The Ashes Menu: Vegan Diet a Winning Formula for Athletes

From in the ring and on the track, vegan athletes are proving that people don’t need dairy products and meat to compete. Meat-free athletes include mixed martial arts fighters Jake Shields and Mac Danzig and ultra-endurance racers Rich Roll and Brendan Brazier, among many others. And it seems that vegan diets are now spreading to cricket pitches.

Peter Siddle, the Australian bowler, has recently ditched meat from his diet. “I did a lot of research, read up on a lot of other athletes and people around the world who live like that, trying to learn from other people’s stories.”

It seems that the England cricket team doesn’t want to get left behind in the trend towards choosing a healthy vegan diet – the leaked menu from the team’s Ashes tour is reportedly full of healthy vegan options.

The menu was shared in a Sydney Morning Herald article and includes quinoa-and-cranberry breakfast bars, grilled eggplant with red capsicum, red onion and basil purée, Thai peanut tofu, red lentil and coconut soup, a zucchini-and-coconut chilli and a delicious-sounding chocolate-and-sesame ganache.

Here’s hoping the Australian team has plenty of healthy vegan options on its menu, too, so that it has the strength and stamina required to come out on top in the next Ashes test!

To learn about how a well-rounded vegan diet is packed full of the essential nutrients that any athlete – or anyone else – needs, order our free vegetarian/vegan starter kit.

Posted by Claire Fryer