Vegans are different

We'll probably be hearing more about a vegan diet because of Scott Jurek and his new book. His diet and with his success really challenges people to take a look at their beliefs around food. He's a very successful athlete and he doesn't eat any animal products. Many people are wondering how could this be. This NY Times piece explores vegan diets for high performance athletes with nutrition experts. This piece in the NY Times shows you how even registered dieticians who aren't vegan don't fully understand the diet.

After reading the article, I had some questions and comments about some of the points for the non-vegan nutrition experts and the author:

1. My first burning question, mostly for the author: Why weren't there any vegan dieticians interviewed? Two of my favorite vegan dieticians are: http://jacknorrisrd.com/ and http://www.theveganrd.com/. I'm a big believer that practice is just as important as theory to gain a deep understanding of anything, including a vegan diet. I think the article really lacked credibility because of the lack of a practicing expert who understands the vegan diet from both a theoretical and practical point of view. One of the dieticians commented that he was a scientist and he knows the scientific point of view. As a scientist myself, I agree that he has a deep theoretical understanding, but someone who lives the practice and is thoughtful may have as deep of understanding albeit from a different angle than the expert; having at least one nutrition scientist and a vegan on the panel would have been most appropriate for the article.

2. The article says, "It’s not that there aren’t good sources of vegan protein. But it’s not as bioavailable as meat. So you need to have more."

Really? The protein question, turned into an issue, from a nutritionist? Yes, lay people like to ask, "But how do you get enough protein?" A nutritionist should know you don't need that much protein and that the amount you need is easily obtainable from a plant-based diet of whole food. We're living in an age when we have plenty of food and people are worried about PROTEIN. Getting enough protein is not what people should be worried about. Too much protein is hard on one's kidneys. We don't need that much protein: http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2007nl/apr/protein.htm
http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/protein

So how much protein do we need? Let's see, Web MD, and MSNBC both say a non-lactating adult needs about 50-60 grams of protein per day.* The way to calculate how much protein you need is to take your weight in pounds and multiply X anywhere from .36 -.8 to get how many grams you need. Most non-athletes need at the lower end.  Let's take a look at my daily life (my practice); I often eat the following foods: oatmeal, wheat and flax tortillas, black beans, broccoli, PB, bread, nuts, and seeds.

My wheat and flax tortilla has 6 grams of protein in it.
My serving of oatmeal has 7-10 grams in it.
One serving of broccoli (one cup) has 3 grams of protein in it--I typically eat 3-5 servings of greens a day... A serving of Kale is 2-3 grams of protein, and spinach is 4 grams...(so I get 9-15 grams of protein just from greens).
My black beans have 7 grams per 1/2 cup (what I typically eat in a serving).
Peanut Butter is 7 grams a serving
Bread for my PB is 6 grams for one slice.


I calculate I obtain 43-51 grams by eating those foods and that I have only consumed 700-1000 calories. Since I need closer to 2000 calories a day I'm NOT worried about getting adequate protein. If I drink any soy milk, it's 7 grams per cup. If I add chia, almonds, or walnuts (something I do often) I get more protein. Protein is easy.

We really don't need to worry about protein, we need to worry about nutrients! (This comes from my recent read of Dr. Fuhrman.) We need the thousands of phytochemicals that plants have to keep us healthy. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091021144251.htm and http://www.breastcancer.org/tips/nutrition/reduce_risk/foods/phytochem.jsp, plus the Dr. Fuhrman website, linked above.

3. Why is a dietician encouraging the consumption of empty calories (juice)? Though I understand this article is about elite athletes, and perhaps they can drink some juice and be fine and use the calories as they run, the average American is going to read this and hear how good juice is for you and then drink 32 oz. a day. (And they won't drink pure juice, they'll probably drink something that has high fructose corn syrup in it.)

Even if a person drinks pure juice they are getting fruit sugar without fiber. This article from the World's Healthiest Foods site tells you lots more about fruit versus juice. I would also argue that an elite athlete should be eating more fruit and nuts rather than drinking juice--maybe she or he could do it while running, but sugars aren't good for the body.

I like that we're hearing more about vegan diets in the mainstream, but I don't like that people write about them as being "different" and potentially "dangerous" and that experts think of veganism as "out there." I think vegan diets are scary to people because people realize that meat isn't so good to eat, but they don't want to change. Change is scary. I think it's important to remember one doesn't have to be "all the way vegan" to get benefits from a plant-based diet. One of the dieticians summarized it nicely:

"I like to tell people that if we got most Americans to eat one less serving of meat every day, there would be far greater impact from that, in terms of improving overall public health and the health of the planet, than convincing a tiny group of endurance athletes to go full vegan."

Despite some of the other things in the article, I do love this. People should work to help themselves eat better. If giving up one meal of meat per day is too hard, then start with one or a few per week. You don't go from a standard American diet eating meat every meal (or even only 1/3 of the time) to a vegan diet overnight. Take baby steps to make your lifestyle more healthy. Change is hard; I started on my journey toward eating a more healthy diet a little over 6 years ago. Back then, I was mostly a lacto-ovo vegetarian, but I ate quite a bit of junk food; I was eating a pint of frozen yogurt each night. If you'd told me I would give up dairy, all my potato chips, and a lot of the oil I ate, I wouldn't have believed you.





*Note, I don't typically look at websites that are this mainstream, but I wanted to understand the popular sentiment about protein.