Does anyone know of any elite athletes who are vegan?
Has there been much research on this at all?
Brendan Brazier: IronMan top-ten finisher
He has a good website with a ton of good info. Also, he has written a book about his special diet which includes recipes. Learn away!
Carl Lewis: Track Olympian
Scott Jurek the Ultra runner who has Western States 100 4-5 times in a row used to be one. I do not know him but I read about his ideas several times. I know several damn good athletes that are vegan and they all eat very clean. Besides being very skinny, most vegan atheltes are very disciplined in their training as well as diet. I don’t see that as a limiter on preformance, but an asset. Veganism is not just an eating style, but lifestyle as well as they don’t use leather, wool, or any animal products. Pretty hard core folks.
My inspiration was Jason Sager. I’m only a vegetarian, though. He’s a pro mtb’er now, but I used to ride with him when he was doing more road and was helping with the development I was on. This website has his info and a few other athletes, including Bredan Brazier. Adam Myerson, also a cyclist, has written some good articles on being vegetarian/vegan.
What about people the gen public would have heard of?
There is a book by Lisa Dorfman called Vegetarian Sports Nutrition or, Sports Nutrition for Vegetarians. (Can’t remember which.) It has profiles of vegan and vegetarian athletes. SOme of the vegan ones really suprised me…one was a famous football player.
If I weren’t lazy, I would go upstairs and get it and list the vegan athletes for you. (Hey, need to stay off my feet to recover, right!) I will try and do that tomorrow.
Great book though.
“There is a book by Lisa Dorfman called Vegetarian Sports Nutrition or, Sports Nutrition for Vegetarians. (Can’t remember which.) It has profiles of vegan and vegetarian athletes.”
It’s called the Vegetarian Sports Nutrition Guide. Ahtletes listed include:
Chris Campbell (olympic wrestler) - lacto-ovo-vegetarian
Jan Welzel (US Marathon champ) - lacto-ovo-vegetarian
Ben Mathews (ultramarathoner) - macrobiotic vegetarian
Art Still (Hall of Fame football player) - semi-vegetarian
Gary Gromet (double ironman) - pesco-vegetarian
Dave Scott (do I need to tell you?) - vegetarian, currently semi-vegetarian
There are others, too, and recipes from each of these people. It’s a pretty handy book - even for non-vegetarians. Lisa was working with me last year, but her book contains the same info that she told me in person.