Plant-based lifestyles can be good for young athletes
“Will you please tell her that she can’t get all the nutrients she needs from only fruits and vegetables?”
A frustrated mother of a competitive adolescent soccer player looked at me with hope while her daughter looked at me with fear. I am a nurse practitioner. I am also a vegan.
Mom had just informed me that her daughter did not care for meat and, after some research, decided that she would like to avoid animal products altogether. Like many well-intentioned parents, Mom was concerned that vegan diets inherently lack protein and other vital nutrients and would therefore negatively affect her daughter’s athletic performance. After a pregnant pause, I responded, “I’m sorry, I can’t tell her that because it’s simply not true.”
As I type this, I can see the eye rolls and hear the sighs that likely occurred after many of you simply read the word “vegan.” A handful of folks probably stopped reading, and another handful probably fist-pumped and said “bacon!” This is not my first rodeo.
However, as your eyes recover and refocus, please note that I am not here to convert you or any reader of this article to veganism; I am not going to vividly describe slaughterhouses or the negative environmental implications of factory farming. While those things are very important to me, the focus of this piece is to simply discuss and debunk common misconceptions about veganism, specifically regarding young athletes, and provide reassurance and resources for frustrated and/or curious parents.
A quick background about me: I gave up meat at the age of 11 after my best friend’s mother took me along to a local poultry farm to “pick up dinner” after school one day. (My mother still has not forgiven her.) To say that my meat-andpotato-oriented family was unsupportive of my choice is an understatement; that combined with the lack of education and plant-based options available in the 1990s caused my physical health (read: weight) and mental health to suffer during one of the most socially vulnerable times of one’s life: middle and high school. If you have a pre-teen or teen contemplating a plantbased lifestyle for any reason, I hope you will read on.
It is important to acknowledge that one can absolutely be an unhealthy vegan. With the renaissance of plant-based “meats” being developed in labs and advertised at fast food giants such as Burger King, it can quickly become confusing to anyone exploring the potential health benefits of a vegan lifestyle.
If a food is labeled as “vegan,” it simply means it is absent of animal products and (hopefully) no animals were harmed/exploited during its harvest/production/packaging; it does not automatically imply “healthy.”
A well-planned vegan diet, however, is rich in vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, seeds, soy products, and whole grains and boasts high levels of fiber, complex carbohydrates, antioxidants, vitamins, and yes, the beloved protein.
Gut health has gained much attention in recent years, and with good reason. The fiber, complex carbohydrates, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals abundant in plants support the health and balance of our microbiomes (i.e. the “good bacteria” in the gut) which has been proven to help regulate hormones and promote immunity.
Several recent studies have found that the nutrients consumed in plant-based diets decrease inflammatory markers over time which has promising implications on endurance and recovery time. Additionally, the metabolism of such nutrients has been found to positively affect the body’s acid-base balance which aids athletes, specifically endurance athletes, as demands change between aerobic and anaerobic exercise.
The physical demands on our young athletes are higher now than ever. Kids and teens tend to specialize in a single sport at much younger ages than before, and this has resulted in an exponential increase in overuse injuries. As such, it is of utmost importance to choose a diet/ lifestyle which promotes endurance, decreases inflammation, and aids in healing.
There is no shortage of literature outlining the advantages of a plant-based lifestyle in athletes and non-athletes alike, but scholarly articles can be daunting for most. There are many resources available, including books, documentaries and social media — in fact, there are hundreds of Instagram accounts dedicated to vegan athletes and vegan recipes.
Whatever your young athlete’s reasons are for exploring a plant-based lifestyle, I hope that this piece has at the very least alleviated some common concerns about plant-based nutrition, and perhaps even sparked curiosity in the multitude of benefits a vegan lifestyle has to offer.