WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.819 I’m the first person who will tell you that going vegan is an astronomically beneficial 00:00:04.819 --> 00:00:12.110 decision for the planet, other humans, certainly the animals, and your health…sometimes. 00:00:12.110 --> 00:00:16.560 There are so many ways to eat vegan that in reality it doesn’t always equate to glowing 00:00:16.560 --> 00:00:22.010 health. Still, vegans abound who have seen profound improvement in their health through 00:00:22.010 --> 00:00:27.089 dietary change and athletes who’ve seen significant improvement in performance and 00:00:27.089 --> 00:00:33.280 recovery. But are these success stories based in science? Or can we be just as healthy consuming 00:00:33.280 --> 00:00:39.490 animal products? Well my guest today has a unique take on the matter as a vegan ultra-athlete 00:00:39.490 --> 00:00:41.610 and Registered Dietitian. 00:00:45.340 --> 00:00:50.160 Hi it’s Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome to another vegan nugget. Nothing gets people 00:00:50.170 --> 00:00:55.350 up in arms so much as the debate on the perfect way of eating, especially when you get into 00:00:55.350 --> 00:01:01.030 all the various factions of vegan dietary approaches. It gets intense and health claims 00:01:01.030 --> 00:01:04.140 abound along with conflicting advice. 00:01:04.140 --> 00:01:09.070 Well endurance ultra-athlete and Registered Dietitian Matt Ruscigno holds what is rather 00:01:09.070 --> 00:01:14.369 controversial view, at least in vegan circles, that eating vegan isn’t necessarily the 00:01:14.369 --> 00:01:18.960 only way to be healthy. If you missed my first video with Matt where he shares what he eats, 00:01:18.960 --> 00:01:22.820 be sure to check it out up there or in the description. 00:01:22.820 --> 00:01:27.490 So let’s hear from Matt about eating vegan for athletic performance, and in general, 00:01:27.490 --> 00:01:30.479 as well as the importance of not exaggerating health claims: 00:01:30.479 --> 00:01:34.609 Matt, I want to thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to be 00:01:34.609 --> 00:01:35.189 on the channel. 00:01:35.189 --> 00:01:37.460 I’m honored to be here. Thank you for having me. 00:01:37.460 --> 00:01:41.439 Can you speak a bit to, I mean, we talked earlier about kind of what you eat 00:01:41.439 --> 00:01:45.719 and your philosophy with your own food but can you speak kind of as a registered dietitian 00:01:45.719 --> 00:01:51.189 about eating vegan for athletic performance, like what, what’s really the, of course 00:01:51.189 --> 00:01:55.060 there’s not “the” ideal but what is something that people should try to trend 00:01:55.060 --> 00:01:56.859 towards as athletes? 00:01:56.859 --> 00:02:02.530 Right, great question and it’s something on my mind especially right now having been 00:02:02.530 --> 00:02:07.549 at Vida Vegan Con in Austin where I gave a presentation on why we shouldn’t exactly 00:02:07.549 --> 00:02:12.960 exaggerate health claims in vegansim because being healthy and being vegan aren’t the 00:02:12.960 --> 00:02:18.060 same thing and the science is very complicated and you know when I’m wearing my professional 00:02:18.060 --> 00:02:23.140 hat, the truth is you can eat animal products and be healthy. You know, there are people 00:02:23.140 --> 00:02:27.290 who do it, there are people who have had great results from Paleo. You know, they’ve lowered 00:02:27.290 --> 00:02:30.460 their cholesterol levels to which we vegans say “No, they’re eating all that meat 00:02:30.460 --> 00:02:33.080 their cholesterol’s going to skyrocket”. It’s like well there’s some published 00:02:33.080 --> 00:02:37.270 research that says they’re actually lowered cholesterol levels eating Paleo, and we have 00:02:37.270 --> 00:02:42.080 to be realistic about these results and that they exist. It’s naive to think the only 00:02:42.080 --> 00:02:46.820 way to be healthy is to be vegan. Now that said, of course, I’m an ethical vegan and 00:02:46.820 --> 00:02:53.930 my stance is that you can be just as healthy while being vegan. And we have actual research 00:02:53.930 --> 00:02:58.810 that says people who eat more plant foods live longer, they have lower rates of chronic 00:02:58.810 --> 00:03:04.160 disease, all that stuff that’s based on good, actual peer-reviewed research. And that’s 00:03:04.160 --> 00:03:09.510 great to have and I think it really gives strength to our argument but to say that you 00:03:09.510 --> 00:03:13.390 have to be vegan to be healthy I don’t think is true. And so for athletes, it’s the same 00:03:13.390 --> 00:03:18.490 sort of thing where you can perform just as well and we have the examples you know, we 00:03:18.490 --> 00:03:23.040 have Scott Jurek, Rich Roll, we have the whole PlantBuilt team, all those folks that are 00:03:23.040 --> 00:03:29.310 really kicking ass while being vegan but to say that you have, that you are better to 00:03:29.310 --> 00:03:32.420 be vegan is, well, we don’t quite have the research. We just have a lot of people who 00:03:32.420 --> 00:03:34.290 have given their own personal stories. 00:03:34.290 --> 00:03:39.830 For someone who is interested in athletics or already is an athlete and is interested 00:03:39.830 --> 00:03:44.930 in transitioning to a vegan diet, what would you recommend as far, because a lot of people 00:03:44.930 --> 00:03:48.720 have fears about, you know, well, how am I gonna get this how am I gonna get that which 00:03:48.720 --> 00:03:52.390 ends up not being quite as complicated, I think, as people think but what would you 00:03:52.390 --> 00:03:55.840 tell someone who is looking to that and wants to make sure they can maintain their level 00:03:55.840 --> 00:03:56.460 of performance? 00:03:56.460 --> 00:04:01.130 Yeah absolutely, what I do, I get a lot of clients like this that are very intelligent 00:04:01.130 --> 00:04:06.330 and they’re vegan-ish or an athlete-ish and they say “I read all these books what 00:04:06.330 --> 00:04:10.950 do I actually do?” and my philosophy is you need to start where you are. You know, 00:04:10.950 --> 00:04:15.910 do you really wanna be raw and 80/10/10 or did you just read the book and you think it’s 00:04:15.910 --> 00:04:18.909 great. Is this this really practical for you, do you have reasons to believe that this is 00:04:18.909 --> 00:04:23.610 better than any other way of eating. So it’s all about starting where you are. You know, 00:04:23.610 --> 00:04:27.490 can you veganize the stuff that you’re already eating and see how that feels. If you like 00:04:27.490 --> 00:04:30.810 broccoli and you’re familiar with cooking broccoli, add it to more things, eat more 00:04:30.810 --> 00:04:34.849 of it. If you want to do some meat substitutes for a little while, go right ahead. If you 00:04:34.849 --> 00:04:40.060 want to keep doing them, go right ahead. Just make sure you are indeed eating actual fruits, 00:04:40.060 --> 00:04:44.949 vegetables, whole grains, beans are very important for vegans and especially athletes, you know 00:04:44.949 --> 00:04:50.210 lots of nutrients, lots of protein, all those amino acids, it’s really an important part 00:04:50.210 --> 00:04:52.620 of a healthy vegan diet in my opinion. 00:04:52.620 --> 00:04:56.699 You read about how they have kind of anti-nutrient agents and if you soak them 00:04:56.699 --> 00:05:01.020 then it takes that out, is that something that you ascribe to or that you know much 00:05:01.020 --> 00:05:02.689 about? Do you do that with your own? 00:05:02.689 --> 00:05:08.439 I think a lot of people are concerned about these anti-nutrients and phytates and 00:05:08.439 --> 00:05:16.219 what not and when it’s true, those are present in some plant foods but really the research 00:05:16.219 --> 00:05:24.509 shows that people who eat plant foods aren’t getting nutrient deficiencies from these so-called 00:05:24.509 --> 00:05:27.879 anti-nutrients. So on paper yes they’re there but in reality it doesn’t seem to 00:05:27.879 --> 00:05:33.039 matter for most people. When we get into like young kids or someone who needs to restrict 00:05:33.039 --> 00:05:37.729 their diet for a certain reason, sure, maybe you want to look closely at it but for most 00:05:37.729 --> 00:05:44.349 people it’s really not an issue. We really get hung up on these very fine points and 00:05:44.349 --> 00:05:49.210 I think that that’s one, confusing and two, difficult for people who just want to eat 00:05:49.210 --> 00:05:58.840 well, you know and I get a lot of people who come from sort of a normal US cultural diet 00:05:58.840 --> 00:06:02.150 and they’ve never heard of any of these things and those of us who are kind of seasoned 00:06:02.150 --> 00:06:06.240 in it are like well you can’t eat GMO, it has to be local, it has to be organic and 00:06:06.240 --> 00:06:10.210 no you shouldn’t eat kale because it has goitrogens and it’s like what the heck are 00:06:10.210 --> 00:06:14.020 you talking about, I just want to eat more fruits and vegetables so you know let’s 00:06:14.020 --> 00:06:17.479 keep it simple. Let’s keep it simple and not get hung up on these very fine points. 00:06:17.479 --> 00:06:21.699 Alright well, Matt I just want to thank you again for taking time out of your schedule 00:06:21.699 --> 00:06:23.569 to be with us and for sharing your knowledge. 00:06:23.569 --> 00:06:27.300 Yeah absolutely, and thank you for having me. It was great to talk with you. I love 00:06:27.300 --> 00:06:29.939 talking about all this stuff and thank you for all the work that you do. 00:06:29.939 --> 00:06:34.900 I hope you enjoyed hearing from Matt on his approach to simplifying vegan nutrition. 00:06:34.900 --> 00:06:40.159 While I completely agree that we vegans need not and should not falsely inflate the health 00:06:40.159 --> 00:06:45.789 or any other benefits of eating vegan, the astounding devastation of eating animals makes 00:06:45.789 --> 00:06:50.360 doing so completely unnecessary. As I’ve said before in my videos, we don’t have 00:06:50.360 --> 00:06:52.939 to make things up—they’re bad enough as it is. 00:06:52.939 --> 00:06:57.719 For me, it all boils down to the fact that whether or not we can be just as healthy consuming 00:06:57.719 --> 00:07:03.759 animal products, doing so remains profoundly devastating to the environment, diverts global 00:07:03.759 --> 00:07:10.349 food and water resources, and most importantly violently ends the lives of trillions of beings 00:07:10.349 --> 00:07:14.270 every year. And that is not up for debate. 00:07:14.270 --> 00:07:18.529 I’m interested to hear what you think of Matt’s approach. Do you think it’s possible 00:07:18.529 --> 00:07:23.719 to eat animal products and be healthy? Do you think there is or needs to be an “ideal” 00:07:23.719 --> 00:07:26.849 way of eating vegan? Let me know in the comments! 00:07:26.849 --> 00:07:31.129 Be sure to check out the links in the description to connect with Matt at this website where 00:07:31.129 --> 00:07:36.580 he offers nutrition counseling services, and at his own vegan athlete video series Strongest 00:07:36.580 --> 00:07:40.029 Hearts where be profiles incredible vegan athletes. 00:07:40.029 --> 00:07:44.469 If you enjoyed this video, give it a big thumbs up. If you’re new here, do hit that big 00:07:44.469 --> 00:07:49.270 red subscribe button down there for more awesome vegan content every Monday, Wednesday, and 00:07:49.270 --> 00:07:53.770 some Fridays and to not miss out the on the rest of the Vegan Athlete series. If you want 00:07:53.770 --> 00:07:57.580 to help support Bite Size Vegan, check out either of the support links in the video description 00:07:57.580 --> 00:08:02.249 below or click on the Nugget Army icon or the link in the sidebar. Now go live vegan, 00:08:02.249 --> 00:08:04.860 keep nutrition simple, and I’ll see you soon. 00:08:04.860 --> 00:08:09.009 I do have to admit that we vegans can get a little carried away with exaggerated health 00:08:09.009 --> 00:08:09.779 claims. 00:08:09.779 --> 00:08:12.259 When you go vegan, you’ll never get another pimple! 00:08:12.259 --> 00:08:14.169 If you go vegan you’ll never fart again! 00:08:14.169 --> 00:08:16.689 You’ll be able to run a marathon tomorrow! 00:08:16.689 --> 00:08:19.409 Being vegan means never having to blow your nose again! 00:08:19.409 --> 00:08:22.729 Did your head come off? Go vegan and it will pop right back on! 00:08:22.729 --> 00:08:25.479 Nothing cures decapitation like a healthy vegan diet! 00:08:25.479 --> 00:08:27.139 When you go vegan, you’ll be a better dancer! 00:08:27.139 --> 00:08:27.759 A better lover! 00:08:27.759 --> 00:08:28.939 A better friend! 00:08:28.939 --> 00:08:30.580 You’ll rule the world! 00:08:30.580 --> 00:08:33.459 When you go vegan, you’ll never have body odor again!