Power Plants
If it is true that you can’t reach your full athletic potential on a meat-free diet, it seems nobody bothered telling the best athletes in the world. Four-time UEFA Champions League winning footballer Lionel Messi, six-time Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton and 39-time Grand Slam tennis champion Serena Williams have all excelled on a plant-based diet. Many successful cyclists are also veggie-powered. Britain’s 2015 world road race champion Lizzie Deignan has been a vegetarian since childhood; Australian Adam Hansen credits his plant-based diet for helping him finish a record 20 back-to-back Grand Tours; and vegan Dotsie Bausch of America became the oldest medallist in her discipline when, aged 39, she won silver in the London 2012 team pursuit. Last summer, Abdullah Zeinab, a vegan cyclist from Australia, won the epic 6800km Trans Am Bike Race in a record-breaking time.
Driven by ethical, environmental and health concerns, more and more people are becoming flexitarian (following a plant-based diet but eating animal products in moderation), vegetarian (avoiding meat but still eating eggs and dairy) or full vegan (eating no animal products at all).
According to the Vegan Society, the number of vegans in the UK has quadrupled since 2006 to 600,000. The Sainsbury’s Future of Food report forecasts that a quarter of Brits will have given up meat by 2025. The number of people committing to ‘Veganuary’ - eating vegan food throughout January - doubled to 250,000 last year. And data from Waitrose suggests
