New Colin Kaepernick Blow: He’s A Vegan, Teams Concerned
As if Colin Kaepernick didn’t have enough to deal with, the new Colin Kaepernick blow that allegedly has teams concerned about picking him up is that he’s a vegan. Will his diet keep him from being signed by an NFL team?
According to NBC Sports, NFL teams are now using his vegan diet as an excuse to keep him a free agent. But why would they care about whether or not he eats meat? A tweet from Matt Maiocco reveals comments from some people stating that a vegan diet is not sufficient for an athlete. Others argue that he could get enough protein on a vegan diet.
At season’s end, Colin Kaepernick stated he was fully committed to football. But some teams are unconvinced and wonder about his vegan diet.
— Matt Maiocco (@MaioccoNBCS) March 31, 2017
As far as Kaepernick’s free agent status goes, it was announced earlier in the week that he is seeking roughly $9 million a year, but the problem is that nobody cares what he wants because he is basically being blackballed.
The question that arises among most people is, what is the true reason why none of the teams are interested in Kaepernick? It’s no question that the biggest concern with signing him is his strong political views that he has had no issue expressing openly. President Trump seemed to think that he was the reason that none of the teams would sign Kaepernick, knowing that they would receive backlash from him, who called Kaepernick “un-American” for refusing to stand for the American flag.
Now, let’s go back to his vegan diet. According to VegKitchen, a vegan diet can be used by high-performance athletes. In fact, the article revealed that quite a few athletes try a vegan diet, but most of them don’t stick with it.
Why do athletes have trouble sticking to a vegan diet? When an athlete switches to a vegan diet, they often seem like they are constantly hungry. In return, it lowers their energy levels, thus making it difficult to perform at their optimum level. Further, protein is very important for an athlete because it helps to rebuild broken down muscle tissue.
The good news is, there is a solution. A vegan can consume tofu, beans, and legumes. Some additional products that have a good source of protein is hemp seed nut and flour, soy protein powder, or an unsweetened soy drink.
If a vegan athlete needs additional fat sources, he or she can eat avocados, and non-roasted nuts and seeds. Further, extra virgin olive oil, hemp oil, and flax oil has a generous amount of fats for vegan diets.
Another reason that athletes tend to shy away from a vegan diet is because it provides less sodium and calcium, and for athletes, that means more muscle cramps and stiffness. VegKitchen, however, claims that his issue can be solved with a little bit of sea salt. In addition to adding sea salt to each meal, a vegan can add non-roasted sesame seeds to their meals. For maximum calcium absorption, it is recommended to grind them in a coffee grinder.
Athletes sweat a lot, and with sweating means losing iron. A vegan athlete would need to take an additional iron supplement, on top of eating iron rich foods such as soybean nuts, dried peas and beans, split pea soup, baked goods with molasses, prune juice and raisins, green beans, peanut butter, walnuts, pecans, cashews, and almonds.
So there you have it. An athlete CAN fill their needs with a vegan diet with a little bit of substitutions and some extra supplements. So what is the real reason for NFL teams to keep Kaepernick as a free agent?
[Featured Image by Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP Images]
