As most of you may know already, I am not a fan of exclusionary diets. By “exclusionary” I mean diets that say you should not eat a particular food or group of foods. I personally believe that all natural and unprocessed food (including fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, meat, poultry, seafood, etc) has some health benefits that help create the well-rounded diet we all need. If you exclude a certain group of foods, it often creates a gap in micronutrients which therefore requires supplementation. Most of you also know that I don’t believe in most supplements aside from herbs or micronutrients that are truly hard to come by just as glucosamine. It is my personal belief that we are all best suited to get our micronutrients from whole foods and most fellow nutritionists would agree with me. Having said all of this, there are certain diets that I believe are more healthy and aid in longevity and cardiovascular health more so than others and those diets are (but not limited to); the Mediterranean diet, paleo diet, a vegetarian diet and the vegan diet. The last is perhaps the most restrictive but increasing in popularity very quickly. But looking at it on the surface, I believe it is one of the healthiest options for those who want to hone in on a particular diet. I say that because it encompasses many of the same principles I know are invaluable to our health; fresh produce, limited preservatives, high complex carbohydrate consumption, healthy fats, and the ever-important fiber which is essential for digestion.
So I decided to put this diet to the test for one week (actually 8 days). Yes, it’s a short time. But I was not looking to lose weight since I am satisfied with my current BMI nor do I have any personal reasons to exclude meat or dairy. I was just interested to see how it affected my recovery, my energy levels, my cardiovascular health, my sleep, and my digestive system. Aside from just making decisions based on the “feel” of it, I also tracked my resting heart rate (RHR) every night while I slept to see if it made a difference. Additionally, I ensured that I met my daily caloric requirements just like when I was on a balanced diet which included meat and dairy. I did not want a calorie deficiency to affect my results at all. Finally, I ensured that I received enough protein (at least 0.5g per 1 lb of bodyweight) to make an apples to apples comparison. I did not want typical workout fatigue or muscle soreness to get in the way of the data.
So what did I do for the Vegan diet? Well for those who don’t know, the Vegan diet doesn’t allow meat, poultry, dairy, eggs, or seafood. It is strictly plant-based foods such as fruit, vegetables, legumes, soy, and nuts. I worried that I wouldn’t get enough protein though because most plant-based foods do not contain as much protein as meat, poultry or seafood. And on day 1 my worry was validated because I was going to fall short of my protein minimum of 92g of protein (my weight is 184). By early afternoon I had only consumed around 40g of protein. So I immediately went out and purchased an organic, plant-based protein powder in order to make up the difference. Since I work out every day, I was able to drink a protein shake immediately post-workout which enabled me to hit my protein goal every day. The first thing I noticed on day 1 was the quantity of food I ate. I ate a lot! Although my calorie intake of 2,500 calories was the same as any other day for me, the volume of food I ate was huge due to the amount of vegetables, legumes, and fruits that I consumed. In fact, the average 2,500 calorie day for me had the following macronutrients:
Protein: 100g
Carbs: 400g
Fats: 60g
*And although it was only one week, I just want to note that I gained not lost zero lbs. In fact, there were two days that I ate over 450g of carbohydrates and one day that I ate over 500g of carbohydrates. Again, one week isn’t much time to collect data on weight loss, but the fact that I didn’t gain anything is still encouraging and loosely supports the claim that weight loss is more about a “calories in vs. calories out” game and not necessarily specific to macronutrients.
Another observation I made while on the diet is my energy levels. I felt fantastic! In fact, on day 4, I went on a 5 mile run and easily cruised to a 40 minute time. For some of you, that is amateur, but for me personally, a 8:00 mile for 5 miles is anything but easy (I can typically run 3 miles in 21:00 but after that my average mile time begins to fall off). The more impressive thing about it though, wasn’t the speed at which I ran but how much energy I had when I finished. When I was done, I wasn’t even tired! I felt like I could have ran another 5! And for those of you who know me, running 10 miles was previously never even a thought.
The most obvious thing I knew would happen with the Vegan diet is that my digestive health improved. Regularity. Enough said! Just beware, the first few days you may need to open the windows in your house lol! But after a few days, my body settled in and normalized.
The most impressive aspect of the Vegan diet for me though was my recovery and sleep. I slept like a baby! Many of you know that I track my data with my Whoop. Every night I track my RHR and sleep quality. Prior to the Vegan Diet, my average RHR at night was 50 beats per minute (BPM) with a one-time low of 44. However, in the 8 days of tracking my data while on the Vegan diet, my average RHR dropped to a 46 and I had a one-time low of 39!!! This translated to better (and deeper) sleep, more recovery, and I woke up in the morning feeling refreshed and better than ever! After researching this topic extensively, I believe the drop in RHR is due to not eating meat (especially before bed). Since most meats, especially red meats, take longer to digest, blood is brought to the stomach and internal organs to digest the food. In order to do this, the heart beats faster thus focusing the body’s attention on digesting food instead of recovery, REM sleep and slow wave sleep (aka deep sleep). I experienced an immediate drop in RHR due to this diet change! Pretty incredible.
Again, these results are mine and mine alone. I am not saying that this plan should be done by everyone nor am I even saying that eight days is enough of a time to come to conclusive results. However, in my personal experiment on myself and with zero bias (actually, I love meat so I would actually say I’m pro-meat lol), I believe that the Vegan diet is great for your digestive health, cardiovascular health, energy, recovery and sleep. Obviously you will need to consult with a doctor and potentially do it yourself to make your own judgment on it. But after looking at the nutrient density of plant-based foods and its heavy consumption in the oldest-living humans on earth, it is hard to ignore the evidence of its benefits. I’m not saying that I will be a Vegan after this experiment because I still LOVE eating steak, chicken, eggs and seafood. But, I will most certainly incorporate more plant-based foods in my diet and limit meat intake before bed to improve my overall recovery. I would encourage you all to never be closed-minded when it comes to nutrition and to get a better understanding of how foods positively and negatively influence you! Remember, we are all uniquely made. We all have different genetics, and different body types. No matter what nutrition plan you follow though, we can all benefit from eating fresher foods with less preservatives. A good friend told me a quote that I will never forget, “the longer the shelf life, the shorter your life.” Keep your food fresh and I promise you, you will feel better almost immediately.
As always, thank you for reading! I hope my experience inspires you to change something in your diet for the better!
Coach Rich
Richard Fitzgerald 