- Now you might have seen a recent video here on GCN
where we tackled the question of whether or not
it was possible to be a vegan professional cyclist.
We did it with the help of Nigel here, who's a
top nutritionist, having been working with
world tour teams and British cycling for a number of years.
The answer was in fact a yes, wasn't it?
- Absolutely, Simon.
- [Both] Yeah.
Now, it might have thrown up a few questions for you,
'cause if you are interested in following
a meat-free diet, or a plant based diet,
and you are a keen cyclist, then we thought
we'd tackle some of those questions
about how you actually go about doing it.
Nigel, you are gonna talk about things
from your experience, because you are
currently following a plant based diet.
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Before we crack on then, how's it actually
working out for you?
- As I've said to you before, I'm
amazed at how well I feel on it.
Every meal I had before, would've had some animal product.
Might've been yoghurt, it might've been cheese,
chicken, whatever, steak, to none at all.
I thought I'd really suffer, I'd thought
that I'd really, really miss it.
But I found I haven't really missed it at all.
Part of what I've done, when I
started it, I had four medical tests.
I had all my blood screening done,
I did fitness tests, both running
and on the bike, body composition,
to see how things changed throughout.
So, I've now been following the plan
for seven and a half weeks.
I've lost eight kilos of body fat
and I've actually increased my
muscle mass by about one kilogramme.
Now, I have been doing a little bit more
exercise than what I would've done normally.
But, you know, the fact I've been
doing about 12 hours a week
exercise on that diet, I've found, really good.
- In terms of ingredients, it's right to say
you perhaps don't need to put more thought into it,
but you have to think differently
about your meals. - Yeah, I mean,
and to be fair for people who are,
who have been following vegan diets for a long time,
these are things that people just do naturally.
So, really, a lot of things we're talking about
here is really aimed at people who we might
call aspirational vegans or the vegan curious.
And they're going, "Well, what can I do?
Is it difficult? What are the things I need to get?"
Also, one of the criticisms, what people
said to me when I was starting my vegan plan,
was that often when they look at
recipes and the really obscure
ingredients, and where to get them from.
So, part of what I decided to do was to make sure
that every single ingredient that I would use
I could get from my local supermarket
to keep it as simple as possible.
But what I would do, to try to keep things
as simple as I can, and a few cheats,
is I'll mix quite a few things together.
Here, we've got mixed grains, as I call it.
And what the mix grains is, so this is
a combination of quinoa, spelt,
pearl barley, and basmati rice.
- So, instead of just having plain white rice
or plain pasta, you just mix things up a little bit.
- I mix it up a bit.
By mixing it together, then that saves
time for when I want to cook it.
So all I've gotta to do is just
put that in in my rice cooker,
put water in with it, and switch it on.
And it's the same with the beans, the mixed beans.
Again, I'll just get all the different combos
of beans, put them in here, mix it up, and then I
put them in the slow cooker, switch it on in
the morning, and I've got the chilli on tonight.
So really, the purpose behind mixing
things up is that what you're doing,
each of the ingredients has got
its own unique nutritional signature.
By adding the different ingredients
together, you're changing it up.
Instead of it just being that particular food
that you have here, you're getting a wider range.
In particular, my interest there
is around the fats and the protein.
We were talking in the video before, we spoke
a lot about protein, and fats are so important as well.
People don't realise the importance of fats.
One of the things that I'll use
a lot of is things like mixed seeds.
But what we have to do with the seeds, if we
just eat them, we pass them straight through us.
So, what we've gotta do is we've gotta mill them down.
What I do is, I mix the seeds
with some pistachio, some cacoa...
I'll often put some berries in
with this as well and I'll mix it up.
I'll make that once a week in my blender
and then use that throughout the week.
That helps to give me the essential fats,
plus proteins, plus trace elements within my food.
Again, we're just getting lots and lots of variety there.
Some of the things that are really, really easy
to get now are things like these falafel.
These are only like one pound fifteen from Lidl.
It's easy to bake now, so get these falafel mixers.
All you do is add water to it.
I've found these sausages really good.
These are vegan sausage, which are
bean based, tastes really good.
And come across these pre-cooked rices.
Again, these are great for people who
might not have a lot of time, you just stick them
in the microwave for a couple minutes.
Recently, I've started doing vegan corn.
For a long time, corn wasn't vegan because
they put egg in it to help bind it together.
So, they've now started doing vegan corn.
This is really good in a Thai green curry.
- Yeah, I was gonna say we need to stress, of course,
that these are not, this is not a meal...
this would be to add in to your
ordinary ingredients. - Absolutely.
We need to ensure that we are getting
the vegetables in, and the fruits, et cetera.
These are just some of the staple foods.
Again, one of the things I wanted to point out
is things like, we can now get these vegan proteins.
This is a combination of pea protein, hemp and also rice.
The thing about this one in particular
is that it's tested as well to help
reduce the risk of any contaminants.
So, it's something that could be suitable
for a professional athlete who
might be going for a drug test then.
- Okay, let's talk about supplements then, shall we?
Because, when we are talking about
professional athletes, or people that are
training really hard, and they might need to
think just above and beyond, whether they're
on an omnivorous diet or a plant based diet.
They may well need to think about a little bit more.
So, what would recommend then in terms of supplements?
Just to make sure that all boxes are checked.
- What I tend to recommend, and again a lot
of the supplements I've been talking about,
are things that would be what I recommend
for an athlete who's say, eating a mixed diet.
Some of them could be around some things like
Beta-Alanine, could be some creatine--
- So, those are amino acids?
- Amino acids.
The reason why, in particular for a
really serious vegan athlete, could be,
is that, while we can be getting all
the protein that we would need from this,
the levels of B-Alanine or creatine in
vegetable protein foods is a little bit lower.
It's no real problem for somebody who is just
a club athlete or a reasonably serious,
but possibly somebody who is a professional athlete,
there might not be enough, so taking it
in the form of a supplement may be of benefit.
But I'd recommend that to a professional athlete.
I remember when you were riding,
we used B-Alanine with you 12 years ago.
And you were pretty serious as an athlete.
- I did try, yeah. (laughing)
- There's also some of the micronutrients as well.
Like iron, in particular, is something,
again, professional cyclists, they often have
quite low ferritin levels.
Ferritin is the body's store of iron.
We store iron as ferritin.
We then use that ferritin in things such as
making the haemoglobin, what carries
the oxygen around in the blood,
the myoglobin in the muscle, what helps
to transport oxygen within the muscle.
Often professional riders have quite low
ferritin levels anyway, so we'll often
use an iron supplement with them.
And again, with a vegan athlete, because some
of the foods that we have can be lower in iron.
I'm not saying that you can't get
what you need, but can be lower,
are not quite as available, then a
vegan iron supplement could be useful.
Calcium is the other as well.
Again, if we're having a lot of dairy,
we get all of the calcium we need in abundance.
But on a plant based diet, we may be
restricted slightly on calcium.
I've had a big interest since the mid 90's
around omega-3s, but now we're working with
cancer patients, and we were looking at
using omega-3s to help reduce some of the
muscle loss that cancer patients have.
I've always had this interest around there.
With athletes as well, looking at getting enough
omega-3s is something that we feel is important.
Again, this is something that can be
more of a challenge with the plant based diet.
This is where we have to think that little bit.
Things such as the seeds, the omega sprinkle type product.
The different seeds that you'll get, chia seeds,
flax seeds, these are all really good sources of fats.
It's a little bit like with the proteins,
mixing them together will help
to ensure that we get more of the fats.
The other one, and we'll be having some
with our lunch, is like avocado, are great
sources of fats, pistachio nuts, which once you
start eating them, you can't stop with them.
Great sources of fats,
good source of protein, and the
green pigments in them are all
antioxidants as well, so really giving
a good combination of nutrients there.
- Now a subject very close to my heart, Nigel,
being a Brit, is elevenses and also afternoon tea.
I'm wedded to my snacks.
You always recommended yoghourt and
a piece of fruit, mid-morning and mid-afternoon.
What's the vegan alternative?
- What I've been using at the moment
mid-afternoon is a portion of pistachios.
This is a little bit more than a portion of pistachios.
A portion would be a good handful.
One of the other things, we've just got it
here actually, that's gone down a lot,
is some brownie that I've made.
- That would go a lot better with a cup of tea
or a coffee, I think. - Exactly. (laughs)
But the pistachios are a great snack.
Things like the nine bars, these are something
I've used with pro riders for a few years.
I remember, when did Rob Hayles win
the National Road Race Championship?
- 2008.
- That's what he was using when he won the,
he used the Nine Bars.
Bananas, great snack.
Also great for getting things like potassium, et cetera.
All of these are really good snacks, but it's a good point.
A mistake that people will make is that they
won't have the snacks, and part of being on a
plant based diet is about being more organised.
When I travel anywhere, I have to make sure
I take pistachios with me, I take a Nine Bar
with me, I'll take a banana with me.
So I take those foods with me.
- Great stuff.
Nigel, thank you very much for that.
To recap for you, some of the key points
are, to mix up your food groups.
So, we've got your mixed grains there,
your mixed pulses, your mixed seeds
just to make sure what the nutritional profile is.
Correct? - Absolutely, yep.
Mixing them up.
- Cool. Then we've also got ready-made
foods that you shouldn't ignore.
So, vegan sausages, or ready-made falafel,
those ingredients that help make life easier.
Then we've got our supplements, so if you're
training hard, then you might want to
look at supplementing your diet.
And then finally, it's about getting organised.
- Gotta be organised, absolutely.
- Gotta be organised.
Right, make sure then that you check out some of
the other videos that we're doing with Nigel.
Do also subscribe to GCN too, just click on the globe.
If you wanna see that video where we
talked about whether it's possible to be
a vegan athlete, click just down there.
And then we'll also have some recipes coming up,
click just down there for one of those.