Question: Hello! My name's Mary and I practise kung fu in Paris. I'm doing a lot of training and hardly eat any meat. I eat a bit of cheese and that's about it for animal products. How does an essentially vegetarian diet affect your stamina and the building of muscle tissue? Cheers for taking the time to answer and hope it can be of some use to others.
Answer from Trish Bare Grounds:
Thank you for your inquiry.
Simply being vegetarian does not effect your stamina and muscle tissue repair, but too low of a protein intake will. Protein is the building block for your muscle which is damaged and broken down every time you work out, so therefore is a vital part of your daily food intake.
There are many very healthy alternatives if you do not wish to eat meat, fish, fowl, dairy products or eggs. Beans, nuts, tofu, and lentils to begin with have necessary protein from a non-animal source, but the addition of dairy products or even eggs would greatly increase your protein intake. Cheese, yogurt, ice cream, cottage cheese, milk, etc. are good sources of animal product, but not animal, alternatives to eating meat. I suggest you look at your diet and re-evaluate your protein intakes and adjust them as necessary.
Hope this helps.
Trish Bare Grounds, MS, ATC/L
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Trish Bare Grounds, USA Taekwondo Medical Coordinator and Head Athletic Trainer for the US National Taekwondo Team, is the author of The Bare Essentials Guide to Martial Arts Injury Care and Prevention. She is a Certified and Licensed Athletic Trainer (ATC/L) and Strength & Conditioning Specialist. She holds a BA degree from DePauw University in Psychology and Pre-Med/Biology, along with an MS degree from the University of Miami in Sports Medicine, and is a Ph.D. candidate from the University of Florida's Sports Medicine/Athletic Training Program.

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