Can a vegetarian diet deliver?

By Patrick Gerenge

Many fitness enthusiasts wonder whether a vegetarian diet would have any effect on their exercise endeavours, particularly the need for high-quality proteins from foods such as chicken, tuna and egg white, often cited when talking about lean muscle and strength gain.

Have you wondered where bulls get their energy yet they are purely vegetarian? Think about the gorillas; you will agree with me that they are not the weakest of animals.

May be the issue is not as clear-cut as some would have you believe. In this article, we will take a look at some of the issues behind vegetarian diets in regard to physical performance as a good number of people have been steadily switching to a meat free existence. The reasons behind this move are varied and range from concern for animal welfare, worries over the safety of meat, pursuit of a healthier lifestyle to concern over environmental factors. There is a belief that a vegetarian diet is healthier than a non-vegetarian one. Really? You may ask. If it is true, can a vegetarian diet support the intense training required for peak physical performance?

Before we go too far, let us clarify what we mean by a vegetarian diet. We have all met someone who claims to be vegetarian and then, surprisingly, adds later in your conversation that, ‘of course, I do eat small quantities of fish and chicken and occasionally beef, but that’s only when I fancy steak’. So you may ask, when is a vegetarian not a vegetarian or not a strict vegetarian? Let’s see the different types of vegetarian diets.

Vegan Diet: It is the most restrictive of the vegetarian diets and allows only foods of plant origin.

Lacto-vegetarian: This diet includes all of the foods of the vegan diet (above) plus milk produce i.e. milk, cheese and yogurt.

Lacto-ovo-vegetarian: Includes all the foods of the lacto vegetarian plus eggs.

Note that a real vegetarian diet does not include fish, chicken or any other types of animal meat.

The protein question

Having defined what a vegetarian diet includes, what is the evidence of the benefits of vegetarian diets over meat-eating diets? The answer to that question is ideally ‘maybe’. In reality, whether or not a diet includes meat or not is fairly irrelevant to the nutritional quality of that diet. This is because (as regular readers of this column would note) the basis of a high-quality diet is the consumption of a range of whole, unprocessed foods with plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables.

In fact, a poor vegetarian diet can almost be worse than a meat-eating one, because the person may believe that simply not eating meat gives them a licence to eat just about anything else, yet stay healthy. The truth is that any diet, which includes a lot of sweet, sugary or fatty processed foods, is not going to help your fitness goals whether or not those foods come from animal or vegetable sources. However, there are real differences between the types of foods (especially proteins) likely to be consumed on a vegetarian diet compared to a meat- eating one.

A commonly held view among exercisers is that vegetarian diet either cannot supply sufficient protein to maximise strength and power gains (needed for exercise), or that the protein is not of sufficient quality.

The general consensus of nutritional experts is that proteins required by the body lie in the range of 0.75-2.0g per kilo of body weight per day. A mixture of proteins from a vegetarian diet and carbohydrates like chapatti and beans, or lentils and rice will give you sufficient proteins to help your fitness goals. So, it seems, therefore, that the quantity of protein available from a vegetarian diet is ample.

Before drawing conclusions, it is worth pointing out that the eating patterns we enjoy are the results of a number of factors other than just conscious decisions about what is and is not good from a health and moral point of view. Social and psychological factors can and do play a role in what types of foods we enjoy.