A discussion on plant-based diets
- 1 minA plant-based diet is a diet consisting mostly or entirely of foods derived from plants, including vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds, legumes and fruits, and with few or no animal products. A plant-based diet is not necessarily vegetarian. The use of the phrase “plant-based” changed over time. However, in this article we will refer to a “plant-based” diet as the definition we gave above.
Netflix recently released The Game Changers, a documentary directed by Academy Award winner Louie Psihoyos (The Cove) trying to demolish myths against plant-based diets and reveal the antique notion of the meats among athletes.
According to the documentary, many athletes have this archaic notion that meats give the people energy. I believe a lot of people still do these days. When some men see a big dude eating a huge steak in a restaurant, they would say, “I wanna be like him.” When they see a dude eating salad, however, they would think that he is soft or not “man” enough. I found it very interesting that people automatically associate eating meat with being mascular even though the former not necessarily facilitates the latter.
Based on a paper Blood rheology in vegetarians (E. Ernst, et al, 1986), a plant-based diet is low in saturated fat and free of cholesterolcan. A plant-based diet can decrease human’s blood viscosity allowing more oxygen can reach the muscles. With more oxygen in the muscles, it is very easy for the athletes to improve the athletic performance.