Athletes Shatter Protein Myth

Olympic gold medal winner Mary Lou Retton is in the Chicago area today to publicize a gymnastics event, which is sponsored by Tyson Chicken.

During a radio interview this morning she squeezed in her obligatory references to how important it is to eat well and how one can do that with Tyson Chicken. After all, athletes training for competition need their protein.

I know that protein can come from other, safer, sources than animal flesh, but who am I to argue with a former world-class athlete?

So I'll let nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis and others do the arguing for me.

Can a world-class athlete get enough protein from a vegetarian diet to compete? I’ve found that a person does not need protein from meat to be a successful athlete. In fact, my best year of track competition was the first year I ate a vegan diet.

Lewis is referring to his performance at the 1991 World Championships.

Lewis said, "This has been the greatest meet that I’ve ever had." Track and Field News was prepared to go even further than that, suggesting that after these Championships, "It had become hard to argue that he is not the greatest athlete ever to set foot on track or field."

[...]

Lewis' 1991 outstanding results earned him the ABC's Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year.

In 1996 Lewis won his ninth Olympic gold medal.

Bodybuilder
Other lesser-known athletes have found success with vegan diets. Bodybuilder Robert Cheeke calls veganism "one of the best things you can do for your health, and the well-being of our environment."

As a vegan bodybuilder, I compete in a sport dominated by meat eaters, most of whom scoff at the idea that one could get sufficient protein from plants to be competitive. I do not consume any animal products whatsoever, not even dairy or eggs. Instead, I focus on eating a wide variety of plant-based whole foods. My protein comes primarily from hemp, tofu, tempeh, beans, nuts, seeds, grains, rice, fruits and vegetables. By getting my protein from a wide variety of sources, I am ensuring my body receives a balance of essential amino acids.

Football player
NFL player Tony Gonzalez went vegan after a couple of health scares and has noticed a physical difference.

In the fourth quarters of games, he found himself sprinting past tired defenders. He became more alert during team meetings. On the day after a game, he'd skip into the gym, while teammates looked sore, beat up and worn out.

"People were still making fun of me, because I think they wanted to make themselves feel better," Gonzalez explained. "I'd be ordering salad, potatoes, veggies. I think they felt guilty. Unless you've been in a cave, you know what's healthy and what's not healthy. But most of them still keep eating what they've been eating, because they think that's the only way to get enough protein and compete at a high level."

Martial arts fighter
Martial arts fighter Mac Danzig also bought in to that myth.

"I believed what everybody said," Danzig confirmed, "that you need animal protein in your diet if you're going to train hard and win."

And, like other vegan athletes, Danzig noticed a change.

Though Danzig at first feared a meatless diet would hurt his performance, he now says it has helped him recover faster from fights and workouts. Rather than heavy weightlifting, Danzig's training focuses on plyometrics (rapid muscle stretching and muscle contracting), calisthenics and various cardiovascular routines. He hasn't lost any strength, he said, and his endurance has improved, allowing him to work out longer and recover more quickly.

Ironman triathlete
While the above examples are relatively young men, gender and age are irrelevant when it comes to veganism and athletics. Eight-time Senior Olympic gold medalist Ruth Heidrich went vegan 25 years ago after being diagnosed with breast cancer that was spreading to her lungs and bones. Opting against chemotherapy or radiation, she participated in Dr. John McDougall's study of the connection between animal protein and illness.

Shortly after her operation [to remove the lump in her breast] in 1982, she watched in awe the first triathlon on television. Ruth was determined to train for the grueling 2.4-mile ocean swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile marathon run.

"Never mind that no woman this old had ever completed one ... never mind that I was now a cancer patient," she says. "As I trained and got stronger, my goal of becoming
an Ironman became a reality. I've now done the Ironman six times!"

Heidrich is sure that her vegan diet reversed the progression of her cancer. (Medical researcher T. Colin Campbell found the same results in his studies and describes them in his book, "The China Study.")

"All you can do is strengthen the immune system to suppress the cancer cells," she says. "I'm not cured – I still have dormant breast cancer cells. I'm convinced that if I went back to eating animal proteins, my hormone levels will change and the cancer cells will start up again."

(Photo of Carl Lewis courtesy of WorldAthletes.com.)
(Photo of Ruth Heidrich, two days before her 73rd birthday (!) courtesy of RuthHeidrich.com.)