1. I’m not sure how to describe veganism.
Extremes are determined by your definition. 137 miles through Death Valley make up the Badwater ultra marathon. This feat was extremely daring by vegan superathlete Scott Jurek when he traversed the Apalachian trail. In 2015, Janette and Alan Michaels, a raw vegan couple in their fifties, broke the world record for most marathons. Amazing. Exceptional. Simply eating fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, seeds, and legumes and skipping the animal products would be the mildest thing you can do. In truth, vegan athletes are the only thing stronger than social norms than eating plants.
2. Only girls can be vegetarians, but..
Is eating meat no longer a metric for manliness? A battery of sexist advertising campaigns has fueled a long-standing stereotype within the meat industry. We can certainly drop wistful notions about hunter-gatherer gender roles in the era of grocery stores, where we shop in neat, fluorescently lit aisles. People with erectile dysfunction are said to consume animal products with saturated fats and cholesterol, and their hearts are clogged with cholesterol when they run.
3. Where does your protein come from?
That’s the question I was trying to answer. Among the easiest foods to grow are beans, seeds, nuts, legumes, and greens. Few people know that American men consume nearly twice as much protein daily as recommended, while American women consume nearly 1.4 times the daily amount. It’s not necessarily healthy to consume too much protein, contrary to popular belief.
The IGF-1 hormone is linked to higher levels of cancer in diets high in animal protein. If you consume enough calories you will get enough protein if you don’t suffer from protein deficiency. In spite of our deep belief in protein as a healthy food, protein-infused ice creams and vodka are still making money. My favorite legumes are beans, but I don’t worry about protein.
4. Salad never fills me up.
Vegetarianism has never equaled saladism, and it never will. Rather than cutting out animal products on my plate, my plate is defined by great variety and great flavors. Whatever spices and seasonings are used, they are the ones that make the food delicious. Meat is often used as a vehicle for enhancing other flavors when you buy hash online. The only thing better than falafel, roasted eggplant, and creamy hummus, served with fattoush and warm, fresh pita, is a big platter of them.
5. Isn’t it possible that it would weaken you?
It did cross my mind when I was a vegan newly converted, until I learned about marathon runners like Fiona Oakes, and track and field athletes like Carl Lewis, who was named World Athlete of the Century by the International Athletic Foundation in 1999 at the World Athletics Gala. For a vegan, that’s not too bad. In the 2016 Rio Olympics, the only American male weight lifter, Kendrick Farris, is vegan. In addition to ultrarunning and duathlon, Laura Kline is a vegan who runs 50km races. My decision to become vegan came as a result of listening to vegan ultrarunner Rich Roll’s podcast. When I adopted a plant-based diet, my marathon time decreased by over 17 minutes. No worries about weakness here.
6. If you don’t consume meat, you would have to take a lot of supplements.
Vitamins and minerals are obtained from the food that farm animals eat like we do. It’s just a matter of cutting out the middlemen by eating a plant-based diet. People who eat steak get a lot of iron from it. In lieu of dark leafy greens, I eat nuts. Training season for me means loads of spinach, chard, beets, sweet potatoes, blueberries, and more. Plant pigments play a critical role in making plants so colorful. As an example, carrots and apricots are orange because they contain beta- and alpha-carotene, which are precursors to vitamin A. Blueberries have antioxidant compounds called anthocyanins, which may protect against cognitive decline. The whole berry, however, has greater neuroprotective power than isolated anthocyanins. Taking supplements is up to you, your physician, and GNC. My advice Let food be thy medicine never expires.
7. Vegetarianism is just too expensive.
You’ll be fine if you stay away from the juice bars. Yes, being a vegan can cost a lot of money as can eating meat and cheese. Eating well vs. eating whatever is the real cost difference. You can eat healthy, high-quality foods for the cheapest price by choosing plants. As a resource, this makes perfect sense, since it is inherently inefficient to feed crops to animals whose meat we will eventually consume. If we ate closer to the earth, we could save a great deal of water, cropland, misery, and money. There is a misconception that veganism is elitist and excludes people who buy hash canada, but the fewer animals we eat, the more people we can feed. It is hard to see the true cost of most animal products. A significant government subsidy subsidizing corn and soy industries and the meat, egg, and dairy industries artificially reduces their prices. Despite the fact that we see prices for these products, environmental costs are not included.
