Let’s see how a vegetable-based lifestyle can be reconciled with sport.
We have already given you a few tips about nutrition for swimming, but they were all for what we might describe as “omnivorous” swimmers. But nowadays more and more people are deciding to adopt a lifestyle that is animal-friendly on various fronts, including nutrition, or, in other words, veganism.
Over recent years there is a growing belief that sporting performance is absolutely reliant on proteins. This inevitably means vegans/vegetarians always get asked the question: “where do you get your proteins from if you do not eat meat?”.
In order to understand how performance and proteins are related, we need to realise that carbohydrates provide the main fuel for sports in general and for swimming in particular. And, as far as meat is concerned, luckily there are other vegetable-based foods that can provide the right amount of proteins.
As you will have now realised, swimmers have very definite needs, whether or not they are vegans: a balanced diet consisting mainly of carbohydrates and a relatively small amount of proteins and fats. The only difference with vegans is that all nutrients will be of vegetable origin.
The only thing a vegan swimmer needs to pay special…
