No shit, I don't think I would ever stop eating if I couldn't eat meat! I really don't know how any athlete can do it, would be a daily challenge to meet protein requirements.
No shit, I don't think I would ever stop eating if I couldn't eat meat! I really don't know how any athlete can do it, would be a daily challenge to meet protein requirements.
I'm old. Anyone I know that is my age or older that has been a vegetarian many years are skinny people with no muscle. I just think it is a bad idea. Especially if you are young and coming up...what a bad time to limit muscle recovery.
In NFL Tony Gonzalez- one step further- hes a VEGAN. Best tight end in NFL history IMO and i train him during season.. Plays for Falcons. All sorts of NFL all-time records. Not a fighter per se but a fantastic muscular 38 year old athlete.
There's nothing wrong with the vegetarian diet, when done correctly. There's also nothing wrong with a "meat eating" diet, when done correctly. The problems occur when these diets are done incorrectly. You know, the vegetarian who eats cheese pizzas and ramen noodles 24/7 or the meat-eater who camps out at Burger King all day.
Vegetarians still have plenty of great sources of fats and proteins - eggs and milk. Even vegans still have good sources of fats and proteins - beans, mainly soybeans, rice protein, etc.
I still think that meat-eating is superior, since man is a meat-eating animal. We were built to run off of proteins and fats found in animals (e.g. the omega 3's found only in animal sources). But even so, that doesn't mean that all vegetarians and vegans are automatically unhealthy.
I think all of these stories about ghastly and skinny vegetarians/vegans are overstated. A vegetarian/vegan could easily point to an overweight meat-eater. The key is to know your nutritional requirements and to follow them judiciously. That might be a little more difficult for the vegan, but it's still doable.
Hell, I LOVE vegan proteins. Soy? Rice? Pea? Sign me up! They're like 40% cheaper than milk proteins! These proteins make my protein intake affordable (THANK YOU TrueProtein)!
All of that said, it kind of annoys me when people become vegetarian or vegan for "health reasons." Whenever anyone says that they're a vegetarian because meat-eating is unhealthy, I write them off as an uneducated asshole who's afraid of dietary fat.
Some soy isoflavones have estrogenic qualities, others have anti-estrogenic qualities. It hasn't been shown to change hormone levels. It has a lower digestibility than animal proteins (all plant proteins are less digestible), but the low price more than offsets it.