takes a back seat to the nutritional science though - it's no cookbook! It' also one of the most recent publications (in its 7th edition), meaning it's up to date with the science!

As others have said, the science isn't any different, but if you're looking for a birthday present, I'd recommend this book.

If you're after a cook book, I like the BBC good food website

As comments above, just eat a good balanced diet but make sure you get enough protein. I'm mostly veggie (I eat a little fish so I suppose I'm pescetarian too strictly speaking), and I'm lucky in that I actually like tofu. Most days I will eat some tofu, but I also eat nuts, some cheese and of course some fish. Tofu combined with wholegrains will give you all the amino acids you need.

I've been veggie for 25 years (or at least until about 10 years ago when I started eating some fish again). If you are not doing any major exercise then you don't really need to worry at all about protein intake with a vegetarian diet, but you do need to make sure you are getting enough if you are training most days. Just make sure you eat something like tofu, quorn, cheese, nuts, beans or lentils with most meals.

Also worth making sure you are getting your B12 - not a major problem unless you are vegan, but if you are eating a healthy veggie diet without many dairy products it might be worth making sure you are getting it in supplement form or else from a fortified food product such as some yeast spreads (but actually Marmite itself doesn't have much B12 in it, although it's good for other B vits).

Its not veggie specific nor is it about overall diet however i would recommend the book 'feed zone portables'. The best food book aimed at athletes that ive read

olake92 wrote:

I'm a pescetarian

metronome wrote:

Can I ask what your reasons are for being a pescetarian?

olake92 wrote:

Hi there, no problem! I was brought up pescetarian by my parents. Before I was born, they went the whole hog and became vegetarian after seeing the conditions in a slaughter house. Once they had me and my brother, they decided (rightly or wrongly) that a veggie diet wouldn't be great for the development of a young child, so decided to eat fish as well.

As for me, I simply don't miss it, having never tried it. I've done a lot of research on the subject and see no detriment to not eating meat, except for the small potential of not getting enough dietary creatine; not being a strength athlete, I'm not too fussed about that. I'm not really a moral eater, although I'm not keen on farmed food, in fact I've ripped open and prepared various dead animals with my bare hands on a survival course!

As an athlete, I want to get as much lean protein as possible, which is harder to do with red meats due to the higher levels of saturated fat. The saturated fat present in fish is generally very good for you (omega 3 and all that) and still has the effect of regulating hormones.

I wouldn't ever go fully vegetarian, mainly because I like fish!

I'm afraid I can't really give a much better explanation than that, but if you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

Hi,

Thanks for your in-depth and interesting reply.

What you said regarding your parents choice to raise you as a Pescetarian despite being vegetarians themselves is very interesting. I have often wondered what my stance would be should I ever be in that situation. Imposing personal beliefs on others is something I'm very much against - be it religion, vegetarianism or brand of bike.

Cheers,

The thing is that it's impossible and undesirable not to impose some beliefs on children. So is there a meaningful distinction between a "personal" belief (such as vegetarianism), and one that is generally accepted in the society in which you live (such as not owning slaves)? In many countries, strong religious belief is universally accepted and it wouldn't be thought of as "imposing" to bring children up with those beliefs any more than it is in our society to bring them up believing that slavery is bad and that the earth goes around the sun. In ancient Rome (or even in the 19thC southern U.S.) you'd have been thought of as a weirdo extremist for suggesting that slavery should be abolished. Does a belief count as "personal", and therefore "imposed", simply because it is a minority belief? Aren't parents who bring children up to eat meat also "imposing"?

I just say this because I am suspicious of extreme relativism, the idea that all beliefs are as valid as any others. At the end of the day you have to decide for yourself what is "right" and act accordingly, whether or not the majority of people in the society in which you live agree with you.

LakesLuddite wrote:

But is vegetarianism a 'belief', or simply a 'lifestyle'? I certainly don't regard my vegetarianism as a 'belief'...or at least I didn't until I read some of this thread!

I suppose it depends on your definition of belief, and that's a whole other debate.

(Isn't it curiouos how these threads quickly divert off the original topic)

Yeah, I don't regard my vegetarianism as a belief either, and in itself being veggie is not a belief but a set of actions, although a lot of people (perhaps more so 20 years ago than nowadays) are veggie because they believe that it's wrong/unnecessary to kill and eat animals. I guess when I became vegetarian originally 25 years ago I was coming from that angle, but nowadays my beliefs on that issue are more complex and it's more a habit / lifestyle thing.

Grill wrote:

I started off by watching my macros, but couldn't be bothered after a week, so I just went about eating appropriate foods... Pretty easy really. I'm back to just eating normally again, but I'd do it again if I felt there were real benefits.

This is an interesting point, I think where many people go wrong when they adopt some form of non-meat based diet is forgetting about the macros; when cutting out calorie dense foods like, for instance, bacon, you need to balance out the ensuing calorie deficit. I would say that if you wanted - and if you got the macros right - you could live off just about any food. Admittedly, it is a chore. As long as they know that they may need to eat more, a new vegetarian should manage fine.

neeb wrote:

my beliefs on that issue are more complex and it's more a habit / lifestyle thing.

That makes sense, I would define my pescetarianism as a lifestyle choice, rather than a belief. Although, I'm sure there's an argument to be made regarding the semantics of the two!

LakesLuddite wrote:

Isn't it curious how these threads quickly divert off the original topic

Hopefully, the OP's query has been answered! This just seems like an interesting thread now.

neeb wrote:

[A]lthough a lot of people (perhaps more so 20 years ago than nowadays) are veggie because they believe that it's wrong/unnecessary to kill and eat animals. I guess when I became vegetarian originally 25 years ago I was coming from that angle, but nowadays my beliefs on that issue are more complex and it's more a habit / lifestyle thing.

Yes - I think there are a few distinct vegetarian and vegan groupings. For some, it's essentially a food phobia; they don't eat meat out of squeamishness. Others are brought up vegetarian and know no different, or otherwise are directed to avoid animal products (e.g. some athletes) for whatever reason. Choosing either to eschew factory farmed meat (as do I) or meat altogether for ethical reasons is a 'belief'; and in my view not a nutritional choice in and of itself. In my view the only people that are vegetarian or vegan in the fullest sense are those that feel no need or impulse to consume meat/animal products, and form their diet from other sources.

I should say, I myself am not a vegetarian. I was once - as a child I made that decision and maintained it for about 6 years, and I went to a vegetarian school for nearly my entire education - but though ethics have a heavy influence on my decisions (I try to only buy free range, for example), left to my own devices I just don't feel the need to eat much meat (i think I'd find it hard to give up dairy); I identify with the latter of my groupings. For a long time a couple of years ago I ate moreorless vegetarian; times were tough, and together my wife and I took the decision not to buy meat rather than compromise our principles. Plus, vegetarian has some fantastic dishes. I could eat falafel and hummus all day...

I became a vegetarian over 30 years ago and when I met my wife she was vegetarian as well, so it made things very easy.

I was very ignorant of the complexities of nutrition and the different styles and types of vegetarian, I'm a lacto vegetarian and by that I eat dairy products and milk., in essence my classification is that I will eat anything that an animal etc hasn't had to die to provide.

When our children were born we really were at a loss as to what to do, our beliefs were very strong but we didn't want to jeopardise their lives, so we decided that we would bring them up as healthy meat eaters and wouldn't discuss in too greater detail our reason why we were vegetarian. We stressed to our kids that until they were 16 that unless they could provide very valid reasons for wanting to be vegetarian then they would have to wait until they could make their own mind up.

Not sure it was the honourable thing to do, but that was our choice.

At the time there was not the choice of vege food that there is now, if there had of been then things would certainly have been different.

As for nutrition now, green lentils are my biggest source of protein, I also buy Puy lentils in a tomato and basil source pre cooked from Sainsburys, absolutely delicious and I can tell when I have eaten properly and when I have not watched the protein, not sure how but I feel accurately aware of when I haven't been eating so wisely.

In essence just watch what you eat and replace the meat part of any meal with the likes of Quorn, Tofu or Lentils, being of Hungarian descent I like highly flavoured food so any alternative however unappealing can be made to taste delicious.