It was the brother of a friend that first got Philip Woodbridge curious. Woodbridge, who is now a sports nutritionist at Buckinghamshire New University in the U.K., was looking to make more of a lifestyle change, and heard that his friend’s brother — an elite soccer player in England — had gone vegan and gotten into body building.
Woodbridge didn’t think the diet was for him, but he wanted to know how going animal product-free was panning out for the growing number of athletes making the switch. And as runners, bodybuilders, cyclists and more take off with vegan diets, researchers are trying to keep pace and figure out if or how dropping meat, dairy and eggs might change performance. So far, the evidence says: It’s a draw. “If a vegan diet can be managed appropriately, there’s probably minimal impact it could have,” says David Rogerson, a sports nutrition and strength and conditioning lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University. “Really the impact comes when the vegan diet isn’t managed appropriately.”
