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Eating a plant-based diet One of the most impactful actions a person can take To reduce our personal contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. In some of the world’s largest meat-eating countries, a broader cultural shift toward plants could lead to more efficient land use, less pressure on water systems, and less methane, a potent greenhouse gas that cows famously vomit. Still, that’s easier said than done. On an individual level, people may have all sorts of reasons for clinging to animal products, including concerns that cutting them out will lead to nutritional deficiencies.
But one group of people are challenging the idea that a plant-based diet isn’t enough: the muscular vegans of powerlifting, strength training, and personal training circles. My colleague Joseph Winters wrote an article last week exploring the stories of athletes who are breaking this stereotype.
Winters says it’s hard to put hard numbers on the growth of veganism, but surveys show that the diet is gaining traction across the board. The plant-based meat market has grown dramatically in the past few years, with vegan restaurants proliferating and more people taking part in “veganuary” challenges (going vegan for the entire month of January).
“It’s definitely become more normalized,” Winters said, adding that he was amused to find media coverage of vegan athletes from decades ago. A 1974 Time magazine article he cited in the article exemplified the scrutiny vegan and vegetarian athletes often receive. In describing NBA player Bill Walton’s performance, the article noted, “Tiger, the vegetarian, played like he had been eating red meat all week.”
“It would be really weird if the media covered vegan athletes these days,” Winters said. “It’s proven that enough athletes can eliminate animal products from their diet and still perform at a high level.”
In fact, one of the nutritionists he spoke with said that intense athletes are the ones who have the least to worry about when switching to a vegan diet. They are already highly sensitive to protein and micronutrients like iron and B12, so they should be fine getting those nutrients from plants instead of animal products. “Plain Joe” vegans, on the other hand, are at risk for deficiencies if they don’t account for the loss of protein and micronutrients from eliminating meat, dairy, and eggs. But another medical source Winters cited said that most people shouldn’t worry about meeting their daily protein needs as long as they eat a varied diet that doesn’t include too many processed foods—whether those foods come from plants or animals.
“Personally, I think Americans are obsessed with protein, and I was very concerned that this article would feed that,” Winters said. More likely to be deficient in fiber — and eating more plants can help. (In fact, this detail didn’t make it into the final piece, but one of the vegan athletes Winters interviewed eats unpeeled bananas and orange slices for extra fiber and micronutrients.)
Overall, the athletes Winters interviewed didn’t choose this diet to maximize their physical health. But many of them are at the top of their chosen fields. “They’re vegetarians primarily because of concerns about animals and the environment,” he said. “There’s also another part of their identity that’s focused on being an athlete, and they want to show that they don’t have to give up that part of themselves. They can have both.”
Vegan strength trainers are a very small niche of the population, but Winters says he’s helping to change what people imagine veganism looks like. As a vegan marathon runner and biker, he feels this way personally.
“I’m a skinny guy, so I worry that people will think, ‘Oh, that’s what happens when you go vegan,’” he joked. “But I think I have a good race record. When people doubt my ability to run, I can say, ‘Look, you can run pretty fast on a vegan diet.’” (His half-marathon time is 73 minutes, which is more than a little fast, according to the records.)
We’ve included an excerpt from Winters’s post on Muscle Vegan below. Check out the full story on Grist.
— Claire Ellis Thompson
Meet the Jacked Vegan Strength Athletes Who Are Challenging Stereotypes (Excerpt)
Over the past two years, Gigi Balsamico has won first place in more than a dozen strongman competitions across the eastern United States: Maidens of Might, Rebel Queen, War of the North, and Third Monkey Throwdown. These events typically feature six to eight weightlifting challenges, with competitors being scored based on criteria such as the amount of weight they can handle and the number of reps they can do.
Last month, Balsamico took first place in his weight class. The Worst in Delaware. She deadlifted 315 pounds for six reps and then lifted four 100- to 150-pound sandbags on her shoulders. As the most important athlete, she strapped herself into a Chevrolet Silverado attached to a food truck trailer and pulled it 40 feet in 40 seconds.
Balsamico has also been vegan for 11 years. She has been vocal about her identity because she wants to fight against the idea that you have to eat meat to be strong. When she was a teenager curious about veganism, the idea that giving up animal products would mean sacrificing sports bothered her.
“I thought I would wither away to nothing,” Balsamico told Grist. Her Italian sports-loving family always ate meat and dairy. “That’s what they always told me. They basically said I would be too skinny and die.”
But Balsamico’s love of animals led her to question these concerns. As a child, while caring for abandoned horses on a family friend’s farm, she wondered why people didn’t see all animals as beautiful. Each animal had its own personality. Horses, cows, sheep, dogs: “It was so obvious to me that there was no difference,” she said.
Meanwhile, vegetarianism was in the early stages of its rise in popularity. The cruel conditions of factory farmsAnd the impacts of animal agriculture on climate and the environment have helped improve the diets of marginalized people. Closer to the mainstreamEstimates vary, but peer-reviewed studies have shown that raising chickens, cows, pigs, and other animals for meat and dairy products affects: Up to 20 percent of the Earth’s total greenhouse gas emissions.
Balsamico eliminated all animal products from her diet at age 14, a decision she justified to her parents in a “39-minute PowerPoint” on the health benefits of a plant-based diet. She began lifting weights two years later, mostly out of curiosity. “I just wanted to see if I could do it,” she says. And she could. By 2022, she was winning first place in every strongman competition she entered in her age and weight class, building a winning streak that has yet to be broken.
“I haven’t eaten meat in 11 years and I can carry 700 pounds on my back,” she told Grist. Balsamico now coaches other aspiring athletes at her gym in Pittsburgh and is affiliated with an international team of vegan strength competitors. Plant Build.
Balsamico and her teammates are just a few of many plant-based athletes using their “swole” bodies and competitive results to mobilize social change, showing through social media and word of mouth that you don’t have to sacrifice “gains”—the slang term for muscle mass gained through diet and exercise—to eat a diet that protects animals and the environment. They’re challenging expectations of what’s possible without animal protein, one block of tofu at a time, and enduring unsolicited criticism from those who insist, against all evidence, that “soy boys” are inherently weak.
— Joseph Winters
Read the full article here Learn more about how endurance athletes, strength athletes, and fitness coaches are advocating a diet that’s easier on the planet.
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Parting shot
Look: Gigi Balsamico, one of the vegan strength athletes Winters interviewed, is pulling a Chevrolet Silverado and a food truck trailer while she competed in a strength meet called Baddest in Delaware last month.
