Tuesday, August 18, 2015
10:42 PM | 
Posted by
Kaplan Center for Health and Wellness
Going, going, Vegan!
Emily Boldrin, PhD, RD
Emily Boldrin, PhD, RD
We had a
friend visit over the weekend. Let me clarify, we had a number of visitors over
the weekend. At one point there were 6 people staying with us in a space of about
600 square feet. It was delightful, fun, charming and…cozy. J One of our visiting friends was in
town for a long drive competition. For those of you not familiar with long
drive competitions (I sure wasn’t!!) – It is where the competitor tries to hit
a golf ball as far as they can, while staying in bounds. Participants in a long drive competition can
hit the golf ball up to 465 yards. To put it in perspective, golfers on the PGA
tour drive the ball on average, about 280 yards. So, those who participate on the long drive
competition are incredibly strong and very fast.
Anyways, our
friend is absurdly athletic, strong and just an overall big, muscular guy. Along
with participating in the long drive competitions, he is involved with
CrossFit. According to their website “CrossFit is the principal strength and conditioning program for many
police academies and tactical operations teams, military special operations
units, champion martial artists, and hundreds of other elite and professional
athletes worldwide” (What is Crossfit). Needless to say, he demands a lot from
his body. Both physically and nutritionally.
While he was
here, we got into a discussion one night about nutrition. He was very interested
in following a vegan diet (for those of you who don’t know, a vegan diet
eliminates all sources of animal products. No meat, cheese, dairy, eggs, etc…).
He asked me, given his physical demands, was this kind of diet suitable for
him? It was a good question! A vegan and even a vegetarian diet is not without
nutritional “risks”. But I talked to him about well known, high profile,
athletes who have competed at the professional level following a vegan diet.
The well-known track and field star Carl Lewis was one worth mentioning. There
have been numerous other athletes as well. Football stars, boxers, MMA
fighters, cyclists and hockey players have all followed a vegan diet and been
successful at what they do.
So… to get
the point… if well-known high level athletes can compete at a professional
level and still get the nutrition they need, why is there such a stigma about
vegan and vegetarian diets not getting enough protein and/or not being able to
meet nutritional needs? Is it our societal norms? Thoughts?
Reference:
n.d. What is Crossfit. Retrieved from http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/what-crossfit.html.
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