Abstract

MONTEIRO, Inês; TRIGUEIRO, Helena  and  GONCALVES, Márcia. Particularities of the nutritional approach in the vegetarian athlete. Acta Port Nutr [online]. 2020, n.20, pp.32-37. ISSN 2183-5985.  https://doi.org/10.21011/apn.2020.2006.

There has been a growing adoption of the vegetarian dietary pattern, four times higher than ten years ago. Nowadays, the benefits of vegetable food consumption and its role in the prevention of several highly prevalent diseases in the population are known, such as type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. When a large amount of food is included daily in the diet and the energy intake is adequate, vegetarian athletes can meet their protein needs through vegetable sources. Nutrients to consider avoiding nutritional deficiencies in vegetarians include proteins, n-3 fatty acids, iron, zinc, calcium, iodine, vitamin D and vitamin B12. With the increase of the number of athletes who follow the vegetarian diet, it is pertinent to question its effect on sports performance. This work brings together an existent proof of a nutritional approach in vegetarian athletes, identifying scientific studies from 1997 to 2019. The purpose of this paper is to examine and discuss the possible impacts of the vegetarian dietary pattern on sports performance. Current scientific evidence demonstrates that the adoption of this dietary pattern does not positively or negatively affect athletes' performance. Thus, it will be necessary to conduct further studies to examine the effects of the vegetarian dietary pattern on athletes to ensure the optimization of health and performance.

Keywords : Nutritional approach; Vegetarian diet; Athletes; Sport; Performance.

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