Vegetarian Muscle

Scientists and elite bodybuilders have known for years that nutrition is just as important as training for developing maximum muscle.  But just what is the diet that will yield optimum muscularity, strength, health, energy, endurance and recovery ?

Vegetarian is the answer you'll get from an increasing number of bodybuilders, among them hardcore, world class competitors.  A vegetarian diet provides all the necessary nutritional components to build some of the finest physiques.  Chris Duffy, heavyweight winner of the 1992 Nationals and the Mr. USA, and World Champion Steve Brisbois have built their bodies with a vegetarian diet.

Bill Pearl, one of the greatest bodybuilders in history and a four-time Mr. Universe, has maintained an incredible physique for more than 20 years on a vegetarian diet.   His chronic knee and elbow pains also disappeared after he took up a vegetarian lifestyle.

Today a growing number of athletes in all sports, from football and wrestling to powerlifting, boxing and sprinting follow vegetarian diets.

Searching For The Ideal

Nevertheless, vegetarianism remains the exception among modern mega mass athletes.   The typical bodybuilders diet is more like 10 chicken breasts a day, 20 ounces of tuna or other fish and 3 pounds of ultra-lean sirloin.  Add some baked potatoes, yams, a couple of bowls of rice or pasta, some fruit and salad and you've got a days ration.   This is essentially a modified version of the basic diet people in the Western world have been following for the past half century.

Most authorities agree on the characteristics of the ideal bodybuilding diet:

The typical high meat diet usually fails around the issue of fat.  Consider that a meat product labelled "97% fat free" typically measures in at 20% calories from fat, and you can see why keeping total dietary fat below 20% , even with lean selections is so hard.  (The 97% fat -free claims based on weight, not calories; fat has less than half the weight of protein or carbohydrate).

The above prescription, however, can be met through a vegetarian diet.  But when you eliminate meat, you shift the challenge from keeping the dietary fat down to getting enough protein.  But that challenge can be met with some basic knowledge and a little planning.

Does A Bodybuilder Need Meat ?

Meat was the diet of kings.  Meat formed the foundation of the empire that became the western United States.  It grew into an industry powerful enough to have its products named as one of the four basic food groups.

Meat is a concentrated source of protein and a uniquely valuable source of vitamin B12, zinc and iron.  (The hemeiron in meat is much more readily absorbed than the nonheme iron in other food sources.)  But make no mistake, it's the protein that bodybuilders are after.  Meat has lots of it, and the protein in meat is better utilised by the body than vegetable protein.

However, legitimate health issues surround the consumption of meat.  One recent study showed a definite link between red meat consumption and colon cancer - a 250% increase.  Meat industry representatives argue that it's fat, not meat protein, that poses the risk.  And they point out that the fat content of most meat selection has been dramatically reduced in response to consumer demand.  Walter Willet, who authored the study, questions whether the real culprit might be the nitrosamines formed when meat is cooked.  If so, switching to lean meats wouldn't really reduce the risk of colon cancer.

The heavy use of growth hormones in animals harvested for their meat poses another concern.  In 1989 the European Economic Community banned the importation of beef from the United States.  The ban was an over reaction in the view of both the World Health Organisation and the US Food and Drug Administration.

An even greater cause for concern may be the use of antibiotics, commonly added to cattle and poultry feed to prevent disease.  According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, widespread use of these antibiotics may promote the development of antibiotic resistant strains of salmonella and other bacteria.

While the FDA must approve all pharmaceutical drugs to be used by humans, those fed to animals have almost no regulation.  the worry is obvious:  Many chemicals found in meats maintain their biological activity and can be absorbed by humans.

There is a view that meat may actually be counterproductive to a bodybuilder peaking for a contest.  That's difficult to prove scientifically, but it's a plausible explanation for why professionals on incredibly strict low-calorie, low-fat diets come in smooth at contest time.  The phenomenon may be more than simply a matter of sodium and water.  It is speculated that an allergic response or a mild toxic reaction to the large quantity of animal protein ingested might be involved.

Replacing Meat

You don't need to eat muscle to build muscle.  In fact, strictly speaking, your body doesn't need protein, it needs certain amino acids, the building blocks of protein.   This is what your body uses to build proteins.

The concern with vegetarian diets has been that many vegetable-based proteins come up short in one or more amino acids.  A deficiency of even one essential amino acid limits the body's ability to utilise all others. The amino acid in short supply is called the limiting amino acid, since it limits the body's ability to construct proteins.

Protein combining, the practice of pairing complementary proteins, first gained popularity in the early '70s with the publication of the book Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe. The author's recommendations, and similar ones echoed since, advise that, for example, grains (rice, wheat) be paired with legumes (e.g., peas, dried beans) to provide "whole protein."

But the need to consume complementary proteins simultaneously has never been proved. Vernon Young, a leading protein researcher from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a consultant who helped establish the World Health Organisation protein standards, says, "It is reasonable to conclude from the available data that an adequate state of protein nutrition can be achieved when the different plant food proteins are consumed in separate meals during the course of the day;"

However, Young does stipulate that for very young children, complementary proteins should be eaten at the same time, or at most a couple of hours apart.

Though animal proteins are more efficiently utilised than plant proteins, the difference is relatively minor - about 10% -and can be easily made up for in a vegetarian diet.

The nutrients in meat can also be found in vegetarian foods. Iron is found in legumes, especially soybeans, as well as dark leafy greens and whole or enriched grains. Zinc can be found in legumes, nuts and whole grains. Lacto-ovo vegetarians get zinc from eggs and cheese.

Eggs and cheese are also sources of Vitamin B12. However, for strict vegetarians (vegans), B12 supplements are called for. B12 can be found in most B-complex pills.

Making The Change

You must find an eating pattern you are comfortable with. Otherwise the chances are you won't stick with it. Our sight, smell and even hearing are conditioned to favour certain foods. Family, tradition, society and practical circumstances have conditioned our tastes for certain foods starting from Day One. (A converted vegetarian's senses might still be aroused by the smell and sound of bacon in the frying pan if this is reminiscent of family cooking in his or her childhood. )

When making the gradual transition to a healthier bodybuilding diet, you must include foods that are palatable and appealing for your senses. You might find that as your diet changes, your psychological orientation also changes, which in turn can facilitate a re- education of your taste buds and a re- programming of your senses.

The vegetarian diet is a year-round way of eating, a sensible nutritional approach that helps us to remain in top condition. The old notion of eating one way most of the year and then switching to a radically different diet before a contest is dying out, especially among the more successful athletes.

Why not follow an eating pattern that works year round, that is optimal not only for a total bodybuilding lifestyle but also for health? If you follow a diet that works all the time, you might be able to elevate your long-term muscular development to a whole new level.

What We're Designed For

As more and more bodybuilders lose their prejudices concerning vegetarianism and re-evaluate their traditional eating patterns, you'll likely see many more iron athletes of all levels eating vegetarian or predominately vegetarian diets.

This change signifies the arrival of a new era where the optimum health diet is also the optimum bodybuilding diet.

Vegetarians have lower cholesterol and blood pressure measures. Not surprisingly, this translates to fewer heart attacks. Rates of colon cancer and incidence of diabetes are also lowered. Digestive disorders, including diverticulosis, gallstones and kidney stones are also lessened.

Perhaps the vegetarian diet is healthier because it is what the human body was designed for. The structure of our teeth and jaws suggests that the diet of early humans consisted mainly of fruits.

Only relatively recently in our existence have humans adopted omnivorous eating patterns. A diet based on organically grown, raw, nutrient-dense foods more closely conforms to our nature.

The more a food is altered through processing and cooking, the less nutritional value it tends to have. Although the package label lists a number of nutrients, you may not get the maximum nutrition out of this food. We should strive to consume raw and whole foods as much as possible (preferably organically grown).

When using our biological heritage and maximum nutrition as guidelines to creating the optimum diet, we conclude that logically vegetarianism is the direction to move toward.

One final thought, many vegetarians want to pursue bodybuilding training but are reluctant because of the widespread misconception that bodybuilders need to consume lots of meat.

Vegetarians, don't let carniphobia keep you from pumping iron. Just add some extra protein to your usual fare, and you've got the perfect bodybuilding diet!

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Do Veggies Steal Your Testosterone ?

While few experts dispute the overall health benefits of a vegetarian diet, critics have long questioned whether such a diet reduces testosterone, the primary masculine hormone and a key to muscle growth. The high fibre content of the vegetarian diet has been accused of binding to sex hormones, carrying them out of the body before they can be absorbed. If true, this could mean that what you gain in health you lose in muscle.

Three studies in the past decade have shown that when meat eaters switch to a vegetarian diet, testosterone levels drop. And now the latest study, reported in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, seems to confirm this testosterone-lowering effect. A team of Danish researchers led by Anne Raben of the University of Copenhagen discovered a decrease in serum total testosterone concentration when male endurance athletes were placed on a lacto-ovo (milk and eggs, but no meat) vegetarian diet.

But does this really mean vegetarianism robs you of testosterone? Not necessarily, according to Raben. A key point to note about this and the three previous studies is they involved subjects who were changing to a vegetarian diet -i.e., they had been meat eaters all their lives. Raben cites a study of black South Africans that showed that even when the dietary switch is reversed -from a vegetarian to a meat diet -testosterone levels drop. This would indicate that it is not a change to a vegetarian diet, but any radical change in eating pattern, that puts testosterone at risk.

Other evidence supports what Raben calls "the sudden dietary change effect." Seventh-Day Adventists who follow a lifelong vegetarian diet generally do not have lower testosterone than meat eaters.

With regard to fibre, Raben points out that if it were really the culprit, all sex hormones, not just testosterone, would be lowered. Yet, in her study, only testosterone was lowered.

There are differences in measures of testosterone. Though total serum testosterone was lowered in Raben's study serum free testosterone was not lowered. It is this free, unbound testosterone that affects muscle growth.

Finally, there's the bottom line: Endurance and physical performance were not adversely affected by the vegetarian diet. Perhaps this was because a six-week time period was not long enough for physical performance to be affected.

Then again, it could be that the lacto- ovo vegetarian diet, contrary to the fears of critics, has no weak link.