Mark Nicholas L.
Yow
3B-BC
Game Changers
Plant-based diets are a “new thing” now apparently and now, many elite athletes are
adopting to this particular diet and they are convincing the public and other athletes to switch to
a more plant-based diet. Plant-based diets include to substituting the patty of a hamburger into a
vegan ingredient rather than beef and many more vegan diets. The film claims a lot of things
from gladiators having a non-meat diet to plant and animal protein have the same amino acid
amount and the source is irrelevant. The film has some good point and for many has a lot of
flaws to their claims.
For me the good points are that plant-based diet is a good diet because you only eat
vegetables which lessens your fat intakes but it is also a bad thing because according to an article
by Healthline, yes, a plant-based diet does decrease your LDL or low-density lipoprotein which
is also known as the bad cholesterol but a plant-based diet also decreases your HDL or high-
density lipoprotein which is the good cholesterol which brings the LDL to the liver to flush it
out. Another good point that the film made is about the misconception of soy because a claim
from 2000 is that based on a rodent research using soy, they stated that the phytoestrogens in soy
products could disrupt hormones which was never proven because of the lack of human studies
about it. Another flaw in the plant-based diet is the lack of vitamin B12, iron, zinc, calcium,
iodine and vitamin D. Also, the lack of proteins and the long-chain n-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA
based from the study of Rogerson last 2017. Plant-based diet should be able to have a
replacement source for the lacking nutrients that comes from meat and other animal product.
This film also emphasized that diet is everything which is wrong because being a healthy athlete
does not only revolve in diet. It also requires other factors like sleep, muscle endurance, muscle
fatigue, hydration, training and other important factors. Diet is only a component of a bigger idea
of being a healthy person.
In my opinion as an athlete before the pandemic struck our lives, I think that having an
omnivorous diet is better because it provides us all the nutrients that we need in order to perform
better in sports. It provides every nutrient that a plant-based diet lacks and let’s be honest, meat
taste so good! We need meat for proteins in order to have a good muscle build up. A study by
(Clarys, et al., 2014) shows that vegan diets have a less sugar intake than omnivore diets and we
need sugar for energy. As an athlete that requires a lot of energy in order to perform well because
my body build is not athletic, I need a lot of energy in order to build my body to jump high and
also, I need a lot of proteins in order to build my muscles so I can spike harder, I would go for
the omnivorous diet as it provides everything I need. I like the concept of the plant-based diet but
for me it lacks a lot of things.
References:
Akers, W. (2019). Elite Athletes Are Going Vegan. Will It Help You? Retrieved from
https://www.healthline.com/health-news/pro-athletes-are-going-vegan-will-it-help-2#Will-a-
vegan-diet-make-someone-a-better-athlete?
Rogerson, D. (2017). Vegan diets: practical advice for athletes and exercisers. Retrieved from
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-017-0192-9
Clarys, P., Deliens, T., Huybrechts, I., Deriemaeker, P., Vanaelst, B., De Keyzer, W.,
Hebbelinck, M., & Mullie, P. (2014). Comparison of nutritional quality of the vegan, vegetarian,
semi-vegetarian, pesco-vegetarian and omnivorous diet. Nutrients, 6(3), 1318–1332.
https://doi.org/10.3390/nu6031318
