WSJ article on Dave Z

[Alan]

An interesting article as Dave Z is now a vegan and riding the Tour supposedly as the first vegan. My wife was impressed as she is a vegetarian.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304314404576414124184873028.html

Alan

[leooooo]

Meat taste so good. I'll never be able to go vegan.

[avalonracing]

Wow, that takes a delicate balancing act. It should be very interesting to watch his progress meat (and drug) free.

I haven't had red meat for almost 15 years but I still eat poultry and A LOT of fish as I just don't feel that I can keep my muscle or power reserves without it (it doesn't help that I hate legumes).

I hope he does well.

[1happygirl]

Word----

Dave Scott?!
Wasn't he Vegan?

[johnnymossville]

Very interesting article, thanks for posting it. I particularly liked how Dave is saying he now has clarity and focus, and even his vision is better. There's definitely something to this and some people are probably just better suited to being vegan than others. Dave Z must be one of them.

I'd like to see how he does in the tour.

[FastVegan]

Sorry but DZ is not vegan. Vegans dont eat fish. :no:

[FlashUNC]

My girlfriend and I have largely cut red meat out of our diets, excepting the occasional burger -- which probably isn't more than once a month. Can't remember the last time we had steak.

[flydhest]

I thought the part about the limited amount of salmon was interesting. Vegan other than that. (of course, that is a big exception)

He's been racing this way and been successful, so it seems like a useful piece of data in the argument as to whether or not (largely) vegetarian diets can keep someone healthy and allow them to compete athletically. I was a vegetarian in grad school and raced then and cat'd up to being a 3 before the dissertation took over. I have always been skeptical of vociferously anti-vegetarian people (there are more than seems to make sense to me . . . I mean, why do people care what someone else eats?) suggesting that you can't be vegetarian and be healthy or very athletically fit.

[forrestw]

Scott Jurek would be an example of an actual vegan athlete performing at the top of ultra-running.

[rice rocket]

Fingerbang did it as well, but most likely for other reasons. :rolleyes:

http://www.pelotonmagazine.com/Feedzone/content/6/723/Contador-Goes-Vegetarian

[MattTuck]

Is vegan purely a measure of the inputs to your GI tract or does it include a philosophical aspect as well?

I mean, eating a mostly vegan diet (that includes quality food and limited fish/meat) is probably more healthy than a 100% vegan diet that includes processed grains, potato chips, packaged cookies, etc. that are all 100% plant derived.

My personal feeling is that anyone who doesn't eat meat for ethical reasons is in for a sad truth. Research into plants is finding more and more similarities to how they respond to damage, proteins are released almost immediately to try to stop loss of fluids, and then repair the damage. It could be argued that plants have something that resembles a nervous system and certainly 'react' at the molecular level when damage is inflicted on them.

At the end of the day, plants are just another living organism that is being killed to feed us.

[sg8357]

Not eating cheese in France is like burning the flag in the US,
French cows are massing along the route to attack Dave Z.

[toaster]

Is vegan purely a measure of the inputs to your GI tract or does it include a philosophical aspect as well?

I mean, eating a mostly vegan diet (that includes quality food and limited fish/meat) is probably more healthy than a 100% vegan diet that includes processed grains, potato chips, packaged cookies, etc. that are all 100% plant derived.

My personal feeling is that anyone who doesn't eat meat for ethical reasons is in for a sad truth. Research into plants is finding more and more similarities to how they respond to damage, proteins are released almost immediately to try to stop loss of fluids, and then repair the damage. It could be argued that plants have something that resembles a nervous system and certainly 'react' at the molecular level when damage is inflicted on them.

At the end of the day, plants are just another living organism that is being killed to feed us.


It is true both plants and animal life are subject to a "death" when harvested for consumption by humans. However, on a moral or ethical level the concern would be about doing the least harm or causing the least suffering. Philosophically speaking, eating plants is less cruel when the term "killing" is used for either.

Also, by this standard, the plant suffers least compared to the animal. Most animals would resist or even fight to remain alive or at best they would attempt to flee as in the fight or flight response that is a recorded scientific fact.

This is not the case with plants which are unable to retreat or sense impending destruction.

Plants, by the way do not have a true nervous system because they have no brain.


So, that is a moral argument for vegetarianism or veganism, IMHO.

[Climb01742]

Word----

Dave Scott?!
Wasn't he Vegan?

i know he ate cottage cheese, because one famous story is of him rinsing off cottage cheese in a strainer to lose a few 'empty' calories of watery cc 'run-off'. the man was dedicated. :D