Plant-based diets are gaining popularity among athletes.
In this video, find out why folks are drawn to plant-based diets
for athletic performance and recovery.
"Why All Athletes Should Eat Plant-Based Diets"
Consumer interest in eating plant-based has surged
over the last few years, and athletes are no exception.
While in the past, meat was seen as an irreplaceable
performance-enhancing food, today the trend is developing
in the opposite direction, thanks in part to documentaries
like The Game Changers,
for which I was honored to play a role as scientific advisor.
Several high-profile athletes from heavyweight champion boxers
to tennis players have tried fueling with plants.
Athletes have increasingly been adopting plant-based diets
not only for the related health beneﬁts
but for perceived improvements in endurance performance.
In fact, even by 2016, there were reports of up to a third
of ultra-endurance runners, for example, shunning meat.
Increasing plant-based foods may boost vasodilatory—
meaning artery-dilating, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties
of the diet, which can lead to improved blood flow,
reduced oxidative stress and inflammation, and thus,
theoretically enhance endurance performance,
reduce muscle damage, and speed recovery.
Exercise itself can release free radicals that can also lead
to muscle fatigue, reduced athletic performance, and impaired recovery,
but the antioxidants concentrated in plant foods
can help extinguish them.
Here’s the level of oxidative stress before and after running
for a few hours, a doubling of this oxidative stress marker,
but that’s without blueberries.
Eat a cup and a half of blueberries an hour before the run
and you can significantly blunt the stress.
No wonder that eating even a cup of blueberries
may improve exercise performance,
whereas eating meat could actually make things worse.
Same with inflammation.
Shifting to a dietary pattern with more plants
and less animal-sourced food has been shown to attenuate inﬂammation.
A systematic review and meta-analysis comparing common biomarkers
of inflammation found that meat- free diets
appeared to be favorable in all cases.
And not just inflammation, but immune status.
Having a strong immune system is important for athletes,
especially endurance athletes,
as they are often immunocompromised,
which increases risk of upper respiratory tract infection.
After a marathon, there can be about 6-fold higher odds
of coming down with an infection
and after an ultramarathon as many as 68 percent fall ill
within the ensuing two weeks.
But hey, a better immune system could translate into less illness,
which means more time training for the plant-based athlete,
though this has yet to be studied directly.
We also know there’s an ergogenic, meaning performance-enhancing,
effect to nitrates, and nitrates in the bloodstream of vegetarians
is about 20 percent higher and in vegans 40 percent higher
likely due to their eating more nitrate-rich vegetables
such as beets, spinach, and other greens.
And then there are all the health benefits
that could boost performance in the long term.
It is well-documented that plant- based diets reduce the risk
of chronic disease such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes,
metabolic syndrome, and cancer and all-cause mortality,
meaning living a significantly longer life.
But do high-performing athletes really need cardiovascular protection?
Surprisingly, (and that’s why I did this video),
endurance athletes may have more advanced atherosclerosis,
more heart muscle damage, compared to sedentary individuals.
Male athletes had a higher percentage of atherosclerotic plaques
in their coronary arteries compared with sedentary males.
A higher prevalence of high coronary artery calcium
a greater number of atherosclerotic plaques
including multi-vessel plaques, and a greater proportion
squeezing off blood flow more than 50 percent.
Marathon runners, found to have increased total
atherosclerotic plaque volume—
calcified plaques, non-calcified plaques.
Paradoxically, worse atherosclerosis in their coronary arteries,
which may then translate into more damage to the heart muscle itself—
three times more than matched sedentary individuals.
They are running, the risk of coronary events.
It’s the kind of heart damage you see after heart attacks.
But wait, why?
Why do studies show that well-trained athletes are at signiﬁcant risk
for atherosclerosis and heart damage?
It may not be because they’re overstressing
their heart with movement
but rather overstressing their heart with saturated fat and cholesterol.
Endurance athletes can eat 5, 6, 7,000 calories a day.
So, if you’re eating twice the Big Macs,
no wonder their poor hearts are getting hammered.
That’s where plant-based diets come in,
the only diet shown to be able to reverse the progression
of heart disease in the majority of patients.
Yeah, such diets may also contribute to improved performance
and accelerated recovery, but most importantly,
will allow you to recover and maintain your long-term health.
Athletic performance suffers, when you’re dead.