Although not a vegan, I have issues with milk products and overly ‘chemical’ recovery and energy products so am looking for other options.
Torq stuff is fine and tasty but the recovery stuff is still Milk based so not much good.
Any suggestions would be great cheers 😀

Was looking into this a while ago on behalf of my son, you can find some of the products on Amazon.
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/10-best-tasting-vegan-protein-powders.html
Holland and Barret has got a good selection too:
http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/shop/sports-nutrition/vegetarian-protein/#so=sort_topseller&totalNumRecs=11

Raw Coconut Peanut Butter Cups with Chocolate

Eatnatural trek and nakd bars have high protein options.

I posted something up the other day asking about cereal bars. THere might be some answers in there.

Paleo bars, Pulsin, Bounce balls?

Failing that, try to make your own or just eat things like peanut butter, nuts, tuna, fish, jerky depending on how not vegan you are.

DIY Recovery drink FTW.
Mine is 0.5l choc soy milk or similar.
A banana, raw cocoa, pea protein, maltodextrine and salt.
I only bother with this for the big training rides. Normal meal is enough most of the time.

Phil Richards Vegabolic drive is very good.
https://www.philrichardsperformance.co.uk/index.php/post-workout/vegabolic-drive-mint-choc.html

clif bars and shot bloks good for energy

recovery normally taken care of with beer for me sorry 😉 *

*I’ve been known to use pea protein from ‘bulk powders’, banana and cocoa powder and a hand full of frozen fruit with hemp milk or home made cashew milk

I’m not a vegan but this popped up on my Twitter feed:
Chefonabike
http://chefonabike.myshopify.com/collections/all

Great thanks, a fair bit to go on, what I was really after was a recovery powder to mix, the main issue being Whey/milk powder doesn’t agree with me at all.
By the looks of it I need to do some more research and mix my own stuff up as I’m happy with fish products etc just no milk.

Any suggestions on decent easy to understand sports nutrition books just so I can get a better understanding of it all?
Cheers. 😀

Science in Sport make REGO which is based around a SOYA protein isolate, the only non vegan ingredient from what I can remember was Vitamin D3 which was derived from wool. Its a while since I had any so they may have changed their formulation by now.

Yes, Clif bars and Shot Bloks are tasty. Clif Builders Bar are high protein, so good for recovery.

Plenty of vegan protein powder available. eg soya, pea, rice, or hemp. Check Myprotein.com

OTE do a vegan recovery drink.

http://www.otesports.co.uk/product/soya-recovery-drink-sachet/

Jon

Torq Vegan Recovery

I’ve been vegan for ~30 years now (for context). [Clearly] I’m no nutritionist, so can only speak for what works for me (and it works well).

In my experience, the answer is in whole foods.

Processed foods, scarily, especially sports products, tend to include lots of bulking ingredients that aren’t really of much nutritional value (primarily cereals & basic sugars (and that includes maltodextrin), or have odd mixtures of glucose & fructose, making them hard to process and/or triggering that horrible peaking > bonking sensation as soon as the basic sugars have been blown through.

During exercise I’ll usually just eat fruit, but I also use some varieties of Nakd bar, or Raw Bite bars. Simple, whole food ingredients, minimal processing, no additives.

Recovery – I make up a smoothie(?) containing : 1 or 2 banana(s), almond ‘milk’ and a spoonful of peanut butter. I’ll sometimes add in a bit of creamed coconut too if I’m out for a hard/long run the following day. If you want to add an additional supplement, Purition vegan raw hemp powder is the least processed one I’ve found (and I do use it occasionally) – plus they’ve made it easy to find the ingredients used …

Complete protein is harder with a pure vegan diet, but if you are ok with fish, you’ll do fine.

Book wise, dunno, I just make it up as I go along 😛 –

… but people like: Coach Matt Fitzgerald, Drs Mark Cucuzzella, Steve Gangemi & Tim Noakes all have interesting things to say about nutrition generally (in my view).

Any of the vegan protein powders will do. Most days i’ll have a shake consisting of:

Vegan Protein Powder (either pea/brown rice or vegan blend)
1x frozen banana
almond milk
a few dates and frozen berries

Decent amount of protein/carbs and fat in that (around 35P/25C/10F)

I’ve tried most of the vegan sports supps (cos vegan), but I dont find that anything works better than getting some actual food in.

Beer, obviously?

http://www.musclefood.com/high-protein-beer.html

Most recovery drinks (especially milk based) are not compatible with me but Powerbar Chocolate has not caused any issues over last 8 years.
I barely use Powerbar one plastic container (1kg) per year, more frequent use may cause different reactions.

Worth pointing out that the beer above isn’t vegan as it’s filtered using isinglass (fish swim bladder). Also the idea of ‘incomplete protein’ is years old and incorrect. If you eat a balanced diet as a vegan you’ll consume enough amino acids to create a complete profile for protein synthesis.

Great, loads of good info & suggestions, thank you.

Bit of reading and some product ‘testing’ in order now 😀

EDIT: I really don’t need any encouragement to drink beer but trying not to drink any for a while though 😆

Does anyone really need energy/recovery drinks, and are they actually effective?

(Edit: this might actually be better as a new thread.)

Does anyone really need energy/recovery drinks, and are they actually effective?

It depends on what you’re doing though doesn’t it, I wouldn’t be chugging power shakes or whatver you want to call them after a 1.5 hour pottle around the woods or goobling gels to do a lap of the local trail centre 😉

As an aid to a fairly hard training programme having to ride for 4 days in a row it’ll help, with recovery, I have been just drinking a pint of goat milk (less bad than cow milk) straight after, but it just makes me ill.
It was really just having something in liquid form for the 20 mins (the time when nutrients etc are most readily absorbed) straight after getting off the bike where solid food would make me throw up most likely.
The OCB’s comments sit best with me as if I can make something from ‘whole’ foods into liquid form that would be great as a pint of chemically choco flavour stuff seems at odds to ‘being healthy’ if that makes sense, and purely my opinion.
After being a smoker for the last 20 years, I’m pretty focussed on getting healthy & faster a quickly as possible so anything that helps is a bonus.

Not entirely relevant to the OP, but creatine is well worth taking if you’re a vegan. Likewise B12. Look at carnosine too.

Have you tried soymilk, loaded with protein. And blend some fruit and green leaves with it using a nutri bullet.

My breakfast drunk at work after running in consists of a cup of oats, 1 1/2 cups of oat milk, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, some mixed nuts, fresh ginger, kale, a teaspoon of instant coffee, a teaspoon of cocoa powder and 2 teaspoons of olive oil. All blended in a Nutribullet type device. It’s all vegan and very nice. I could put some extra protein powder in such as hemp but I don’t feel the need.
As for recovery my best discovery has been compression tights which I use for running and really help.

Have you tried soymilk, loaded with protein. And blend some fruit and green leaves with it using a nutri bullet.

All the oestrogen from the soy won’t do much for gents trying to build muscle…

All the oestrogen from the soy won’t do much for gents trying to build muscle…

That is a myth. You get much more oestrogen in dairy products anyway.
http://www.viva.org.uk/resources/the-safety-of-soya-factsheet

Another vote for clif gels etc for during excercise, I can’t stand the synthetic ones either.

All the oestrogen from the soy won’t do much for gents trying to build muscle…

There are many ethical, environmental and healthreasons not to buy soy bean products, all well documented online, the glyphosate issue is the current ‘hot topic’.

That is a myth. You get much more oestrogen in dairy products anyway.
http://www.viva.org.uk/resources/the-safety-of-soya-factsheet

Hmm. For an alternative, equally peer-reviewed opinion:

http://jonbarron.org/article/benefits-dangers-soy-products?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Jon%2520Barron&utm_content=NL%20Soy%209%252F17%252F12#footnote18_9cmz7jy

@the OP: Have you tried Skratch Labs stuff?

I don’t know if they do a recovery product, as it’s all fruit-based, but their hydration/energy stuff is really nice.

pinetree – Member

@the OP: Have you tried Skratch Labs stuff?

I don’t know if they do a recovery product, as it’s all fruit-based, but their hydration/energy stuff is really nice.

Yep, it’s 100% natural and made from the WHOEL fruit, not just the juices. Sooooo, it won’t upset your stomach, despite using consitently all day and every day. OK, sales pitch over.

There isn’t a recovery option in the UK YET, but as sales pick up, the other products may start to appear in the UK. It’s proving to be incredibly popular, so shan’t be long.

Is that a hint that they’re introducing a recovery product? I couldn’t find anything from a quick look at their site.