Elite Athletes course 3 of Cornell Plant based course
T. Colin Campbell on Athletes:
- Athletes eating a plant-based diet can train more because they recover from training in a shorter time.
- Extreme exercise creates a large amount of free radicals. A plant-based diet with fruits and vegetables benefit the health and performance of elite athletes by providing antioxidants that reduce free radical damage.
- Training and rest are key components to success. A plant-based diet stresses the body less, thus allowing the body more rest.
- The recommended daily allowance (RDA) for protein is 0.8 gm/kg body weight/day, which is about 8-10% of total calories.
- The average age of death for a football player is about 56 years.
You can listen to six elite athletes telling their story http://tcolincampbell.org/index.php?id=336
T.Colin Campbell also recommended checking out the Vegan Athlete’s web site at
http://veganathlete.com/vegan_vegetarian_athletes.php
Elite Athletes Course 3 of Cornell plant based course
Triathlete Brendan Brazier on Athletes:
- Usually only the training gets attention, yet to improve once performance you also need to pay attention to recovery. To accomplish a better recovery, improve your diet
- The quicker your recovery, the greater your athletic performance.
- Make sure you are adequately hydrated and rested before the next exercise session.
- If you eat too much protein before intense exercise you can get muscle cramping.
- High quality, nutrient-dense, alkaline-forming, easily digestible, plant-based whole foods are best for quick cellular repair.
- Digesting foods takes up a lot of energy, therefore it is important to eat foods that are easily digestible and assimilated (=high-net-gain nutrition).
- Energy obtained from nourishment (whole plant foods) is far better than energy obtained from stimulation, such as through eating refined sugar or drinking coffee.
- During exercise make sure to never become thirsty or hungry.
- Consume easily digestible nutrients every 25 minutes during exercise sessions exceeding two hours. He didn’t specifically say what those foods are, but fruits are simple carbohydrates.
- A great electrolyte drink is coconut water.
- Whey protein is highly acid-forming and promotes inflammation and with it a slower recovery rate.
For more information explore Brendan Brazier’s web site at www.brendanbrazier.com
Elite Athletes
Plant Strong
Rip Esselstyn, while working as a firefighter, discovered that several of his colleagues were medical time bombs – so he challenged them to change their diets and rescue their health. He also works as a consultant for Whole Foods Market.