Vegan and vegetarian diets are more popular and “in the zeitgeist” now more than ever before. Thanks in large part to documentaries like Netflix’s You Are What You Eat and Game Changers, plant-based diets have been revealed to be totally revolutionary for some athletes. 

Hugely successful athletes like Venus Williams, David Haye, and Novak Djokovic all credit plant-based nutrition in helping them stay at the top of their game. Like the rest of us, their reasons for going vegan vary. For Williams and Djokovic, it was initially health-related (an immune disorder and allergies respectively) while Haye, in a 2017 Sun interview, said that seeing a documentary about the treatment of animals influenced his decision to become vegan.

All three (and many other athletes besides!) have spoken extensively about how they have found that their plant-based diets have improved athletic performance and recovery time. Now, this evidence is anecdotal, but more studies are backing up these findings!

Check out this article from Viva! (the UK’s leading vegan campaigning charity), which outlines some amazing research-backed evidence on the benefits of the vegan diet in sports.

Let's dive into our article and learn about how these diets can impact our physical fitness and exercise! 

Any diet, whether plant-based or omnivore, is made up of macronutrients and micronutrients. Macronutrients can be broken down into recognisable food groups: carbohydrates, protein, and fat. Micronutrients are the vitamins and minerals found in food: vitamins A through K and minerals like calcium, iron, and zinc (among others).

We all eat many vitamins and minerals without even thinking about it. Most of us are familiar with vitamin C for immunity, vitamin D for mood, calcium for bones, and iron for your blood. In fact, there are so many that this article would be far too long if we went into them all here, so let's talk about where vitamins and minerals come from. 

For the most part, vitamins and minerals are in the food we eat. Some foods are higher in certain vitamins or minerals than others. Citrus fruits and bell peppers are high in vitamin C, mushrooms (if exposed to UV light) can be high in vitamin D, and dark leafy greens like spinach and kale contain lots of vitamin K. 

Calcium can be found in dark leafy greens, lentils have potassium, and almonds magnesium. Some vitamins and minerals that are harder to come by are sometimes added to cereals (sometimes called fortified cereal), these are usually B vitamins, iron, and calcium. 

Micronutrients are intrinsic to nearly every process in the body, so getting the right balance in your diet is very important. Research has shown that some vitamins and minerals have antioxidant properties which are disease preventers, lowering risks for a wide variety of illnesses from Alzheimer's to heart disease to certain cancers.

“While vegans and vegetarians can obtain most of their nutrients from a diverse and whole-food plant-based diet it’s important to regularly monitor certain key micronutrients like Vitamin B12,” says Naina. For athletes at an elite level, she says, “working with a healthcare professional or registered dietitian to monitor their nutritional needs are being met through their diet and supplementing, when necessary, can help meet all nutrient requirements.”

We’ve said it before, but we’ll say it again. You can easily get enough protein when following a plant-based diet. 

There are two protein myths worth mentioning here. The first is the above - we can’t say it enough, there are plenty of available vegan and vegetarian sources of protein. The second is that there is an over-emphasis on the importance of protein in our diets. In fact, according to the British Heart Foundation, most people in the UK eat more than the recommended amount of protein. Of course, if you are working towards a specific goal (such as building muscle or weight loss), your protein needs might be different, but for the average person, the above is true. 

Now, while there are readily available sources of vegan protein, one thing to take into consideration is the difference between complete and incompleteprotein sources. Complete sources of protein are foods that contain all nine different amino acids that link up to make protein. There are fewer plant-based complete proteins than there are animal-based. 

Some examples of vegan complete protein are quinoa, tofu, edamame beans and tempeh. However, varying your sources of vegan protein can get you to a complete protein. For example, lentils are low in lysine (one of the big nine) but rice has a lot of lysine, so if eaten together they make (hey presto!) a complete protein.

So where are these readily available sources of vegan and vegetarian protein? If totally plant-based, the main sources of protein should come from beans, pulses, nuts, and seeds. These can be eaten whole or in the form of tofu, tempeh, or nut butters. 

For athletes looking to increase their protein intake, protein powder is nothing new, but there are now a lot more vegan options out there, often using pea protein (interested in why the humble pea is so incredible? Check out our post here). 

Vegetarian athletes can add eggs, milk, cheese, and yoghurt to their list of protein sources. However, these are often higher in fat and therefore should be had in smaller amounts. As with, well, everything, variety really is the spice of life: a variety of sources for vegan and vegetarian protein will get you where you want to be. 

Diet and physical activity (along with genetics, obviously), are some of the biggest indicators for long-term overall health. So if you are thinking about how your diet affects your athletic performance, there is more good news: the long-term impact of vegan or vegetarian diet can be hugely beneficial.

It is understood now that a plant-based diet will lead to better heart health. And the heart is a muscle, so we can infer that a plant-based diet will lead to healthier muscles overall. Plant-based diets tend to be lower in the so-called bad fats, which helps to maintain healthy cholesterol levels. As mentioned earlier, this can lead to a lower risk of heart disease, certain cancers, and even Alzheimer’s. 

But how does diet influence athletic performance over time? Well, the fact is that to maintain a level of athletic fitness, diet does play a key role because diet plays a key role in how healthy a person is. Evidence suggests that there are some pretty stellar benefits to a vegan and even vegetarian diet long-term.

The fact is that a vegan diet contains more fruits and vegetables, which are rich in fibre and antioxidants, some of the absolute power-houses of the food world. However, if you’re like the 3 million people in the UK who can’t quite give up cheese yet, you’re in luck: adding more plant-based food to your diet has a lot of the same benefits mentioned above. 

The bottom line? When thinking about athletic performance long term, it is imperative to have a holistic and diverse approach to diet.

The two challenges that should be addressed for vegan and vegetarian athletes have been addressed above, getting enough complete protein and getting enough micronutrients, particularly B12 and omega-3. 

To address these vegan diet challenges, it is possible to take a B12 supplement or add nutritional yeast (which contains B12) to your diet. Omega-3 fatty acids are found in walnuts, chia seeds, and flaxseeds, as well as being readily available in supplement form. 

As far as protein goes, the key is to vary your sources (don’t just eat almonds)! Naina recommends making small changes, “swapping oats for chia seeds or quinoa in your overnight oats for breakfast, a handful of almonds or walnuts as a snack, combining rice with beans like mung beans, pancakes made with buckwheat flour rather than whole-wheat flour are all good ways to help boost the protein content in your diet.”

Remember, that for overall health, a balanced diet is best. Just like any diet, it is possible to eat an unhealthy vegan diet, high in sodium and ultra-processed food. To get the most out of a vegan or vegetarian diet, try planning meals and sourcing as much whole food as possible. Whole foods are where the benefit truly lies. 

Please note that if you suspect that you have a nutrient deficiency, it is important to speak to your GP in order to rule out other health issues. 

So what have we learned? Plant-based vegan and vegetarian diets are growing in popularity, not only for ethical and general health reasons but also for their athletic performance enhancement properties. 

More and more athletes are turning to a plant-based diet to help recovery times and improve endurance and overall energy levels. Of course, not all of us have access to a personal trainer or the army of professionals behind such a person as, say, Lewis Hamilton, but all of us could consider incorporating a more plant-based approach to our training. 

And who knows, perhaps in the future, most athletes will follow a plant-based diet. All we know for sure is that we can provide the best* vegan and gluten free pasta out there.

Please note that if you suspect that you have a nutrient deficiency, it is important to speak to your GP in order to rule out other health issues. 

For this article, ZENB spoke to Integrative Nutrition Health Coach Naina Juneja. She graduated from IIN and with her expertise, she empowers individuals to cultivate healthier relationships with food, utilizing it as a tool for healing. Through her guidance, Naina has successfully aided numerous clients in managing various lifestyle based conditions such as diabetes, cholesterol issues, and hormonal imbalances like PCOS, fostering improved well-being and vitality. Find her on Instagram or online at https://www.nomnomwithnaina.com.