Vegan / Vegetarian Dietary options for Weightlifting Purposes
In the U.S.A., overall meat consumption has steadily increased from 1965 to 2015 from from 178.4 to 213 pounds per capita. Most of this increase is from poultry as opposed to steadily decreasing amounts of red meat.
Many people are even afraid to even have one meal a day without meat, for fear of losing “muscle”, despite their growing waist lines and increased cholesterol and heart rates.
From an overall health perspective, I think that many people can benefit from a reduction of meat in their daily/weekly diets. From a spiritual side (if you’re into that kind of thing), I think the less suffering that goes into the food that we eat, the better off we will all be.
That being said, I do not claim to be perfect in any way, and I am not a vegetarian anymore for various reasons, which include the stomach issues I faced with the increase of fiber, and poor protein alternatives (ultra-processed and laden with preservatives and too much soy).
Also, I must admit that I do like eating meat from time to time – though I’m trying to make a conscious effort to consume less of it these days. My goal for each week is to eat lacto-ovo vegetarian style about 4-5 days, and then leave the other days for meat if the option presents itself. For myself, this takes away the restrictive mentality, which would usually just lead me into an all out binge. (side note - I don’t like restrictive diets, and I don’t follow them).
While having many vegetarian and vegan friends, I’ve had countless hours of ethical and moral discussions about the meat and dairy industry, I have tried to find a healthy balance of keeping my body running efficiently, while minimizing the amount of harm I inflict on living creatures in this world. It is difficult to do this without supplementation within the diet, but there are some ways around this. That being said, I’m not trying to enter any moral or ethical debates regarding this, because I know there is no perfect way, and I mainly just try to do the best I can within the realms I know that I can handle.
In this post, I wanted to offer some suggestions regarding some useful methods of getting in protein on a meat restricted diet.
Some of the vegan alternatives that are often mentioned are quinoa, beans, broccoli, buckwheat, hemp seeds, chia seeds, sunflower seeds and various nut sources (to name a few). Those who make these suggestions fail to mention or consider the high levels of tag-along carbohydrates and fats that are included with these options. Also, the protein levels in these sources just aren’t very high, and they are usually better sources of carbs and fats than anything.
It is pretty much impossible to have a perfectly balanced diet – even if you measure and weigh every morsel you ingest.
When adding ethical equations to the mix, it can become even more difficult. Here are some alternatives to at least make the best choices possible that you can while minimizing the amount of meat that is consumed.
1) Pea Protein + Rice Protein (Vegan)
This is the overall best protein source for vegans in terms of getting complete proteins. When combining these isolated protein forms together, you will get the best bang for your buck as they are very complementary to one another.
When attempting to balance your macronutrients, and build/maintain muscle on a vegan diet, I really think combining these is the best way to get there. Many other vegan protein sources are much higher in carbs and fats, which leave a lot less room in the diet for other delicious foods.
Pea protein is rich in lysine and a number of other aminos such as arginine and glutamic acid, as well as branched-chain amino acids isoleucine, leucine, and valine, which have been shown to contribute to muscle protein synthesis and muscle preservation. Another benefit of pea protein is that it is hypoallergenic.
Rice protein isolates are high in cysteine (relevant to hair, skin and nails) and methionine (aids in the synthesis of other proteins, such as carnitine or melatonine). Methionine has a fat-dissolving effect and reduces the depositing of fat in the liver – Amino Acid studies)
Mixing these with protein shakes/smoothies, or even just throwing a scoop or two in your oatmeal, can be a great “whey” (get it?) for vegans to get in complete proteins, and still managing their waist lines. There are other vegan protein sources out there such as Vegasport, Sunwarrior Warrior Blend, or Bodylogix. Some of these can get very pricey, so buying the pea and rice protein in bulk separately may be the best way around this if you’re looking for a long-term solution that doesn’t break the bank.
2) Farm Raised/Cage-free Eggs
While the dairy industry is not too much better than the meat industry in terms of ethical practices, cage-free farm fresh eggs are a better solution for those who include eggs in their diet, and still regard the quality of life of their furry friends. As my good friend Josh pointed out to me in one of our ethical discussions, spending the extra buck or two on cage-free eggs vs regular eggs sends the message to these industries/distributors that ethical practices are important to the general public. Hopefully, this will nudge them to act accordingly. So while some of these “cage-free” eggs do not come with perfect ethical practices from their providers, at least it is sending a message for better practices in the future. If possible, local farm raised eggs are usually the way to go.
Eggs and egg whites are about as good as you can get your lean protein sources on a vegetarian diet.
3) Green veggies and mushrooms
There’s only so much protein in broccoli, which is generally among the higher protein sources among vegetables (about 5 grams per 2 cups of raw broccoli). For an adult male vegetarian in the 150lb range, it would take about 123 grams of protein to maintain lean muscle. That’s about 50 cups of broccoli. If there was a human alive that would be willing to take the challenge of eating that much broccoli in a daily period, his/her colon would be none too pleased. I assume you get what I’m getting at. These options shouldn’t be your primary sources of protein, but can be good additions to the diet to get some micronutrients and some additional protein (*1).
Mushrooms can also be a decent source of protein at a 1:1 ratio of proteins to carbohydrates. (*2)
4) Beans, Rice and Seeds
