Vegetarianism & bodybuilding - part 1

For many people the impression that they get when they think of vegetarians are thin, pale and relatively weak looking people and the thought of a vegetarian bodybuilding is quite strange for many. There have been a number of top bodybuilders who have ommitted meat from their diets and have managed to build world class physiques, including Andreas Cahling and Bill Pearl. It is often that people are misinformed or just unwilling to try it for a while, as to why there have not been a greater number of top vegetarian bodybuilders.

It is a very big misconception that to grow muscle meat, eggs and dairy products are needed. The human body is very capable of converting a diet completely based on plant foods into lean strong muscle, comparable to what can be achieved eating animal products.


There are many different variables that govern muscle growth and it is more than just the amino acid profile of a food source that will govern how effective it is for muscle building. Plant foods, however, generally get a bad rap because they are not considered 'complete', i.e. lacking in one or more of the essential amino acids and for a long time people have been told to combine different plant based foods together to get a complete protein.
As long as there is variety in the diet, there is no need to worry that there will not be enough essential amino acids to support muscle growth, not to mention all the other benefits that plant based protein sources contain, alkalising minerals, antioxidants and enzymes.
Often the argument against plant proteins is that they are not as bio available as animal derived proteins but then again this is often using the example of isolated proteins, rather than whole food sources, i.e. a soy protein isolate is going to be less bio available than a piece of tempeh (fermented soybeans) because it is devoid of all the other cofactors that aid in absorption. This can also be the same with animal based foods, regardless of the sometimes ridiculously high figures given to whey proteins. It is more than the quantity of protein that is going to govern how muscle is built.
I will continue exploring other areas of plant based foods and how they encourage muscle growth over the coming days and weeks.