Reasons to Be Vegan | Health, Animals & the Planet | Vegan Running Club

A whole food plant-based diet, emphasizing fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes, offers numerous health benefits and are perfect for runners. This dietary pattern has been associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders, and inflammatory conditions (O'Mullan, 2019). It may lower body mass index, blood pressure, HbA1C, and cholesterol levels, potentially decreasing the need for medications (Tuso et al., 2013). The diet is rich in dietary fibre and phytochemicals, which contribute to its health-promoting effects (Esquivel, 2022). Some evidence suggests benefits for certain cancers, particularly breast cancer, though more research is needed (O'Mullan, 2019). While this diet can be nutritionally adequate and health-promoting, careful planning is necessary to ensure sufficient intake of nutrients like calcium, iron, vitamin D, omega-3 fatty acids, and vitamin B12 (Esquivel, 2022). Overall, a well-planned plant-based diet is considered a low-cost, low-risk intervention that may support healthy aging and reduce the risk of chronic diseases (Valachovičová & Bírošová, 2020). 

The standard western diet is resulting in considerable harm. The Food Farming and Countryside commission report found that unhealthy diets are resulting in a cost of £268 billion annually from healthcare, social and welfare care costs and productivity losses due to negative impacts on health. This cost is more than the annual budget of the NHS. 

In this video clinicians discuss how a well planned vegan diets are beneficial for runners of all abilities with its anti-inflammatory properties supporting recovery, lowering atherosclerosis and improving the endothelial function.

This video explains how a vegan diet can improve this important measure of physical fitness, especially in older athletes.  Even in our small club you can see here how members excel on a plant diet.

Mic the Vegan reviews, in his usual entertaining style, a controlled trial comparing physical attributes 28 vegan female athletes against 28 omnivores.  Vegan had 40% longer time to exhaustion.

This video explains how whole food plant diet is the only diet shown to be able to reverse heart disease in the majority of patients. It may contribute to improved performance and accelerated recovery, but most importantly, will allow you to recover and maintain your long-term health. Athletic performance suffers, when you’re dead. 

Mic the Vegan runs through the development and reasoning culminating in these latest rational conclusions. 

Flow-mediated dilation, a measure of endothelial function, was significantly reduced following high-fat meals compared to low-fat meals (Ng et al., 2001). Additionally, diets high in saturated fat led to greater impairment of endothelial function compared to diets rich in unsaturated fats or carbohydrates (Grieger et al., 2004). The mechanism behind this impairment may involve reduced capacity of the endothelium to release tissue-type plasminogen activator, a key component in fibrinolysis (Dow et al., 2014). These findings suggest that high saturated fat consumption could negatively impact cardiovascular health and potentially compromise athletic endurance performance due to endothelial dysfunction. 

Contrary to popular myth food miles have little impact on your dietary footprint.  It's what you eat that matters significantly more than where your food comes from.

The opportunity of the whole population moving to plant diets is massive - off the scale compared to many other lifestyle changes.

This is explained in the highly reputable data set at 'Our World in Data' from scientists as the University of Oxford.

You can ask our experts specific nutrition questions on our Veganuary Running Nutrition F.A.Q. page.   Or you can engage with our community on social media.