4 Plant-Based Meat Alternatives For Athlete Meals

There’s been a huge shift in society over the last couple of decades bringing the vegan diet into the mainstream.

Plant-based meat alternatives are now widely available in supermarkets and restaurants, with a 40% increase in the number of UK vegans during 2021 alone.

Although there’s no concrete evidence that cutting out animal products can improve performance, many top athletes have adopted a plant-based diet, including Lewis Hamilton, Nate Diaz and Venus Williams. The Game Changers Netflix documentary also made a compelling case as to why being a vegan could help you get fitter.

If you want to make a transition to a plant-based diet or you just want to experiment with some new meals, here are four meat alternatives to try.

Soy Products

Soy is one of the classic meat alternatives that’s been used by vegetarians and vegans for years. The most common soy product is tofu, which can be used in salads, stir-frys or even crumbled instead of scrambled eggs. It offers about 14g of protein per serving.

Seitan

Seitan can be difficult to source in UK supermarkets, but you can find it. It’s made from vital wheat gluten and is often used in sandwiches, pasta dishes, stews or even stir-frys. It’s high in protein and contains some iron, potassium and calcium too. You can make it yourself with vital wheat gluten, vegetable broth and garlic if you can’t buy it.

Black Bean Burger

Beans are a great way of getting protein in and there are lots of tasty black bean burger brands around. The best have no additives and are just made with simple ingredients, usually containing around 7g of protein per burger. Try pairing it with a quinoa salad to boost the protein contents of the meal.

Jackfruit

Jackfruit is a tropical fruit found in Asia, Africa and South America, but has a mild flavour and is sometimes used as an alternative to pulled pork because its texture is similar to shredded meat. The downside is that it only has 1g of protein, but if you can use other protein sources in your meal, jackfruit does offer good amounts of fibre, iron and vitamin C.