Grist recently published my interview with Rory Freedman, one of the authors of vegan diet book Skinny Bitch. The finished piece is just a selection of the topics from our conversation (we had quite a long lunch), and one of the questions that didn't make the cut was about responding to critics who say veganism is unhealthy.
Freedman said it's a "non-argument" and referenced the work of a number of scientific organizations (the American Dietetic Association, the American Medical Association, the National Academy of Sciences, etc.) saying that a well-planned vegan diet can be very healthy.
Sure, if you're a young writer living a normal life ...
But what if you're a 247-lb. professional football player whose daily life requires that you be able to push around equally huge (and huger) dudes in full-body armor?
The Wall Street Journal makes a pass at answering that very question with a profile of sorta-vegan Tony Gonzalez of the Kansas City Chiefs. The 6-foot-5-inch tight end was turned on to veganism after reading The China Study, and promptly replaced the usual footballer diet (steaks, pizza, burgers, beer) with fruits, veggies, and nuts. He felt better, but realized after a few weeks that he had lost 10 lbs. ... and some of his much-needed strength.
Now Gonzalez plans his diet with the help of several nutritionists and has added in small bits of fish or chicken. But there are professional athletes out there who are able to stay vegan and strong as ever. Ultimate fighter Mac Danzig and Atlanta Hawks shooting guard Salim Stoudamire both had successful (vegan) seasons this year.
Sports nutritionist Lisa Dorfman has tips on how to score with a vegan diet.
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Comments
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GreyFlcn Posted 5:32 am
27 Jan 2008
Meat is easy because it already did all the combining for you.
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caniscandida Posted 6:49 am
27 Jan 2008
We recently re-saw the 1940 classic "My Favorite Wife," in which the hunky, athletic, apparent alternative love-interest of Irene Dunne, played by Randolph Scott, claims to be a vegetarian. (Was Randolph in fact meeting co-star Carey Grant after hours? That is not beyond the realm of possibility, but is neither here nor there at present.) I was moved to wonder: In 1940, were many people associating athleticism with vegetarianism? And if so, why? Did the concept of athletic vegetarianism back then include, say, Rocky Balboa's breakfast of raw eggs straight from the cracked and dripping shell?
I also wonder: Do men secretly feel defensive of their muscle tone, and tell themselves they must eat so much animal tissue, or else they will lose their edge?
Chickens are our cousins! So are fish! So are other sentient animals! Let us learn to be kind.
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Pangolin Posted 3:59 pm
27 Jan 2008
I'm sitting here picking parsley (locally grown and purchased at a farmers market 1.3 miles from home. I drove, it was raining) from my teeth and wonder at why a single football player being vegan should matter to me. It's really not that exceptional considering that many football players already live on smoothies, eggs and steak. Simply substitute veggie burgers and tofu scrambles and keep on moving. Football players are not known for being fabulous epicurians. They eat to fuel the obsessive body fixation that allows them to play pro football in the first place.
I just don't have the cash to pay several nutritionists to design a vegan diet that I will actually eat and be happy with. I can't afford the fancy, packaged vegan foods. I hate shopping at the local "natural foods" co-op because of the crappy prices and snotty service from the dreadlocked and distracted staff.
Let's just forget to mention the infinite hassle and tedium of trying to live on a vegan diet in a carnivorous society. It's like an trying to eat kosher at a pig-picking. You can do it, but you end up unsatisfied even when you have a full belly. Or you pack your own food with you everywhere and insult your hosts constantly; been there, done that, over it.
The two places in my very foodie town that acknowledge vegan diets are such palaces of privilege and pretension that my stomach churns just walking past them. You can pay more for less food with less flavor but you really have to work at it. Until flavor, service and satisfaction become priorities with producers of vegan food the market will be limited. People like to eat, at least some, meat.
So can we quit with the vegan porn? Aside from preaching to the choir it just annoys the rest of us.
Put the Carbon Back
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spaceshaper Posted 9:05 pm
27 Jan 2008
The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
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amc89 Posted 2:26 am
28 Jan 2008
Pangolin, I suggest you read Mark Bittman's excellent editorial in the NY Times today on how unsustainable our current meat consumption levels are:
Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/weekinreview/27bittman. ...
"I can't afford the fancy, packaged vegan foods." I highly doubt that "fancy packaged" vegan food is any more expensive than "high packaged" carnivorous foods, in fact I would suspect that it's probably cheaper. And if you don't want to buy packaged foods, don't. Buy whole foods, and a few vegetarian cookbooks and start learning how to make easy plant-based meals.
I've been vegetarian for 14 years and I've never "insulted my hosts." If you behave sensitively and plan accordingly, you'd won't end up making people uncomfortable. When I eat at other non-vegetarian people's houses, I offer to bring a vegetarian dish that I know other people will like. As vegetarianism becomes more common, most hosts today aren't intimidated by vegetarianism and don't mind accomodating you. Usually it just means putting meat on the side for some of the side dishes and the like.
Being a vegetarian in a non-vegetarian world is really not such a big social disaster as you may think initially, not unless you make it one. Most of my friends and family who are not vegetarian have been nothing but supportive. They're often curious about my diet and want to know more, and some have actually made changes in their diet to include more fruits and vegetables and less meat. And some have even become vegetarians themselves!
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Greta Posted 4:12 am
28 Jan 2008
But, if people fix a sensisble meal, which normally would include at least one vegetable and a salad and probably bread, there will be something for the veg*n.
At least that has been my experience.
As for football players, they should do what I do: what you lack in meat, make up for in dessert!
NoPunProductions.com ~ AmericaTheGreen.org
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amazingdrx Posted 4:27 am
28 Jan 2008
And that iron and calcium, that has to be vital for exersize intense living, aerobian living. Hehey.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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kylegracey Posted 7:08 am
28 Jan 2008
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