Plant based diets for BJJ athletes?

Its possible, but it is far more difficult and requires a much higher level of micromanaging your diet. Even then, it is likely the athlete will be deficient in several ways.

A balanced diet is better than a vegan/veggie diet every time, all the time. Choosing healthier sources of meat and focusing on eating whole foods will do more for your diet than arbitrarily cutting out a huge source of nutrition (animals).

Athletes that have success as vegans are the exception, rather than the rule.
 
Eat lots of plants.

Eat some animals.


Boom! Healthy plant based diet.
 
What people fail to realise is that going vegetarian is not a fail-safe step to good health. There are fat vegetarians around whose diet consist primarily of McDonald's fries.

Yes, it is possible to eat a primarily vegetarian diet and still get all the nutrients you need (sumo wrestlers being the obvious example) but it does require motivation and knowledge.
 
I have a friend that got third at blue belt worlds and nogi worlds, he's very good, is currently training full time and he's been a vegan for a while. It can be done, I think you just need to manage your diet really well and make sure you're hitting enough calories if you train hard and you can still be a top competitor. Things like brown rice, beans, hemp seeds, pasta, nuts, avocados and flax are probably examples of very important foods that you can eat for getting your necessary fats, complete proteins and whole grains when you're not eating meat.

That being said, I don't subscribe to veganism/vegetarianism for the "health benefits" and see it more as a spiritual diet for those who are opposed to eating animals, but I suppose I'm not a nutritionist and there are a lot of differing opinions on the subject. Eating lots of vegetables and fruits is still super important, but I eat meat as well.
 
DPS831 said:
It's also a common misconception that eating vegan/vegetarian is somehow healthier than a diet with meat in it. Is the average vegan going to be healthier than the average guy who doesn't put much thought or effort into eating well? Probably. Avoid processed meats, and try to go grass fed if possible.

Unless you have some ethical/moral reason for not wanting to eat animals, there's no good reason not to. Here's a pretty interesting article about being a vegan athlete: http://www.bulletproofexec.com/carl-lewis-vegan/
Click to expand...

Dave Asprey is a quack.
 
DPS831 said:
It's also a common misconception that eating vegan/vegetarian is somehow healthier than a diet with meat in it. Is the average vegan going to be healthier than the average guy who doesn't put much thought or effort into eating well? Probably. Avoid processed meats, and try to go grass fed if possible.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Everything that is good about a vegan diet can be maintained in an omnivorous diet.

Eat lots of vegetables! Get lots of fiber! Have legumes and fresh produce in your diet. But you can also add good quality fresh animal products to that and be doing even better.

I love lentils and chickpeas and kale and seaweed, but I also like grilled quails or wild salmon served over a bed of sauteed kale and brown rice.
 
The only reason meats are useful is because they give lots of balanced protein. If you can get that from vegetables, which you can, then do because you will also be getting far more nutrients in a far more alkaline diet through plants. But it's more difficult and requires spending much more time consuming food. So I meat no more than 1 time per day and it's always fish or seafood.

By the same tolkein, the only reason grains are useful is for the carbs and fiber, which you also get from more nutritious plants and vegetables.

That said, make sure to get B12 somewhere.
 
Linthec said:
The only reason meats are useful is because they give lots of balanced protein. If you can get that from vegetables, which you can, then do because you will also be getting far more nutrients in a far more alkaline diet through plants. But it's more difficult and requires spending much more time consuming food. So I meat no more than 1 time per day and it's always fish or seafood.

By the same tolkein, the only reason grains are useful is for the carbs and fiber, which you also get from more nutritious plants and vegetables.

That said, make sure to get B12 somewhere.
Click to expand...

Alkaline. lol.
 
Linthec, you're not worried about all the toxins prevalent in fish and seafood? Not to mention that, the farm raised, they're all fed trash?

Its been awhile since I have looked into it, but the only fish safe to eat daily was Idaho raised trout.
 
TheeFaulted said:
Dave Asprey is a quack.
Click to expand...

Dude's a little out there on certain things, but his diet recommendations look good to me. It's basically a paleo diet with an emphasis on grass fed meat, fruits/veggies & lots of healthy fats (mct, coconut, grass fed butter). What makes you say he's a quack?
 
Linthec said:
The only reason meats are useful is because they give lots of balanced protein. If you can get that from vegetables, which you can, then do because you will also be getting far more nutrients in a far more alkaline diet through plants. But it's more difficult and requires spending much more time consuming food. So I meat no more than 1 time per day and it's always fish or seafood.

By the same tolkein, the only reason grains are useful is for the carbs and fiber, which you also get from more nutritious plants and vegetables.

That said, make sure to get B12 somewhere.
Click to expand...

You're aware you can only get B12 from animals correct (supplementation not included) ? Everything else is simply a non functioning analogue. The human diet is meant to be omnivorous. Without B12, we would die. Ask any Vegan where they get their B12 from and if they can do it without supplementation. They will not have an answer. Humans are meant to eat meat.

If you cannot do something without supplementation (assuming you are healthy and not born with a disease etc) you aren't meant to do it. Supplements can make things easier, or add to an existing diet. But take them away and you have to eat normally. Fortunately, the human body is capable of storing B12 for 7-12 years roughly, and the most dramatic effects won't take place for some time. Factor in supplementation and you have the reason many vegans and vegetarians aren't as deficient as they would be without it.

The proteins are also a complete protein, that doesn't require getting amino acids from several sources such as with plant based diets. Though yes, you can get them if you plan it in advance. If you have that time, kudos.

As for the fish, mercury levels in tuna and salmon, unless abnormally high, are balanced out by the selenium which rids the body of heavy metals.
 
There's more issues with fish than heavy metals. The majority of fish comes from foreign countries and isn't FDA regulated.
 
In that case, i can't speak on all the issues, and you may have a point there indeed. However, the FDA allows some of the nastiest things to be legal in food. I hardly put any faith into them when evaluating dietary conditions. Weston Price Foundation, Mary Enig are some good places for information if you're curious for some reads. I also recommend listening to "The Vegetarian Myth" by Lierre Kieth, a former vegan turned omnivore.

Side note: most plant sources of food are GMO, so unless they can get it from a natural farmer market, it isn't inherently any better than eating a steroid/antiobiotic animal.
 
Lol at citing Prince Fielder as inspiration to go vegan.

That said, there's no reason beyond ethics to eat vegan. There are plenty of reasons to eat much much more fresh fruits and vegetables and minimize your intake of processed foods.
 
I'm not pro vegan by any means.

And I agree the FDA let's some nasty shit slide. That's why it scares me what foreign companies do when they aren't being loosely regulated
 
Typically if i want a regulated opinion on things, i'll look at Norway, Germany, Poland etc. They have some great aspects to their regulation for diet and farm, as well as health care. (see H1N1 with poland) But that is aside from the thread.
 
Meat is good guys, but we don't need anywhere NEAR the amount that most humans consume, let alone Americans. Nor do we need nearly as much grains as we get. Humans are supposed to get more of their calories off fruit, nuts, vegatation, which means less saturated fat, less cholesterol, and more fiber and nutrients and energy food. We came from apes after all.
 
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