What a World-Class Triathlete Eats for Workout Fuel

What does a world-class triathlete eat for workout fuel?

For more than a decade, Rip Esselstyn competed as a professional triathlete, fueling long days of swimming, biking, running, and recovery with a Plant Strong diet.

And it wasn’t complicated.

One of Rip’s favorite lunches was a loaded wrap made with a sprouted whole-grain tortilla, hummus, tofu, avocado, bell pepper, kale, and sriracha. Today, he still turns to many of the same foods, just in smaller quantities than he needed during his years of intense endurance training.

The recipe itself couldn’t be simpler. But there’s a lot happening nutritionally inside that wrap.

Here’s why these ingredients made the cut.

Sprouted Whole Grains: Carbohydrates for Fuel

It starts with an Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted whole-grain wrap.

For an endurance athlete, carbohydrates matter. Carbohydrates can be stored as glycogen in the muscles and liver, providing an important source of fuel for exercise, particularly as intensity increases.

Whole grains bring more than carbohydrates to the table, too. They retain the bran, germ, and endosperm of the grain, providing fiber along with vitamins, minerals, and naturally occurring plant compounds.

Sprouting causes additional changes within a grain as the seed begins to germinate, affecting its nutrients and phytochemicals.

For Rip, a hearty whole-grain wrap also had a very practical advantage: it created a portable foundation for piling on everything else.

Hummus: A Little Legume Power

Next comes a layer of hummus, made primarily from chickpeas.

Chickpeas offer an impressive combination of complex carbohydrates, plant protein, and fiber, along with micronutrients including folate, iron, magnesium, and potassium.

That means this seemingly simple spread is doing more than holding the wrap together. It adds another source of both carbohydrates and protein while bringing legumes into the meal.

Beans, peas, chickpeas, and lentils are an easy way to add more nutrition to everyday meals, and hummus may be one of the simplest ways to do it.

Tofu: High-Quality Plant Protein

Then Rip adds sliced tofu.

Made from soybeans, tofu is a source of high-quality protein. Unlike many individual plant protein sources, soy contains all nine essential amino acids.

Those amino acids are important because protein provides the building blocks the body uses to build, maintain, and repair muscle tissue.

For someone putting in the training volume of a professional triathlete, protein was naturally an important part of the equation. Tofu made it easy to add a substantial plant protein source to a meal without making that meal complicated.

Avocado: Unsaturated Fats, Fiber + More

Half an avocado goes in next.

Most of the fat in avocado is unsaturated, with monounsaturated fatty acids making up the largest share. Avocados also provide fiber and an assortment of vitamins, minerals, carotenoids, and other phytochemicals.

Fat is an essential macronutrient and a concentrated source of energy. Alongside the carbohydrates and protein elsewhere in the wrap, avocado helps round out the meal while adding the creamy texture that makes the whole thing even better.

Bell Pepper: Color With a Purpose

Rip adds sliced bell pepper for crunch, but he also calls out its polyphenols.

He’s onto something.

Bell peppers contain an assortment of phytochemicals, including phenolic compounds, flavonoids, and carotenoids. Their carotenoid profile varies depending on the variety and stage of ripeness, which is part of the reason different-colored peppers bring different pigments and plant compounds to the plate.

They’re also an excellent source of vitamin C.

It’s a good reminder that “eat the rainbow” is more than a catchy phrase. Different colors in fruits and vegetables can represent different families and concentrations of naturally occurring plant compounds.

Kale: What Does “Opening Up the Arteries” Actually Mean?

When Rip adds the kale, he explains that he loves it because of what it does to “open up the arteries.”

So, what does that actually mean?

Leafy green vegetables are important dietary sources of nitrate. Through what’s known as the nitrate-nitrite-nitric oxide pathway, dietary nitrate can ultimately be converted into nitric oxide in the body.

Nitric oxide is a signaling molecule with an important role in vascular function. Among other things, it helps the smooth muscle surrounding blood vessels relax, allowing the vessels to dilate and supporting blood flow.

That’s the science behind Rip’s much simpler description of helping to “open up” the arteries.

This pathway has attracted particular interest in sports nutrition because nitric oxide is involved in blood flow, muscle function, and exercise physiology. Research on dietary nitrate has found effects on vascular function and, under some conditions, exercise performance.

So those leafy greens are bringing quite a bit more to the wrap than bulk.

Sriracha: Don't Forget the Flavor

The final ingredient? A little sriracha.

There doesn't need to be a nutritional justification for every single thing you put on your food.

Eating more whole plant foods gets a whole lot easier when you know how to make them taste good. A sauce, spice, fresh herb, squeeze of citrus, or favorite hot sauce can turn a pile of good-for-you ingredients into something you genuinely look forward to eating.

Why This Works as Workout Fuel

The beauty of this meal isn't one superstar ingredient. It's what happens when you put them all together.

The sprouted whole grains and chickpeas provide carbohydrate. Tofu and chickpeas bring protein. Avocado adds predominantly unsaturated fat. Kale and bell pepper add leafy greens, color, vitamins, minerals, and a diverse array of phytochemicals.

In other words, Rip wasn't relying on a single “superfood” to fuel more than a decade of endurance training.

He was building meals from a variety of simple foods that collectively provided the energy and nutrients his body needed.

And while his training volume has changed considerably since his professional triathlon days, his approach to food really hasn't.

Rip’s Go-To Plant Strong Wrap

Ingredients

• 1 Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted whole-grain wrap

• Hummus

• 1/2 avocado

• Sliced tofu

• Sliced bell pepper

• Kale

• Sriracha, to taste

Directions

Spread the hummus over the wrap. Layer on the avocado, tofu, bell pepper, and kale. Add sriracha to taste, fold it up, and enjoy.

Simple ingredients. Serious fuel. Plant Strong.

Sources

• Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health — Straight Talk About Soy 
• British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology — Vascular Effects of Dietary Nitrate via the Nitrate-Nitrite-Nitric Oxide Pathway 
• Nutrients — Sprouted Grains: A Comprehensive Review 
• Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition — Hass Avocado Composition and Potential Health Effects 
• Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health — Protein