The Vegetarian Sports Nutrition Guide: Peak Performance for Everyone from Beginners to Gold Medalists [Paperback]

Lisa Dorfman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 11, 1999

Exercise, train, and compete at your best on a vegetarian diet.

Few segments of the population are more mindful of their food intake than athletes and vegetarians. This book combines the unique demands of sports with a healthy vegetarian diet that can help you build energy and endurance and reduce body fat. Whether you are carbo-loading before a marathon or fine-tuning nutrition to get the most out of your workout, registered dietitian and elite vegetarian athlete Lisa Dorfman provides step-by-step information on how to customize your own sport-specific nutrition program and calculate a personal dietary plan for training The Vegetarian Sports Nutrition Guide includes personal stories of athletes who have made the switch to vegetarian diets from football players and wrestlers to ice skaters and marathoners, some of whom have beaten life-threatening illnesses with the help of this lifestyle. Lisa Dorfman provides a rich array of tasty and diverse vegetarian recipes, menus, easy-to-use charts, and food guides for vegetarians of all types, from the semi-vegetarian to the fruitarian. She also shares the training secrets of seventeen Olympic and world-class athletes who have used their vegetarian diets to achieve peak performance in their careers and optimum health in their lives.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Exercise, train, and compete at your best on a vegetarian diet.

Few segments of the population are more mindful of their food intake than athletes and vegetarians. This book combines the unique demands of sports with a healthy vegetarian diet that can help you build energy and endurance and reduce body fat. Whether you are carbo-loading before a marathon or fine-tuning nutrition to get the most out of your workout, registered dietitian and elite vegetarian athlete Lisa Dorfman provides step-by-step information on how to customize your own sport-specific nutrition program and calculate a personal dietary plan for training The Vegetarian Sports Nutrition Guide includes personal stories of athletes who have made the switch to vegetarian diets?from football players and wrestlers to ice skaters and marathoners, some of whom have beaten life-threatening illnesses with the help of this lifestyle. Lisa Dorfman provides a rich array of tasty and diverse vegetarian recipes, menus, easy-to-use charts, and food guides for vegetarians of all types, from the semi-vegetarian to the fruitarian. She also shares the training secrets of seventeen Olympic and world-class athletes who have used their vegetarian diets to achieve peak performance in their careers and optimum health in their lives.

About the Author

LISA DORFMAN, M.S., R.D., L.M.H.C., is known nationally as The Running Nutritionist. She competes in marathons and triathlons nationwide and coaches Olympic-level athletes. She runs her own sports nutrition consulting company, Food Fitness International, and has appeared in and written for over 100 publications, including Running Times and Ladies', Home Journal. She lives in Miami, Florida with her husband and three children.

Product Details

• Paperback: 270 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (November 11, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471348082
• ISBN-13: 978-0471348085
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #507,739 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lisa Dorfman, MS, RD, CSSD, LMHC, is Director of Sports Nutrition and Performance in the Department of Sports Medicine and an adjunct professor at the University of Miami. A health expert for more than two decades & Nutrition Editor for SoBeFit Magazine, Lisa has appeared on 20/20, Dateline, FOX News, CNN, MSNBC and ESPN and has been featured in numerous publications including: USA Today, Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, & New York Times. Known as "The Running Nutritionist™," she is a competitive athlete with more than 34 marathons, the Ironman, and hundreds of races worldwide. Lisa has a private practice in Miami and New York City.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

99 of 106 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not a vegetarian book, April 19, 2006

By 

T. Hartle (Heber, UT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Vegetarian Sports Nutrition Guide: Peak Performance for Everyone from Beginners to Gold Medalists (Paperback)

This book uses many examples of athletes who call themselves "semi" vegetarian. Meaning they still consume meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products, consuming any amount of animal flesh is not vegetarianism.

She also references the lacto-vegetarian diet as consuming poultry, eggs, and dairy. Poultry is meat and does not constitute vegetarianism. Lacto means consuming dairy.

She is a strong voice for the supplement industry suggesting large amounts of creatine supplements as well as protein supplements. It is well known that the body cannot store protein and any excess is excreted in the urine along with calcium used in the process of alkalinizing and excreting the protein which can put you at risk for osteoporosis, not a good idea.

Much of the information in the book is highly outdated, focused on supplements and does not offer any sound advice for a true vegetarian who avoids all animal flesh.

The book has a slight undertone of trying to persuade you away from vegetarianism which I found odd for a book that claims to be for vegetarians.

I would not recommend this book, I should have read the other reviews before buying it. There are numerous truly vegetarian and vegan olympic or world class athletes, this book gives terrible examples of "semi" vegetarians or what should be termed non-vegetarians.
If you are a true vegetarian, I wouldn't buy this book as it really isn't for vegetarians.

58 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars deceitful title, June 15, 2004

By 

abuelitodimetu (civitas dei, United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Vegetarian Sports Nutrition Guide: Peak Performance for Everyone from Beginners to Gold Medalists (Paperback)

I read in one review posted above "and you are (or aspire to be) a vegan, then this book is definitely for you." is this a JOKE? THIS reader obviously did not open this book at all! the term "vegetarian" in used so freely that people that eat a burger a week are considered "semi-vegetarians". What is that supposed to mean? And what about "pesco-vegetarians"? This guide is a joke. If you take veganism or vegetarianism seriously, don't waste your money on this title. However, I give it 2 stars because it has some information on vitamins and other supplements. Yet, I can get the same advice from any other "omni/carnivore" regular nutrition book.

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Geared toward the serious athlete, August 8, 2006

By 

S. Alex (Northfield, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Vegetarian Sports Nutrition Guide: Peak Performance for Everyone from Beginners to Gold Medalists (Paperback)

If you are looking for a book with ammo to attack the non-vegans in your life, this is not it. As several of the previous reviews have stated, this book provides numerous alternative nutrition plans. Some of the references made in the book measure the effectiveness of vegetarian diets to non-vegetarian diets when addressing some specific nutritional deficiencies associated with intensive training programs. I suggest that this information is presented as comparative and not as encouragement to become omnivorous as has been implied. As a committed vegetarian I took no offense to any of the suspect references.

Read with the absence of political bias this book is extremely informative to the serious athlete. Actual nutrition plans and specific rationale are included from vegetarian athletes with unequivocal credibility. The book is also extremely readable with bios and recipes inserted appropriately to support the nutritional strategies.

My reason for buying this book was to get an edge on my long run times and learn how to recover faster after races and heavy workouts. This book delivered on both accounts.
If you're a weekend mall walker looking for a recipe book, there are several out there that will teach you how to make foo-foo dishes until your eyes bleed. If you are serious about athletic training and understanding vegetarian sports nutrition, you are in the right place.