Les Croupiers Running Club Forum

Can a plant based diet help prevent injuries and speed up recovery from injuries? Hector Bellerin, the Arsenal footballer thinks so.

He has been vegan since start of this season and the diet has eased his injury problems.

His ankles became inflamed after games and he tried a vegan diet diet to detox his body. He felt so good that he has remained on it. He credits the diet with energising him and helping his body recover more quickly after games.

Fred Bisci is a New York nutritionist and marathon and ultra marathoner runner, even at the age of 88. He broke his collar bone in his early 80s and was advised by doctors to have it replaced. He refused, and to their amazement, made a full recovery.

He says a plant based diet will -

* Repair and recover vitality to inflamed/stressed aging/athletic bodies
* Rejuvenate and strengthen weak/straining muscles and joints
* Revitalize antioxidant/oxygen stamina for brain endurance and longevity
* Renew an overwhelming sense of optimism and intention
* Reverse the real cause of aging by penetrating and cleansing your heart,brain, bone, muscle, skin, lung, liver, immune cells for optimal performance

https://www.youtube.com/...?v=Q-3XfWu3aVg&t=76s

Phil Hexter

Edited by user 04 April 2018 16:37:55(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Putting all of the obvious ethical and environmental issues aside. (or this post would be massive)

I have researched diet for some time and eventually settled on a Vegan diet.

A plant based diet can provide all of the key nutrients for health, and it also eliminates the risk of consuming any potentially harmful animal fats and byproducts.

I have several health concerns about consuming animal fats and animal products in general.

Also by going vegan it automatically creates many good habits. You have to look a lot more closely at what you eat, plus it is helps you to avoid eating out!

You need to take on plenty of calories and good healthy fats though, especially if you are running. I eat lots of nuts, seeds, beans, quinoa and avocados for example.

The weight falls off if your not careful which will obviously benefit running, but you have to consider your health and monitor it!

Some experts still question the athletic benefits of a vegan diet. I am obviously biased but think it is better.

In honesty if I look at it subjectively, I cannot totally separate improved training methods against what I consider to be an improved diet. My training has been constantly evolving and improving along with my diet.

What I can say since going vegan is, that I have Pb’ed 10km twice, Pb’ed my Half Marathon and run my second quickest 5km time. I hope to beat my 5km Pb I set before I went vegan soon, it ain’t easy though!

Naturally if you go vegan there are heaps of junk food options available also. If you live on crisps, vegan chocolate and pizza it is not likely to help you much.

Ideally you want an organic, whole foods, non processed vegan diet.

There are many very successful vegan runners and sports people out there. Scott Jurek and Rich Roll for example have both had incredible Ultra Running careers on vegan diets and I would recommend their autobiographies.

Also Patrick Baboumian is one of the worlds strongest men and is on a vegan diet.

A gorilla is approximately 15 times stronger than a human being and lives almost entirely on vegetation, but occasionally snacks on insects. A gorilla gets its B12 from bacteria on the unwashed and unchlorinated vegetation and from drinking dirty water.

People tend to get B12 from the bacteria in meat. If you are vegan you can easily supplement this. I use Veg 1 from the Vegan Society which covers you for all the main ones too.

Carl Lewis wasn't a vegan when he won four gold medals in Los Angeles in 1984, but turning vegan later in his career only seemed to help. In 1991 he won the 100m at the world championships at the age of 30 in a world record. It was, he has said, his greatest race.

“I’ve found that a person does not need protein from meat to be a successful athlete. In fact, my best year of track competition was the first year I ate a vegan diet. Moreover, by continuing to eat a vegan diet, my weight is under control, I like the way I look.”

Carl Lewis

Some claim that a vegan diet damaged Carl’s career also but that is to be expected. The point being as inspirational as that statement may seem there are too many variables to base a conclusion on one individual.

In the end it will take time to prove what the best diet is, especially in a biased world dominated by meat eating athletes.

One thing is for sure, there are a number of great athletes performing well in a small minority and that is set to continue and grow!

Carl Lewis was perhaps not a great example to use in hindsight but his time stood and the accusations were unproven. (or so I read)

Again it highlights that you cannot base any conclusion on just one or two individuals and you have to carefully scrutinise everything.

I think there is plenty of decent evidence supporting a good plant based diet out there though.