<\/p>\n
Veganism is a lifestyle choice that is only getting more popular. Especially when more people take part in Veganuary every year. Vegans consume a fully plant-based diet which means all animal products \u2013 meat, fish, dairy, eggs, honey \u2013 are removed. Although, some vegans choose to cut out more from their diets. Veganism, and its less extreme sibling flexitariansim,<\/a> are becoming more popular. Plant-based meals can end up being easier and quicker to prepare and they are often cheaper. So the big question is, can footballers get everything they need from a vegan diet?<\/p>\n The basic principles of nutrition for footballers<\/a> are the same whether you eat meat or follow a plant-based diet. In professional sports, a lot of athletes eat a vegan diet when they\u2019re training anyway. The biggest change will be where you get your protein from but there are plenty of great vegan options out there.<\/p>\n If you’re already following a strict diet, changing to a plant-based diet might not even be that different. If you’re already following a diet plan<\/a> filled with healthy whole foods then you probably won’t find it difficult to switch. You just need to know what your body needs to perform at its best and then find the best foods to ensure you get it.<\/p>\n With the right diet plan, a football player can easily remove meat from their diet. If you need proof, there is a significant and rising number of footballers who already follow a vegan or plant-based diet. Some notable examples include:<\/p>\n Other players, like Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero, aren\u2019t fully vegan but do follow a plant-based diet during the football season.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just footballers either. Plenty of big sports stars are champions of plant-based diets. These include Venus and Serena Williams, Lewis Hamilton, Novak Djokovic, Lisa Gawthorne and Dotsie Bausch. So, it\u2019s safe to say that a plant-based diet isn\u2019t going to prevent you from reaching your full potential on the pitch.<\/p>\n As with all lifestyle changes, there are pros and cons to switching to becoming a vegan. All you need to do is weigh up which matters more to you. Some of the positives to moving to a fully plant-based diet are:<\/p>\n Some of the downsides include:<\/p>\n Adopting a vegan diet can be beneficial for a player as long as it\u2019s well-planned to meet nutritional needs. It might not be right for everyone but it\u2019s certainly not as impossible as you might think.<\/p>\n Potential nutritional deficiencies can arise from veganism but these can easily be corrected. As a player, the main potential areas of deficiency are:<\/p>\n Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to make sure you get everything you need.<\/p>\n Footballers have a high energy demand and switching to a vegan diet may result in unwanted weight loss. Plant foods generally have a lower density of calories compared to animal foods. This means you need to eat a much larger volume to reach your daily calorie goal.<\/p>\n How do you combat this? Eat more than you\u2019re used to. You can make it easier to reach your goal by including higher-calorie foods like nuts to your meals.<\/p>\n One of the major concerns about veganism is protein. Namely:<\/p>\n Omnivores get the majority of their protein from animal products, so vegans need to replace them with high-protein plant-based alternatives. Some examples include lentils, beans, chickpeas, nuts, tofu and soy products. To ensure you\u2019re getting the right amount of protein, you\u2019ll need to familiarise yourself with these foods and how much you need to eat to reach your daily target.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a common misconception that plant-based foods are an inferior source of protein because they have an incomplete amino acid profile<\/a>. This isn\u2019t strictly true as all plant-based foods have a complete amino acid profile but are normally around 10% lower in amino acids. So, you\u2019ll need to eat slightly more protein than you normally would to compensate for this. So, an omnivorous player might aim for 1.5g of protein per kg of body weight. A vegan player needs to compensate with a 10% increase to around 1.6-1.7g of protein per kg of body weight.<\/p>\n Again, making sure you get all of the micronutrients in your vegan diet<\/a> is just a case of understanding which foods you should be consuming. There are plenty of foods that you can add to your diet to avoid being deficient of essential nutrients. See some examples below.<\/p>\n As long as you’re eating the right foods, you shouldn’t end up missing any nutrients.<\/p>\n You’ll have no problem creating a varied vegan menu that you can tailor to your needs. As we know, protein is a big worry when it comes to a veganism. However, if you’re eating a good mix of beans, nuts and seeds then you’ll have no problems getting all of your protein. It might take time to get used to but it’s not as difficult as some people make out. If you’re worried, you can always supplement your diet with plant-based protein powders but you shouldn’t need to.<\/p>\n Vegan ingredients are versatile and can be used for plenty of different cuisines. For example, tofu is a great source of protein and can be flavoured any way you want. If you\u2019re stuck for ideas, here are some easy ideas for each meal:<\/p>\n These easy and tasty options are just a handful of tasty and nutritious vegan meals. If you need more inspiration, you can find sample meal plans on the Viva website<\/a>. They have options for different levels of athlete so you\u2019ll find plenty of options for tasty and healthy meals.<\/p>\n With the above tips, you’ll ensure that you have all the nutrients you need to optimise your performance on the pitch. When you follow the basic principles of nutrition, you’ll be able to make the most of your training sessions. So, you’ll want to make sure your training wear is the best it can be. Browse our range to find the right training kit<\/a> for you.<\/p>\n Grab some of our compression training wear like the Braga training top<\/a> and matching training bottoms<\/a>. Or grab one of our football t-shirts<\/a> and a pair of football shorts<\/a> if you prefer something a bit looser.<\/p>\n You’ll also want to make sure you have plenty of training equipment so you can set up drills. Grab some football cones<\/a>, training markers<\/a> and training footballs<\/a>. Keep practicing your skills at home with our \u00a0football rebounder<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Vegan Diet For Football Players Can footballers follow a vegan diet? Veganism is a lifestyle choice that is only getting more popular. Especially when more people take part in Veganuary every year. Vegans consume a fully plant-based diet which means all animal products \u2013 meat, fish, dairy, eggs, honey \u2013 are removed. Although, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6595,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[165,162,224,232],"tags":[272,268,274,269,273,202,271,270],"class_list":["post-6566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advice","category-football","category-football-training","category-nutrition-and-diet","tag-diet-guide","tag-football-diet","tag-football-meal-plan","tag-football-nutrition","tag-meal-plan","tag-nutrition","tag-nutrition-guide","tag-vegan-diet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pendlesportswear.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pendlesportswear.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pendlesportswear.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pendlesportswear.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pendlesportswear.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6566"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/www.pendlesportswear.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7213,"href":"https:\/\/www.pendlesportswear.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6566\/revisions\/7213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pendlesportswear.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pendlesportswear.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pendlesportswear.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pendlesportswear.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/h3>\n
Veganism and Football<\/h3>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.pendlesportswear.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/set-of-different-vegetarian-and-vegan-products-2023-11-27-05-15-01-utc.jpg\")
<\/h3>\nFootballers who eat a plant-based diet<\/h3>\n
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Pros and Cons of Veganism<\/h3>\n
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Tips to Avoid Deficiency<\/h3>\n
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Energy<\/h4>\n
![\"Veganism](\"https:\/\/www.pendlesportswear.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/variety-of-vegan-plant-based-protein-food-legume-2023-11-27-05-28-41-utc.jpg\")
Dietary Protein<\/h4>\n\n
Micronutrient Intake<\/h4>\n
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Meal Plan Ideas<\/h3>\n
![\"Vegan](\"https:\/\/www.pendlesportswear.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/berry-2023-11-27-05-36-44-utc.jpg\")
Breakfast<\/h4>\n\n
Lunch<\/h4>\n
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Dinner<\/h4>\n
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![\"Veganism](\"https:\/\/www.pendlesportswear.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/vegan-buddha-bowl-2023-11-27-05-15-28-utc.jpg\")
<\/h4>\nSnacks<\/h4>\n
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Pre-workout Snacks<\/h4>\n
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Be Your Best<\/h3>\n
![\"Browse](\"https:\/\/www.pendlesportswear.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Browse-Now-Button.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nFootball Training Essentials<\/h2>\n
![\"Braga](\"https:\/\/www.pendlesportswear.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Braga-Training-Tops.jpg\")
<\/a> ![\"Base](\"https:\/\/www.pendlesportswear.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Base-Layer-Tops-Range.jpg\")
<\/a> ![\"Base](\"https:\/\/www.pendlesportswear.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Base-Layer-Bottoms-Range.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
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