Brendan Brazier (not Fraser)

Taking advantage of our last and very few summery days, I went down to the Vegetarian Food Fair at the Harborfront last weekend. I was pleasantly suprised to find that Brendan Brazier, Vegan Ironman Athlete was giving a free lecture!!
I was there in a heartbeat.

Brendan is the author of Thrive Diet and the creator of Vega, a line of whole foods plant based supplements, which includs my favorite pick-me up protein powder, Smoothie Infusion.

Brendan's discussion was intriguing, as many people are baffled by how a vegan, such as himself could obtain optium levels of iron, b12, and protein just plants, without resorting to a juicy piece of steak. That's where vega comes in. He has developed various products including plant based protein powder. The various vega whole food optimizer, are good sources of b12 (cyanocobalamin) and iron (citrate). In terms of the composition of whole foods, he explained that 45% of kale, broccoli and spinach is protein. The audience was silent for once.

One of the more interesting parts of his talk, was his discussion on weight gain. Once he became vegan and was training 35 to 40hours a week, he noticed that he would gain a pound every three weeks. He consulted many physicians, who told him to restrict his calories. Although, Brendan wasnt convinced this was the issue, he decided to restrict his caloric intake, to see if it would help. But it didnt. He ended up gaining a pound every two weeks. So, he went to an endocrinologist, who told him that his weight gain was due to his overworked endocrine glands The amount of physical stress from exercise was too hard for his body to handle. As a result, his adrenal glands constantly secreted high levels of cortisol, which resulted in his consistent weight gain.

Unfortunately, Brendan did not speak that long and opened up the floor for questions. At that point I ventured outside to try some yummy samples at the veggie booths.

In conclusion, here are some tested and tried products, that i would like to mention.

Smoothie Infusion, very good for a simple blended smoothie in the morning or after a workout. It is lighter than most of his other protein powders.

Whole Food Health Optimizer not as delightful as it sounds. Its the hardcore stuff (i.e you dont care how it tastes, you just need to have it) It says to blend with water, but i dont see how, becuase it is so chalky, that you need to blend it with some fruit or veggies.

Vega Shake & Go Smoothie
Just tried this at the veggie fair. Its one of their newer products. It is heavier than the smoothie infusion but not as heavy as the whole food optimizer. Chocolate flavour is not too bad.

Antioxidant EFA Blend
Good stuff. Easy to add to food. Normally I add a tbsp to my salad or in my salad dressing.

I have either bought these products online or in Noah's Health food store. Sometimes you can get a better deal online and try a few more things.