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Vegetarians vs Meat Eaters:
Who's diet is healthier?
"Many of my buddies from Joints in Motions are vegetarian. I feel politically incorrect because I enjoy a nice steak from time to time. Is a vegetarian diet better for my health?"
This question, posed by many of my clients and pondered by most meat-eating marathoners, can theoretically be answered YES. A marathoner can certainly do well by eating an A+ wholesome, balanced vegetarian diet. A plant-based diet offers abundant health protective vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, and fiber--enough to potentially reduce your risk of heart disease, cancer, hypertension, and other diseases of aging.
- The carbohydrate-rich choices (beans, grains, fruits, vegetables) are the best sources of fuel for your muscles.
- The protein-rich plant foods (beans, legumes, nuts, and tofu) provide adequate protein to build and protect your muscles.
Unfortunately, many active people fail to choose the right balance of plant foods and flunk vegetarian nutrition. They simply eat a meatless diet and make no effort to replace beef with beans or chicken with soy. They come to me complaining of chronic fatigue, poor recovery from workouts, decreased performance, and lingering colds. Many have a greyish, splotchy complexion (for which the dermatolgist may have prescribed acne medicine.) Clearly, this meat-free diet fails to promote health or performance!
Case study
Mike, a "vegetarian" training for his first marathon, came to me for a nutrition check-up. Although he valued his meatless diet, he expressed concern about always being tired. His running was suffering, despite hard training and ample carbohydrates.
A few years ago, Mike had become vegetarian "for health reasons". He knocked burgers and bratwurst out of his diet, and instead would routinely eat meatless meals:
Breakfast: bagels
Lunch: more bagels, bananas, and juice
Snacks: pretzels, apples, raisins
Dinner spaghetti with tomato sauce
I quickly diagnosed why Mike was chronically tired. He was
eating:
- only half the protein recommended to build and repair his muscles. (See
below: How much protein do you need?)
- inadequate iron, an important mineral for runners. Iron is a part of red blood cells and helps carry oxygen to the working muscles. It prevents iron-deficiency and its associated
with fatigue. Iron is best found in red meats and other animal proteins.
- inadequate zinc, another mineral important for runners. Zinc enhances healing--such as the healing of those micro-injuries that occur every time you train. Zinc also boosts the immune system, helping prevent lingering colds.
Vegetarians need to eat lots of whole grains, tofu, nuts and veggies to get adequate amounts of those nutrients. But, because Mike lived a fast-paced lifestyle and grabbed fast foods that required minimal preparation, he ate too many refined carbohydrates (bagels, pasta and pretzels)!
To help Mike eat a better-balanced vegetarian fast-food diet, I encouraged him to enhance the protein content and overall nutrtional value of his diet by combining two to three different kinds of foods at each meal.This would provide a variety of amino acids (the building-blocks of protein) as well as a variety of vitamins and minerals. (See
below: Effective food combinations.) So, instead of eating two bagels for breakfast, I encouraged him to balance the diet by trading one bagel for peanut butter and a banana. I also encouraged him to boost his iron intake by buying iron-enriched breakfast cereals (as noted on the cereal's nutrition facts box).
If your vegetarian diet, like Mike's, includes too many carbohydrates but too little protein, you are hindering--not enhancing--your health. A lean steak or burger rich in protein, iron and zinc might be a better choice than yet-another pile of pasta. (Only the fat in meat is the health culprit; the lean meat, per se, is high in nutritional value.) Here are some of the simple-to-fix vegetarian suggestions that were helpful to Mike, and may also help you.
Breakfast:
- Cereal (preferably iron-enriched, as noted on the label): eat with milk, yogurt or soymilk; sprinkle with nuts
- Oatmeal, oatbran and other hot cereals: add peanut butter, almonds or other nuts, and/or powdered milk
- Toast, bagels: top with lowfat cheese, cottage cheese or peanut butter.
Snacks:
- Assorted nuts; peanut butter on rice cakes or crackers. Although nuts and peanut butter are high in (healthful) fat, they can fit into a high carbohydrate sports diet, especially if most of your other food choices are low in fat. Nuts are calorie-dense, however, so eat them in moderation, if weight is a concern.
- Yogurt with granola, fruit,as desired.
Lunch and Dinner:
- Salads: add tofu, chick peas, three bean salad, marinated kidney beans, cottage cheese, sunflower seeds, chopped nuts. Make a protein-rich salad dressing by adding salad seasonings to plain yogurt or benderized tofu.
- Spaghetti sauce: add diced tofu and/or canned kidney beans. Top with grated part-skim
mozarella.
- Potato: Zap in the microwave oven, then top it with canned beans, baked beans or lowfat cottage cheese.
- Enjoy hearty soups, such as lentil, split pea, bean and minestrone. Eat with pita and hummus.
- Pizza, preferably loaded with veggies.
How much protein do you need?
To estimate your daily protein needs, multiply your weight by 0.5 to 0.75 gm protein per pound of body weight. Example: 120 lb athlete: ~ 60-90 gm; 160 lb athlete: ~80 -120.
This allows a generous margin for building muscles. Food labels & this chart can help you calculate your protein intake.
Milk, 1 cup 8 gm Peanut butter, 2 Tbsp 8 gm* Baked beans, 1/2 cup 6
Yogurt, 1 cup 8 Nuts, 1 oz,~1/4 c 8* Kidney beans, canned, 1/2 c 6
Cheese, 1 oz 8 Sunflower seeds, 1/4 c 8* Hummus, 1/2 cup 6
Cottage ch, 1/4 c 8 Tofu,1/4 cake 8 Lentil or bean soups, 1 cup 6
Effective food combinations
To get the most out of your vegetarian diet, you should eat a variety of foods to privide a variety of nutrients. Some effective food combinations that enhance the protein content of meatless diets include:
Grains + milk products: bran muffin + a yogurt
cereal + milk
pasta + lowfat cheese
Grains + beans and legumes (such as peanuts, lentils; kidney, pinto, lima and navy beans):
bran muffin + peanut butter;
pasta + white beans
rice + red beans
Legumes + seeds: hummus (chick-peas + sesame paste)
tofu + sunflower seeds (on a salad)
Milk products + any food: milk, yogurt or cheese (preferably lowfat) added to any meal or snack
Nancy Clark, MS, RD, nutritionist at SportsMedicine Brookline, designs personalized food plans for active people. Her popular Sports Nutrition Guidebook is available via
www.nancyclarkrd.com or by sending a check ($23) to Sports Nutrition Materials, 830 Boylston Street #205, Brookline MA 02467.
Copyright: Nancy Clark, MS, RD
Nutrition Consultant, Joints in Motion National Marathon Training Program
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