Food Politics

[...] continues at Marion brought to you by diet.medtrials.info and [...]

[...] Marion wrote a fantastic post today on “Can a big guy play football on a vegan diet?”Here’s ONLY a quick extractThanks to my colleague Fred Tripp for forwarding this item from the Wall Street Journal about Tony Gonzalez, the 247-pound Kansas City Chiefs’ football player who has switched to a vegan diet to the shock of his family, fellow players, … [...]

[...] Original post here [...]

Why anyone is surprised that people can do well on vegetarian and vegan diets is beyond me.

Well, this isn’t anyone, it’s Pro Football player. And, well, anyone who follows sports would be shocked; we’ve all read/heard tales about the incredible amount of food (such as 48oz steaks) that football players consume.

[...] Here’s another interesting post I read today by What to Eat [...]

That is great!
Eating less meat (or no meat) is a great thing. I’m sure his Dietitian has him eating plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts and seeds!

I’m sure there are more, but here are some elite athletes that are public about their plant-based eating:
from: http://goveg.com/vegetarian_athletes.asp

“Meat-free mavericks include Sports Illustrated “Olympian of the Century” Carl Lewis, top ultra-marathon runner Scott Jurek, tennis legend Chris Evert, football star Ricky Williams, Ultimate Fighting champ Mac Danzig, NBA standouts Raja Bell and Salim Stoudamire, and boxing champion Keith Holmes.”

[...] douglain wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThanks to my colleague Fred Tripp for forwarding this item from the Wall Street Journal about Tony Gonzalez, the 247-pound Kansas City Chiefs’ football player who has switched to a vegan diet to the shock of his family, fellow players, … [...]

As Daniel already pointed out, some of the world’s best athletes in various sports are vegans. If a vegan diet can support the six time winner of the Western States 100 mile endurance race (Scott Jurek), recent UFC champ Mac Danzig, ironman triathelete Brendan Brazier, and now Tony Gonzalez among thousands of others, it is ridiculous to argue that a vegan diet is in any way deficient. I have personally run two marathons as a vegan, one of which being my 3:01 PR and continue to maintain a 70+ mile week training load on a vegan diet. It’s a shame the media falls all over itself to portray vegans as misanthropes or freaks instead of taking a self-reflective look at what being vegan means in our meat centered culture.

[...] Can a big guy play football on a vegan diet? [...]

Obviously, I am nowhere near this guy’s level, but I played football in high school and rugby in college as a vegetarian. I am not a small fellow.

I am always called upon to defend my diet from skeptical people–who are often overweight, I might ad. I have to wonder why the burden of proof isn’t on the other foot…

This is a fascinating article.. but he’s not entirely vegan. He eats a protein shake that contains animal protein and he supplements his food intake with wild salmon and organic chicken. Please read the article though, it’s very interesting even if you are not interested in sports.

From what I read he wanted to go completely vegan but his trainers and nutritionists won’t let him hence the fish oil and chicken. The media should not be reporting this as a vegan diet since it isn’t. Too bad that because of his job he can’t be on a healthy diet and one that he chooses. It’s great that he is eating more whole foods but ironic that he is controlled by his profession so much that he can’t even follow the diet that he wants.

[...] James D. Brausch wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThanks to my colleague Fred Tripp for forwarding this item from the Wall Street Journal about Tony Gonzalez, the 247-pound Kansas City Chiefs’ football player who has switched to a vegan diet to the shock of his family, fellow players, … [...]

[...] Can a big guy play football on a vegan diet? [...]

“I am always called upon to defend my diet from skeptical people–who are often overweight, I might ad. I have to wonder why the burden of proof isn’t on the other foot.” -Comment by Fentry

Nice work there! I would like to see people come up with a good argument of why eating meat (including fish) and/or dairy/eggs is better for their health only (no mention as to the health of the environment, and the impact eating meat has on all others who live on earth).

Marion, the message from your books, videos, etc. seems to be eat more whole organic plant foods and much less animal foods like meat, dairy, eggs, and less sugar. The only reason to include those in my diet seems to be intense pressure from industries dependent on those commodities and maybe cultural and taste preference. I can’t see any health reasons and certainly no environmental reasons.

This leaves me a bit confused. Why does this seem to be the only post I can find from you where you seem to say anything positive about a vegan diet? It seems that something like a whole food, locally grown vegan diet would be just about ideal nutritionally and environmentally as long as you get a bit of sun, maybe a little flax, and eat something with smidgen of B-12.

What am I missing?

[...] writes of a previous post: “Why does this seem to be the only post I can find from you where you seem to say anything positive about a vegan diet? It seems that something like a whole [...]

[...] What to Eat ” Can a big guy play football on a vegan diet? [...]

to the last human response—by “Stan” Well said!

I know the dairy and meat commodity trade groups as well as the US Dept of Agriculture (whose interest it is to Promote financial interests of Ag, especially dairy and meat) want everyone to eat more of those commodities–but it just isn’t in MY best interest to include animal milk or flesh in my diet.

As a competitive athlete a whole-food plant-based diet gives me with lots of energy and plenty of protein, iron, calcium and all the nutrients I need. I often take a B12/multi vit. to be sure.

What’s missing from a diet lacking animal products?
A high risk of heart disease, many cancers, stroke, osteoporosis, diabetes, kidney disease,…

He’s not the only vegan footballer let alone huge guy on a vegan diet. There’s more and more vegan(or vegetarian) bodybuilders, mma fighter, boxers, weightlifter, etc..

Patrick baboumian, Andreas Cahling, Bill Pearl, Billy Simmonds, Joel Kirkilis, Jimi Sitko, Mac Danzig, Jake shield, Mike Tyson, Jon Fitch, Rob Bigwood and Ricky Williams are some of them. As time goes by their will be more and more world class vegan athletes.

I’m a triathlete and I myself have found that it increased my endurance and stamina tremendously.

As long as you eat a well balanced diet based on whole food and make sure you get enough calories(that’s really the key thing for athletes) you’ll be more than fine. Only vegan who eat junk food or a poor diet get weaker (anyone who eat a poor diet for that matter)

[...] Can a big guy play football on a vegan diet? Tony Gonzalez, the 247-pound Kansas City Chiefs’ football player who has switched to a vegan diet to the shock of his family, fellow players, and, I guess, the world.   [...]