Weird Questions (sports and veg*ism)

[Guest guest]

Hi Meghan,

 

I would second Jack Norris' comments, based on my own experiences

with sports and veggie conversion.

 

I have played rugby at a serious amateur level since college, which

was 18 years ago. I became a vegetarian 13 years ago, in 1989, at

the age of 27.

 

At first I was afraid that my new diet would cause me to lose the

strength and durability needed to play contact sports. I did feel

some loss in raw strength, but improvement in endurance and stamina.

This is consistent with a dietary shift from protein to complex

carbohydrate, regardless of whether one is vegetarian or omnivorous.

I didn't feel any loss in speed of healing or recovery.

 

I became vegan two years later, which was a very easy transition,

physiologically. I think that I actually felt better, because I

found that I limited myself from eating processed white sugar, white

flour, etc., that is in non-vegan cookies, cakes, breads.

 

Modern vitamin supplementation really does work, and most serious

athletes, veggie or carni, use vitamins and/or protein supplements.

I use vitamins and protein powder occasionally, cycling on and off

depending on how I am training.

 

I tried a cycle of creatine (an amino acid that naturally occurs in

meat, but which is chemically synthethised in labs for supplement

products) in 1997, and the stuff really works. It is kind of scary

though, because it can cause dehydration and cramping, if you don't

drink enough water and balance electrolytes. Your muscles can also

grow faster than your tendons and ligaments are able to strengthen,

which can lead to injuries.

 

Everyone's body is different, so my own anecdote might not be typical.

 

I have never had a vegetarian or vegan teammate. Of the guys I

played with in the 1980's and early 90's, I am, at age 40, the only

one still playing Division 1 rugby. So, I hope to be regarded as a

positive example for veganism.

 

I think that Peta keeps a list of elite vegetarian or vegan athletes

on their website. Dave Scott, the many-time iron man triathlon

champion, was mostly vegan, at least during his competitive years. I

think there is a body builder listed, sprinters, various team sport

athletes, but no weight lifters. Peta is a good place to get pro-

veggie propaganda to counter your co-worker's claims.

 

Good wishes,

Jon Spear

 

 

 

 

, <meghanmail@p...> wrote:

> Hi!

>

> I have some weird questions for you all. I was discussing

evolution and

> biology with some co-workers this morning. One woman's husband is a

> sports medicine doctor and sees quite a few high school girls who

are

> vegetarian for the purposes of being thin. They also are trying to

be

> super athletes in school, and the doc thinks this is a bad idea.

> According to this woman, her doctor husband feels that you can be

active

> and healthy as a vegetarian, but in order to train for marathons or

> super intense exercise, the body really needs more protein than can

[Guest guest]

Late-ish reply to Meghan:

 

In support and reiteration of both Jon and Jack, I played Division I

basketball 10 years ago (as a carnivore) and have done my best to stay in

some semblance of physical conditioning since then (7 years with no carcass,

5 with no dairy). I'm 6'7 " , and at the peak of my college training I weighed

245 with about 6% body fat. Now I exercise in random fluctuating cycles,

nowhere near the intensity of running, weightlifting and playing I enjoyed

then. But I've ridden in 100-mile cycling competitions, I've biked and

skated 7 miles to work every day for years. My weight, strength and body fat

are essentially the same as they were 10 years ago. The biggest differences

I've noted are similar to those Jon highlighted (improvement in endurance

and stamina, improvement in recovery time from both tough workouts and from

illness). I'm sick far less often than I was then (especially respiratory

related issues). But I feel LIGHTER and CLEANER, both physically and

psychically, and I can day definitively that, when I do fall out of

training, it takes far less time to get back into decent shape than it did

when I was convinced that I needed to load my frame with critter flesh. And

(as Jon wrote) a lot of my buddies and former teammates who are hitting

their thirties and forties and starting to slow down are asking me about

veggie-ness--maybe because I've been so convinced (and so loudmouthed) about

its merits.

 

I came to veg*ism entirely to end my support of 1) animal enslavement and

murder and 2) the anti-worker, anti-environment practices of overscaled

meat/dairy producers. (I'm probably one of the least

" healthy-diet-conscious " veg*ns in this group. I'm still a

caffeine-and-sugar addict, with baby steps in mind to end this mild

hypocrisy.) What I wrote above (as Jon said of his testimony) is only one

person's experience, and I don't pay much attention to research on the

matter. But it's out there, and it shows that the health benefits are

astounding for everyone, " athletes " and otherwise.

 

jason

 

http://www.pcrm.org/health/Info_on_Veg_Diets/vegetarian_athletes.html

http://www.pcrm.org/health/VSK/VSK4.html

http://www.insidetri.com/scott/articles/209.0.html

http://www.brendanbrazier.com/

 

 

, <meghanmail@p...> wrote:

> Hi!

>

> I have some weird questions for you all. I was discussing

evolution and

> biology with some co-workers this morning. One woman's husband is a

> sports medicine doctor and sees quite a few high school girls who

are

> vegetarian for the purposes of being thin. They also are trying to

be

> super athletes in school, and the doc thinks this is a bad idea.

> According to this woman, her doctor husband feels that you can be

active

> and healthy as a vegetarian, but in order to train for marathons or

> super intense exercise, the body really needs more protein than can