Do plant based diets actually help ultrarunners or is it a fad from “born to run?”

Counter point: hflc is the only intervention to actually reverse heart disease & diabetes. Plants are inflammatory-how else would they defend themselves and compared to meat they are nutritionally empty. Moreso wheat etc. Vegetarian foods like wheat and lettuce etc are also incredibly low yield for calories per kg/land use, and kill vast swathes of small animals compared to say wild roaming cattle.

Some people develop & suffer from auto immune diseases from plan-based diets which disappear only when going carnivore, others seem to manage fine eating lots of greens & brightly coloured veg. Inflammatory response seems to be key in the long run, the slow burn inside you don't notice until you get completely off inflammatory foods like wheat and your body craves nutrients you simply cannot get from fruit & veg. Further, some countries now criminalise I think vegan diets for babies as they are so nutritionally deficient they cause growth and mental problems.

Ornish has been rubbished, but there are of course always two sides to this. Try yourself- go completely carnivore for a month, see how you feel, then go completely vegetarian and compare.

/r/ultrarunning Thread Parent