Brendan Brazier, a professional Ironman triathlete, has a resume full of impressive athletic accomplishments. He acknowledges that this success would not have been possible without his commitment to optimal eating practices. He advocates for eating foods that are valuable to the body and help us perform at our best, while avoiding foods that hinder performance. His book offers nutrition information and meal plans specifically designed for athletes of all levels.
Its easy to brush off this athlete’s insights if you have no interest in winning an Ironman, but what if these same strategies can help us to enhance performance in all areas of life? What if fueling the body can optimize performance as a parent, spouse, employee, boss, student, coach, etc? When we look at food from this perspective it begins to develop a meaning that is much deeper than enjoyment, entertainment or just one more thing we have to do.
Brazier promotes eating to combat stress on the body. Currently the Standard American Diet causes a significant amount of stress. For example, after eating a double cheeseburger, large fries and soda the body has to digest that heavy meal and find a place to store all the extra energy, the gallbladder must send out a big dose of bile, the pancreas must release insulin to control the sugar in the blood, the toxins in the meat and the chemicals in the soda are cleaned up by the liver and the kidneys filter out the salt. That’s a lot to ask of the body day in and day out. It’s easy to see why eventually some organs peter out.
Regularly eating whole, plant-based foods significantly reduces this stress and better equips the body to fight everyday, necessary stressors. For low stress and top performance, Brazier promotes eating a diet consisting of around 45% fibrous veggies, 20% fruit, 20% legumes, seeds and grains, 10% plant-based fats and 5% starchy veggies.
This approach is slightly different than what’s recommended by others who promote a whole food plant-based diet. The beauty of having these different insights is that nutrition is not a one-size-fits-all; multiple perspectives are essential in finding an individual eating approach that allows us to perform at our best.
