Central to my plan: reading for one hour each day.

It’s the one habit I can identify that is most closely tied to my sense of well-being. My hope was that by making sure I absolutely stuck to it, other good habits would naturally form.

And I’ve actually done it! I’ve gone through busy periods where much of the daily hour has shifted to listening to books (easy during 100-miler training), but that’s acceptable, and I must say it’s worked pretty much as I hoped it would.

I’ve taken on a lot this year — finishing up writing my book, training for a 100, moving to a new house, and having a new baby (granted, my wife played a slightly larger role in that than I did) — and anxiety has really taken a back seat to it all. Gooooo, reading!

My Summer Reading Recommendations

Anyway … in this past month I decided to read five health and running books that had piled up on my to-read list. Many of them had been sent to me for review by publishers, and I had back-burnered them in favor of books that I personally wanted to read. (By the way, I’m trying to get back into updating my GoodReads account, so you can follow me on there if you’re into that sort of thing.)

But I decided to get through them, and to my surprise, I really liked every one of them! This usually doesn’t happen; I’m no stranger to abandoning a book midway through if I’m not enjoying it. But I was never even tempted with these.

Here’s a quick look at what I took from each of them, so you can decide if there’s room in your suitcase for one of them this summer. Oh yeah, and they’re not all brand new — some had been on my shelf since last year. I present them here in no particular order, except that the first one had the biggest immediate impact on me (perhaps not coincidentally, it was the only one I purchased myself).

1. Super Immunity, by Joel Fuhrman, M.D.

I had heard of Joel Fuhrman before (my wife had read Disease Proof Your Child, and I’d seen him in Vegucated), but after a few conversations with Ray Cronise, I decided I ought to take the time to really understand what Fuhrman is teaching.

What I found in Super Immunity was an approach to nutrition that I’d long been waiting for — one that, while ultimately delivering the message “eat whole, plant foods,” underpinned the philosophy with science and logic that resonated with me better than others’ arguments.

The biggest takeaway, for me, is the idea that H = N/C (health equals nutrients over calories), which translates into the message that in order to live the longest, healthiest lives, we should seek to maximize nutrient intake while minimizing caloric intake (once meeting our basic energy needs, of course). This equation, of course, is Fuhrman’s main reason for advocating phytonutrient-dense plant foods over calorically-dense animal products.

Super Immunity is the book I wish my parents would read. No doubt, it’s strict, and it delivers news most people don’t want to hear: animal products, added salt, oils, caffeine, and alcohol are mostly bad — limit them to very small amounts in your diet. I know that many are turned off by anyone who so much as allows any animal products in a healthy diet, but I don’t mind it. Much the opposite, in fact — I eat 100% vegan, and partly for ethical reasons, but I think the lack of an ethical bent to a doctor’s teachings helps to build trust in otherwise skeptical readers.

Highly recommended. If you’re interested, check out my notes from Super Immunity.

2. The Longest Race, by Ed Ayres

Ed Ayres is the founder of Running Times magazine, but The Longest Race isn’t a typical Rodale book (the publisher that owns Running Times and Runner’s World). In fact, it’s not a Rodale book at all — it’s published by The Experiment, an independent publisher, who, by the way, puts out a lot of good vegetarian and vegan stuff.

Ed tells his story against the backdrop of the JFK 50, a historic ultramarathon. But his attempt to set an age-group record at the race is merely a metaphor for what the book is really about: our “endurance” as a species on this planet. Though interspersed with running gems that only someone who has been at it for 50+ years could provide, the underlying theme is sustainability, and it’s well done. I admit that I’m not as in touch with environmental issues as I ought to be, and this book presented a nice (well, not nice) overview of the gravity of the situation.

Ed Ayres happens to be vegetarian — not surprising, considering his interest in environmentalism, but his diet is only mentioned in passing. Read this book to feel excited about running, in a way that reminded me of how I felt while reading Born to Run and Eat & Run, but you’ll take away a much bigger, more important message.

3. Whole, by Dr. T. Colin Campbell

This is your big boy. While the other books on this list were fairly quick reads, Whole took me quite a bit longer, at close to 300 pages and with material that’s fairly dense. In it, China Study author T. Colin Campbell argues for a wholistic (means essentially the same as “holistic,” but avoids the woo-woo connotations) approach to nutrition, as opposed to the prevailing reductionist approach in which scientists focus on variables in isolation, and far too often miss the bigger picture.

Whole was not what I was expecting — I thought it would be a long, detailed argument about why whole foods are better for us than processed foods, manufactured “health” foods, and supplements. Instead, it’s a much deeper look first at scientific philosophy and later at the institutions (governmental, corporate, academic, and even charitable) whose survival and/or profitability depend on ensuring that the reductionist approach lives on.

Basically: nobody profits when the advice is “eat whole plant foods.” But there’s plenty of profit, promotions, and pats on the back when the way to treat illness is “take drug X, buy supplement Y, and have procedure Z done.” Campbell is fair in pointing out that most individuals in the so-called health industry do have our best interests at heart, but are part of a system that does not, and one that is very good at hiding it.

Yes, it’s kind of conspiracy theory, but I get the sense it’s very true, and so pervasive that most of us don’t even see it anymore. Which is scary and overwhelming, and there aren’t a lot of solutions — Campbell says that it starts with changing the way you eat, on an individual level. Beyond that? I suppose it’s up to us to figure it out.

4. Running with the Kenyans, by Adharanand Finn

On a much lighter note … this one’s about running, and a British reporter’s attempt to discover just what it is that makes the Kenyan’s so damn good at it.

Finn and his family go to live in Iten, Kenya, a town famous for producing some of the best runners in a country where everybody is a good runner. Among other “secrets,” Finn discovers that barefoot running, a childhood filled with running, altitude, and a high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet based on the staple ugali are responsible for the Kenyan dominance of the sport.

I’m sure I won’t be the first to point out that Running with the Kenyans feels a little bit like Born to Run, with the whole “let’s find out what makes this mysterious, impoverished group of people so good at running” theme. But the two are different: while Born to Run might be described as thrilling at times, Running with the Kenyans is relaxed — at all times. The “secrets” really aren’t so secret, nor are they of the variety that we outsiders can easily apply to our running and see sudden, massive improvements — and I’m sure Finn would be the first to admit this. Indeed, one of the jokes in the book is about foreigners coming into Kenya looking for exactly those kind of quick-fix secrets.

But even without the excitement of Mexican drug cartels, I found this one to be a really pleasant read, part travel-writing and part running experiment. Of all the books in this post, the light Running with the Kenyans will fare the best for lazy afternoons on the beach.

5. Approaching the Natural: A Health Manifesto, by Sid Garza-Hillman

Finally, the quickest read of them all. At 128 pages, and easy-reading ones at that, Approaching the Natural is perhaps the book with which the most No Meat Athlete readers will find themselves nodding their heads along. And if you appreciate my dumb jokes, or at least don’t hate them enough to unsubscribe, then you’ll probably have the same tolerance for Sid Garza-Hillman‘s.

I think of this one as more a lifestyle handbook than a manifesto — it touches on everything from plant-based diet to minimalist running to grounding (new to me) to meditation to journaling to sending your buddies an occasional text to say, “What’s up, it’s been a while.” If you’ve been frustrated with strict diets or exercise programs in the past, you’ll like Sid’s alternative approach with very few absolute rules. I love Sid’s approach to habit change (mainly, start small and don’t worry about perfection, hence the idea in the title of “approaching” rather than attaining), making the whole thing seem very realistic … which, if it’s natural, it should be, right?

This could be another good beach read — though I bet it’s even better over coffee before the rest of the family wakes up to hit the beach (and Sid won’t kill you for the java habit; he’s a coffee fiend himself!) .

For more from Sid, check out his appearance on the Rich Roll podcast.

Alright, get reading! And don’t forget, come nerd out with me on GoodReads if you’re on there.

It’s triathlon season! Shout it with me, people: IT’S TRIATHLON SEASON!

I haven’t always been such an overeager pain in the ass about this sport. I used to be scared — really scared — before triathlon races. I knew what I was doing as a runner, but triathlon was just so … complicated.

With running races, it’s simple: get a bite to eat and hit the porta-pot ahead of time, and beyond the actual running, there’s not a whole lot that can go wrong. But triathlons are a different beast, with not just three sports to worry about, but also the transitions and plenty of logistical opportunities for bigtime screw-ups that bodies of water and racks of bikes add to the mix.

Before my first few triathlon races, my hands would shake as I quietly set up my bike in transition area, and instead of confidently rehearsing what I needed to execute during the race, I’d focus on everything that could go wrong:

• What if I have a panic attack during the swim and hyperventilate?
• What if I forget where I put my bike and wander around transition like an idiot?
• What if I drop a water bottle and get dehydrated?
• What if I make a total ass of myself?

Sound like you?

Fears like these prevent a lot of runners from ever jumping into the triathlon game, and it’s a shame. In addition to providing runners with more strength than ever before (cycling is an excellent cross-training activity), accomplishing the mental challenge of triathlon gives an athlete more tricks in their wheelhouse for breaking through “the wall” of their next road race. On a personal note, triathlon has given me confidence I didn’t have before, introduced me to friends around the world, and led me to a new career with No Meat Athlete and print magazines Competitor and Triathlete. Triathlon has changed my life – literally. All because I took a chance on a new sport.

It’s with runners like this in mind — those who really, really want to be triathletes, but don’t know where to start — that I, under Matt’s intense, borderline over-protective supervision (I say this with love, and by “love,” I mean “a skinny vegan ultrarunner breathing down my neck”) put together the No Meat Athlete Triathlon Roadmap, due to be released (fingers crossed!) in the next two weeks or so. This newest Roadmap breaks down the admittedly scary process of navigating the road to your first sprint triathlon — everything from what to wear, to how to train, to what to do on race day … with an accompanying section on nutrition that recognizes that you’re going to do this on a plant-based diet (just like in the Marathon Roadmap and Half Marathon Roadmap).

If it sounds like the Triathlon Roadmap was written just for you, sign up to get updates and we’ll send you a few excerpts and let you know as soon as it’s available.

If you’re almost to race day …

But what if you’ve already gotten comfortable on the bike, learned to swim pretty well, and it’s just a matter of putting it all together on race day?

For you, I’ve got this special excerpt from the Roadmap, a final send-off before you go and officially make yourself a triathlete.

Honestly, race day doesn’t have to be scary. In my time as a triathlete, I’ve been through everything I listed above (and more), and each time learned something very important — these “awful” events are never as bad as how I imagined them. With time, I’ve learned how to mitigate each event so it doesn’t wreck my race completely. (Except for making an ass of myself. I’ve just embraced that one.)

I’m not the only one who has discovered there is a learning curve that comes with triathlon. While compiling the Roadmap, I’ve collaborated with lots of triathlete friends who have shared their own lessons learned, and a few of the tips here are theirs.

If you want to skip to the head of the triathlon class, here’s your cheat sheet:

22 Tips for Your First Sprint Triathlon

1. When you rack your bike pre-race, count how many rows separate it from the exits and mark it on the back of your hand. When you’re running from the swim or after your bike leg, count out loud how many rows you’ve passed until you reach your spot. It will make finding your spot easier amidst the hundreds of bikes.

2. If you wear sunscreen, apply it at least 5 minutes before you go for body marking. Applying lotions and sprays immediately before or after marking degrades the ink, causing smearing and fading.

3. If you are able to warm up in the water before the swim start, start with some easy strokes, but add a few seconds of harder efforts toward the end of your warm-up, to signal to your brain and body that it’s go time.

4. If you start panicking, don’t flip on your back and gasp for air. Instead, slow your swimming and blow bubbles in the water. You know how people tell you to breathe into a paper bag when you’re hyperventilating? This is the aquatic equivalent.

5. At the end of the swim, don’t stop swimming just because you see the bottom of the lake! Instead, swim until your fingers brush the ground, then push yourself up and exit the water. It’s much faster than trying to run through armpit-deep water.

6. To avoid penalties and fumbling around with a helmet while you run in and out of transition, put it on before you take your bike off the rack in T1; take it off after you’ve returned your bike to the rack in T2.

7. If you’re worried about forgetting your bib number in transition, buy a race belt. Turn the number to your back while riding, then slide it around to your front for the run.

8. Tuck small, loose bike items (sunglasses, gels, race bib) into your helmet pre-race — you’re less likely to miss them in your helmet (as opposed to laying on the ground).

9. If you wear socks on the bike or run, roll them down to the toes before placing them in your transition setup. It’s hard to tug socks onto wet and/or sweaty feet, so this step can save you time in transition.

10. Keep at least two bottles of water or sport drink on your bike. Though most people will only require one bottle for a sprint triathlon, it’s possible you may drop a bottle somewhere on the course. You’ll be thankful for a backup.

11. To drink from a cup while running, pinch the lip of the cup so it forms a spout. This helps direct the water into your mouth with less dribbling.

12. During warmer races, some run aid stations may have ice cups for the athletes. Don’t be modest — a small scoop of ice in shorts or a sports bra can make a big difference in your comfort!

13. Seeing your friends and family on the course can be a huge boost to your spirit! Before race day, print out a map of the course and identify places they might want to spectate — it’ll give you something to look forward to on the course.

From Laura Kloepper of Frayed Laces:

14. Lube everything, and I mean everything. Otherwise you will chafe in places you didn’t know existed.

15. Take an extra second to confirm which end of your helmet is the front and the back. Yes, it happens. Don’t be that person.

From Jason Bahamundi of Cook Train Eat Race:

16. Stay in the moment. Don’t worry about what just happened or what is coming up. Focus on the here and now.

17. Forget all the gadgets and just race. If you enjoy it there will be time to pick up those items, but for your first just race and see if it is something you are willing to invest in.

From Toby Baum of Ironman Dad:

18. More does not always equal better. Too much gear. Too much training. Too much nutrition. Too many races. Too much of everything. Most triathletes go way overboard with everything. Keep it simple. Often, less is actually more.

19. Your dentist has been preparing for this day for years. Don’t waste all those years of dental appointments and flossing. Put them to good use — smile!

From Kristen Seymour of Fit Bottomed Girls:

20. Don’t sweat the, uhh, sweat. In my first tri I was worried about hugging the big group of friends and family who’d come to cheer me on because, well, I was gross. The thing is, if somebody cares enough to show up, they care enough to hug your stinky, sweaty, medal-wearing ass.

21. If there’s free massage afterward, take advantage. It is a lovely, lovely perk.

And perhaps most importantly:

22. Treat your family and friends to a post-race breakfast — they supported you through your training and at your race. In a way, it’s their big day, too!

About the Author: Susan Lacke, No Meat Athlete’s Resident Triathlete and Competitor.com contributor, is the author of the No Meat Athlete Triathlon Roadmap: The Plant-Based Guide to Conquering Your First Sprint Triathlon. Sign up to get the latest on its release.

–

Photo Credit: Sangudo via Compfight cc

Actually, 52.7 miles. Last Saturday I ran the Black Mountain Monster, a 12-hour race around a 5K loop that comprises single-track trails, roads, and a few fields. I had hoped to cover 100K (62 miles) on the day, but when I completed my 17th loop at 11 hours and 15 minutes, I was fairly certain I couldn’t run another in 45 minutes, and called it a day.

Anything over 50 miles was good enough for me and for my preparation for the 100-miler, so the race was by no means a failure. But still, 10 miles short of my distance goal is a lot, and I can mainly blame myself for that — I started out way too fast, clocking 10-minute miles for the first three loops, when a steady 11:30 pace was all I would have needed to reach 100K.

The good news, though? I learned more during this race than in any previous one. I paid careful attention to exactly how many calories and electrolytes I was taking in, my paces, how my body responded to the heat, my shoes, and much more. Nothing like a little fear of running 100 miles to make you get serious, I guess – I even took notes! (You can see them here, if you’re interested. I’d love to hear answers to my questions at the bottom from any experienced ultrarunners; feel free to leave them in the comments on this post.)

I’m not a huge fan of writing race recaps — I honestly can’t imagine someone sitting in front a computer long enough to read thousands of words about my race. But somehow, listening to those words on a podcast seems a bit more reasonable, so all the details are in this episode.

Doug, my co-host on the podcast, did a little ultra-adventure of his own the previous weekend — a 102-mile, mostly self-supported trek over three days on the Appalachian Trail. This style of covering a fairly large amount of ground (compared to traditional hiking) is called “fast packing,” and Doug tells us all about his first experience with it here.

Enjoy the show!

Click the button below to listen now:

Download audio file (nmaradio13.mp3)

Or:

• Click here to download the MP3 file (you may need to right-click and “save link as”)
• Subscribe to the show on iTunes

As always, please leave us a rating and review on iTunes if you like the show, so that we know to keep ‘em coming! 

Links from the show:

• Matt’s 12-hour race preview post
• Freakonomics, Sports Junkies, Ted Talks (podcasts)
• Hoka One One anti-minimalist shoes
• Rock Creek Runner

Movies and books we discussed:

• Running on the Sun (YouTube)
• Unbreakable
• Relentless Forward Progress
• Eat and Run
• Ultramarathon Man
• The Longest Race

Races we discussed:

• Black Mountain Monster
• Burning River 100

Beers we drank:

• Anderson Valley Brewing Summer Solstice (Doug)
• Terrapin Hopsecutioner (Matt)

Thanks for listening!

Tim’s work is fascinating. The 4-Hour Workweek is the most valuable business book I’ve ever read (well, it’s a tie between that and Seth Godin’s Tribes). The 4-Hour Body is perhaps even more interesting; it’s a “choose your own adventure”-style book, one that’s not meant to be read cover-to-cover. And Tim’s most recent book, The 4-Hour Chef, though far from vegan-friendly, is one I’ve learned a lot from — about cooking, sure, but even more about learning.

Tim is not a vegan or vegetarian. Anyone who has so much as flipped through The 4-Hour Chef, especially the section on hunting, knows this. But this isn’t to say he’s anti- plant-based diet. Indeed (from The 4-Hour Body):

I suggest a two-week PPBD (primarily plant-based diet) test after 3-4 months on the Slow-Carb Diet. No matter where you end up afterward, the awareness will lead to better decisions that benefit appearance, performance, and the planet as a whole.

And I especially love what he writes in regards to the all-or-nothing approach many people have towards diet:

It’s better for the environment if you locally source a 70% PPBD indefinitely, rather than eat 100% vegan for two months and quit because you find it unsustainable. Some vegans, lost in ideological warfare, also lose sight of the cumulative effects: getting 20% of the population to take a few steps in the right direction will have an infinitely greater positive impact on the world than having 2% of the population following a 100% plant-based diet. To both uninformed meat-eaters and vegetarians — stop ad hominem attacks and focus on the big picture.

(If you’ve read my post Why Vegans and Paleos Should Stop Hating Each Other, it shouldn’t surprise you that I wholeheartedly agree with this last line.)

Tim goes on, in the same chapter, to give several case studies on the diets of fit vegans, including Scott Jurek and Mike Mahler. They’re incredibly valuable, if for nothing more than the recipes provided for protein bars, smoothies, hummus, several dinners, and more. (See a sample here, of vegan rock-climber Steph Davis’ diet.)

Tim gives his reasons for not choosing a plant-based diet, but they’re beside the point of this particular post (might make for a good followup, though!). Here, my assumption is that you, as a No Meat Athlete reader, have your reasons for wanting to eat plant-based, and you’re going to do it, one way or another.

Which brings me to the question I want to answer with this post (and the help of Tim and vegan R.D. Matt Ruscigno):

Given that you’re not going to eat any animal products, how can you maximize your health through your food choices?

In the first of the two “Meatless Machine” chapters in 4-Hour Body, Tim provides the following list of nutrients, minerals, and foods to ensure are in your diet (with suggested daily intake amounts), “for essential insurance against serious health issues”:

• Iodine (150mcg)
• Lysine (12 mg/kg body weight)
• Biotin (30 mcg) [no USRDA]
• Vitamin K (kimchee, sauerkraut, etc.) (90 mcg women, 120 mcg men)
• Creatine (5 grams per day) [no USRDA]
• Coconut milk (for saturated fats) (1/2 cup minimum) [no USRDA]
• Avocado (fat and potassium) (1-2 avocados) [no USRDA]

Tim’s additional recommendations, in a subsequent list:

• Vitamin B-12 (2.5 mcg)
• Essential fatty acids (Udo’s oil) (500mg-4g)
• Protein (55 g women, 65 g men)
• Calcium (1,000 mg)
• Iron (18 mg women, 8 mg men)
• Vitamin D (5 mcg minimum)
• Zinc (8 mg women, 11 mg men)
• Folic acid (400 mcg)
• Selenium (55 mcg)
• Riboflavin (1.1 mg women, 1.3 mg men)
• Vitamin E (15mg)

I’m sure that considerations for space — and the fact that 95% of readers wouldn’t care much about this list — kept Tim from giving details about where these recommendations come from, and why vegans specifically need to pay attention to them.

But most No Meat Athlete readers fit in that other 5%, so I wanted to go deeper.

To help us out, I asked my friend and vegan Registered Dietitian Matt Ruscigno, who writes the blog True Love Health, to lend some of his knowledge and time.

(While I’m at it, I want to announce that Matt is the co-author of the No Meat Athlete book that’s coming out this fall! Matt and I have worked together quite a bit over the past 9 months, and I’m excited to have his help. Lots more information about the book, including pre-order details, coming soon.)

Here’s what Matt Ruscigno had to say about each item on Tim’s list: first, whether or not we need to focus on it and if the suggested amount is reasonable, and second, where we can get it — ideally from whole food sources.

A quick heads up — we’re going into a lot of detail here. To sum it all up, Doug and Susan helped us create a handy infographic, which we called (cleverly, because it rhymes, and anything that rhymes must be clever) the No Meat Athlete Cheat Sheet. If you just want the gist instead of the details, check out the infographic below.

Matt Ruscigno, R.D.’s Take

Iodine (150mcg):

Iodine is a nutrient needed for thyroid function and indirectly metabolism. Iodine deficiency can lead to hypothyroidism and can have the following symptoms: low energy level, tingling/numbness in the extremities, weight gain, depression and even increased cholesterol levels.

Iodine is especially important for pregnant women as a deficiency can severely impact the ability to have a healthy pregnancy and the health of the child.

Fortunately iodine deficiency is rare in the United States, thanks in part to the introduction of iodized salt. The iodine levels of plant foods can vary greatly; it depends on the quality and iodine content of the soil they are grown in. Very few foods contain iodine naturally. Dairy products contain iodine because, according to Registered Dietitian Jack Norris, iodine products are used to clean the equipment and cows’ teats and some iodine ends up in the milk and dairy products.

Iodine deficiency does not seem to be a problem for vegans, though a 2011 meta-analysis in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism found that vegans may be at a greater risk.

Two good sources for vegans are iodized salt and sea vegetables like kelp. Also legumes, especially navy beans or any canned beans that contain kombu, which is added for flavor and to help with digestion. Other sources include potatoes with the skin, strawberries and soymilk.

Lastly, a supplement can be taken, which is recommended for women who are considering pregnancy. Many multivitamins contain iodine, be sure to read the label. Just don’t overdo it though, as too much can be just as bad as not enough! I agree with Tim’s 150mcg/day recommendation.

Get more info about iodine here.

Lysine (12 mg/kg body weight):

The current recommendation is actually 37 mg/kg body weight; 12 mg/kg body weight is the old recommendation. As you can probably guess by the requirement tripling, there are different theories on how much is actually needed per day.

If there was one amino acid vegans should give some extra thought to, it is lysine. Fortunately one can get it from many sources: lentils, tofu, seitan, mock meats and quinoa are all very good lysine sources. Other good sources are pumpkin seeds and pistachios. It’s very important to include a few servings of high lysine foods every day.

Biotin (30 mcg) [no USRDA]:

Biotin is a B-vitamin (it was originally called Vitamin H, a reference to the German word for hair) that plays a crucial part in the metabolism of carbohydrate and fat — and also is required for healthy hair.

Deficiency is extremely rare and reported cases have been due to excess consumption of raw egg whites. Vegans can get biotin easily in swiss chard, carrots, almonds, berries and fruits and vegetables generally.

Vitamin K (kimchee, sauerkraut, etc.) (90 mcg women, 120 mcg men):

Vitamin K is found in leafy green vegetables in very high amounts. One cup of kale contains over 6x the daily requirement! Broccoli and brussels sprouts are also very good sources.

Creatine (5 grams per day) [no USRDA]:

Creatine is unique as the only sports supplement that has significant research showing its benefits for training. Creatine helps to increase the number of efforts during training which therefore indirectly increases muscle mass. It is more beneficial for weight training and sprinting than endurance exercises.

While it is true that diets that include animal products are higher in dietary creatine, the benefits come from supplemental doses which are much higher than anyone eats.

Here’s a terrific overview of creatine, including a specific note about vegetarians that touches on an interesting point Tim Ferriss references in The 4-Hour Body: that creatine is known to enhance cognition in vegetarians.

Coconut milk (for saturated fats) (1/2 cup minimum) [no USRDA]:

Saturated fat is not a requirement for any human function. And many plant foods that contain healthy monounsaturated fats also contain some saturated fat. For example the percentage of fat that is saturated in both olive oil and avocados is around 14 percent. There’s no reason to eat a specific food for saturated fats.

Avocado (fat and potassium) (1-2 avocados) [no USRDA]:

Avocados are great, I agree! Other sources of potassium are potatoes, leafy greens, beans (especially white beans), dates, squash, cantaloupe and bananas, of course.

Vitamin B-12 (2.5 mcg):

I agree with this amount and vegans need to be sure they are getting B-12 from a reliable source. Despite the persistent myth, vitamin B-12 is not available from sea vegetables, tempeh or fermented foods!

Nutritional yeast, non-dairy milks and mock meats can be fortified with B-12, but they are not always fortified. Please be sure to read the label. If you don’t have a reliable fortified-food source then take a supplement. This is very important for vegans to take seriously.

Essential fatty acids (Udo’s oil) (500mg-4g):

Essential fatty acids means both Omega-6 and Omega-3. These are both required nutrients which make it essential to eat dietary fat. Additionally, Omega-3 fatty acids have health benefits related to lower cholesterol levels and heart disease prevention.

Lastly, what’s also important is the ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3. We want that ratio to be small — some evidence says 6-to-1 is good. This is significantly smaller than the 15-to-1 ratio of the average American diet. And limited research has shown that some vegans have an even larger ratio than that.

What can you do? Be sure to include a daily serving of foods high in Omega-3 like flax seeds, chia seeds or walnuts. Just one serving a day of these high foods can really help to improve your ratio. Another option is EFA oil: if you take Udo’s oil, hemp oil or a blend of oils, read the label. You want more Omega-3 than Omega-6 in order to balance the rest of the day’s (generally) higher intake of Omega-6.

Protein (55 g women, 65 g men):

Most recommendations for athletes, are between 1 and 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram body weight. This is very easy to do on a vegan diet that contains whole grains, legumes, nuts and leafy green vegetables. Additionally, if you are active you will automatically be eating more calories and therefore more protein. When you do the math you’ll see just how easy it is to meet these recommendations.

See the post I wrote for No Meat Athlete, called Protein — A Primer for Vegetarians, for more information about protein in a plant-based diet.

Calcium (1,000 mg):

Leafy green vegetables, especially kale, collards and turnip greens but not spinach (calcium is unabsorbable due to oxalate content) are very good sources of calcium. Something to keep in mind is a serving size is only ½ cup cooked; it’s relatively easy to eat 3 or 4 servings with a meal.

Other plant-based sources include blackstrap molasses, tempeh, soybeans, calcium-set tofu, corn tortillas and fortified non-dairy milks. Be sure to check the label on fortified foods to know how much you are getting.

Iron (18 mg women, 8 mg men):

It’s true that heme iron, only found in the flesh of animals, is better absorbed than non-heme, plant-based iron. But plant foods contain lots of iron and it’s easy to increase that absorption by eating vitamin C containing foods at the same meal. Dairy and eggs contain almost no iron so if you are replacing these foods with plant-based foods you will be getting more iron than you would if you ate them!

See my post, What Every Vegetarian Needs to Know about Iron, for more.

Vitamin D (5 mcg minimum):

The best source of vitamin D is 15 minutes of mid-day sun on at least your hands and face without sunscreen. For dietary sources most people in western countries get it through fortified foods as it is found in very few foods naturally, mainly fish. Vegans also can get it from fortified foods like non-dairy milks and some cereals and margarines. Be sure to check the label!

Vitamin D2 is vegan and until very recently there were no vegan forms of D3. If you do not have regular sun exposure and do not eat supplemented foods it is very important to take a supplement. Anecdotally some vegans have had fatigue and then started a D2 supplement and within days felt much better. Being vegan doesn’t make getting vitamin D much harder; in reality most people get it from either the sun or fortified foods.

Very recently researchers found they could add vitamin D to mushrooms by exposing them to the sun! Only some mushrooms have had this done but my guess is that this will soon become a regular practice. Check the label to be sure!

There is an ongoing debate about which is better absorbed, vitamin D3 or D2. It appears that D3 is significantly better when taking large doses (done when there is a diagnosed deficiency) and a little better when taking daily amounts. For a long time the only vegan option was D2, but now finally there is a non-animal-derived D3 if this is what you prefer. Most likely either D2 or D3 is adequate for everyone.

Zinc (8 mg women, 11 mg men):

Zinc is one of those nutrients that we just do not know a lot about. The recommendations are estimates, and there is not a very accurate way to determine zinc status of individuals. Fortunately, zinc is found in a variety of whole grains like oatmeal and also in tofu, sunflower seeds and cashews. Ginny Messina, MPH, RD, in her post about zinc suggests toasting nuts and seeds before eating them, choosing some fermented foods like tempeh and eating leavened bread. Most breads are leaved, the exception being pita bread, which increases the absorption of zinc.

For more info on zinc see this great handout by Tim Radak, DrPH, RD. (There are similar resources on specific nutrients and vegan diets here.)

Folic acid (400 mcg):

Vitamin B9 is both folate, which is naturally occurring in foods, and folic acid, the compound used in supplements and fortification.

Folate is abundant in plant foods; leafy greens, especially romaine lettuce; beans like lentil and black, fortified grains, sunflower seeds and orange juice are all very good sources. Folate is crucial for development and is most widely-known for its role in preventing neural tube defects. Deficiency in the western world is very rare and folate consumption for vegans is adequate and not of any special concern. Though any women of child-bearing age who may become pregnant should make sure they are getting adequate amounts.

Selenium (55 mcg):

Brazil nuts are one of the best sources of selenium, but their selenium content varies depending on their age and whether you get them shelled or not. Whole grains and beans are other good sources of selenium. Selenium content of plant foods is related to the soil content mostly, but selenium deficiency is rare in both omnivores and vegans. Vegans aren’t any more likely than omnivores to be deficient.

Riboflavin (1.1 mg women, 1.3 mg men):

Riboflavin, also known as vitamin B2 is very common in foods and deficiency is rare. Vegans are no more likely to be deficient than omnivores as this vitamin is found in a variety of plant foods like avocados, mushrooms, almonds, leafy greens, soy whole grains and enriched grains. It’s important to note that riboflavin is water-soluble therefore significant amounts can be lost if vegetables are cooked in water and the water is then thrown out. It’s also very sensitive to light which is why milk is sold in opaque containers.

And if you consume large amounts of riboflavin the body excretes it via urine, which will be bright yellow. You may notice this if you eat a lot of nutritional yeast!

Vitamin E (15mg):

Vitamin E is actually a group of fat-soluble compounds that are required for our immune function. It is also an anti-oxidant which means it has properties that are beneficial beyond the nutrient needs. Anti-oxidants protect cells from the damage of free radicals from environmental damage like pollution, second-hand smoke, etc.

Almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts, safflower oil, sunflower oil and avocado are all good sources of vitamin E. Here’s a lot more technical info on vitamin E for those who are interested.

To sum up …

Nutrition experts, when discussing plant-based or vegan nutrition, often start with a phrase like, “These diets must be properly planned and one must emphasize certain foods to avoid nutrient deficiencies.” And I agree, but this is true for all diets!

Every person who eats food and is concerned about their health should learn about nutrition and put emphasis on eating healthy foods that supply the nutrients they need. It’s not any harder with plant foods, it’s just different than how most of us were raised and our diets stand out from everyone else, which makes them more likely to be criticized. But we have the science to know which nutrients are needed and what foods they are in, so take this info, eat these foods and be healthy and happy!

—

A huge thanks to Matt Ruscigno for taking the time to share his insights. Be sure to check out his blog, True Love Health, and look for our book in stores and online the fall!

Here’s the infographic that distills the nutrients Matt R. agrees are worth paying attention to for vegetarians and vegans. Feel free to use the embed code at the end of the post to share!

Which nutrients are worth getting as supplements?

I’m still on the fence about the use of a multivitamin. Currently, the only supplement I take is for B-12, but based on what I’ve read recently from Joel Fuhrman, M.D., I’ve decided to add vitamin D, zinc, and iodine (since for the most part I’ve stopped using table salt, which as Matt R. explained, is most people’s main source) each day.

Why not just take a multivitamin that has a huge amount of every nutrient you could possibly need? Well, I don’t think it’s quite as simple as “just taking a multivitamin as a backup to be safe” — to me (and many others, from whom I’ve learned), taking a pharmaceutical dose of something you might already get enough of doesn’t seem so smart. I understand the argument that we excrete many of the excess vitamins and nutrients we get, making for rather expensive urine but no other side effects, but I’m not confident enough in our understanding of nutrition to believe that’s all there is to it.

I’d rather get what I can by eating a wide variety of whole foods, including lots of fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts and seeds, and supplement with the few things that, for one reason or another, this diet and our modern lifestyle likely don’t provide in adequate amounts.

The 4-Hour Body’s Plant-Based Experiment

The list of nutrients above was part of Tim’s first of two “Meatless Machine” chapters in The 4-Hour Body (yes, two chapters are devoted completely to plant-based diets!). In the Meatless Machine II, Tim details a 28-day experiment undertaken by John Berardi, PhD, omnivore and founder of Precision Nutrition, to see if he could gain muscle on an almost 100% vegan diet. It’s an interesting note to end this long post on.

Berardi’s experiment, at least in terms of mass-gaining, was a success. He gained 7 pounds — 4.9 pounds of muscle, 2.1 pounds of fat. (See the complete details and the results of the experiment if you’re interested.)

So why “almost” 100% vegan? Berardi ate 3 eggs with a slice of cheese on top each morning as part of his breakfast. There’s not a ton of explanation given; from what I can tell it looks like Berardi just loves eggs and included them to make the experiment easier. He also ate a few tablespoons of honey each day. When asked in The 4-Hour Body what he thought would have happened if he hadn’t included the eggs in his diet, Berardi says, “Same exact results, I think.”

Berardi also took a lot of supplements, including Vitamins B-12 and D, for which, even with 5,600 daily calories from mostly whole foods, he felt short of the recommended daily allowances before supplementing. The cost of his extra supplementation was offset by what he saved in food cost, dispelling the myth that eating vegan has to be expensive.

None of this is to say it went so well that Berardi decided to never again look at a piece of meat — his conclusion is that it is definitely possible to be healthy as a vegan, even for athletes, without the use of protein supplements, but probably requires guidance “if muscle building or high-level sport performance is the goal.”

Berardi does have some good things to say about plant-based diets though:

Speaking as an omnivore, in our quest for filling one-third of our plate with animal flesh, sometimes we forget to think about what the other two-thirds should be filled with. And that can be a big, gut-expanding, health-degrading mistake … Proper vegans tend to eat more whole, natural, locally produced, and unprocessed foods than most omnivores. This means things like raw nuts and seeds, whole grains like quinoa and amaranth, and a locally grown bounty of fruits and veggies. That’s all they eat, so they make sure they do it right.

I’ll end on this note, since it’s the most important benefit of this diet that I’ve noticed in my own experience.

The key, though? That last line. Make sure you do it right.

And then I’ll do it again.

And again.

And again and again, for 12 straight hours, until the gun sounds at 10pm. If all goes well, I hope to cover 100K, or 62 miles, during the time. Twenty 5K laps.

The funny thing is, even though this format of racing is new to me, I’ve never felt more relaxed about an ultra. Partly, it’s because this isn’t my “A” race — although it’s technically a race, the real purpose is to serve as my longest training run for the Burning River 100-miler in eight weeks.

But it’s not just that it’s a training run — I mean, it’s still an ultra, and 12 hours is almost two hours longer than I’ve ever run before. There are a bunch of reasons why this time, I’m not at all worried about running all day.

(By the way, this post is just sort of a recap of my training and the issues I’m thinking about with this run. I’m certainly not breaking any new ground in the sport of ultrarunning with my training and nutrition strategies, but still I imagine that a few people, especially those who want to run an ultra someday, might find it interesting.)

1. There is no finish line.

I chose a 12-hour race instead of a 50-miler or 100K for one main reason: there’s no physical end to reach. No binary measure of success/failure, and as a result, very little mental stress. I hope.

My memories of previous ultras involve their share of physical discomfort (read: pain), but the mental battle is always just as taxing as the physical one. Regardless of distance, it seems, when you’re in that dark zone between 60 and 80 percent of the way through an ultra, there’s a huge temptation to quit.

You’re well into the race, so you’re tired and things hurt. But if there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, you can’t see it yet, and it feels as if you never will. And so the quit / this is hopeless / I’m never running or blogging or even talking to anyone ever again alarm starts sounding.

Without a finish line or a real distance goal, there should be none of that poppycock on Saturday. The loops will be monotonous, no doubt. But if I can get past the mind-numbingness — and I think I can, with the help of a few podcasts on my iPod — then the day might be, dare I say it, a relaxing one. The way I see it, if I get tired, I’ll chill out and walk for a while, knowing that clock is ticking just as fast then as it is when I run. It’s not like a normal ultra, where slowing down or walking only prolongs the agony.

It’s not that I don’t like challenges — to the contrary, I think a craving for that mental battle underlies my and other ultrarunners’ desire to push ourselves to the breaking point. But because I know how draining it can be — and because I know how tough a test the 100 will be — I’ll enjoy the change of pace.

2. I’m prepared.

The last time I ran a 50-miler, my training felt thrown together, at best.

A month before that race, I decided I was not going to run it — it had been a ridiculously hot summer and I just never put the miles in. But after I hung up the phone when I called my buddy to tell him I wasn’t going to be running in Vermont, I felt like I had chickened out. So I ran a 20-miler and a 30-miler in a two-week stretch, rested for two weeks, and then went and did the 50.

This time, I’ve been much more dedicated. With the new baby, there have been some hitches in my training in the past month, but I’ve built a pretty solid base of hill training with several 20+ mile runs, including a 24-miler, a few back-to-back long runs, and more 7-milers than I care to think about.

Why not even more miles than that? Well, my 100-miler training program from Relentless Forward Progress actually calls for a 50-miler just five weeks before the 100. My 12-hour race (which I’m doing instead of a 50) happens to fall eight weeks before the 100, but I decided to make it work, since it’s so geographically convenient for me. By scheduling the big run early, I didn’t have time for the 50K training run that should have preceded it. Instead, I’ll do that 50K run after this race with my extra weeks before the 100.

So while it would be nice to have a 30+ mile run under my belt going into this one, I feel pretty good about my fitness level. Most of my training has been on much hillier terrain than this 12-hour race will be, and my somewhat spotty training during the past month coincided well with tapering. I’m excited to see what I can do.

3. It’s just a big old experiment!

When runners ask me about fueling for their marathon, I tell them to use their long runs as precious opportunities to experiment. You don’t want to show up on race day trying something new for the first time — and you especially don’t want to show up with no plan at all.

While I have in my head the goal of running 100K in 12 hours, it really doesn’t make much difference to my training whether I run 55 or 65 miles. My real goal is to learn as much as I can about running for this amount of time, and how I handle food and other elements of such a long race.

Here’s what I’ll be paying special attention to during the 12-hour, in preparation for the 100:

• Food. My plan is to eat only fresh, whole dates, along with water and sports drink. I know that after a few hours I’ll be tempted to eat starchy, salty foods, but Byron Powell has me convinced they’re only for mental comfort, that sugar is what you need. If I cave, so be it, but I want to stick with the dates as long as possible to see if that’s a viable strategy for the 100, or at least the first half of the 100 before all bets are off. It certainly would simplify the food situation.
• Electrolytes. It’s supposed to be a high of 80 degrees F on Saturday, and running in the heat will be good practice for the big race in July. I’ve been reading a lot about ultra training and still don’t have a solid plan for electrolyte replacement; this weekend will be a good opportunity to try out a precise, electrolytes-per-hour approach.
• Pace. I’d really like to run the 100 in 24 hours, which takes a 14:24 mile pace. But I’ve heard that because there’s so much inevitable slowing in the second half of a 100, you need to run your first half relatively fast, rather than trying to run negative splits like you do with a marathon. Essentially, my pace for a 12-hour 100K (11:36 per mile) is only slightly faster than what I’m told I should run for the first half of my 100 if I want to break 24 hours. At the end of my first 50 when I asked, exhausted, an experienced ultrarunner friend how anyone possibly runs a 100 miles, he said, “It’s a mindset thing.” Well, I’m going to try as hard as I can to rehearse that mindset on Saturday.

So that’s about all there is to it! I’ve got a nice easy taper week ahead of me — just five miles and three miles, with a rest day in between, before the big boy on Saturday.

Parting requests:

1. What’s your go-to podcast that I must absolutely listen to?

2. If you’ve run a race like this before and have any advice to share, I can definitely use it!

And one more thing: If my babbling on about ultras piques your curiosity, check out the podcast episode that we did with Bryon Powell, author of the training plan I’m using, about running your first ultra.

We’re also not getting any sleep. Which doesn’t slow down our three-year old one bit, so the fun is compounded.

Every minute, morning and night, it seems, is occupied by a kid. Our house is a happy, lived-in, played-in wreck right now, and it’s all I can do to carve out an hour to run each day. (Mega-props to my wife, Erin, for holding down the fort while I got in 24 miles on Sunday in preparation for my 12-hour race, in just nine days.)

So you can bet the coffee is flowing. But although I’m a bit more caffeinated than usual (on my second cup, as I write this), I’m pretty proud of how well we’ve managed to keep eating well, during this time when I’m sure we need good nutrition more than ever.

Almost every night, we’re tempted to “just get takeout, tonight, and then we’ll get on top of things after that.” While the latter is proving elusive, I must admit we’ve done a good job of cooking all our meals and avoiding the 40-dollar bill (minimum) that accompanies takeout.

So I thought I’d write a quick list of the way we’re making healthy food work when we’ve got zero time — not so that you can weather the storm your next newborn brings with him or her, but in hopes that maybe you’ll find one of our strategies helpful with whatever keeps you busy, day to day.

How to Eat Healthy When You’re Short on Time

1. If you can find a free 15 minutes, make a huge batch of a high-energy, healthy snack that you can grab throughout the day to keep everyone happy. Before we had our first child, we made an amazing peanut butter granola with pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, almonds, and dried cherries. This time, it was seasoned, smoky almonds glazed in maple syrup. Both recipes are in my book that comes out in the fall, but in the meantime, it’s not hard to find homemade granola or trail mix recipes (I’ve got a bunch listed on the recipes page here). Or pickup a pre-made one at Whole Foods or from the farmers market, knowing that the additional five or ten bucks you spend will save you lots of stress and probably an impulse takeout meal.

2. Use the Dr. Seuss meal planning strategy to limit the possibilities and make it easier to choose what to make, quickly. In other words: find one main ingredient that either you already have (the best case) or is in season. Once you’ve committed to the star ingredient, it’s easy to narrow down recipe options or do a quick Google search for a recipe based on it. Often, this leads to the realization that you have everything you need to make a recipe, or can easily substitute a few ingredients to avoid a time-costly trip to the store.

3. Don’t ignore the prepared foods counter at Whole Foods. I don’t mean the hot foods bar, which is uber-expensive and not that good, but the cold deli counter, where they sell pre-formed veggie burgers or tempeh salads. They list all the ingredients right there for you, and most of them actually are whole foods (somebody was thinking when they named their store!). In a pinch, spending just a few dollars extra here can prevent the food-binge takeout trip, and the effort to heat up your food in a pan or toaster is minimal. Example: dinner tonight in the Frazier house is fresh black bean burgers — I got four of them yesterday, weighing over a pound total, for six bucks.

4. Give yourself a break, and buy some of the other foods you normally make. If you’re reading this, I bet you’re weird like we are, and pride yourself on making what most people buy. Hummus, almond butter, granola, pizza dough … all of these foods are things we normally make from scratch. They’re also all foods I’ve bought in the past week. There’s a recurring theme here: spend a little bit more than you usually do, for something slightly less healthy than you usually eat, in order to stave off the big, unhealthy, expensive takeout trip which can quickly become a habit.

5. Put out a healthy snack bowl for the kids. And the grown ups. We got this idea from Dr. Joel Fuhrman in his book Disease Proof Your Child: Every day, we put out a healthy snack on the table so that anyone who walks by can grab a handful. Sometimes it’s a simple trail mix, other times it’s vegetables with hummus or almond butter or goddess dressing to dip in. The idea here is that if everybody grazes throughout the day, people stay happy and nobody wants to cannibalize the sweet little newborn when mealtime arrives an hour late, for some unforeseen but inevitable reason.

6. Love the sandwich. For the most part, I’ve stopped eating sandwiches since I went vegetarian and eventually vegan. Without the meat or at the very least the cheese, I can admit that the thrill is gone. But that doesn’t mean they’re not still the ultimate healthy and convenient meal. Buy some sprouted Ezekiel bread (4 or 5 grams of protein per slice), load it up with whatever vegetables you’ve got around and a good shmear of hummus, and you’ve got a lunch to tide you over. (For car trips, we’ll just do almond butter on Ezekiel bread or hummus without the veggies — our son loves this lunch.) The popular one in our house these days involves hummus, avocado, tomato, the leafy green du jour, homemade vinaigrette and a pinch of sea salt.

7. Make salad ‘n’ beans sexy. Cold beans on a salad, even for lunch, sounds awful to me. It’s what I used to think you had to eat all the time if you were vegan, switching out the beans for spongy tofu when you were feeling really saucy. But here’s how I’ve come to love the old S ‘n’ B: Take a can of chickpeas, drain and rinse, then dry well. Toss the chickpeas in 1 tablespoon flour, then put them in a skillet over high heat with a teaspoon of hot oil so that they crisp up a bit. Season with salt and black pepper, then add to your salad. Sure, the flour and oil probably make the beans slightly less healthy than without, but come on — you’re eating a big-ass salad for dinner! The warm, salty, slightly crispy chickpeas absolutely make the salad meal-worthy, especially if you include some high-calorie, high-nutrient foods like avocado, hemp seeds, nuts, etc. And the total prep time is probably 10 minutes.

On that note … add beans to everything you can; they’re an easy way to substantiate and up the nutrient content of any meal. Twice I’ve made pasta al arrabbiata in the past three weeks, since we had the stuff we needed on hand, and both times I threw in a cup and a half of cannellini beans we had made ahead of time and frozen (a can works, too, of course) — to make a healthy meal out of one that would otherwise fall just short, in my opinion.

8. Simplify the smoothie. I’d be remiss not to mention smoothies in a post on quick, simple, nutritious food (or any post, for that matter ). Those times when I can’t count on all of my meals being rich in nutrients, I can always count on my old blended buddy the smoothie to deliver. The way to keep it from becoming a preparation beast of its own is to take a few minutes and put all your dry base ingredients (seeds, protein powder, etc) into single-serving, reusable cups, so you can store them in the fridge and just pop one open to dump into the blender instead of having to get out all the stuff, every time.

9. Go back to basics with a grain, a green, and a bean. This meal is a miracle for four reasons — it’s substantial and healthy, you almost always have the ingredients on hand, active prep time is almost zero, and it dirties only one pot. I like adding some rice to a version of this one, and tossing in tons of baby spinach during the last few minutes.

And one more …

As I was putting this list together, I thought of a few more little tips that didn’t lend themselves well to a list, and the most important of them is this:

Do everything you can to pick up one or two extra meals at the grocery store when you go. Nothing eats up your time like going to the grocery store every single day — and I definitely tend to fall into this habit when things get busy.

But recently, when I run to pick up the ingredients for a meal, I’ve been able to improvise and grab more stuff that I know I can make into something good for the next night or two. Base your choices, again, on what vegetables look good or what you know you have at home in the freezer. You’ll get better at this as you cook more and become comfortable with making substitutions in case you forgot to pick up something. This is also a time when swinging by the prepared foods counter can be a lifesaver.

Whatever your method, it feels great to know you’ve got 2 or 3 minimal-effort meals in the hopper so you can grab an extra 20 minutes to kick back with a mojito in the evening. Or not.

Alrighty, that’s all for now. I’m sure somewhere in the house there’s a diaper that needs changing or a story that needs reading or a scraped knee that needs kissing — not to mention seven miles that need running — so I should probably get to work. See you soon!

As he walked up the stairs, Rich had to stop, bend over and catch his breath before he could continue. Sweat was on his brow. The stress and busyness of life on the partnership track at a law firm had taken their toll on the body of this former Stanford swimmer.

Instead of blaming his work or coming up with another excuse, Rich did what most people don’t. He seized the moment. He decided then and there that things would change — that things had to change.

It’s hard to believe that just two years after the staircase incident, Rich finished one of the most grueling endurance events on the planet — Ultraman, essentially a double Ironman-distance stage triathlon — in 11th place, no less. And the following year, Men’s Fitness magazine named him one of the 25 Fittest Guys in the World. (Oh, and did I mention Rich did it all on a plant-based diet?)

In this episode of No Meat Athlete Radio, Doug and I had the absolute pleasure of hanging out with Rich, author of Finding Ultra and now host of the wildly popular Rich Roll podcast, to pick his brain about the behaviors and mindset that allowed him to make such dramatic changes, going from overweight and unhealthy at age 40 to one of the most famous vegan athletes in the world — all in the span of about two years.

We’ve also got a special giveaway with this episode: to celebrate the debut of the paperback edition of Finding Ultra (affiliate link) next week (that’s May 21), Rich and his publisher, Three Rivers Press, have generously provided several copies for some lucky NMA Radio listeners! (I also somehow ended up with an extra copy of the hardcover version, so I’ll throw that in the pot too.)

Here’s how you get your hat in the ring to try to win one:

1. If you just want to do the bare minimum, leave a comment on this post. On May 21 (the day the paperback edition is released), we’ll randomly draw winners and announce them in the comments section here.

2. As the Chotchkie’s manager in Office Space says, “Look, we want you to express yourself, okay? Now if you feel that the bare minimum is enough, then okay. But some people choose to wear more, and we encourage that.” So show your flair and get a second entry by leaving us a rating and honest review on iTunes (and letting us know here that you did).

Good luck, and enjoy this inspiring episode!

Click the button below to listen now:

Download audio file (nmaradio12.mp3)

Or:

• Click here to download the MP3 file (you may need to right-click and “save link as”)
• Subscribe to the show on iTunes

As always, please leave us a rating and review on iTunes if you like the show, so that we know to keep ‘em coming!

Doug, Rich, and Matt at DC Vegfest 2012.

Links from the show:

• Rich Roll’s Website
• The Rich Roll Podcast (iTunes)
• Finding Ultra
• Jai Seed Cookbook
• 7 Day Vegan
• From Chicken-Fried Steak to 26.2 Miles on Plants: Wendy’s Story
• Couch Potato to Ironman — In 20 Months (Susan Lacke’s story)
• The 4-Hour Workweek
• 10 Uncommon Superfoods from the World of Ultra-Endurance (Rich’s post on Tim Ferriss’ blog)
• Why Vegans and Paleos Should Stop Hating Each Other
• No Meat Athlete Triathlon Roadmap

Thanks for listening, and special thanks to Rich for taking the time to chat with us and share his insight and wisdom. Check out his podcast to hear more from Rich every week.

Most of the foods that I eat — and those in a typical healthy vegan diet (as opposed to the junk-food variety) — are Paleo.

Sure, the seeds are iffy. And I probably eat beans three or four times a week, and even wheat once in a while, which Paleos wouldn’t do.

But beyond that, the foods on my list, by and large, could have been eaten by a caveman.

Guess what? The converse is true, too. Most (yes, most) of a Paleo dieter’s foods are vegan. They’re whole foods, including a ton of vegetables and nuts, a fair amount of fruits, and no dairy.

Though we focus on the differences in our diets, and fight like pissed-off hornets as a result, the healthy versions of both Paleo and vegan diets look an awful lot alike.

Here are just a few of the things we agree on:

• Vegetables are good, and organic vegetables are better.
• Nuts are good.
• Fruits are good (with some qualifications).
• Fast food is awful.
• It isn’t natural or healthy for adult humans to drink milk meant for baby cows.
• Whole food is crucial; we should eat food as close to its natural state as possible.
• Processed food is evil, and there’s something very wrong with the system that is foisting it upon us.

Do you realize what a small minority these shared beliefs put us in?

Each day, 1 in 4 Americans eats fast food. Forty-four percent eat it once per week!

Only about a quarter of Americans never eat fast food, so we’ve got a lot in common already, without even considering our common avoidance of dairy. I can’t find a figure for how exclusive a group it is that doesn’t consume dairy, but and as NY Times columnist and Vegan Before 6 advocate Mark Bittman puts it, “Drinking milk is as American as Mom and apple pie.”

And we still haven’t even cordoned ourselves off from the masses who buy mostly processed, packaged foods to eat at home — the vast majority of whoever remains after we eliminate fast food and dairy, I’m sure.

Essentially, those of us who avoid fast food, pass on milk, and choose whole foods are the weirdos, in a world of processed food and rapidly expanding waistlines.

Even when it comes to meat — the “staple” of the Paleo diet (more on this in a second) — I think most Paleos would agree that what our factory farm system produces, whether due to the way the animals are confined or what they’re fed or what’s injected into them, is not healthy.

And the healthiest vegan athletes, by my judgement anyway, advocate limiting grains or avoiding them entirely. Very often they rely on pseudograins like quinoa (technically seeds) instead, which don’t jive with Paleo, but I think most Paleos would agree that seeds trump wheat and grains any day.

Basically: we’re far more alike than we are different.

So why do we hate each other?

I get that the ethical issues muddy things up a bit. Vegans hate that Paleos so proudly eat meat; Paleos hate that vegans try to tell them something that humans have done throughout our history is suddenly wrong.

But for now, let’s put that aside, and acknowledge that if all meat-eaters ate meat raised the way the Paleo diet specifies it should be, our food system would be a heck of a lot more humane (and healthy) than it currently is.

Speaking of meat, I asked my online-buddy Joel Runyon, what he thought about the vegan/Paleo feud, he had this to say:

The biggest misconception about the paleo diet is that it’s all about eating meat. Not true! Paleo is about eating whole, real food that hasn’t been processed a thousand times & packed with tons of sugar.

And as he explains on his new site, Ultimate Paleo Guide,

… that means no twinkies, oreos or your favorite breakfast cereal. Sorry, but we’re not sorry … if it’s got a bunch of chemicals that you can’t pronounce in it, it’s probably not paleo – sorry!

Gee, sounds a lot like how I eat.

We can argue forever over which diet is better. Guess what? Nobody is going to convince anyone to switch sides; the argument just entrenches each camp even more.

Who is to say what “better” even means? Do we look at pro athletes and see what they’re eating? Okay, in which sports — endurance, or speed and strength sports? Or should we instead choose not to look at the healthiest, most genetically gifted individuals on the planet, and instead focus on the masses of people who just want to stay reasonably fit and live to see their grandkids graduate high school?

Do we theorize about how humans are meant to eat, or should we look at empirical studies of how humans on these diets have actually fared? (Of which, unfortunately, there are few that isolate the variables we want and span a significant length of time.)

There’s no right answer. Sorry. But in the face of the obesity epidemic our processed-food society faces, it doesn’t matter.

That’s right — when you set ethics aside and talk about health, my view is that is that the distinction between Paleo and vegan is completely insignificant.

As time goes on and more research is done, it’ll be nice to have a clearer picture of which of these two diets leads to long-term disease prevention and health. That I wholeheartedly concede.

But most people — indeed, the 35 percent of Americans who are obese — don’t need to worry about which is better right now. They need to worry about not being obese, soon, so that the “long-term” even matters for them.

And for those people, people who are overwhelmed with the conflicting information out there and don’t know where to even begin, our blog posts and articles that trash one diet in favor of the other don’t help. Instead, they confuse, to the point of inaction.

Vegan ultra-endurance athlete Rich Roll had an interesting discussion about this same topic last week on his podcast, where he talked to Andy Bellatti, MS, RD about the pointlessness of the Paleo/vegan feud. Before they even got to it, Rich mentioned a friend of his who wanted to get in shape.

Like any friend of one of Men’s Fitness magazine’s 25 Fittest Guys in the World would do, this friend called Rich. He wanted to pick Rich’s brain about exercise. Aerobic, or anaerobic?, along with other specific questions.

Rich’s answer? Get yourself outside and go for a walk. That’s how you get started. That’s as much as you need to worry about right now.

And that’s really the point I want to make with this post. Ignoring ethical arguments, which don’t have a place in a discussion that’s purely about health, the message that people who don’t know how to eat healthily need to hear is as simple as the dietary equivalent of a walk in the sunshine.

It’s a recommendation that Paleos and vegans alike will agree on: Eat whole foods.

What we could do instead of fighting

We want so many of the same things.

We want people to be healthy. We want farming to be separate from the word “factory.” We want our food system to provide us with real food, and to treat people, animals, and the earth with respect.

So instead of fighting, let’s do some things together.

The posts on No Meat Athlete about plant-based Paleo diets are a start. Dena Harris went further with it by creating PaleoVegetarians.com.

But these aren’t even what I’m referring to — these simply make Paleo fit into a vegetarian/vegan-shaped mold. They’re as Paleo as possible while still being strictly vegan or vegetarian.

Why not throw away the mold entirely? I think Vegan Before 6 is great. Why isn’t there a podcast with vegan and Paleo co-hosts, who get along and have intelligent discussions and promote eating whole foods above all else? How about a blogger who eats vegan during the week and Paleo on the weekends? How about vegan at home, Paleo at restaurants?

(If any these things exist, which they might, I’d love to hear about them. I’d probably be a fan.)

I’m not suggesting we throw away the labels. Vegan means a lot to me, for ethical reasons and for health-related ones too. I’m sure Paleos feel the same about their tribe. I’m just saying let’s work together, instead of against each other, for the good of everyone who simply wants to learn to be healthy, and doesn’t care how.

I understand that some vegans will be turned off by this post (Paleos too, but that’s no surprise, given the very rift I’m writing about!). We’ve taught ourselves to disdain everything Paleo, and I’ve met plenty of vegans for whom it’s vegan or nothing — flexitarian, pescetarian, vegetarian … none of them is any good if it’s not 100 percent vegan.

This is where I’m different. I’d rather see 100 people go mostly vegan than 25 people go all the way. 1000 people go Vegan-Before-6 than 100 go vegan. And I’d take a million Paleos over a million Standard American Dieters any day. This is why I don’t hate the Paleo diet, or its legions of adherents.

Oh yeah, and there’s a more personal reason I don’t want to hate Paleos. My dad has gone Paleo (or Primal, really) in the past year, and I’ve been happy to see the improvements — yes, improvements — in his diet and his health since he started. Which is convenient, since I really didn’t want to fight my dad anyway.

Before Paleo, he ate like most people did. Now, he pays attention to what he eats, making sure to have a salad every day, bringing fruit and a homemade sandwich to work, cooking most of his food, and avoiding most dairy and wheat. He eats meat, of course, but no more than he used to, at least as far as I can tell, and he cares about how the animals it comes from were fed and raised. He gets eggs directly from a small local farm you can go visit, and has even mentioned wanting to raise his own chickens.

I don’t think I need to point out that I’m not arguing for Paleo. I’m arguing for whole food, food that is easy to pronounce and prepare and doesn’t make a secret of where it came from. Call it whatever you want.

That’s what will make the difference in people’s health and in our food system, and it’s neither Paleo nor vegan. Whole food is both, and that common ground, along with tremendous passion we all have for healthy eating, is something we should leverage if we want to make a real difference.

They’re fun, sure, and everybody likes saying “Hey, I eat that one already!” But as far as actually helping us to eat better, lists like these are pretty worthless.

The problem? None of them helps you to eat these foods habitually. We see the list, we make a mental note to eat more X, Y, and Z, and then we forget we ever read it as soon as someone sends us a cat video.

With that in mind, I present my version of the list — with a twist. The foods here are the ones I actually do eat every single day for their health benefits, but more importantly, I explain how I make sure to eat each one.

You’ll see that incorporating these foods daily (or any food you want to eat daily) is like creating any other habit.

You’ll also see why I link to the Perfect Smoothie Formula so often, and believe that adopting just this one habit can make a dramatic difference in your health. 

Here they are, in roughly the order that I eat them each day.

1. Berries.

Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries are perennial favorites on Top 10 Superfoods lists, so I’m sure this won’t be the first time you’ve heard that they’re packed with cancer-fighting antioxidants, and that they can slow the aging process and prevent heart disease, among many, many other good things.

How I get them each day: A few handfuls in my smoothie, first thing in the morning. I almost always use frozen, which aren’t much worse than fresh in terms of nutrition, but when they’re in season and I can get them at the farmers market, I’ll use fresh.

2. Broccoli. 

Still not breaking any new ground here — everyone knows that broccoli is good for you. Besides the commonly cited reasons to eat broccoli, like its Vitamin C and A contents and its anti-cancer, anti-heart disease properties, broccoli is rich in calcium and even protein (but by weight, not volume, so enough with the “broccoli has more protein than steak” arguments already).

The problem, of course, is that most people don’t eat it. I actually think well cooked (i.e., crisp-tender) broccoli is delicious, but if broccoli with dinner isn’t your thing, try it in the morning. That’s right.

How I get it each day: In my smoothie. Whenever we cook broccoli for dinner (which is often), we chop up the stem and freeze it along with any leftover florets. We toss a handful of these into the smoothie (along with the tops of strawberries, which we save in the same container), and our Blendtec takes care of the rest.

3. Pumpkin seeds. 

Pumpkin seeds, also called pepitas, offer a host of benefits and are a good source of protein, but the main reason I eat them: iron. Iron is one of the more common deficiencies for vegetarians and vegans, and although you can get it in other vegan iron sources like beans, grains, and veggies, it’s nice to know I’m starting each morning with some.

How I get them each day: Smoothie, again. Use about a 3 tablespoons of raw pumpkin seeds for two smoothies.

4. Chia seeds.

Thanks in part to their prominence in the Tarahumara diet explored in Chris McDougall’s Born to Run, chia seeds are enjoying their moment in the sun. As McDougall writes:

In terms of nutritional content, a tablespoon of chia is like a smoothie made from salmon, spinach, and human growth hormone. As tiny as those seeds are, they’re superpacked with omega-3s, omega-6s, protein, calcium, iron, zinc, fiber, and antioxidants. If you had to pick just one desert island food, you couldn’t do much better than chia, at least if you were interested in building muscle, lowering cholesterol, and reducing your risk of heart disease …

Sold. Even if the above overstates the case a bit.

How I get them each day: Smoothie, again. Use 2 tablespoons of chia seeds for two smoothies. (I get them in a bag and keep them in the fridge.)

5. Flax seeds.

Flax seeds offer a bunch of nutritional benefits and are relatively high in protein, B-vitamins, and phytochemicals, but mainly, I eat them for the omega-3s.

If you don’t mind grinding seeds each day — or better, if you have a high speed blender that will do the job for you — get flax seed in whole form. You’ll need to grind it in order for your body to absorb the nutrients, but if you let the powder sit around, it’ll go rancid quickly (as high nutrient foods often do).

How I get them each day: Where else? Smoothie. Use 2 tablespoons of flax seeds for two smoothies.

6. Brazil nuts.

If any of the foods on my list is controversial, it’s this one. Besides fighting the Big 3 (cancer, heart disease, and aging), Brazil nuts are extremely high in selenium, which helps with testosterone production. You hear a lot about decreasing testosterone levels among aging men, but a 2007 study showed a population-level decline of testosterone levels in American males.

Vegan superathlete Rich Roll mentions in Finding Ultra that he eats Brazil nuts for testosterone production, and Tim Ferriss suggests the same in the 4-Hour Body. (Although testosterone is less important for women, it’s not something to ignore entirely, especially for the over-50 set.)

While I haven’t had a blood panel done, if this simple self-test [warning: slightly NSFW] is worth anything, the Brazils are working.

The controversy around Brazil nuts is threefold:

First, they contain a fairly high amount of saturated fat. Not a big concern for me or most other vegans, since plant foods for the most part contain very little saturated fat.

Second, they contain more radium (a naturally occurring radioactive element) than any other food. This amount is small compared to environmental sources, though, and the body absorbs very little, so Brazil nuts are not believed to pose a serious health risk.

Finally, while some selenium is essential, too much is a bad thing. Further, Brazil nuts vary drastically in selenium content depending on their age and whether they’re shelled or not. For this reason, I limit the amount I eat to between one and four Brazils each day.

How I get them each day: After I write for 30-60 minutes each morning, I take a little break. During that break, I eat 1 to 4 brazil nuts, with Super Exciting Bonus (below). When I used to take a multivitamin, I took it during this break as well.

Super Exciting Bonus: B-12 supplement. 

Look, if you’re vegan (or perhaps even if you’re a vegetarian who eats dairy), don’t mess around with B-12 deficiency. There are all kinds of myths floating around out there — the one I fell for was that it will take many, many years after you stop eating animal products for a deficiency to develop. This isn’t true, and I believe I experienced some of the symptoms last year until I started taking a supplement.

Some people will argue you can get B-12 from chlorella or “dirty produce,” but why risk it? By the way, get your B-12 in methylcobalamin form, instead of the cheaper and more common cyanocobalamin, which is not absorbed well.

How I get it each day: After eating brazil nut(s), I take a 1000 mcg B-12 lozenge (as methylcobalamin), dissolved under the tongue.

7. Green tea.

Besides being an anti-oxidant powerhouse, green tea is an anti-angiogenesis food, meaning it “starves” cancer cells by inhibiting blood vessel grown in tumors. (At least that’s my understanding; see Dr. William Li’s TED talk on the topic.)

Green tea happens to be delicious and extremely interesting, in the same way that wine is, and I’m on a bit of a green tea journey myself. Dragonwell is still my favorite, but I often drink Sencha and Liu’an Gaupian too.

How I get it each day: During afternoon break from work — I either brew it fresh or drink it out of the fridge, where I store it in a beer growler, since the leaves are good for 3+ infusions and I can never drink that much at once. I drink it alongside dark chocolate (below).

8. Dark chocolate.

Another antioxidant-rich, anti-angiogenesis food, and another delicious one at that. I used to hate dark chocolate as a kid, but my tastes have gradually changed. Now I can’t get enough of 88% Cacao Endangered Species chocolate, and I don’t feel bad about eating a lot of it, as the fat and sugar contents are minuscule compared to what’s in the sweet stuff.

Read about many, many more reasons to eat dark chocolate every day, from Mark’s Daily Apple.

How I get it each day: During afternoon break from work, about half an ounce, with green tea (above).

9. Dark, leafy greens.

A no-brainer. If there’s a single food most of us need to eat more of, it’s dark, leafy greens. Just a few of the options — spinach, kale, collards, chard, arugula, and others on this infographic. Eat them raw as often as possible, wash them well, and vary your choices so that you’re not eating the same one over and over, to avoid potential dangers of concentrated heavy metals.

How I get it each day: Salad before dinner (if I didn’t already eat one at lunch).

10. Avocado.

It’s not just for guacamole anymore. Avocado packs high levels of healthy monounsatured fats to help lower bad cholesterol and raise good cholesterol levels, along with lots of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients. Honestly though, for me it’s the calories. The fat (and hence, total calorie) levels of avocados might be a concern for some, but as a vegan runner who goes through tons of calories, I don’t know of many whole food sources that are as densely packed with energy.

How I get it each day: Half an avocado with salad before dinner (if I didn’t already eat one at lunch). Occasionally, on a sandwich with Ezekiel bread for lunch.

Other Foods I Eat Several Times a Week

Though I eat the above foods every day, they’re really only a small part of my diet. There are many others that I eat several times a week, or even every day, but not as part of a habitual routine like the ones above. In short, these foods that show up in a lot of the recipes I cook anyway.

• Beans
• Assorted fruits, mostly oranges, apples, and bananas
• Raw nuts, especially almonds and walnuts (usually in raw trail mix from Whole Foods)
• Coconut products (coconut manna/butter, coconut oil, coconut milk)
• Garlic
• Turmeric
• Ginger
• Tomatoes (usually cooked, since this helps increase levels of cancer-fighting lycopene)
• Lemon juice (you can get the previous 5 foods in a single Indian meal, which is partly why my family eats so much Indian food!)
• Dates (usually only while I’m running)

Three Points to Note

I hope you’ve noticed three things in particular about this list.

1. It’s not about the food, really. Many people will disagree with my choices and omissions, and that’s cool. What I hope you get out of this post, more than anything, is the idea that you can treat eating superfoods like any other habit. Adding a certain food or two to your diet happens to be a very easy habit to start, so use standard habit-change procedures to incorporate the foods you want into your life.

2. I didn’t include obscure superfoods. There are lots of foods out there that blow away most of these in terms of certain nutrient contents, but I tend to eat pretty simply. If you’re into superfoods and don’t mind searching high and low for them, the list to check out is the one Rich Roll posted on Tim Ferriss’ blog: 10 Uncommon Superfoods from the World of Ultra-Endurance.

3. There are two other foods (drinks, really) that I consume just about every day. These are a small cup of coffee, and either a beer or a glass of wine. I don’t necessarily believe they’re healthy — I know articles touting their benefits get passed around the workplace all the time, but I tend to think this is because we like to hear that coffee and alcohol are good for us. But it’s not that I think they’re bad, either. Each has pluses and minuses, and you need to decide for yourself if they’re good for you, because different people will value health issues differently.

For example, alcohol seems to reduce incidence of heart disease, but slightly increase the risk of some cancers (even in small amounts, like one drink per day). Since heart disease runs in my family more than cancer does, I’m okay with a drink each night. I’d be lying if I said that enjoyment didn’t play into this decision, but I’m not ashamed of this — happiness is a pretty big part of healthfulness.

The Unrelated PS, and a Request

Yesterday, I had the immense pleasure of being featured in an interview on Copyblogger.com. The interview isn’t about health and fitness, but rather about what I’ve done to build No Meat Athlete from a little journal of my experiment with vegetarianism into whatever it is today. I learned so much from Copyblogger to aid in that process, and if that interests you, I hope you’ll check out the interview. Thanks!

It’s been a while since I put up a collection of my favorites, so … here goes! The best ones we’ve gotten since the beginning of the year (as judged by me, based mainly on factors like coolness, absurdity, and general running-carrotness).

Enjoy!

NMA All-Stars

Gregg and Kellie, proud finishers of their first ultramarathon, the 50K Trail Mix Ultra in Minnesota. Yep, that’s snow.

Michael outfitted the Stop & Shop produce department, which could not possibly have been in the manual:

Oh, you know, just a typical first marathon — through Death Valley, home to the hottest temperature ever recorded on planet Earth! Way to pick an easy one for your first, Jeanette.

Susan and Heather, who collectively racked up over 110 miles during their 12-hour race!

A group of animal-rights loving zombies let Melissa pass by, and even gave her some high-fives (really!) during her Run for Your Lives Zombie 5K, but as happens all too often, the zombies got her in the end:

Tom, sporting NMA green (and a wig, I hope) on St. Patrick’s Day:

Paul, also on St. Paddy’s day, while perhaps not as festive as Tom, let his running do the talking with a sub-40 minute 10K!

Lily took 1st place in her age group in her very first 5K! Undefeated at the 5K distance!

Don’t mess with Kyle, aka the Vegan Grappler:

Claes, all the way from Paris (and I could have sworn that was Las Vegas in the background):

Emily, during her 45K trail run in the Victorian Alps (Australia) — I always do this in my races too.

 Helena, sporting the brand new NMA cycling jersey:

 Laura, showing off the back (at CicLAvia):

And finally, Asia before her Color Me Rad 5K …

… and Asia after. 

This is why we can’t have nice things.

Thanks to everyone for wearing your NMA shirts proudly and submitting them on Facebook. No Meat Athlete would be nothing without its peeps on the ground.

2 Ways to Get in on that Sweet Action

I know, I know … you’re just dying to know where you can get one too, to enjoy your 15 minutes of something not even remotely close to fame on the NMA blog. Well, you’re in luck!

1. You’ll find most of our stuff in the No Meat Athlete store. We just got a big shipment of shirts in, and just about everything is in stock except a few random sizes, and some of the men’s tanks.

2. Cycling jerseys and triathlon tops (shown at the bottom of this post) are only available by pre-order (they’re way too expensive to stock for little old us). You can order one now, but only through May 1, 2013. They take a while to process and print, so this batch is scheduled to be delivered in early August. Please consult the size chart before ordering, as the vendor can’t do exchanges or returns for sizing issues.

In the meantime, keep sending in those photos! This post was full of stupid jokes, but in all seriousness, thanks so much for representing No Meat Athlete at your races. It means the world to me and all of us at No Meat Athlete.