Nutrition for runners could be ultra vegan
Check out any runners in Sacramento who are ultra vegan and may sometimes show up at the various raw food groups. And check out the runners who do eat animal protein. What do Sacramento and other vegan ultra marathon runners generally eat when they are in training to run?
Mostly it's three main vegan meals consisting of a breakfast of a 1,000-calorie smoothie, with olive, macadamia nut, or grape seed oil, almonds, bananas, blueberries, salt, vanilla, dried coconut, a few dates and maybe brown rice protein powder. Many of them are vegans. And portion size is important when what you eat sometimes may be less important than what time you eat.
For information on local vegan associations, check out my other Examiner article, Raw foods and vegetarian club meetings in Sacramento. Not all marathon runners are vegans, but an increasing number in Sacramento are switching to vegan diets. See the article, Run, Sacramento: 80-year-old Stanford Doc, Boston Marathon runner. Also see, Diet For Marathon Runners which has meat listed, and for vegetarians who also are runners, see the article, Vegetarian Running | No Meat Athlete.
Those doing a short run may eat after, not before, a first workout. Lunch and dinner may be the main or largest meal, such as huge salads, whole grains, potatoes and sweet potatoes, and usually beans of some sort or a tempeh-tofu combination.
Many runners eat their last meal of the day before 4:00. For examples, most doctors advise people not to eat after 8:30 pm. One study even mentioned that you lose two hours of life on average when you eat at night after 8:30 pm.
For a sample diet rundown of a marathon runner, an ultra marathoner, check out the May 12, 2010 NY Times article, "Diet and Exercise to the Extremes." In the NY Times article, ultra marathon runner, Scott Jurek, who runs in New York's Central Park, ate "cookie dough, canned vegetables, and fast food as a youngster. But in college, his diet began to improve. Eventually, he dropped dairy and other animal product entirely."
For another point of view see the article, "How to Lose 20 lbs. of Fat in 30 Days… Without Doing Any Exercise."That article suggests that you eat a “slow carb” diet as used by Dean Karnazes, an ultramarathoner famed for completing 50 marathons on 50 consecutive days in 50 different states. The most impressive part of this us that he did so, not with the typical anemic marathoner build, but with a well-muscled mesomorph body.
According to the other, NY Times article, "Diet and Exercise to the Extremes," meat in past history had been saved for special treats or festivals and eaten by hard-working farmers. According to the NY Times article, "almost every long-distance runner turns into a vegan while they’re racing; anyway — you can’t digest fat or protein very well.” Jurek won the Badwater Ultramarathon, a 135-mile race that begins in Death Valley and ends halfway up Mount Whitney.
Jurek is a vegan, consuming no animal products. According to the NY Times article, there are other professional athletes who do not eat meat: Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder, a vegetarian, may be the best known.
Vegan diets is somehow compatible with training weeks of running140 miles and more, “easy” runs of 40 miles and interval training that includes uphill three-mile repeats. This type of food and training often culminate in races that are often 100 miles or more, sometimes through deserts or frozen wastelands or up and down mountains.
Energetic Jurek, according to the NY Times article, selected vegetables, greens, herbs, miso, tofu, olives, shallots, lemons, nut butter and more as he prepared a meal for the NY Times reporter and another guest. The three ate a Greek salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, loads of olives and seaweed; a stir-fry of vegetables with tofu, a miso and cashew sauce; and a mound of quinoa.
“The whole issue,” Jurek told the NY Times in the article, "Diet and Exercise to the Extremes," is getting enough calories. "The first thing to worry about isn’t so much what you eat, but how much you eat. You have to take the time to sit at the table and make sure your calorie count is high enough. And when you’re a vegan, to increase your calories as you increase training you need more food. This isn’t an elimination diet but an inclusion diet.”
How Jurek became a vegan ultra marathon runner is by first making the transition from eating meat to eating more fish. The next step was eliminating dairy product, and the last step was avoiding other animal products.
An ultra marathon runner of the category of Jurek needs about 5,000 to 8,000 calories daily. He gets it all from plant-based foods. He enjoys eating and doesn't worry about weight. For running, he needs a high-carbohydrate diet with a specified amount of protein and fat. And he chews slowly, according to the article. Shopping and cooking take a certain amount of time.
If you run and live in Sacramento, there are plenty of places to shop for organic plant foods, such as the Whole Foods Market, Sacramento Natural Foods Coop, and the organic produce section of many local supermarkets as well as some of the farmers' markets that do sell organic vegetables and fruits.
Why Do Some Runners Take D-Ribose?
For information on local vegan associations, check out my other Examiner article, Raw foods and vegetarian club meetings in Sacramento. Not all marathon runners are vegans, but an increasing number in Sacramento are switching to vegan diets. See the article, Run, Sacramento: 80-year-old Stanford Doc, Boston Marathon runner. Also see, Diet For Marathon Runners which has meat listed, and for vegetarians who also are runners, see the article, Vegetarian Running | No Meat Athlete.
Those doing a short run may eat after, not before, a first workout. Lunch and dinner may be the main or largest meal, such as huge salads, whole grains, potatoes and sweet potatoes, and usually beans of some sort or a tempeh-tofu combination.
Many runners eat their last meal of the day before 4:00. For examples, most doctors advise people not to eat after 8:30 pm. One study even mentioned that you lose two hours of life on average when you eat at night after 8:30 pm.
For another point of view see the article, "How to Lose 20 lbs. of Fat in 30 Days… Without Doing Any Exercise."That article suggests that you eat a “slow carb” diet as used by Dean Karnazes, an ultramarathoner famed for completing 50 marathons on 50 consecutive days in 50 different states. The most impressive part of this us that he did so, not with the typical anemic marathoner build, but with a well-muscled mesomorph body.
According to the other, NY Times article, "Diet and Exercise to the Extremes," meat in past history had been saved for special treats or festivals and eaten by hard-working farmers. According to the NY Times article, "almost every long-distance runner turns into a vegan while they’re racing; anyway — you can’t digest fat or protein very well.” Jurek won the Badwater Ultramarathon, a 135-mile race that begins in Death Valley and ends halfway up Mount Whitney.
Vegan diets is somehow compatible with training weeks of running140 miles and more, “easy” runs of 40 miles and interval training that includes uphill three-mile repeats. This type of food and training often culminate in races that are often 100 miles or more, sometimes through deserts or frozen wastelands or up and down mountains.
How Jurek became a vegan ultra marathon runner is by first making the transition from eating meat to eating more fish. The next step was eliminating dairy product, and the last step was avoiding other animal products.
An ultra marathon runner of the category of Jurek needs about 5,000 to 8,000 calories daily. He gets it all from plant-based foods. He enjoys eating and doesn't worry about weight. For running, he needs a high-carbohydrate diet with a specified amount of protein and fat. And he chews slowly, according to the article. Shopping and cooking take a certain amount of time.
If you run and live in Sacramento, there are plenty of places to shop for organic plant foods, such as the Whole Foods Market, Sacramento Natural Foods Coop, and the organic produce section of many local supermarkets as well as some of the farmers' markets that do sell organic vegetables and fruits.
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