Welcome back to another episode of the Fuelled Triathlete, where we talk all things nutrition for endurance athletes.
If you are following a vegan plant based diet, or are considering it, then listen to this episode to learn about the nutrients you need to pay close attention to as a vegan triathlete.
We talk about the following nutrients, and whether you can meet your requirements through food:
– Calories
– Macronutrients (Carbohydrates, Fats (Omega 3’s), Protein)
-Micronutrients (Vitamins and minerals like Iron, Vitamin D and B12, Calcium, Zinc, Iodine)
-We also touch on creatine and BCAA’s (branched chain amino acids)
Full transcript of the episode
Hey, everyone! Welcome to today’s episode. Today is all about vegan, vegetarian and plant-based diets, and how to follow them properly to meet all of your nutrient needs as an endurance athlete.
So what we’re going to talk about today is firstly, the different types of vegetarian diets and define those. We’re going to talk also about what can be the benefits of following a plant-based vegan or vegetarian diet. And then also talk about what are some of the things that you really want to look out for when you’re following these diets.
So what you can potentially be missing in your diet if you’re following these diets. So we’re going to be touching on calories. We’re going to talk about macronutrients, so how to make sure you’re meeting enough protein and fats. Because vegetarian diets do tend to meet our carbohydrate needs.
We’re going to also talk about really important micronutrients. So that includes things like Vitamin B12, iron, calcium, Vitamin D, Omega 3 Fatty Acids. iodine and creatine..
Okay, so ,firstly, there’s quite a few different types of vegetarian diets. This is more of an umbrella term. For the purposes of today, I’m talking about if you’re going fully vegan, and that means eliminating all animal products. We’re going to cover all of what that means all of those possible nutrients that you could be low in, but there’s different types of vegetarian diets. So there’s pescatarian, which means you exclude all animal products but you do eat fish, and then there’s lacto- vegetarian, where you do include dairy, but not any other animal based foods.
There’s ovo-vegetarian, where you have eggs and no other animal-based products. There’s, lacto-ovo where you may include eggs and dairy and then eat no other animal products. And then there’s another term that gets used quite a bit. It’s called it’s plant-based. So plant-based tends to mean that a majority of your food intake is coming from plants.
So those are things like fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, beans, nuts, and seeds, but you may sometimes include any type of animal products. You may sometimes have chicken or eggs or dairy, just to fill in some of those gaps, but the main part of your diet is going to be plant-based.
So what we do see in the research is that if a vegan diet or a vegetarian diet is well-planned, then it can meet all of your nutrition needs as an endurance athlete. Now, the key here is well-planned because when we’re eliminating a couple of different food groups from our diet, that there are potential nutrients that we can be missing out on.
So we need to be very cognizant and intentional and mindful that we’re getting these nutrients from other food sources or from plants or possibly from supplements if that is going to be needed. So when we think of a vegan or vegetarian diet, there tends to be more intake of a higher intake of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds, beans, and legumes.
These are all really healthy, nutritious foods. And there is research to support that a vegan or vegetarian diet can mean, reduce risk or control of diabetes, better heart health, better weight management. So there’s a lot of benefits there, but like I said, as an endurance athlete, there are certain nutrients that you may need more of, or that are super crucial. So, you just want to make sure that you’re, you’re doing it properly.
So that’s the goal of today, how to follow a well-balanced diet and make sure you’re getting the nutrients that you need.
So the first nutrient is calories, so our overall energy intake. For endurance athletes following a vegan diets, they do tend to consume lower intake of calories. So we know there’s going to be a lot of detrimental effects if we’re an endurance athlete or someone who’s active and not consuming adequate calories. There’s a risk of RED-S which is relative energy deficiency in sport. So basically we’re expending more energy than we’re consuming, and this can cause a lot of problems within the body. It can increase your risk of injury, can affect your hormones, reduce your bone health, affect your thyroid, reduce your immunity.
So you may get sick more often and have to take time off from training. Weight loss or reduced muscle mass effecting our strength and our recovery and our adaptation to training. So it’s really key that if you do decide to go and follow a plant-based, vegan ,vegetarian diet that you’re still meeting your overall calorie needs.
So why is this the case though? Why do people who are vegan tend to consume lower calories? So again, if we think of a lot of those plant-based foods that I mentioned before that we may be focusing more on, fruits, vegetables, whole grains beans, they do tend to be lower in calories.
They’re lower in fats. Fats are more calorie dense. They also can be more filling. So a lot of these foods are high in fiber and fiber can kind of provide that effect of being satiated or feeling full sooner. So you may tend to eat less. So it’s really kind of just being mindful that you are also including, energy dense foods, meaning foods that kind of have enough calories in them or higher calories in them.
So we want to focus on getting healthy fats, things like oils, avocados, nuts, and seeds, and maybe trying not to eat, you know, most of our carbs only from fruits or vegetables or super whole grains. We’re also including things like rice, or pastas or cereal .
So there’s different calculations online. There’s Harris Benedict, Mifflin St. Joer. There’s different things that you can use to try to figure out how many calories you may need in a day. But this is a really good time to work with a dietician one-on-one and someone who can figure out based on your training, based on your goals, what kind of your energy expenditure is and what you want to make sure that you’re, consuming.
So this is something that I work on with my athletes to make sure that they’re meeting their nutrition that they need.
So next we’re going to kind of dive into macronutrients. So macronutrients include carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. So the first one is carbohydrates.
So we do see in, vegan plant-based diets that people tend to consume more carbohydrates, and may be closer to meeting their carbohydrate needs as an endurance athlete. And again, those main foods I talked about that we’re focusing on in a plant-based diets tend to be more carbohydrate-based.
So ,rice, breads, pastas cereals, fruits, starchy vegetables, beans. , these are all great. This can be great for performance. So, carbohydrates I’ve talked about in other episodes, carbohydrates is the fuel for our body, the gas in our car. We need more carbohydrates than a sedentary person as an endurance athlete. But you want to make sure, I guess also in following a vegan diet, as I touched on earlier, that when we’re eating more carbohydrates, we’re not maybe accidentally taking in way more extra fiber than we need.
So we know fibre is super important for health, good for gut health, good for cholesterol, blood sugar, all that kind of stuff, digestion. But we may inadvertently in a vegan or plant-based diet over consume fiber potentially. So this is something you want to look out for. So maybe if we’re eating too much fiber, you may be getting full very easily, you may have either constipation or diarrhea. And just to go on a little bit about the recommendations for fiber. For women, aged 19 to 50 is 25 grams a day. If you’re over 50 aiming for 21 grams a day. That’s for if you’re female and then if you’re a male, the age of 19 to 50 is 38 grams of fiber per day.
And over 50 is 31 grams. Now most people are not meeting their fiber needs. And you may be someone who can tolerate a little bit over those, but those are just kind of the targets to try to aim for. And, if you’re someone who suffers from runners, trots or anything like that, and GI issues with running, sometimes fiber can be a culprit. And I talk a little bit about more of that in, episode three, how to solve runners trots issues.
So next is protein. So if you are someone who is vegan or vegetarian, you’ve probably been asked many times how to meet, how do you meet your protein intake?
So, as an endurance athlete, your protein needs are going to be higher than someone who is more sedentary. And they’re even higher if you’re also looking to build muscle mass, if you’re over the age of 40 and an endurance athlete, and that’s because over the age of 40, we tend to lose our muscle mass or muscle mass declines.
It’s definitely possible to still get your protein from food, as a vegan as a vegetarian. There’s a lot of protein rich options. So it’s really important in a vegan diet to include, to include a variety of different types of protein so that you’re getting all of the essential amino acids within your day. There are some vegan proteins that are complete and do have all the essential amino acids.
And, we’ll talk a little bit about that as well and how to get those in your diet. So some protein, rich, vegan options are beans and legumes. So this would be things like lentils, black beans, chickpeas, Navy beans. So just some ways to incorporate that. So if you are someone who likes to have pasta and you want to switch out, you know, instead of having a ground meat in the sauce, you can use lentils. So I find lentils are a great replacement for ground meat in things like Shepherd’s pie or chili or pasta sauce.
I also like to make a mashed chick pea sandwich for a wrap. So as an alternative to say a deli meat sandwich or a tuna sandwich even you can take a can of chickpeas roughly mash them. So some are mashed, and then there’s some texture. I add in, if you’re vegan, you’re adding some vegan Mayo, or a plain vegan yogurt. Add in some spices, maybe dill or Curry powder. Some chopped celery, peppers and carrots and you kind of have this, um, chickpea salad as opposed to tuna salad that you can put on sandwiches and wraps. Tofu, tempeh and edamame are also great as well. So including soy protein as a vegan is key because it contains all of the essential amino acids.
So you can make a number of things with tofu, you can look up tofu, scramble, it’s kind of like a scrambled egg. I like to cube mine and bake in an air fryer. Tempeh is great as well. You can, roast it, you can cube it and bake it just like you would tofu or you can crumble it up and use that as a meat replacement. So kind of crumble it up, stir fry it with some taco seasoning . And then add edamame works great and stir fries and salads, or just on its own as a snack. Nuts and seeds. So pumpkin seeds, high protein, high in iron, but any seeds can be great. Walnuts, cashews, almonds.
You can snack on these. You can add them into salads, add them into your oatmeal. Add them into your smoothies. There’s so many different ways to do that. And then some vegan protein powders can be good as well. So, the thing to look for in a vegan protein powder is again, variety right. So we want a variety. We want a blend of different types of vegan proteins in there. So maybe hemp seeds protein, brown rice protein, quinoa. So it’s going to help you get a blend of all those essential amino acids. The blend of essential amino acids and being a complete protein just means you absorb that protein a lot better, but it’s also important because it contains an important amino acid called leucine.
So leucine has been shown to be really important to promote muscle protein synthesis after workout. So help you build and repair and grow muscle. So, if you are following a vegan diet and looking to get protein after your workout, try to include something that has at least three grams of leucine or something that is a complete protein, then that’s going to really help in your recovery. So when it comes to protein, there’s lots of different options, but we want to have a variety.
So, and then we want to space it out well throughout the day, try to include at least one or two vegan protein options with each meal and then try to have one with a snack as well. So you’re spacing it throughout the day.
Speaking of leucine, there’s supplements that you may find on the market. So BCAAs or branched chain, amino acids supplements. Typically I don’t recommend these because for most people who do include meat or do include animal products, if you’re meeting your protein needs, you’re getting all of your essential amino acids and you don’t necessarily need this. But if you’re someone who you avoid soy or maybe you don’t think you’re getting enough essential amino acids, especially that leucine after your workout, then, if there is someone I would recommend a BCAA supplement for, it would be someone following a vegan. And diet.
Our next macronutrients are fats. So vegan diets does tend to be a little bit lower in fats. So when we cut out things like dairy, Eggs, we cut out meat, animals, fish, we’re cutting back on the amount of fat in our diet. And so we want to look to places to plant based alternatives to replace those. So things like extra Virgin olive oil or avocado oil, you could do nut butters, peanut butter, almond butter, or have, nuts, seeds and avocado.
These are all based on going to energy, dense, healthy fats to include in your diet. And you want to try to make at least about 20 to 35% of your calorie intake coming from fats to help make sure you’re staying healthy, it’s good for hormone health, reducing inflammation and recovery. And again, to be able to meet your overall energy needs.
Speaking of fats, there’s one particular type of that to really focus on in a vegan diet.
And that’s omega-3 fatty acids. So omega 3 fatty acids are essential fat, meaning our body can’t make them, so we do have to get them from our diet. They help promote good heart health and reduce inflammation. And some of the main sources where we find omega-3 fats are fish. So kind of your highest sources are salmon, trout, mackerel, anchovies. So I would say it’s really important to get some plant sources of your omega threes every single day. So some good sources are chia seeds or ground flax seeds. You can add a scoop into your oatmeal for breakfast or your overnight oats. You can put them into smoothies, you can sprinkle it into like, you know, even if you make baked goods, if you make some muffins or cookies, you can sprinkle hemp hearts on salads. Walnuts are also another good source. And also algae and seaweed is also a good source of omega-3.
So if you feel you may not be meeting it, there’s different types of omega-3 supplements with algae, or you can buy those different, those seaweed snacks even.
Okay, so now getting into our micronutrients. So micronutrients are more of our vitamins and minerals .
So the first vitamin I want to talk about is vitamin B12. This is kind of a concern for vegans, because most of really the main majority of where you’re going to find vitamin B12 in diet is going to be animal products. So dairy, chicken, fish, meat, all that kind of stuff. There are some vegan foods that are good sources of B12. One is nutritional yeast. So it’s not like regular baking yeast. It’s kind of deactivated yeast. It looks like these little yellow flakes. It has kind of a cheesy texture to it.
It has some protein in it. It’s a good source of B12. You can make cheese sauces with it. You can sprinkle it on vegetables, on salads. There’s lots that you can kind of do with it. But you’d want to include that in your diet. Other sources of B12 can be plant-based milks if it’s fortified with B12. So the one thing though is it is pretty difficult to get all of your B12 from diet, if you are vegan. So I do recommend when I do work with vegans, that everyone is taking a B12 supplement to make sure that you’re really getting enough and absorbing enough that your body needs. Because you really want to prevent having a deficiency of vitamin B12.
Iron is another as a mineral that’s even if you’re not a vegan or someone eating a vegetarian diet, iron is as an endurance athlete, as someone who runs, you can be more at risk of having low iron. When we run and our, our, our feet hit the ground, we kind of are breaking red blood vessels, we’re losing some iron. Females, do have higher iron needs as well. So add on top of that being a vegan, then you, if you are a vegan runner or triathlete or endurance athlete, then you really want to pay attention to your iron.
So, I’ll talk about kind of some foods and strategies of how to get that, but there are, there may be supplementation required, but you definitely with, with iron, what I would say is it’s not like B12, where I would recommend, you know, all people take a B12 supplement. You want to get your iron checked regularly, or your ferritin checked just to see where you’re at and if supplementation is needed.
So the reason that iron for a vegan correct can be difficult to meet is because the plant-based iron is not as bioavailable, meaning it’s not as readily absorbed as meat iron. So plant-based iron is called non-heme iron and then animal iron is called heme iron. So plant-based sources of iron are, um, beans and like, boom.
So when tools are one of your highest pumpkin seeds, apricots, oats, nuts, cooked spinach. They’re not as absorbed as readily, but there’s something that you can do to increase the bioavailability of non-heme iron.
And that is to pair that with foods rich in vitamin C. So this is really key. So if you’re looking to have oats with some almonds in the morning, You know, feeling that’s like a good source of iron. You want to make sure that you pair something with vitamin C with that. So strawberries for example, are great source.
You can add strawberries into your oatmeal. Other great resoces of vitamin C are citrus. So we probably think of oranges or grapefruit, but also things like Kiwi, strawberries, as I mentioned, and then vegetables like red peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts are good sources as well. So other ways that you can kind of have a balance are, with your trail mix, have it with some, a Kiwi or an orange. Chili can be a great option because you put beans in there, but there’s also some tomatoes and peppers usually. If you’re going to make a tofu stir fry, or a tempeh stir fry, where you can get some iron in that. Cook it along with some red peppers or some broccoli in that stir fry, or even maybe make an orange sauce where you have some orange juice in your stir fry sauce. And you also, if you’re having a spinach salad, then pair it with tomatoes or start trying to cook your spinach is that’s gonna increase the absorption of the iron.
The other things that you can do are try to not have very iron rich meals along with your coffee or tea. Cause this can impede the absorption of the iron. You can also try cooking with a cast iron skillet when possible that can add a couple milligrams of iron. And there’s also something called the lucky iron fish.
So it’s this little metal fish, that you cook with and it’s going to add iron to your meals. So it’s this little fish that you, you would put in like a pot of boiled water. And it’s going to release some iron from the fish into that water. You can then use that water to cook your oatmeal, to make a soup, to make different things with.
So it just kind of easy way of kind of boosting the iron of the water that you’re going to be using in different things already.
So zinc is another mineral it’s really important for wound healing, our immune system, growth and development. This can be found in soy products, legumes, whole grains, nuts.
Another nutrient is calcium. So when we think of calcium, we probably think a lot about dairy products, drinking milk, having yogurt, that kind of stuff. So really important to get enough calcium for proper bone health. It’s also an electrolyte. We do lose, you know, pretty small amounts in our sweat. So already as triathletes or endurance athletes, we can be maybe at risk of having fractures. And then if you’re following a vegan diet and either not consuming enough energy or consuming low calcium, we can be putting ourselves at risk as well.
So it’s important to pay attention. Most adults need about a thousand milligrams of calcium per day. Sometimes a little bit more at different stages in our life. A good or easy source would be our calcium fortified plant-based milks.
So these are things like almond milk, cashew milk, there’s coconut milk, oatmeal. There’s so many different kinds right now. They can have sometimes like out of a cup can have around 300 milligrams of calcium. So having a couple glasses per day or using that to make overnight oats or having cereal
or there’s calcium fortified orange juice. other sources like plant based sources of calcium are leafy greens, so spinach or broccoli, is not a leafy green bits of green vegetable, almonds, chia, seeds, and tofu that’s been set in calcium. So just keep in mind these are, not as bioavailable, so they’re not as readily absorbed.
So that’s why I recommend, as opposed to trying to eat a ton of broccoli or a ton of almonds or a ton of greens, just to get all your calcium an easy ways to kind of have some of these, these plant-based milks, just to, as an easier way to get everything that you need.
And along those same lines is vitamin D. So, we need vitamin D vitamin to help subs absorb calcium is also plays a role in bone health as well as inflammation and immune health. It’s something that I would recommend supplementing with because even for a non-vegan, it’s very difficult to get in our diet from food. So some of the minimum amounts that have been shown to get the vitamin D that we need are having 23 egg yolks a day, having piece of salmon every single day, or having a litre and a half of milk every day.
So not realistic to get all of those, the one naturally occurring. Vegetable that’s the source of vitamin D is mushrooms, but you have to eat four or five cups of cooked mushrooms every day, just to get that vitamin D .
So would recommend probably. I have a 1000 to 2000 international units of vitamin D.
And the thing with vitamin D is that it needs a bit of fat, you need a bit of fat to absorb it. So if you’re getting the vitamin D pills, make sure that you take it with a meal that has some fat, or if you like to kind of take your supplements at any time and not with food, then you can get the vitamin D drops.
It’s already that liquid is some fats, so it’s already emulsified in some thoughts, and then you can just drop it right on your tongue or put it in your drink.
So another mineral is iodine. So we need this in very trace amounts in our diet or small amounts in our diet. It plays a role in growth, development, as well as thyroid function and metabolism. The amount of iodine and that we get in our plant foods can really depend on the iodine content of soil. So, if you are someone who is a vegan to make sure that you’re getting adequate amounts of iodine then, you could look at including iodized salt, regular table, salt or sea vegetables, like seaweed or algae. Some other sources of iodine are cranberries ,potatoes, prunes, and Navy beans. Navy beans is another one that I forgot to mention, but it is a good source, it’s a source of calcium .
So this last nutrient I want to talk about is creatine. So creatine is found naturally in our muscle cells and it helps our muscle cells produce energy during very high, intense exercise. So ten second bouts of exercise here where you’re sprinting really hard, maybe at certain parts in a race, or when you’re lifting heavy.
So it has been shown that vegetarians do have less creatine stored in our muscle because we do store creatine in our muscle. Some we’re going to get from diet but it’s going to come from animal proteins. It’s not something that you’re going to find in plants. So creatine is something that I’m planning to do another podcast on because there are some good benefits to it. But when you compare a vegan diet to an animal one that includes animal protein, vegans are going to consume less creatine and therefore have less in our muscles. It could be a potential, sports benefit if you take creatine, In terms of improving high-intensity exercise, or if you’re someone who’s looking to get stronger in the gym or building muscle mass, this may be something that can also, that can help you do that.
So that’s today’s episode. I wanted to really touch on what to focus on if you are following a vegan diet, what nutrients may be lacking and how can you get those either through food or supplements. So, like I said, this podcast wasn’t meant to convince you one way or the other. I think a lot of us have reasons if we want to follow a vegan diet, then you may have some reasons for doing so.
And I think that as a dietician, I just want to help support my clients to do it properly, to be well-informed. And when it is well-planned and you’re intentional and you’re balancing it well, meeting the nutrition that you need through proper foods or supplements, it can meet what you need as an endurance athlete.
However, if you want to be plant-based and include more plants in your diet, but still include animal proteins then that can also be good as well. So just to kind of recap in a vegan diet, some things to really think about are making sure you’re eating enough calories. You may be more likely to meet your carb needs, so make sure you’re getting enough protein, especially complete proteins and variety. And you’re also getting enough fats in your diet. When it comes to those micronutrients, we want to make sure we’re getting omega 3’s, we are consuming calcium, vitamin D, enough iron, B12 zinc. And we may want to think about BCAA’s or in particular, leucine, which is an amino acid and kind of related to our protein intake.
And we may want to also think about creatine depending on what our goals are at this point in your season. So thanks for tuning in, if you need some one-on-one support, following a vegan diet or just overall diet in general, then you can fill in an application that I have in my show notes and it’s just to learn a little bit more about nutrition coaching with me. So thanks for listening. I really appreciate it. If you could share this with your traffic friends, your runner friends, or if you can subscribe.