The excellent Warriors star Steph Curry claims that “the vegan lifestyle has taken over the league.” The plant-based diet of his colleague Chris Paul intrigues him.
The premier player for the Golden State Warriors, Stephen Curry, is enthralled with his vegan teammate, Chris Paul, and feels that plant-based diet has taken over the National Basketball Association (NBA). During a recent Smartless podcast episode, the four-time NBA champion discussed these concepts with hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett.
The query was, “How long would a guy last in the NBA if all he ate was salad and nuts?” Curry shot back, bringing up the trend toward plant-based diets in sports nutrition.
“The vegan lifestyle has taken over the league,” said Curry. Honestly, I do not know where they get their calories from. I understand that science is involved.
“One of my teammates, Chris Paul, who is been, I believe, vegan for about four years,” was highlighted by Curry. “I find it fascinating how he gets his food at mealtimes or what he brings on the plane.”
Chris Paul follows a vegan diet
Paul became a vegan for the first time in 2019 and joined the Warriors this season after a brief stint with the Washington Wizards, where player education regarding the benefits of a plant-based diet was spearheaded by assistant coach JB Blair, who has been vegan for a long time.
Blair supported Curry’s hypothesis, saying Paul’s choice to go vegan affected players throughout the NBA.
“I was so happy he did it because to have a player of that magnitude make that decision, it starts to open the eyes of players around him,” Blair recently said to VegNews. It also made teams aware of the need to make changes for these athletes.
“These days, vegan options are always available, and it makes such a difference for people to try it,” Blair said.
So what does Paul eat? Paul said to GQ last year that his typical dinner is a chef-prepared dish with loads of grains, beans, and vegetables, while his typical lunch is a salad, a vegetable bowl, and a protein drink.
The 38-year-old veteran athlete also enjoys plant-based pancakes, Beyond Meat’s vegan breakfast sausages, and Just Egg, an egg substitute made from mung beans. He also likes to snack a lot. Paul founded the snack firm Good Eat’n in 2021 with the help of the delivery service GoPuff. The brand offers a variety of varieties of popcorn, tortilla chips, and porkless rinds that bring back memories of childhood favorites like Cool Ranch Doritos.
Curry’s interest has been sparked by Paul’s success in the NBA after four years—Paul is also a prominent investor in the plant-based food industry.
“I just stare at him because I am so amazed,” Curry said in the podcast. I am just looking at him, asking myself, ‘How, how?’ I feel uncomfortable.
Coming to the fort is Robert Downey Jr.
After listening to Curry’s worries on the Smartless podcast, actor and environmentalist Robert Downey Jr. intervened to assist. The actor is presently touring to promote Cool Food, a plant-centric cookbook that offers tips and recipes for reducing one’s carbon footprint.
Thomas Kostigen, a New York Times bestselling novelist, and Downey Jr. worked together to create the book, which will be released on January 23. In a recent TalkShopLive livestream, the two discussed the project.
“I was hearing Steph Curry discuss how many players on the team have switched to a vegan diet, and he said he’s wondering, ‘What are they eating?’” said Downey Jr.
According to Downey Jr., “They are consuming the foods you’ll find in this book and they are exercising at the peak of their athleticism.”
The superhero Iron Man, for his part, has been funding environmentally conscious businesses, such as Chunk Foods, a vegan startup that is bringing its plant-based steaks to eateries around the country.
Downey Jr. discussed his love of mangoes, how the discourse about the climate catastrophe has been “hijacked by political affiliation,” and how he had been eating seaweed before it was hip.
Similar to Curry’s observation that veganism is sweeping over the NBA, Downey Jr. said he has seen a rise in plant-based catering in Hollywood.
According to Downey Jr., “the caterers [on set] offer these things more.” “You’re trying to feed 70–80 people and you’re trying to do it quick, anyone with leverage in these positions.”
He remarked, “But what I’ll tell you is crаzy is that the amount of vegetarian and vegan options were as varied as my set appeared in the last two projects I’ve done.”
Ultimately, the goal of Downey Jr. and Kostigen’s book is to encourage readers to adopt a “progress not perfection” mentality in the new year and beyond, in order to make dietary adjustments that are climate-friendly.
Downey Jr. stated, “The way we are trying to make a dent can be done in the simplest forms.” It’s not necessary to live off the grid in order to have an impact. The power of a single meal is immense.