one green planet
one green planet

BYU basketball’s forward Yoeli Childs is one of many athletes to adopt a plant-based diet.  The senior star became a vegan for a short time two years ago and has since committed to a plant-based diet to propel his basketball success.

He told KSL Sports in February 2020, “I’m not a vegan still but I try to eat a very plant-based diet. Me and my wife (Megan Childs) we do a lot of meatless stuff and just try to be really plant-based. You can be vegan and eat Oreos and stuff, so we try to eat really healthy and have most of our food coming from fruits and vegetables.”

He credits the BYU program with tweaking his diet and said that college basketball is “a lot more physical.”

Watch Childs’ talk about his commitment to a plant based diet

In 2018, Childs spoke about the importance of nutrition on his game, ” I think taking care of your body is huge and it’s important for high school and college players. They don’t put enough thought into it,” Childs said. “It’s important for recovery, for building your body, for building muscle. If you look at Eli (Bryant), and Kyle (Collinsworth) coming back from knee injuries, the biggest part of that was the way they ate and the way they took care of their bodies. If you look at guys in the NBA right now, the way they eat prolongs their careers. If you want to feel better, have your knees hurt less, cutting junk out of your diet will help you a lot.”

He said he missed macaroni and cheese, but the more he read about cheese, the “grosser it gets.” Speaking in 2018, Childs‘ discussed his then-vegan diet, “Cheese is so good. But the more you research it, the grosser it gets. If any of you want to know more about vegan, go watch a video on how cheese is made, watch how some of these animals are killed and you probably wouldn’t want to eat it anymore. I’ve tried the vegan diet for about seven to eight weeks. My knees don’t hurt as much, my body feels good. I’ve cut body fat. I feel good.”

He swapped beans and rice for steak and focused on lentils, bean burritos and soups instead of animal products.

Interested in becoming a vegan athlete? Check out these recipes:

Learn How to Cook Plant-Based Meals at Home

Reducing your meat intake and eating more plant-based foods is known to help with chronic inflammation, heart health, mental wellbeing, fitness goals, nutritional needs, allergies, gut health and more! Dairy consumption also has been linked many health problems, including acne, hormonal imbalance, cancer, prostate cancer and has many side effects. 

For those of you interested in eating more plant-based, we highly recommend downloading the Food Monster App — with over 15,000 delicious recipes it is the largest plant-based recipe resource to help reduce your environmental footprint, save animals and get healthy! And, while you are at it, we encourage you to also learn about the environmental and health benefits of a plant-based diet.

Here are some resources to get you started:

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