Athletes tweaking their diet to maximize performance is nothing new. However, for whatever reason vegan or vegetarian diets seem to be becoming increasingly more popular amongst climbers. While there is certainly nothing wrong with this, choosing to follow one of these restricted diets comes with certain trade offs that as athletes climbers need to keep in mind and manage.
To help vegan or vegetarian climbers ensure their diet does not interfere with their climbing performance, here’s an article by Brian Rigby of Climbing Nutrition that lays out the dietary concerns that climbers, as athletes, should be keeping when following a vegan or vegetarian diet.
“Now don’t get me wrong, eating vegetarian or vegan can be extremely healthy—that’s what this article is about! For many people, though, it’s not. This is because eating a nutritious (as in, providing complete nutrition) plant-based diet is challenging for an organism that adapted and evolved to a diet that contained meat, and requires careful planning. Without that planning, the obvious markers of health may improve (like weight), but hidden markers (like the status of vitamins, minerals, essential fats, and protein) decline, ultimately leading to malaise. When this happens, it becomes much easier to abandon a diet for whatever reason seems convenient at the time.” -Brian Rigby
Diet Tips for Vegan or Vegetarian Climbers:
As we stated above, Rigby is not making a case for or against either vegan or vegetarian diets. Instead, he is simply outlining the dietary concerns climbers who choose follow these dietary restrictions need to keep in mind as athletes. Here are his five main concerns/suggestions for an athletic vegan or vegetarian diet:
- Contain plenty of high quality protein
- Include sources of omega-3 fats
- Be aware of iron and zinc
- Take a vitamine B12 supplement
- Consider supplementing with “carninutrients”
All of these considerations are discussed very thoroughly in the full article which you can find by clicking through below. If you follow a vegan or vegetarian diet or are thinking about starting to definitely give this article a read first. It will give you the information necessary to allow you to successfully stick to your dietary restrictions without sacrificing your climbing performance.
Full Article: Vegan or Vegetarian Diets for Climbers
(photo courtesy of climbingnutrition.com)
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Hello, thanks for the tips – shouldn’t everybody be aware of iron and zinc and not just vegans? Why is it more important with a vegan diet? never heard iron and zinc absorption was a problem.
Hi Billy! Thanks for your comment. We didn’t write this article, but as a nutritionist I’ll reply to your question. Iron in the heme form (which is what our body uses) is only found in animal products, particularly meat and organs. Other iron from plant sources is not quite as easy for your body to use, and it’s hard to get enough of it if you’re eating entirely plant-based or vegetarian. Zinc is sort of similar in that the richest sources of zinc are meat and shellfish. Other sources are legumes, nuts, and seeds. However, those foods also contain phytates which can inhibit the absorption of zinc. I hope that helps!
I appreciate the intent of this article, but it could do without perpetuating false stereotypes about vegan diets.
Namely:
A. It’s not restrictive, and in fact vegans tend to eat a greater variety of foods than carnivores who generally stick to a piece of meat, one vegetable and one simple starch.
B. None of the concerns you have are actually concerns except for B12:
– the average vegan tends to get more protein than recommended
– iron and zinc again are not things vegans have to worry about, they get plenty
– the idea of supplementing with “carninutrients” is, honestly, laughable and sounds like you were paid by a lobbyist who made it up to include it
Hi James, just to be clear I didn’t write this article. Brian Rigby did and we just reposted part of it, so if you have issues with it you can take them up with Brian on his website. I don’t completely agree with what you’re saying, but the tone you used in your comment makes me think that a conversation online about nutrition with you would end in more personal attacks on me, so I’ll leave it at that.
Some people’s systems wont easily absorb B12 in tablet or liquid form.. I get it injected at the local health centre at 3-monthlyintervals.
I would correct the 5 points above, in priority order :
1. TAKE PHARMACEUTICAL B12. NOT SPIRULINA, NOT ORGANIC/NATURAL BULLSHIT : 2000µg B12 PER WEEK
1′. B12, REMEMBER
1”. seriously, take you B12, in cyanocobalamin form. It’s way more important than the other points.
2. Don’t forget iodin, it’s important. It’s quite difficult to find out of seaweed. And seaweed consumption interfer with B12 absorption.
3. Zinc may be important. Take some pecan nuts, sometimes.
4. Iron could be a concern for some people. Plenty of iron in beans, take them with vitamin C to increase absorption.
5. Omega 3 is not a concern, if you take care to have 2 Tbsp of the right oils (ie rapeseed) per day, by example.
6. Other stuffes, like proteins deficiencies, are meaningless. (protein deficiencie = starving). “Carninutriments” are a belief based on nothing serious or scientifically proved.
Ask me for sources.
Regards.