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Vegan women lasted 39% longer than meat-eating women in an endurance test to exhaustion and matched them for muscle strength, a Montreal study finds.
Researchers at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), led by Professor Antony Karelis, compared 56 healthy, lean, physically active young women: 28 vegans and 28 omnivores, all on their diets for at least two years. The two groups were alike in activity levels, body fat and lean mass. The results are published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
The vegans had a higher estimated VO2 max (44.5 vs 41.6 ml/kg/min) and kept going for 12.2 minutes in a submaximal endurance test, against 8.8 minutes for the omnivores. Leg press and chest press strength were the same. It is a small snapshot comparison rather than a trial, so it shows how the groups compared, not what caused the difference.
The authors conclude:
In fact, our study showed that submaximal endurance might be better in vegans compared with omnivores. Therefore, these findings contradict the popular belief of the general population.
It joins last year's study finding vegan runners match meat eaters for exercise capacity, and the feat of ultrarunner Robbie Balenger, who ran 3,175 miles across America on a vegan diet.
The 'weak vegan' stereotype just ran out of steam.