Q&A with Dr. Fogarty: Plant-Based Diets: What the Game Changers got right, and wrong

Photo by Brittany App

Dr. Fogarty, a nutrition and exercise expert from the UK, talks to Spinaca on the science behind how eating a vegetable-heavy rainbow diet can help you live a longer, healthier life.

Mark Fogarty earned a Ph.D. in Exercise Physiology and Biochemistry at the University of Ulster in the United Kingdom where he has been researching, publishing and lecturing on natural nutritional intervention in the context of exercise stress for over a decade.

Spinaca Farms: In general, where do you see the field of sports nutrition heading over the next year?

Dr. Fogarty: We’re going to see sports nutrition follow the plant-based trends that the rest of the general population is heading towards. The question, then, is what is meant `plant-based?’  If you ask me, ‘plant-based’ means eating plants. Actual real ones, like a carrot, or some broccoli or watercress—washed, chopped and perhaps steamed or boiled maybe even roasted. 

Spinaca Farms: Any diet trends that are missing the mark?

Dr. Fogarty: What is causing me increasing concern, highlighted by my recent trip to the supermarket, is that there is an entire aisle dedicated to the growing plant-based meat alternative industry. I thought the The Game Changers did a really good job at raising the profile and possible benefits of a plant-based diet. I don’t think it did a good enough job educating people on how to adopt a good plant-based diet.

A good plant-based diet diet needs to be approached with the utmost care, focusing on protein quality and quantity. I don’t want to get into the raging argument raised by this movie and its supporters/detractors, but the truth lies between the commentary on both sides and the debate is really useful.  

I’ve given my position before but to be clear animal products play a big role in our diets and I’d not recommend removing them entirely.  Good quality red meat i.e. grass fed or organic beef once a week with some poultry and fish are both excellent sources of lean protein. Dairy products, milk, cheese and yoghurt and also really important for essential minerals like calcium and zinc. Eat lots of vegetables and focus fruit in the earlier part of the day because of the high sugar content. If you don’t want to consume meat I wouldn’t go full scale vegan—I think vegetarian is the better option.

Spinaca Farms: How do we reconcile plant-based with trying to avoid super processed foods?

Dr. Fogarty: Right?! Yes, plant-based meat alternatives worry me. The main reason is the processing part. Honestly this is me thinking out loud at this point so I appreciate I might not have all the facts, however I have to ask—how do you make mushroom protein taste like a sausage?  What additives are we talking about here?

I’ve used a pea supplement powder as an alternative to my normal post-workout whey protein and it was disgusting, like really bad!  So now I see a lot of plant-based supplements with a mad array of flavours. Most of these are made from pea protein extract so what are they adding in there to hide the taste? Try it for yourself and you’ll see what I mean.  

Maybe that’s a good sign if a plant-based supplement has a bit of a stinky aftertaste—less additives probably mean it's one of the good ones. 

Spinaca Farms: What kind of process does a pea have to go through to end up a (stinky) protein powder?

Dr. Fogarty: I only know of a few different ways to extract protein from something: heat it, expose it to acidic conditions or expose it to ethanol. Trust me, none of those processes are particularly nice and I can’t imagine them being very good to the environment either.  So this feels very odd—I’ve been encouraging people to eat more vegetables for years, and now there are so many options for people to enjoy as a meat alternative, I’m saying I wouldn’t eat those because, let’s face it, they’re not the vegetable they once were.

Spinaca Farms: What about supplements? Talk about filling an entire grocery store aisle!

Dr. Fogarty: One thing that I would fully support, particularly in the US, is the need for people to consider a good quality VitB12 supplement and perhaps VitD. These two supplements are absolutely in decline in the general population. I’m not a big fan of supplements but I’d suggest people think about these two if they’re a bit short of energy and feeling a bit lethargic.