Officially a vegan now. We'll see how this goes. But week one down. So far, so good. Feels wonderful.
— Arian Foster (@ArianFoster) July 6, 2012
And what do you know? He actually got a lot of support. Glad to see my fellow vegans sending him lots of thoughtful and encouraging tweets. Though I'm sure he also got a lot of negative feedback.
The guys at ESPN First Take debated whether or not this was a good idea. Their main criticisms were that Foster should've started at the end of last season to give his body time to adjust, and that -- surprise -- he's not going to get enough protein and is going to lose some muscle mass.
I typically like First Take and respect their arguments. And I do in this case, mostly, but they assumed that Arian Foster "waited until now" to go vegan. What if he didn't do it at the end of last season because it wasn't even something he considered? What if he just started thinking and learning about it recently? But even if he was thinking about it for a long time, it's not an easy decision. It takes a lot of consideration, effort and commitment. I'm sure as a star running back with an NFL franchise, fan base and millions of dollars riding on him, he thought about it long and hard.
As for the lack of protein argument, that myth is always going to persist as long as "conventional wisdom" rules. I can't help but feel like every time an athlete (or anybody for that matter) goes vegan/vegetarian, people react like he/she's the first one. Everybody's different, but there are lots of vegan body builders out there, (have you visited veganbodybuilding.com?) as well as vegan/vegetarian athletes (some MMA fighters). So Arian Foster is certainly not the first and is in good company. He's a smart dude. He'll get it right.
But as Paul Kuhrasky writes in his ESPN blog:
Because of the NFL’s strict banned substances list, any protein powder Foster uses will be one he’s had looked over and approved by Houston’s training staff.Tony Gonzalez announced he went vegan back in 2008, but I read he occasionally eats fish and chicken? If that's true, I at least give him credit for trying. It's technically not vegan, but at least he cut down his meat consumption, depending on how often "occasionally" is.
In the Twitter conversation Foster’s mention of going vegan set off, he mentioned that he and Roberta Anding, the Texans' nutritionist, follow each other’s accounts.
Atlanta tight end Tony Gonzalez is among athletes who have adopted a vegan diet, according to this recent ESPNW piece by Sharon Liao.
Foster is a disciplined and interesting guy. He wouldn't make this choice without researching it and knowing what he's doing. If it somehow negatively impacts him he'll change course, I'm confident.
And while we're talking about other athletes, I was intrigued when MLB slugger Prince Fielder went vegetarian, but disappointed when I found out it didn't last long. ESPN reported, "Fielder did want to debunk one thing: Back in 2008, he talked about becoming a vegetarian, but that apparently didn't last long after all the commotion.'I'm not a vegetarian,' he said. 'I was, for like three months.'"
But as for Foster, in one of his tweets, he mentioned that he did watch the documentary Forks Over Knives, so I'm assuming he's done his research. I wonder how strict he is going to be. Is he giving up leather and wool, etc? In any case, I wish Arian Foster the best of luck and am proud of his decision. Please prove to people once again that you can be a vegan athlete.
I leave you with this very wise and true quote from Arian Foster himself, which he probably tweeted in response to disapproval.
People feel so strong about meat and milk. I wish they felt this strong about peace.
— Arian Foster (@ArianFoster) July 6, 2012
Love and Peace,
VG
Great to know more athletes are going the vegan route. Unfortunately I don't think Foster will give up holding the football, which is made of leather :)
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