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For those on vegetarian/vegan diets, if vegetarian athletes consume on average 5000 to 6000 calories per day, how many calories should you be consuming? Remember, not all nutrients in a plant diet are easily absorbed. Heme iron (from meat), for instance, absorbs much better than non-heme iron (from plant). Also calcium found in kale is not easily absorbable. If you are on a vegetarian/vegan diet, don’t forget your B12 supplements. B12 along with folate lowers the homocysteine level.

http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020715/story.html

“Eberle notes that vegetarian diets done correctly are high in fiber and low in fat. “But where are the calories?” she asks. ‘World-class endurance athletes need in excess of 5,000 or 6,000 calories a day. Competition can easily consume 10,000. You need to eat a lot of plant-based food to get those calories. Being a vegetarian athlete is hard, really hard to do right.’”

“Another reason is that vegans skew the stats, because their strict avoidance of meat, eggs and dairy products can lead to deficiencies in iron, calcium and vitamin B12. “These nutrients are the problem,” says Johanna Dwyer, a professor of nutrition and medicine at Tufts University. “At least among the vegans who are also philosophically opposed to fortified foods and/or vitamin and mineral supplements.”

“For four years Christina Economos has run the Tufts longitudinal health study on young adults, a comprehensive survey of lifestyle habits among undergraduates. In general, she finds that ‘kids who were most influenced by family diet and health values are eating healthy vegetarian or low-meat diets. But there is a whole group of students who decide to become vegetarians and do it in a poor way. The ones who do it badly don’t know how to navigate in the vegetarian world. They eat more bread, cheese and pastry products and load up on salad dressing. Their saturated-fat intake is no lower than red-meat eaters, and they are more likely to consume inadequate amounts of vitamin B12 and protein. They may think they are healthier because they are some sort of vegetarian and they don’t eat red meat, but in fact they may be less healthy.’”