Nutrition For Vegans and Celiacs

[HeroesFitness]

Is anyone a vegan or celiac on here, if so please share your diet and how you boost your energy levels and recovery

 

[Stephen C]

My girlfriend is a Coeliac which mean I pretty much follow a gluten free diet (not 100%) so would be happy to answer any questions on that side. I've never really had any problems with energy while commuting 32 miles a day and recovery has become better more as a result of changing how I cycle than any specific diet changes, although bananas have always been a post ride favourite!

 

[fossala]

I'm a vegan and ride nearly 30 miles everyday to work (round trip) and do long distance at weekends (family permitting). I Just eat well all the time. Make sure you get enough of everything but with a varied diet of veg, fruit, beans and pulses you will be fine.

 

[Ian A]

I'm neither but have read a bit from vegan athletes as I'm generally interested in this kind of thing. Are you looking at vegan and celiac together? There a re plenty of vegan atheltes who have written onthge subject and soem are also gluten free. Brendan Brazier is a good starting point. He's a vegan pro Ironman athlete. Ultra runner Scott User10571 also. Rich Roll (on the front cover of the racng weight book) has a lot of lengthy podcasts but is definitely not gluten free.

 

[HeroesFitness]

I'm neither but have read a bit from vegan athletes as I'm generally interested in this kind of thing. Are you looking at vegan and celiac together? There a re plenty of vegan atheltes who have written onthge subject and soem are also gluten free. Brendan Brazier is a good starting point. He's a vegan pro Ironman athlete. Ultra runner Scott User10571 also. Rich Roll (on the front cover of the racng weight book) has a lot of lengthy podcasts but is definitely not gluten free.

I will take a look at Brendan Brazier and see what he does, cheers Ian

 

[ChrisEyles]

I'm coeliac and vegetarian (though not vegan), and don't have any problems getting the nutrition I need for riding, plus manual work in the week... though it has involved some trial and error getting there.

Vegetarian is no problem, very easy to get a balanced diet. Vegan I've not looked into, but lentils (and other pulses), quinoa, and quorn are excellent protein sources, and carbs are easy to manage with rice/potatoes. As well as carb-rich flours (rice, tapioca, potato) try and find some recipes with gram (chickpea) flour, which is another great protein source. You'll need to watch your iron intake too - quinoa, kidney beans, spinach, and pulses are all good, plus make sure you get enough vitamin C to assist absorption (shouldn't be a problem on a veggie/vegan diet).

Coeliac disease is much, much tougher and a total PITA. Cutting out pasta/bread from your diet is not too bad (just means I suffer perpetual biscuit envy). The bigger problem is you have to be super careful to check ingredients on *everything*, not only for obvious wheat flour etc, but also other sneaky gluten containing stuff like barely malt extract, malt vinegar, dextrin, soy sauce etc. This massively cuts down the amount of pre-prepared food you can eat. Eating out can be a nightmare too, unless you have some places you trust to do properly gluten-free options. If your girlfriend is anything like me, an accidental glutening is going to put any sort of training off the menu for up to a week, so this is really important. However, home cooking should be fine (I'm assuming you probably keep a gluten-free kitchen anyway - if not watch out for flour dust!).

For the ride itself, I start out with a big bowl of porridge (use gluten-free oats!) with jam/golden syrup, and a banana. There are some gluten-free sports drinks mixes to take with you on the ride. I think I use high 5, with a little added protein, have also used the carb only one, and both work well for me. Jelly babies etc are also often OK, but do check those labels first. My #1 cycling fuel while on the bike is definitely home made flapjacks (again, G/F oats).

Hope this helps, and good luck getting the diet sussed!

Edit: If you're just looking to go gluten-free for health reasons other than coeliac you may not have to be as super-vigilant over trace quantities of gluten, which would open up your options in pre-prepared food a lot.

Edit 2: Annoyingly, a lot of quorn products contain barely malt extract, so if the above doesn't apply, you'll need to watch out for this too.

 

[HeroesFitness]

I'm coeliac and vegetarian (though not vegan), and don't have any problems getting the nutrition I need for riding, plus manual work in the week... though it has involved some trial and error getting there.

Vegetarian is no problem, very easy to get a balanced diet. Vegan I've not looked into, but lentils (and other pulses), quinoa, and quorn are excellent protein sources, and carbs are easy to manage with rice/potatoes. As well as carb-rich flours (rice, tapioca, potato) try and find some recipes with gram (chickpea) flour, which is another great protein source. You'll need to watch your iron intake too - quinoa, kidney beans, spinach, and pulses are all good, plus make sure you get enough vitamin C to assist absorption (shouldn't be a problem on a veggie/vegan diet).

Coeliac disease is much, much tougher and a total PITA. Cutting out pasta/bread from your diet is not too bad (just means I suffer perpetual biscuit envy). The bigger problem is you have to be super careful to check ingredients on *everything*, not only for obvious wheat flour etc, but also other sneaky gluten containing stuff like barely malt extract, malt vinegar, dextrin, soy sauce etc. This massively cuts down the amount of pre-prepared food you can eat. Eating out can be a nightmare too, unless you have some places you trust to do properly gluten-free options. If your girlfriend is anything like me, an accidental glutening is going to put any sort of training off the menu for up to a week, so this is really important. However, home cooking should be fine (I'm assuming you probably keep a gluten-free kitchen anyway - if not watch out for flour dust!).

For the ride itself, I start out with a big bowl of porridge (use gluten-free oats!) with jam/golden syrup, and a banana. There are some gluten-free sports drinks mixes to take with you on the ride. I think I use high 5, with a little added protein, have also used the carb only one, and both work well for me. Jelly babies etc are also often OK, but do check those labels first. My #1 cycling fuel while on the bike is definitely home made flapjacks (again, G/F oats).

Hope this helps, and good luck getting the diet sussed!

Edit: If you're just looking to go gluten-free for health reasons other than coeliac you may not have to be as super-vigilant over trace quantities of gluten, which would open up your options in pre-prepared food a lot.

Edit 2: Annoyingly, a lot of quorn products contain barely malt extract, so if the above doesn't apply, you'll need to watch out for this too.

Great information here Chris

Cheers

Spencer

 

[Ian A]

This massively cuts down the amount of pre-prepared food you can eat. Eating out can be a nightmare too, unless you have some places you trust to do properly gluten-free options.

This is where we're at. My better half has an auto immune disease and she's been recommended (by some sources) to cut out Gluten. Oats and oatmeal were the big surprise for me. They're gluten free naturally but cross contamination was the risk we've been told. I'm pretty much gluten free in support of her and it's fine. We just have to be organised as most meals are cooked from scratch. On the plus side I eat the healthiest I've ever eaten.

 

[sheffgirl]

I've just discovered Nakd bars, they would be ideal as snacks / refuelling whilst cycling. They are vegan and some varieties are gluten free.
I'm not on a restricted diet, I just like them, I eat them instead of chocolate now and I actually prefer it

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I've just discovered Nakd bars, they would be ideal as snacks / refuelling whilst cycling. They are vegan and some varieties are gluten free.
I'm not on a restricted diet, I just like them, I eat them instead of chocolate now and I actually prefer it

you might like this link then...
http://www.naturalbalancefoods.co.uk/nakd-fruit-and-nut-bars/short-dated-nakd-rhubarb-custard/ 48 bars for £17.60 (36p a bar), select the free delivery option - mine were despatched next day. the 20% extra off that is already applied only applies until Monday.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

As to the OP... I am vegetarian, severely allergic to dairy, so effectively vegan plus eggs & honey.

Everything has to be double checked ingredients wise - even bread & margarine has dairy in it nowadays. Certain brands in certain variants don't but you can't always guarantee what has and hasn't got dairy in it. It turns up everywhere. Pure is a brand of margarine that is dairy free and reasonably priced. I cook with it and/or Stork vegetable margarine (in a block). There are plenty of alternatives to milk & cream available, from soya, oat (may not be an option for you), almond, hazelnet, coconut, rice (etc) milks. Cream now comes quite readily in oat and soya versions and even a fresh soya version (single cream style only though).

Cauldron foods do a good range of vegan options and some of them may also be gluten free.

Snacks as in cakes have always been a problem, but if you look around you will find things such as ginger cake (village bakery and available in most supermarkets) which is both gluten free and dairy free, Sainsbury's do a really nice chocolate brownie which is both gluten and dairy free... Bells of Lazonby (possibly linked to Village Bakery) also so some really nice dairy & gluten free cakes.

Otherwise I eat normally, even when on tour - just in larger quantities.

I do add in a lot of Nakd bars (always purchased on special offers... I don't normally pay more than 50p per bar), and also Trek bars which are high in protein, though they spme only state they are wheat and dairy free, but the Trek Oat Flapjack is both gluten & dairy free (and rather nice) ... the Nakd bars are gluten & dairy free - and very nice.

Be careful also with some of the energy gels - not all are dairy free and pretty much anything that says 'recovery' in it can usually be ruled out instantly, though there are one or two I have seen recently that use soya rather than milk for the protein element. I don't really do the recovery drinks. I just make sure I eat within 30 mins of getting home, or have a hot chocolate (Hotel chocolate do a dairy free hot chocolate that I use with almond milk... they also do quite a reasonable selection of dairy free chocolate as well (including my favourite) I can't link to the page for the hot chocolate, their site is not working but it is basically the classic drinking chocolate - but the packaging has changed, so I will need to double check it next time I buy it! )

There are a few other snacks I have found recently that are dairy free, but not gluten free - if it is an either or rather than both, yell and I can mention them.... some have eggs in them, others don't.

 

[Bewar3them00n]

Eat Natural do a range of Gluten free cereal bars and cereal, Natures Path do some nice gluten free cereals, there's loads of options now, compared to 10 years ago, when even my doctor diagnosed it as "stress/IBS" and I basically self diagnosed! Now it's recognised that upto 1/5 of the populace have some sensitivity to wheat/gluten, and the range of products has ballooned over the last few years ( thankfully!!!)
I really missed pizza, nice bread, and nice beers, now I can endulge all without much hassle, and recently Daura a really tasty gluten free beer by Damm has become readily available in Tesco, Waitrose, Morrisons!!! Thank you God of Beer! At £6 for 4x330ml it's a bargain, it's a wonderfully tasty beer, sorry if you are doing gluten free for health reasons, I know beer is high calorie fodder!!!
If you are eating out, many southern Indian restaurants have rice based dishes, idly, comes with nice coconut chutney ( spicey, obviously !) ( a steamed fermented rice, very bread like) and Dosa ( rice pancakes filled with a filling of your choice) Masala Dosa Mmmm! And uttappam, a rice based, pizza like concoction, are all wheat free ( make sure you ask as some Dosas are made with wheat)
pizza Express now do Gluten Free Pizzas!!!!
Nine Bar do some seriously chunky and tasty cereal and nut bars too, very nice and good value.