NBA veteran Chris Paul has credited his plant-based diet for reducing inflammation and muscle pain, as well as giving him more stamina to enjoy time with his family.
The American basketball pro ditched animal products back in 2019, and frequently promotes the lifestyle to his 11.4 million Instagram followers.
He says the dietary switch was originally for ‘performance purposes’ only. However, he soon realised the way of eating was ‘for life’ after witnessing how his body changed.
“Years ago, I probably wouldn’t have even gone outside to run around with my kids and all the other activities because my body would be aching,” he told GQ in a recent interview.
“Now, with the constant lifting and making sure that my body is always ready, it’s been a good lifestyle change for me.”
Paul added: “I think reducing inflammation has helped me. I’m not saying going plant-based is for everybody but for me, that was one of the first things I focused on.
“To play the amount of games and minutes that I’ve played and still feel good is a win for me.”
Chris Paul’s plant-based diet
While Paul’s healthy diet is filled with veg and protein-packed foods such as JustEgg scramble and Beyond Meat sausage patties – he still loves vegan chocolate chip cookies and churros as a treat.
“There are so many different foods that you’re able to eat… The biggest thing when I went plant-based is it opened me up to the diversity of foods that you can have,” he explains.
Paul’s decision to go plant-based was partly down to his involvement as an executive producer on the vegan documentary The Game Changers.
“When we started working on The Game Changers, the benefits of leading a plant-based lifestyle became so clear to me,” the 37-year-old star said.
“I eventually decided to fully commit to it, and I genuinely hope that bringing this movie to theatres will encourage more people to do the same and cut down their daily meat consumption.”
Athletes around the world are switching to a plant-based diet to improve their performance.
Check out whose sporting success is fulled with a plant-based diet in our guide to vegan athletes.
Featured image credit: @cp3/Instagram
