Okay, my cousin's husband just called me to task on my last blog post about Supersize Me and Fat Head.
He's calling me out, rightly so, for saying that vegans are a bunch of militant hippies with no upper body strength. To prove his point, he mentioned that his wife, my cousin, the Amazon workout freak, is a vegan.
Honestly, I didn't know this. Erin, his wife, is one of the two fittest people I know. The other being my buddy Patrick. Both of them are crossfitters. Both of them are in incredible shape. Both of them take their fitness to include not just workouts, but diets as well.
Now, my point in the previous post wasn't really to bag on vegans. It was to bag on Supersize Me and I used vegans to illustrate two basic points.
First, that sometimes people have an agenda regarding food. With vegans, that agenda is pretty obvious. It's partly nutritional, but it's also political. This could be said about a lot of groups in the food debate, including the guys who make the nutritional pyramid. Honestly, the controversy about the new food pyramid was probably akin to what I'd expect about a debate on whether it's prudent for 15 year olds to be sexually active. I still can't believe the controversy that thing stirred up.
Second, that veganism, or any diet, has advantages and disadvantages. I believe the advantages of being a vegan outweigh the disadvantages, but there are disadvantages. I think that generally speaking, it is not the optimal diet for a person trying to add strength.
Doesn't mean you can't add strength. It means it's harder and more problematic than it would be on other diets.
Most of the vegans I know are admirably slender. Frankly, they're some of the most physically attractive people I know of, generally speaking.
So, if looking good and feeling good are your goal, veganism is probably a great choice. You should be aware of the potential vitamin deficiencies that could result. You should do something to make sure you're getting sufficient iron, but as a lifestyle choice, this one isn't bad, and is better than most.
The bottom line is, there are dangers with a vegan diet. If you account for them, you're going to be fine. Is it a perfect diet? No. Is it a good diet? Yeah, I'd say on balance, it can be.
You'll notice a lot of shading, here. I've acknowledged a lot of benefits of veganism. So, why not endorse it wholeheartedly?
Because I believe you can achieve all those benefits with a non-vegan diet as well. In fact, I think if you add some lean animal meats to a vegan diet, you'd have a great diet. Trouble is, you can't add lean animal meats to a vegan diet.
This is where I want to illustrate a principle. I was watching a TV show the other day where a woman testified that she did 45 minutes of Windsor pilates every day for a month and came out with a physique that resembled something halfway between a runway model and a playboy centerfold.
I didn't doubt it for a moment. I wasn't the least bit skeptical. Why? Because 45 minutes a day of any workout routine is going to get you into enviable physical condition. We aren't in bad health because we're doing the wrong exercises. We're in bad health because we're doing NO exercises.
If you did P90X every day? You'd be in great shape. If you lift weights for 45 minutes a day? You'd be in great shape. If you went to the crossfit gym every day? You'd be in great shape. If you ran for 45 minutes a day? You'd be in great shape. If you did your rowing machine for 45 minutes a day? You'd be in great shape.
In fact, if you went to your backyard, got down on all fours and crawled around like a dog for 45 minutes a day, you'd be in great shape.
See the pattern here? It almost doesn't matter (within reason) what activity you chose. If you do it regularly, for long enough and with some intensity, you'll not just be in good shape, but you'll be in great shape.
Same thing with diets, but with some very serious caveats, which I'll add at the end.
What vegans are eating is important. You want to make sure it's a balanced diet. However, what's probably more important is what they're NOT eating. They're not eating ice cream every night. They're not eating a giant plate of nachos drenched in cheese. They're not eating a bag of fries as a mid-afternoon snack. They're not eating a snickers bar to sustain them until lunch.
All sorts of diets can work, if you approach them with a high degree of self-discipline. One of the best diets I ever did was one where I ate chicken breast or lean beef, rice, vegetables, etc. The diet was highly planned out, nutritionally complete and allowed me to lose weight and feel great.
More importantly, what was NOT on the diet were the things I mentioned above. I wasn't eating candy. I wasn't eating ice cream. I wasn't snacking on fatty foods, etc.
A well-planned, disciplined diet works. Within limits, it doesn't matter which one you chose.
So, that's why I say a vegan diet is good, but that I tend to shade away from it. I think it could be better. Now, in practice, probably 90% of the country would benefit from going vegan because 90% of the country is giving no thought, whatsoever, to what they're eating.
So, this may be a case of not allowing the perfect to be the enemy of the good. If you're eating vegan and it works for you, I take my hat off to you.
We could debate 'til the sun goes down about whether adding some lean meat to your diet would be beneficial. I will not be able to sway a single vegan on the planet.
Ultimately, the diet that works is the diet you can stick to and incorporate into your day-to-day life. Period. If that's a vegan diet, then get down with your bad self.
Personally, what I'm settling in on is a "lower" (though not "low") carb, balanced diet.
It works for me, it might not work for you. We should all eat what we think is right, and frankly, if you're thinking about what you're eating and eating in an even remotely disciplined manner, you're way ahead of most folks.
Now, for the caveats: you can eat a diet that's nutritionally incomplete. That's just common sense. So, you should be aware of this fact and avoid doing that. However, you can achieve good results with diets that I think are genuinely bad for you, like Atkins. What will always work best in the long run is a nutritionally complete diet, and Atkins isn't.
You can lose a lot of weight eating just cottage cheese and peaches. There are actually dietary clinics where this is the menu. Does it let you lose weight? Yes, at astounding rates. Is it a good idea? No, I really don't think it is.
No comments:
Post a Comment