Vegetarian Athletes?

I am 13 years old and enjoy been a Lacto-Ovo lacto-vegetarian for 1.5 years. I am a year- round competitive swimmer, year- round dancer (pointe, ballet, jazz, hiphop, touch, lyrical) seasonal soccer player, seasonal basketball player, and a runner. My parents are concerned about vegetarianism affecting my sports capacity, because since I've been a veggie, I have'nt dropped much time surrounded by swimming. They are afraid I don't get plenty protein. I am very terrifically strong for my age and am in dutiful shape. Can someone please tell me going on for vegetarian teen athlete nutrition wants and easy ways I can accomplish them without have to buy special vegetarian foods ( ex. tofu, soymilk, etc.) I live contained by a family of meat-eaters who don't support me terrifically much and would not buy me special things. Also I would like to know how much man veggie affects sports. I feel so much better very soon that I'm a vegetarian, and I wouldn't close to to have to stop because it's affecting my sports competence. Thanks! Your help is greatly appreciated!

Answer:
Here are some cool facts you might resembling to know.

MYTH: "Vegetarians get little protein."

FACT: Plant foods proposal abundant protein. Vegetables are around 23% protein on average, beans 28%, grain 13%, and even fruit has 5.5%. For comparison, human breast milk is singular 5% (designed for the time in our lives when our protein requests are as high as they'll ever be). The US Recommended Daily Allowance is 8%, and the World Health Organization recommend 4.5%.

MYTH: "Meat protein is better than plant protein. You have to combine plant foods to formulate the protein just as appropriate."

FACT: This myth was popularized surrounded by the 1971 book Diet for a Small Planet and has no font in certainty. The author of the book admitted nearly twenty years ago that she made a mistake (in the 1982 edition of impossible to tell apart book).

MYTH: "Milk is necessary for strong bones."

FACT: McDougall: "Where does a cow or an elephant acquire the calcium needed to grow its huge bones? From plants, of course. Only plants. … People within Asia and Africa who consume no milk products after they're weaned from their mother's breast grow perfectly thriving skeletons in the middle-of-the-road size for their race. A consistent conclusion published within the scientific literature is clear: Calcium less of dietary origin is unknown contained by humans. Dairy products contain large amounts of animal proteins. This excess protein removes calcium from the body by mode of the kidneys. Knowing the physiological effects on calcium metabolism of eating excess protein explains why societies near the highest intakes of meat and dairy products--the United States, England, Israel, Finland, and Sweden--also show the unmatched rates of osteoporosis, the disease of bone-thinning."

Here are some vegetarian athletes, some go to the olimpics as well (=
it doesnt eat nuts for protein
check out these sites:

http://www.veganbodybuilding.com/...

http://www.brendanbrazier.com/
your parents are victims of an elder culture in which the role of protein and how you can win it are less very well understood. You are fine. Get some articles for your parents so they will know too.
Do research to show them. your body make the protein you need.
The best example I can think of for you is dancer-performer Tonya Kay who have ramped up to RAW VEGAN from vegetarian and is a great spokesperson for that perfect healthy lifestyle. Check out her resume and show your Mom. Go to http://tonyakay.com/

The Arnold (Schwartzenberger) is/was lacto-vegetarian during the height of his weight-lifting days.

Eat HEALTHY as a lacto-vegetarian... one of my favorite videos is this one: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=...

All the best!
It's not going to affect your sports ability.

I be a strict vegetarian and worked out every afternoon for 2 hours minimum. I felt the best I have ever felt surrounded by my whole entire natural life.
What I would do is wear a calorie counter to see how many calories you are burning during respectively event. That information will help you determine if you obligation to increase your protein intake. If you haven't already keep track of your intake so that you can amount out if you need an upgrade. Also get through lots of potassium. I use to eat a couple of bananas a light of day. As a matter of reality I use to wake up craving them.

Sounds similar to you are very live. Keep up the good work and don't dance back. Trust me, you will consistency run down.
Vegetarians own more endurance
At Yale, Professor Irving Fisher designed a series of test to compare the stamina and strength of meat-eaters against that of vegetarians. He preferred men from three groups: meat-eating athletes, vegetarian athletes, and lacto-vegetarian sedentary subjects. Fisher reported the results of his study in the Yale Medical Journal.25 His findings do not seem to be to lend a great deal of credibility to the popular prejudices that hold meat to be a builder of strength.

"Of the three groups compared, the...flesh-eaters showed far smaller quantity endurance than the abstainers (vegetarians), even when the latter be leading a sedentary time."26
Overall, the average score of the vegetarian was over double the average evaluation of the meat-eaters, even though half of the vegetarian were sedentary empire, while all of the meat-eaters tested be athletes. After analyzing all the factor that might have be involved in the results, Fisher concluded that:

"...the difference surrounded by endurance between the flesh-eaters and the abstainers (was due) entirely to the difference surrounded by their diet.... There is strong evidence that a...non-flesh...diet is conducive to endurance."27
A comparable study be done by Dr. J. Ioteyko of the Academie de Medicine of Paris.28 Dr. Ioteyko compared the endurance of lacto-vegetarian and meat-eaters from all walk of life within a variety of test. The vegetarians averaged two to three times more stamina than the meat-eaters. Even more remarkably, they took with the sole purpose one-fifth the time to recover from nouns compared to their meat-eating rivals.

In 1968, a Danish team of researchers tested a group of men on an assortment of diets, using a stationary bicycle to measure their strength and staying power. The men were feed a mixed diet of meat and vegetables for a period of time, and next tested on the bicycle. The average time they could pedal before muscle bomb was 114 minutes. These same men at a then date were feed a diet high surrounded by meat, milk and eggs for a similar period and next re-tested on the bicycles. On the high meat diet, their pedaling time since muscle failure dropped dramatically--to an average of solitary 57 minutes. Later, these same men were switched to a strictly lacto-vegetarian diet, composed of grains, vegetables and fruits, and consequently tested on the bicycles. The lack f animal products didn't come across to hurt their performance--they pedaled an average of 167 minutes.29

Wherever and whenever tests of this temperament have be done, the results have be similar. This does not lend a lot of support to the supposed association of meat next to strength and stamina.

Doctors in Belgium systematically compared the number of times vegetarian and meat-eaters could squeeze a grip-meter. The vegetarians won handily near an average of 69, whilst the meat-eaters averaged only 38. As surrounded by all other studies which hold measured muscle recovery time, here, too, the vegetarian bounced back from fatigue far more swiftly than did the meat-eaters.30

I know of many other studies contained by the medical literature which report similar findings. But I know of not a single one that has arrived at different results. As a result, I confess, it have gotten rather difficult for me to listen seriously to the meat industry proudly proclaiming "meat give strength" in the obverse of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
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MYTH: "Vegetarians get little protein."

FACT: Plant foods donate abundant protein. Vegetables are around 23% protein on average, beans 28%, grain 13%, and even fruit has 5.5%. For comparison, human breast milk is solely 5% (designed for the time in our lives when our protein requirements are as high as they'll ever be). The US Recommended Daily Allowance is 8%, and the World Health Organization recommend 4.5%.

MYTH: "Beans are a good source of protein."

FACT: There is no such entry as a special "source of protein" because all foods -- even plants -- enjoy plentiful protein. You might as well influence "Food is a good source of protein". In any event, beans (28%) don't average much more protein per calorie than adjectives vegetables (23%).
The book "Becoming Vegetarian" have a great section on a moment ago this subject. Find a copy and make sure that you and your parents read it and comprehend it. It's written by a pair of registered dietitians.

You could also point to lacto-vegetarian athletes. I've given you a link to a moment ago such a list.
There are plenty of ways to get protein while self a vegetarian. Beans, peas, chickpeas, tofu, nuts, and lentils are adjectives excellent sources of protien that are also much healthier for you than most meat. Also if they are worried about vegetarianism and sports I can attest that it is fundamentally possible to be athletic and a vegetarian a like peas in a pod time. I have be in te infantry branch of the military for three years as a vegetarian(and yes I am a female). There have never been a time when vegetarianism have made me unable to complete and physical tasks and overal my vigour has better since I became a lacto-vegetarian at 18. As long as you make sure to win ll your vitamins and so forth you should'nt have any problems, and righteous for you for choosing to be a vegetarian!

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