An amateur boxer, an Olympic sprinter and a former president – you’ll never guess what unites them.
C’mon, try.
It can drop the pounds, get rid of belly aches, improve your athletic performance and brighten your teeth. (OK, I made the last one up.) No wonder some folks swear by it, much less uber athletes and a powerful world figure.
It’s veganism, the new miracle diet. It’s just like the Paleo diet, the last miracle regimen, only without the meat. It demands you rebuff not just juicy steak and savory bacon, not just your mother’s chicken soup and your grandmother’s fried trout, but eggs, dairy and even honey. And if you’re really serious about it, you eschew any animal product at all – wool, leather, fur, cosmetics.
Nonetheless, former President Bill Clinton, gold-medal runner Carl Lewis and super-heavyweight champion Cam Awesome claim it plays into their success as athletes and competitors on any field.
I know only one honest-to-God vegan. She’s slight, young and super-fit with dusky brown hair, brilliant blue eyes and the habit of running 15 miles before breakfast just for fun. If veganism can do that for me, sign me up.
On the ethical issue, everyone I spoke with who kept a vegan diet said they did it because they saw it as the path to optimal health. While they agreed with the virtuous principles involved – treating all living creatures humanely – it was secondary to their pursuit of personal health. But keep in mind, this is fitness-crazed Durango, after all.
Still, local health-care practitioners tend to look on the diet as a difficult, if somewhat radical exercise. Most say they don’t recommend it for their average patient because it requires a lot of time and knowledge to navigate successfully.
They also point out the nutritional deficiencies of the diet because of the lack of animal protein, namely vitamin B12, vitamin D, amino acids and omega-3 fatty acids. Those things create a healthy body, repairing red blood cells that make it run properly.
“I’m not a huge fan of it,” says Durango naturopath Nancy Utter.
An athlete who tackles everything from mountain biking to telemark skiing to kayaking, she tried a vegetarian diet once and found it lacking. She craved steak, ate a lot of dairy products and didn’t get the nutrition she needed. While it’s possible to be vegan and healthy, she said, it’s a whole lot of work.
“I do think it’s possible, but it’s a big project. You have to be conscious of your food intake in a day.”
That involves planning meals to include enough protein and amino acids to fuel your body, and consuming beans, grains and copious amounts of green vegetables at almost every meal.
If you don’t, your body will revolt. Several local naturopaths said their vegan patients often arrive with some form of anemia and deficiencies in iron, calcium and vitamin D.
“You can be an unhealthy vegan,” said Stephanie Gall, lead clinical dietician of Mercy Regional Medical Center and a former vegan herself. “You can eat a lot refined carbohydrates like white bread and white rice, things that are without nutrients but are calorie-dense.”
But wait, what about Cam Awesome and Canadian figure skater Meagan Duhamel and my marathoner friend Aani Parrish, all of whom could pose for the front of a glossy magazine? Surely, there’s something healthy to this diet.
In fact, Parrish became a vegan specifically to boost her athletic performance and was pleased with the results – her running pace increased by 45 seconds a mile in a few months, she said. She also found the diet helped her digestive tract. One of the reasons she stays vegan, however, is for the ethical issues surrounding eating animals.
She concedes it’s not easy. You have to research the best ways to get enough protein and replace the nutrients you lose when you give up meat, dairy and eggs. She uses a protein supplement when she needs it, full of powdered greens, peas, savi seeds, brown rice and hemp.
It helps if you’re a good cook – Parrish can do wonders with a simple stir-fry and quinoa, and she has mastered the art of vegan baking, from apple muffins to black bean brownies. She rejects artificial egg replacements as a processed food and instead makes her own, grinding flax or chia seeds to a powder and mixing with water.
“Mostly though, I make sure that I’m eating a balanced diet of whole foods with quite a few beans, nuts, nut butters, nut milks and so on,” she wrote in an email. “Plants actually have enough protein to support a healthy diet, it’s just that most people don’t eat enough of them.”
Emyrald Sinclaire and Kirsten Gum, the first a registered dietician specializing in weight loss and cleansing and the second a vegan and raw food chef, agree. In town just a month, the two have rented a commercial kitchen and are working on opening a restaurant next year offering vegan meals like kale salads, quinoa dishes, raw brownies and more. (If you turn up your nose at raw food, you’ll change your tune when you taste their breakfast bars with goji berries.)
Meanwhile, the two teach classes at Surya Health and Well Being in downtown Durango on Monday evenings and at Tuesday lunch hour to show people how to cook tasty vegan food. In other words, you can be vegan and eat more than steamed broccoli and almond butter.
So, how do you make anything taste good without real butter or eggs?
Gum starts with three basics – fruits, vegetables and natural fats like avocado and walnut oils. To create their staple soups, salads and vegetable main courses, Sinclaire notes that nutritional yeast, spices and coconut oil are essential. Cumin, garlic, tamari, onion, fresh herbs – these are some of the secret ingredients the two use to lift their dishes above the usual vegetable fare.
“You have to think outside of the meat box,” said Sinclaire. “The meat-filled diet is a crutch.”
The vegan diet isn’t for everyone, of course. Gall gave it up so she could monitor the hospital’s food choices. Benedict Dugger, a fitness trainer and friend of Sinclaire’s, tried it and found it useful for short stretches to detoxify his body, but not as an everyday regime.
“The concern I have with vegan is the moment you restrict a diet, you have to compensate for it,” he said, “and you don’t end up healthier because of it.”
And even Sinclaire and Gum, who never eat meat, say they might indulge in fish or an egg once in a blue moon.
We live in a world where flexitarian is a hot new word and health and fitness experts are always on the look for the next best thing. Within that sphere, vegan is one more option in the search for health and well-being. If I could run as far as Parrish, sport biceps like Sinclaire’s and cook as well as Gum, it might just be worth it.
phasterok@durangoherald.com
Vegan Parsley-Pistachio Pesto
Note: Feel free to substitute any of your favorite nuts or seeds, taking care not to over-process or the oil in the nuts will separate.
Servings: 6
Ingredients:
2 cups fresh parsley, tightly packed
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons light miso
1 lemon juiced (or more to taste)
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon sea salt
½ cup raw pistachios (if you use roasted pistachios, omit sea salt)
Method:
Combine all ingredients except pistachios in a food processor outfitted with the “S” blade and mix into a paste.
Add the pistachios and pulse until desired consistency (creamy or chunky).
Refrigerate in sealed container for up to 5 days.
Serve with your favorite gluten-free pasta or quinoa.
Recipe courtesy of Kirsten Gum.
