Vegan diets are all the rage now. With plant-based food becoming more and more accessible, these are the athletes who have made the switch.
Nowadays, vegan diets are becoming more and more accessible. With new brands popping up that market a plant-based lifestyle, maybe even you have considered it an option at one point. We don’t blame you.
Even athletes are now hopping on the plant-based trend, some for their health benefits, and others for the environmental impact of food. And to our surprise, a lot of them actually love it for their lifestyle, even as athletes.
Here are a few of the biggest names in sports who are ambassadors for the vegan trend.
Lewis Hamilton
As one of the most well-known athletes in the world, many people have known that Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton has been on a vegan diet for years now. The first sentence of his Instagram bio even says, “🌱 Based”.
When Hamilton started racing in Formula 1, he was still eating food derived from animal products. But in 2017, his tenth season in the sport, he found that the animal food industry is a large contributor to the emission of global-warming gases. So, he decided to make the switch.
A little bit ironic that he drives fuel-powered race cars for a living…But hey, every little bit counts, right?
Ever since he made the switch, he’s been advocating for the vegan lifestyle. And we don’t just mean the food—he promotes going against all animal products and boycotting animal exploitation.
Apart from just being good for the environment, however, Hamilton says that his plant-based lifestyle has been one of the factors in helping him win his multiple championships. Athletes, take notes.
Venus Williams
While Lewis Hamilton decided to go on a plant-based diet for external reasons, tennis player Venus Williams’ decision was more personal.
In 2011, Williams was diagnosed with Sjögren’s Syndrome, an autoimmune disease that causes joint pain and fatigue. Because of this, for over ten years now, the tennis player has been living a plant-based lifestyle.
Ever since making the switch, Williams has seen the effects of going vegan in more ways than one. Mainly, her diet enables her to manage her disease without medicine. But apart from that, she told Insider that it has also improved her skin, and helped her tennis performance too.
If veganism is going to get my skin this clear, sign me up.
Kyrie Irving
Another athlete you may know to be vegan is NBA player Kyrie Irving. While playing for the Celtics in the 2017-2018 season, Irving watched a popular documentary entitled What The Health.
The film dives into the health impact that animal-based food products can have on the body. Ever since Irving saw it, he’s been living on a plant-based diet to improve and sustain his health.
Surprisingly, ever since getting on the vegan trend, he’s revealed that he has more energy because of it. He told ESPN, “Been on more of a plant-based diet, getting away from the animals and all that. I had to get away from that. So my energy is up; my body feels amazing.”
Even Brad Stevens commented on Irving’s great energy from that season. And as an NBA player, energy is literally everything.
Justin Fields
Given the intensely physical nature of American football, it may come as a shock to you that quarterback Justin Fields maintains a plant-based diet.
In the middle of the pandemic, while Fields was at home, he and his family went on a plant-based 28-day detox. And after 28 days (only less than a month), the Bears player was sold.
Among the great effects he felt living on a plant-based diet, he feels that it helps the recovery process of his body. As an American football player who is no stranger to the bodily effects that come with getting tackled, this must have been an easy selling point to him.
But apart from just the recovery he feels in his body, he also feels that the plant-based diet helps in his digestion.
Now, he’s so sold on the vegan lifestyle that he wants to open up a vegan pizza place in Chicago. We’ll be waiting, Justin.
Alex Morgan
Football player (or shall we say soccer for the American’s sake?) Alex Morgan is another successful athlete on a vegan diet.
2017 must have been veganism’s golden year, because same as Lewis Hamilton and Kyrie Irving, Morgan decided to give up meat five years ago. And, similar to the F1 star, she also made the choice based on external factors.
In an interview with Reuters, she shared, “I even adopted a vegan diet, because it didn’t feel fair to have a dog I adore, and yet eat meat all the time.” It was really her love of animals that pushed her to make the switch.
But even though her intentions were not directly geared toward her health, the striker now feels that her diet helps her to recover faster from training and that it has helped her become more fit.
Saving animals and feeling better physically at the same time? What a queen.