Athletes' nutrition and its impact on performance may be a hot-button topic but ultra-running legend Scott Jurek insists the benefits of veganism are no longer in doubt.
When Scott Jurek decided he would be healthier if he gave up meat it took him 18 months to make the transition.
But 20 years – and many impressive ultra-race wins – later, the American trail runner believes it is far easier to switch diets, and the stigma attached to going ‘plant-based’ is on the wane.
“These are exciting times,” Jurek, the author of New York Times bestseller Eat and Run, told runnersmentor.com earlier this year. “We’re dispelling those myths around male performance athletes and the idea you have to be eating meat to become strong.
“When I switched, almost 20 years ago, it wasn’t easy. I wasn’t in a major metropolitan area [he was brought up in Minnesota] and I didn’t have lots of options; I needed to prepare my own food and learn how to do that. But it’s got easier and easier and there are so many resources out there for people to learn about it [veganism].
“There is still a bit of a stigma and that’s why you hear a lot of people describe themselves as on a plant-based diet rather than being vegan. In the U.S. right now, people in certain circles might think you’re one of those progressive, hippy types, or maybe you might be doing it more for ethical or environmental reasons.
“But I think, more than ever, people see veganism as a health thing.
“People learn to appreciate the other aspects. I came at it from a health angle but was also interested in the environmental impact.
“Even though I grew up hunting and fishing, I’ve come to appreciate the ethical issues that are involved in the way we treat and raise animals and make them a part of our lives.
“As a trail runner, those environmental and ethical issues are even more apparent because I run in wild places where I’m just one piece of the web of life.”
Over the last few years an increasing number of high-profile sports stars have declared that they are fuelled by plant-based diets.
Tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams, Formula One racing driver Lewis Hamilton, several of the Tennessee Titans NFL team, NBA star Kyrie Irving and a string of top-fight footballers are reportedly vegan. Other top-level athletes advocate eating low or no meat during their seasons.
Jurek’s commitment to veganism is longer than all of the stars mentioned, however, and the runner who has claimed victory at the 153-mile Spartathlon, Hardrock Hundred, Badwater 135-mile Ultramarathon and Western States 100-mile Endurance Run – multiple times – has mixed feelings about big names gaining kudos by declaring themselves vegan.
“On one hand, I think it’s a positive thing if somebody with a very strong platform wants to become vegan for even a couple of years,” said the author of North, the story of how he recorded the Fastest Known Time for running the 2,189-mile Appalachian Trail.
“It’s positive to get the message out to a different group of people but there’s sometimes that backdraft when they just do things when they’re trendy.
“If you make someone a poster child of a plant-based movement and three years later you find out they’re no longer vegan that can be detrimental.
“That happens with athletes. There’s a lot of talk that [NFL star] Tom Brady is mostly vegan – but you don’t know how much or any of the detail. How long are those athletes going to be vegan? Are they really vegan?
“You get people in the vegan community up in arms if athletes aren’t fully vegan. It’s helpful [to have stars on board] but sometimes it comes with a cost.”
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