"Running nutrients"

I put "running nutrients" in quotes because the notion that runners should focus on only consuming 3-5 nutrients while avoiding others (like fat) is goofy.

That said, runners tend to monitor everything closely so I'm including information on some of the nutrients runners are most obsessed with in this blog:

• Carbs
• Dietary fiber
• Fat
• Protein
• Amino acid score (a measure of the variety of different proteins and amino acids within the food)
• Calcium, as a percentage of "recommended daily value" which is sort of silly but the it is the only standard reference
• Iron, again as a percentage of "recommended daily value"

I'm not including Vitamin C or the many other nutrients necessary for iron absorption because these are incredibly widespread in plants and you will easily exceed the levels necessary for iron absorption by eating a plant-based diet. 

Fat should also be looked at differently than you may be used to. Excluding oil which is best used minimally, the fat in these plant-based recipes is important both as fuel to burn while running and as an assistance to your body in absorbing vitamins and nutrients. Even if nuts and avocados have more fat than ice cream or steak, it is a very different type of fat-- a type that runners should not be afraid of.

For more information on all these nutrients, I refer you to T. Colin Campbell's The China Study and his new book Whole.