Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa! Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh !!
Guru Roop Sadhsangat jio,
We are happy to bring forth a new series of articles from your
physician, Dr. Harbir Singh (M.Ost.Med.) to you.
Relying on "Evidence based Nutrition" these articles are specially
meant for the Sikh Sportsmen (veggies) on the run-up to the 2012
London Olympics.
---------------------------------------------
Dietary advice for Sikh sports people
One of the questions I get asked most by Sikh sportsman is how I get enough protein as a vegetarian. In today's competitive sports world being at your best is a necessity for athletes. So the question arises:
Q. Is it possible to maintain a vegetarian diet and still perform as well as your carnivorous counterparts in physical competition? A. Vegetarians can perform better.
The belief
A popular belief is that you need to eat meat to be strong, therefore, vegetarians are thought of as being weak. This may stem from the idea that meat sources are complete proteins whereas vegetarian sources are not.
In fact, there are 11 amino acids (the building blocks for protein/muscle). Meat sources normally contain high levels of all 11 but so do vegetarian sources such as milk, tofu and soya. Vegetarian sources become superior when we consider the fact that our meals are normally a combination of various protein sources, such as brown rice and lentil or chipaati's and beans, and that these sources of protein are significantly lower in saturated.
What the evidence says
At Yale, Professor Irving Fisher designed a series of tests to compare the stamina and strength of meat-eaters against that of vegetarians. He selected men from three groups: meat-eating athletes, vegetarian athletes, and vegetarian sedentary subjects. Fisher reported the results of his study in the Yale Medical Journal. This is what he found:
"Of the three groups compared, the...flesh-eaters showed far less endurance than the abstainers (vegetarians), even when the latter were leading a sedentary life."
Overall, the average score (on stamina? Or endurance? On strength?) of the vegetarians was over double the average score of meat-eating athletes, even though half of the vegetarians were sedentary people.
Fisher concluded that: "...the difference in endurance between the flesh-eaters and the abstainers (was due) entirely to the difference in their diet...There is strong evidence that a...non-flesh...diet is conducive to endurance.
A comparable study was done by Dr. J. Ioteyko of the Academie de Medicine of Paris. Dr. Ioteyko compared the endurance of vegetarians and meat-eaters from all walks of life in a variety of tests. The vegetarians averaged two to three times more stamina than the meat-eaters and took only one-fifth the time to recover from exhaustion compared to their meat-eating rivals.
Further evidence has been collected by a Danish team of researchers. They tested a group of men on a variety of diets and measured resulting strength and endurance using a stationary bicycle.
The men were first fed a mixed diet of meat and vegetables for a period of time, and then tested on the bicycle. The average time they could pedal before muscle failure was 114 minutes. These same men at a later date were fed a diet high in meat, milk and eggs and then re-tested on the bicycles. On the high meat diet, their pedaling time before muscle failure dropped dramatically-to an average of only 57 minutes. Later, these same men were switched to a strictly vegetarian diet; composed of grains, vegetables and fruits, and then tested on the bicycles. The lack of animal products excelled their performance-they pedaled an average of 167 minutes.
In summary, the findings above do not seem to lend a great deal of credibility to the popular prejudice that meat is a greater builder of strength than a protein filled vegetarian diet. Vegetarian legends in sports
Dave Scott holds the record for most Iron Man World Championship victories ever; Carl Lewis won ABC's Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year in 1991 and earned a total of 10 Olympic medals over his career, nine of them gold medals. Bill Pearl is a four-time Mr. Universe winner, Martina Navratilova one of the greatest tennis players of the 20th century (18 Grand Slam singles titles and 31 doubles titles) and Robert Parish is one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history, and the list goes on….
The conclusion
When we couple the experiences of vegetarian sportsmen with the data from systematic laboratory research published in reputable scientific journals, we have serious grounds to doubt the widely held prejudice that assumes greater weakness as an inevitable consequence of a vegetarian diet.
The challenge
Why not try to eliminate meat products from your diet for 10 days? Instead have a fresh fruit juice in the morning plus vegetarian alternatives during the day (look at kundalini cookbooks for ideas). Keep a diary and note down any physical changes such as reduced fat and increased energy levels. Vegetarian diets require planning and preparation but are well worth the effort for your health and wellbeing.
Why not give it a try?
Harbir Singh M.Ost Med ND
Consultant Osteopath
West London Osteopathic Clinic
----------------------------------------------Dr. Harbir Singh (M.Ost Med) is an expert in back pain and joint problems. He is currently working at St.Charles Hospital and in private clinics in west London, He is registered with the General Osteopathic Council and the British Osteopathic Association and lectures across the UK as well as partakes of in continual professional development internationally. Next year he has preliminary selection to be one of the first Osteopaths in history to be part of the medical team at the London 2012 Olympics.
With the build up to the Olympics, Dr. Harbir Singh has written an article, for your favorite SikhNet, on the hot topic of "evidence based nutrition" for sikh sportmen (vegetarians).
Biblio:
Fisher, Irving, "The Influence of Flesh Eating on Endurance," Yale Medical Journal, 13(5):205-221, 1907
Ibid.
Ioteyko, J., et al, Enquete scientifique sur les vegetariens de Bruxelles, Henri Lamertin, Brussels, p. 50
Astrand, Per-Olaf, Nutrition Today 3:no.2, 9-11, 1968
Schouteden, A., Ann de Soc. Des Sciences Med. et Nat. de Bruxelles (Belgium) I
