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From:	John Mayer (c-71-236-40-29.hsd1.tn.comcast.net)
Subject:	Re: vegan athlete's diet
Date:	July 18, 2007 at 9:56 pm PST

In Reply to: vegan athlete's diet posted by John on June 30, 2006 at 5:56 pm:

My best advice: eat a balanced diet and don't worry about the
protein. I know that you'll be skeptical; I used to power lift and
consumed as much protein as I could choke down. Not only is most
of it wasted, it's actually bad for you. I've returned to school and
taken up a medical field and I'm learning about the extra burden
excessive protein processing puts on your kidneys. I also
recommend _The China Study_ by Dr. Campbell who has studied
nutrition focusing on protein all his life; he's Professor Emeritus in
Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell. You will need more protein
than your non-lifting friends, but not that much more. It's really
the carbs that are critical to your workout to make sure your
muscles don't run out of energy (atp) before you finish your
routine.

I know you'll be dubious - I would have been - but read the book.
If you eat a balanced diet your body will take care of itself. Note the
gorilla, an obligate herbivore.

I never lifted competitively; I lifted to complement my other sports,
primarily judo, but author Bob Simpson (a truly powerful lifter,
though not a vegan) did use some photos of me to
illustrate lifts in Iron Man back in the 70's. Unfortunately, wrestling,
judo and boxing are rough sports and three ACL shoulder
separations (achromio-clavicular, in case you're confused by the
knee problem with the same initials) make heavy lifting difficult
now, but I'm still doing MMA and holding up pretty well with little
consideration of protein intake.

• VSET