Can an athlete succeed on a plant-based diet?
Media release 25 March 2024
Härkis® – the market leader brand of plant proteins in Finland – is the new collaboration partner of the Finnish Olympic team. The goal of this new collaboration is to encourage the sports community to try a plant-based diet while also debunking myths that are often associated with plant-based diets and sports.
Sports Nutritionist Laura Manner from the Finnish Olympic Committee often receives questions about plant-based eating. One common question is whether plant-based food can provide an athlete with enough energy and proteins.
Manner assures that this concern is unfounded.
“You can also handle a harder training period with a plant-based diet as long as you make sure to eat not only vegetables, berries and fruit but also grain products, legumes, nuts and seeds, which also contain more energy, proteins and fats.”
Many people are also concerned about whether a plant-based diet slows down sports recovery.
“The muscles exercised during a workout grow and become stronger during recovery. A varied plant-based diet may even boost recovery. Plant products contain many beneficial compounds, such as antioxidants, which may be helpful during the recovery process.”
“Physically active people can get almost all of the important vitamins and minerals they need from a varied plant-based diet. However, it’s true that you can’t get all vitamins and minerals from plant-based food. It’s particularly important for people on a plant-based diet to ensure sufficient intake of vitamin B12, iodine, calcium, vitamin D and iron. On the other hand, plant-based products contain more fibres, vitamin C and antioxidants,” Manner remarks.
Every other academy athlete would like to eat plant-based food more often
At the start of the collaboration, the Härkis team wanted to study athletes’ eating habits and thoughts about plant-based food. The survey carried out at sports academies garnered responses from 230 athletes. The responses provided the team with a great deal of useful information on young athletes’ nutrition.
“According to the survey, every other (53%) respondent would like to eat plant-based food more often. Plant proteins are still relatively little known among athletes, as 40% of the respondents would like to eat them more but do not know how to cook with them. The responses also indicated uncertainty about whether plant proteins provide sufficient proteins in an athlete’s diet. There’s no need to worry, since a plant-based diet can also provide athletes with the building materials they need for their development as long as they combine different sources of protein, such as grains and legumes, on a daily basis,” says Brand Manager for Härkis Anna-Maria Kinnunen.
“The athletes most wanted tips for what to eat on a day of hard exercise. We wanted to respond to the athletes’ needs, so we prepared a tasty, healthy and simple Härkis recipe that also provides sufficient amounts of energy, carbohydrates and proteins for a day of harder exercise. This Tacopasta recipe is easy for anyone to make.”
Kinnunen hopes that this straightforward Härkis recipe will find its way to the homes of athletes and everyone else as well.
“Tasty and healthy plant-based food is an ordinary everyday choice. Finnish plant proteins pack a punch and contain good building materials. You can go far with them in both sports and ordinary everyday life,” Kinnunen sums up.
Enquiries:
Finnish Olympic Committee: Business Director Mikko Selin, tel. 050 596 7086
Raisio Group, Härkis and plant proteins: Brand Manager Anna-Maria Kinnunen, tel. 040 722 1478
The Finnish Olympic Committee is a national sports organisation that promotes physically active lifestyles among Finns and seeks to help them succeed in elite sports. In collaboration with our member organisations and partners, we work to energise Finland through physical activity and sports. www.olympiakomitea.fi
Härkis® is a plant protein brand owned by the Raisio Group. At Raisio, we make food from the heart, with the aim of bringing health to ourselves and the Earth. We keep creating better plant-based and heart-healthy products so that eating healthily and within the Earth’s ecological capacity can be a pleasure. Our strong brands, such as Benecol®, Härkis® and Elovena®, turn our ambitions into reality. Through our responsibility work, we make the hard choices for consumers, so that they can choose Raisio products with confidence. We have around 350 healthy food colleagues in seven countries and export to more than 40 markets around the world. Raisio's shares are listed on Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd. In 2023, the Group’s comparable net sales for continuing operations were EUR 219.5 million and the comparable EBIT was EUR 22.7 million. www.raisio.com
