A vegetarian-like diet with high fiber intake supports performance gains by optimizing the immune system to produce more anti-inflammatory cytokines, mitigating exercise-induced inflammation and preventing immune system overreaction.

“It's part of the reason why I have such a heavy plant-based diet is because not only talking about the performance gains that you get by making sure your immune system is the best it can be, so you're making more anti-inflammatory cytokines. What does that mean? Well, it means when you're exercising and you're working out really hard, you're causing inflammation, because that's part of what exercise does. It causes inflammation. So you're getting that inflammation, but you immediately have this anti-inflammatory response. And it happens sooner. So it's not..., you're basically not gonna have your immune system then spiral out of control where then it starts to damage your muscle tissue because you have that counter, anti-inflammatory counter, sooner than someone who doesn't have a good diet, who's basically immune system is not being regulated well.”