The MMA Digest

“I’m Mac DAnzig and I’m a vegan”, says Mac Danzig in a new advertisement for Peta2, the world’s largest youth animal rights organization. Danzig has become one of the spokespersons for the organization.

“Animals on factory farms and in slaughterhouses don’t have a fighting chance,” says Danzig. “I don’t eat animals because I don’t want to contribute to their suffering–it’s that simple. Do yourself a favor, do the planet a favor, and help end animal abuse. Go veg.”

The ad–which is available in both print and video versions–can be viewed at peta2.com.

The link also gives info on a chance to win a UFC party–including snacks, Mac’s favorite workout supplement, and the next UFC pay-per-view, compliments of peta2.

For more info Danzig’s vegan lifestyle go to this link.

Team Quest Nutritionist Dr. Ryan Parsons

Age at 44 and beyond, UFC hall of famer Randy Couture is just a spring chicken in the mixed martial arts world, and an ingredient of his success has been due to the methodical diet devised by Dr. Ryan Parsons. The former Arizona State wrestler with a doctorate degree in chiropractic and nutrition, has for the past decade experimented with athletes like Randy Couture, Dan Henderson, Heath Sims and the Team Quest Fight Club in Oregon to try and formulate the most effective diet possible for MMA athletes. Well known for advocating the consumption of greens in an athlete’s diet, Parsons feels that one can certainly be a successful fighter with a vegetarian or vegan diet, but more careful planning is required.

Dr. Ryan Parsons www.teamquestmma.com

Basically the focus should be on eating really nutrient rich foods that are easily digested and assimilated to have one’s body increase efficiency. “When you’re eating easily digestible and nutrient rich foods takes less energy for your body to take what it needs and get rid of the rest”, explains Parsons. “So you have more energy for other things—healing your body and everything else that’s involved with that.” Parsons asserts that having a lot of raw alkalizing enzyme rich foods as a foundation of the diet. Green vegetables are known to be very alkalizing and loaded with vitamins and minerals, as well as being enzyme rich foods which give the body a lot of energy. The multiple benefits have led Parsons to believe they are invaluable to an athlete. “They’re easy to digest and pack a lot of nutrition”, says Parson. “I’m a firm believe in including some type of greens with every meal.”

Carbohydrate sources should come mostly from vegetables, whole grains and a smaller percentage coming from fruits. Nuts and seeds are really valuable part of the diet for Parsons, with an emphasis on hemp and flax seeds. “Flax and hemp seeds provide a rich source of essential fatty acids along with protein”, comments Parsons. While on the protein end of the diet, Parsons feels beans and tofu are both excellent sources of protein.

If a vegetarian is still consuming eggs, then they become another source of protein. Some vegetarians consume dairy, and milk and cheese are an option, but those items are not something Parsons would recommend on the menu for athletes. “They’re very acidic and tend to be mucous forming in a lot of people”, elucidates Parsons. “A large percentage of the population have trouble digesting dairy products, so they’ll cut your wind down and produce a lot of mucous in your throat and make it harder to breathe.”

On the supplements end of the diet, Parsons is certainly has great faith in the LightForce “High Energy Greens” supplement that he founded, and feels that it is a good foundation for supplement use if needed. Other supplements that can be incorporated are Udo’s oil, hemp oils and a multivitamin with antioxidants in it. Furthermore, at times when an athlete’s diet is not the greatest, a digestive enzyme is also a great addition to a fighter’s supplement list. “A digestive enzyme can be real beneficial in helping you break down that food, because also the goal is to break down and absorb the food you eat as quickly as possible and get rid of the rest”, comments Parsons. The easier that process is made, the more efficiently a fighter’s body will run, the healthier he’ll be, and the better his performance will be.

Dr. Parsons’ Greens Supplement www.lightforcegreens.com

A important activity fighters should engage in according to Parsons is planning out menus, as well as making sure that their menu includes many options. “Getting food from a variety of different sources is one thing that’s important for everybody, not just vegetarian athletes”, advises Parsons. “So get your food from the biggest variety and most variety as possible.” And that variety can include some less than pristine foods diet wise for one day or a meal here and there without causing damage. Parsons subscribes to the 80-20 rule, where he believes it’s what you do most of the time that counts. “You have to give yourself some leeway”, says Parsons. “Especially if you’re traveling or you’re training really hard and need a break from everything.” So a guilt-free cheat day or meal every so often can be implemented into a fighter’s routine according to Parsons. “One meal or one day doesn’t ruin everything, it’s what you do most of the time that counts.”

Dr. Ryan Parsons is the founder of the LightForce” High Energy Greens” Supplement

Possible breakfast options from Dr. Ryan Parsons

Steel cut oats with hemp seeds sprinkled on top (Complex carbohydrates, high in fiber, doesn’t spike your blood sugar, some protein and fatty acids from the hemp seeds as well)

Fresh green vegetable juice (16 ounces)—a combination of kale, spinach, cucumber, celery, green peppers (Gives a huge energy boost and helps cleanse your body out)

Potential Meal Options during the Day from Dr. Ryan Parsons

Fresh vegetables with hummus dips or almond butter

Avocado on a yeast free toast

A handful or a trail mix—some type of nuts and seeds, some raisins or dried cranberries

Rumble on the Rock Grand Prix Champion Jake Shields adheres to a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet, consuming dairy products and eggs. Skill, dedication and a myriad of other factors have helped Shields become a top ranked welterweight in the world; but his diet is also a key ingredient to his success as well. Shields touches on the dietary component of his regimen and gives insight from a vegetarian’s perspective.

http://www.jakeshields.com/

When training for a fight, what will you eat on a daily basis?
My diet is not super-strict, but for breakfast I’ll try to get some oatmeal with some fruit in it or something or I might have some eggs, get some protein from eggs, have some egg whites and make an omelet with some vegetables and stuff. And I try to snack a lot by eating nuts and I’ll eat whatever, eat sandwiches, Mexican food. But usually about 3 weeks before a fight I’ll quit eating dairy, but otherwise I eat dairy.

What are your main protein sources?
Probably eggs and I eat beans and a little bit of soy nuts and milk and a little bit of tofu, and usually that’s enough but if I feel I need more protein I might make some protein shakes with whey protein.

You’re a vegetarian and you’re a fighter, do people look at that strangely and have some misconceptions about you?
A few people but not really, some people are surprised but nothing too strange.

Why did you become vegetarian?
I don’t eat meat for several reasons, I just don’t think it’s healthy and plus I’m just not into eating animals, I just don’t think it’s morally the best idea in my opinion.

What do you avoid eating towards your peaking phase in training?
Try not to eat too much refined sugar, I try to cut out fattening foods like cheese, and obviously not eat a pizza and stuff like that, sour cream and that kind of stuff. Other than that I just kind of eat whatever. I’ll eat breads and don’t cut out that when I’m cutting weight.

How do refined sugars impact you?
They kind of bring your training up and down, so it’s good to cut them out. I’ll eat sugar, but from fruit and stuff like that.

What are the best foods for you too keep your energy levels optimal?
I think as long as you have a well rounded diet, I think it’s good to get a mix of things. I think that’s a problem when people go vegetarian, they cut out too much stuff, but you realize most things you can eat but just need to substitute them without meat.

What is the last thing you eat before fighting?
I don’t eat much the day of the fight, after the weighin I eat a lot that night. Usually I wake up and have a small breakfast with some oatmeal and carbohydrates. And usually two hours before the fight I’ll eat energy bar that have basically just nuts and fruits in there. I definitely don’t want to be full when I fight, I’d rather be hungry that full.

http://www.jakeshields.com/

When you’re cutting weight, what are you ingesting then?
It’s all about cutting calories, I try to eat as clean as possible by eating tons of fruits and vegetables when it gets closer to the weighins because it’s hardly any calories. I’ll cut the bread back a little bit, but the stricter I am depends on what weight I’m at.

Do you take any supplements?
I actually don’t. Every once in a while I’ll add a protein shake in if I feel I’m not getting in enough protein, but other than that I pretty much try to get everything I need through eating. I think it’s really important just to get a balanced diet, a lot of people go vegetarian and just eat a couple of things. I think you just have to make sure that you’re getting a lot of different foods in your system. Make sure you get your proteins, carbs fats, rounding it out.

When you’re not training are you eating pretty healthy still?
(laughs) I try to but I go through phases. Usually the more weight I cut the worse I’ll eat afterwards—kind of the purging. Usually a couple of weeks after a fight I’ll go eat crap—pizza and ice cream, all the stuff that’s bad for you, but generally I try not to eat it. After about two weeks I get sick of it and don’t want to eat it anymore and go back to a healthy diet.

Do you have cheat days when training?
Actually, yes. If I’m training really hard, your body will start feeling weak and stuff so on a Wednesday or Thursday I’ll just go out and eat whatever I want and try to get some energy back.

Would you recommend any foods that have benefited you cardio-wise?
Whenever I’m eating lots of fruits and vegetables and whole wheat breads and as clean as possible, I definitely feel good. When I’m cutting out cheeses and some of the oils, and not necessarily fats because I’ll still eat olive oils and nuts and stuff like that. But I’ll just as clean as possible and less processed foods.

Strength-wise some might assume you’d be lack in that department because you don’t eat meat. What are you thoughts on that?
That’s the one thing I hear people say, but I’m strong and I have no problem gaining weight so that’s a total misconception. I think people might think that because of the protein but you can get protein in other ways.

Bananas are known to be good for muscle repair, do you incorporate them or any other foods in your diet to achieve that end?
I eat bananas and stuff. I don’t make sure that I eat them, I might eat them once a week, but eat them occasionally. There’s nothing I totally incorporate in, I just try to have a well balanced diet.

Do you feel you have any advantages as a fighter in being a vegetarian?
I think so—it’s easier to cut weight, not eating all the meat, especially red meat because I don’t think it sets well with all people and just sits in their gut and not feel good. So a lot of times I think I’m running cleaner and I think it gives me more energy and it’s easier for me to make weight.

With a name like Mac, the average person may snicker and think fast-food burgers are a part of Mac Danzig’s meal plan. But Pride FC veteran, former 155 pound King of the Cage and Gladiator Challenge champion, Mac Danzig, has broken the mold dietary-wise by becoming a successful vegan mixed martial artist. While the visage of a pacifist hippy-like individual may appear among minds of the masses at the mention of the term “vegan”, the 27 year old Danzig has carved his own path and along the way shattered stereotypical images. The lightweight fighter’s success evidences a fighter can be successful without the consumption of animal products.

Photo Credit: http://www.prideofficial.com/

Despite his success as a vegan competitor in MMA, the concept that meat was pivotal to a fighter’s performance was also an ideology that Danzig subscribed to early in his career. “I use to think that I needed chicken and fish as a source of protein in order to train properly”, recalls Danzig, a 6 year veteran of the sport. “I subscribed to that theory for a while and then when I finally decided to cut everything out and I was doing it right, it felt really good and I didn’t lose any strength at all–I feel like I recover quicker so it’s been good.”

For Danzig, his 3 years of leading a strict vegan life has been made much easier by the consumption of The Ultimate Meal, a vegan supplement based in brown rice protein. “The Ultimate Meal is a shake–it’s a powder that has everything in it”, explains Danzig. “A lot of the stuff is naturally occurring, they don’t add a whole lot of generic vitamins and things like that, it’s like a full meal if you read the ingredient list and it’s powdered and pulverized and all you do is add water, banana and apple to it and you blend it and that’s pretty much what it is.” The meal is based on brown rice protein, but at different times Danzig will also consume brown rice protein independent of the supplement. As rice protein is processed enzymatically, Danzig feels it is much better than soy, and is thankful that in this day and age such offerings are available to vegan athletes. “6 or 7 years ago it was really hard to be a professional athlete and be serious about training and be strict vegan”, recalls Danzig. “The only protein supplements were soy, but in soy there is too much fiber in there and the protein content is like 50 percent sometimes.” The excess fiber in soy doesn’t allow Danzig to absorb all the amino acids, which is a big part of the reason he focuses on incorporating brown rice protein in his diet.

Thus on a typical day when training, Danzig will have The Ultimate Meal twice a day as a shake with banana, apple and water mixed in it. For carbohydrates purposes, a great deal of brown rice is consumed by Danzig throughout the day. One of his meals is brown rice with either tofu or some sort of vegetable, usually peas and corn. Another meal is often based around vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and some tofu. During times when Danzig is feeling a bit worn down from training, he will continue consuming greater amounts of complex carbohydrates in the form of brown rice. While some may shy away from carbohydrates, Danzig feels that they are a great asset to his system. “A lot of people try to stay away from carbs and stuff like that, but I eat a lot of brown rice and just good clean complex carbs and it works for me”, illuminates Danzig.

“The Ultimate Meal”, a big part of Danzig’s diet. www.ultimatelife.com

 

 

After putting so much energy towards training, Danzig likes to relax during the breaks in his day and keeps food preparation simple. “I don’t eat a whole lot of pasta, but that’s just personal preference—it’s just kind of a pain to make it and I’m kind of lazy”, explains Danzig with laughter. “When you’re training twice a day you don’t feel like spending a whole lot of time, you want a quick fix, so I just steam some rice or whatever; and The Ultimate Meal has really helped me out a lot and saved me.” Along with the time saving benefits, the supplement has helped Danzig physically in speeding recovery time and psychologically in knowing his body is getting essential nutrients.

Another staple in Danzig’s diet is Clif bars, which are consumed 2 or 3 times in between meals when training hard. The bars provide some protein, but are mainly devoured by Danzig because they are a good source of carbohydrates and ensure that his energy level stays up throughout the day.

A staple of Danzig’s diet. www.clifbar.com

 

 

Traditional thinking could lend one to feel that strength-wise Danzig would suffer from the switchover to the vegan diet. The same concept was initially shared by Danzig, but proved to be contrary. “I thought I’d lose some strength or something but the only thing was I did lose weight initially, but didn’t lose any strength”, the lightweight clarifies. “The diet is actually one of the main things that help me cut to 155, I don’t think I’d be able to do it without it.” Not losing any muscle, it was the loss of water retention as a vegan that has made the cut down to 155 for Danzig a much smoother ride.

Once a cut has been made, the fight day meal plan is pretty straightforward for Danzig. He always reaches for oatmeal in the morning because it’s a good source complex carbohydrates, is easily accessible, and has become somewhat of a tradition for the lightweight competitor. Aside from the oatmeal, consumption of a couple of vegan energy bars and often a fruit will be a part of Danzig’s diet the day of competition. “I eat real light because the night before I’ll usually have eaten a whole lot and carbed up after I cut weight”, Danzig clarifies. “So the day of the fight I’m not eating real heavy, just light meals with complex carbs, that’s it.” Like a well-fueled machine, Danzig’s mentality is to just eat clean during the day to ensure he runs clean during the fight in the evening.

The same philosophy of eating as clean as possible to run at optimal efficiency is set in place by Danzig throughout training leading up to the fight. That naturally leads to certain foods being omitted from his diet. Danzig realizes a vegan diet can be extremely healthy, but if done improperly can also be extremely unhealthy. Having a sweet tooth, Danzig indulges in soy ice cream and other treats of the sort when he’s not in training mode. But those types of food are axed from the meal plan while training as well, as is sodium as fight time approaches. “I make sure I stay away from a lot of refined sugars, and the main thing I stay away from, especially getting closer to fight time is sodium”, says Danzig. “I do that (cut out sodium) because it really makes your body retain water”. While the sodium amplifies water retention in Danzig, the refined sugars tinker with his blood sugar and hinder his energy levels. “Once I start getting back into training after splurging for a while and I’ve been eating a whole lot of sugar, I notice getting fatigued, not in training so much but in different points of the day”, Danzig comments. “It messes with your blood sugar, and when you’re blood sugar is messed up it’s pretty bad, it’s hard to wake up and force yourself to get going and everything.” The negative effects of the refined sugars have led Danzig to avoid them during serious training for fights, and he has reaped the rewards in training and competition.

The vegan lifestyle is one that appears rather difficult to the avid meat eater, but Danzig maintains that difficulty and ease simply stem from desire. “I think a lot of people are just not use to it”, comments Danzig” “And other people ask, ‘How can you do that? How can you eat like that?’, but it’s really not that hard, it’s just whether or not you want to do it.”

Part of Danzig’s desire to pursue a vegan lifestyle originates from working at an animal sanctuary from the age of 18 until 20. The influence of working at the sanctuary for farm animals run by vegans drew Danzig to lead a vegan lifestyle for a while, but he reverted to meat eating when he halted working there and pursued training. “Once I stopped working there and started training and wasn’t around that environment, then I went ahead back to eating the other stuff”, recollects Danzig. “Not because I wanted to but because I thought I had to.” The desire to be vegan had been strong in Danzig—for years red meat, pork and dairy were eliminated from his diet. However, in the mind of Danzig, chicken and fish however still were essential to an athlete’s diet. Finally jumping that last mental hurdle, Danzig decided to give a shot at something he believed in strongly. “I basically I got sick of eating it and thought I’m going to try it and I did”, says Danzig. “I lost a good amount of weight and was able to fight at 155 and I felt really good so I stuck with it.”

Realizing since our digestive systems are equipped to handle a vegan diet, Danzig feels in today’s society there’s no need to contribute to the meat industry. While not proselytizing his beliefs or displaying a hint of haughtiness regarding his personal morality, Danzig simply feels that unnecessary suffering is being dispensed towards animals. “In this day and age I don’t see any reason to contributing to a really awful industry that causes too many problems”, explains Danzig. “It’s horrible what the animals have to go through on a daily basis, it’s just awful–they’re born and raised in really nasty conditions and it’s better not to contribute to that whole thing.” Not expressing superiority in his viewpoints, Danzig freely admits that if he was living in a situation where he was in the wilderness where he was required to hunt and kill he would do so. Danzig however assures us that he would not feel good about having to conduct such an act, and would respect the animal he was killing go about it the right way. But being in what he feels is a luxurious position of not having to kill for his food, Danzig is most content avoiding adding to the damage done to animals in the meat industry. “I just don’t see in this day and age a real reason to contribute to that when you can be really healthy and not eat that sort of thing and not cause a lot of suffering”, comments Danzig.

As the sport of mixed martial arts at times lends itself to some brutal imagery, Danzig has been confronted by some on having such compassion for animals while inflicting punishment on humans inside the rings and cages he fights in. “That’s been argued to me a couple of times before, but that’s the difference–if somebody just grabbed me and a bunch of other people and herded us up and forced us to fight each other that would be one thing”, says Danzig with laughter at the thought of such a bizarre act. “But the animals don’t have a choice in the matter, I have a choice and the guy standing across from me in the ring, he’s got a choice too.” Danzig feels such an argument against him is a flawed one that would likely emanate from the mind of an unkeen observer of the sport. For Danzig, fighting is simply a sporting event between gentlemen who respect one another greatly. “We might beat the crap out of each other but we’re going to give each other a hug afterwards and it’s all good, it’s a sport”, asserts Danzig. “So anybody that would use that as an argument doesn’t understand the whole sport anyways.”

Danzig clearly understands the sport real well as seen by stellar record and performances, as well as the 2 gold MMA belts he has earned in his career. Furthermore, his courage in sticking to his beliefs and molding his own way to success are admirable. Danzig has reaped rewards from his stance too–his vegan diet which has kept him in peak shape to train and fight hard, and allowed him to be a strong contender in a highly entertaining and action packed 155 pound division. Vegan or not, Mac Danzig is a tremendously talented competitor with loads of determination, and is destined to continue to have a bright future in the sport.

 

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