(Personal note: I began having joint pains in my hands in early 2018. The pain was at its worst one morning in October of that year. After eating pizza the night before, I could not hold the steering wheel to drive. After learning that dairy is potentially inflammatory, I eliminated all sources of dairy from my diet that same month. The pain vanished three weeks later and has not returned. At the same time I stopped eating meat and now eat mostly plant-based, having salmon or shrimp at most twice a month. I previously ate the typical American diet. I have lost 40 pounds, my doctor says my bloodwork is great, and I haven’t felt this well since I was in my 30’s. I also play pickleball six days a week.)
Christa Gecheva was only three years old but clearly remembers how upset she was seeing her grandfather slaughter a pig in Bulgaria.
“Since then I refused to eat animals,” Christa told me.
The 34-year-old is one of the best women’s pickleball players in the world, ranked 42nd on the Carvana Professional Pickleball Association Tour.
Christa’s friend and fellow pro, 32-year-old Meghan Dizon, is ranked 15th and has been a plant-based eater for 10 years. Meghan grew up on a farm in Wildomar, California, and also has an upsetting childhood memory.
“My grandfather hired a butcher to come in to slaughter some of the sheep to sell their meat,” Meghan said. “At a young age I walked into one of the barn stalls and there were hooves hanging from the ceiling and I remember being very sad and disturbed.”
Meghan says, “I was raised to believe I had to eat meat,” but due to her love for animals never ate much of it. She quit entirely after watching the 2018 documentary, Dominion, which explores modern animal agriculture and human exploitation of animals.
Meghan, Christa, and 9th-ranked Tina Pisnik are among the growing number of professional pickleball players who eat only plant-based foods. Others include Troy Akin, whose DUPR (Dynamic Universal Player Rating) is just under 6.0; former top 30 player James Bragg, and two-time Canadian National Pickleball League player Michael McCaffrey. (Novak Djokovic, widely regarded as the greatest tennis player ever, is plant-based. He won the China Open this week at age 39. Serena and Venus Williams are largely plant-based and all-time great Martina Navratilova credits being plant-based with helping her compete at an elite level into her 40’s.)
They get their protein from tofu, tempeh, lentils, beans, grains, nuts and seeds, to name just a few foods. Tofu is often mocked and called tasteless, but knowledgeable cooks know how to flavor and season it. Tofu contains all nine essential amino acids and is rich in iron, calcium, magnesium and other nutrients.
Christa says, “I am enjoying cooking with tofu more than ever, it has so much range and can be turned into anything.”
“I love tofu, it is so versatile,” Troy Akin says. “We often add it to pasta sauces or desserts to make them extra creamy without adding dairy.”
Meghan adds, “I personally love tofu and seitan. They take on whatever flavor you want and you can get creative them.
The players say they feel better on and off the court since becoming plant-based.
“I feel like I have more consistent energy and I recover well,” Meghan says.
“I’m on the court eight hours a day,” pro player and pickleball instructor Troy Akin, 34, told me from his home in Lake Tahoe. “I used to be sore and tired all the time. In 2019 I read an article about how eating plant-based is good to fight against inflammation. That resonated with me as an athlete. Then I studied plant-based nutrition and realized I didn’t need meat. I became plant-based and never looked back.”
McCaffrey was captain of Team Canada at the 2025 Pickleball World Cup. He became plant- based in 2020, initially for the animals.
“I loved my dogs and understood that they experienced fear, pain, happiness, attachment and affection, but I had never really stopped to think about the fact that cows, pigs and chickens experience many of those same things,” Michael said from his home in Vancouver, British Columbia.
He stayed plant-based for nutritional reasons.
“What has been really interesting is realizing that I can train hard, recover, build muscle and compete professionally without animal products being necessary at all,” Michael said.
The players say they are plant-based for their health, for the animals, and the environment. They are frequently asked where they get their protein from, especially by those who eat meat and believe a plant-based diet does not provide enough protein.
“First, I question their knowledge on protein and health with a question like that,” Christa says. “But I tend to inform them that protein very much exists outside of the animals they consume, which, funny enough, are vegan animals.”
Some of the strongest and largest animals are plant-based. Cows, horses, elephants and gorillas are herbivores.
Many advocates of plant-based eating have addressed what they call the current “protein craze.” They call it, “The protein myth.”
“The myth that plant proteins are incomplete, necessitating protein combining, was debunked by the scientific nutrition community decades ago,” says Dr. Michael Greger, a physician specializing in clinical nutrition, founding member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine and author of the New York Times bestseller, How Not to Die and other books.
Greger points out that essential amino acids originate from plants and microbes, and that protein needs are lower than most people believe. Greger and other plant-based advocates cite data showing that plant-based eaters comfortably exceed daily protein needs.
“Those eating plant-based diets average about twice the estimated average daily protein requirement,” Greger says. “Plant based diets do not compromise athletic performance.”
In the 2021 bestselling book, The Plant Based Athlete, authors Robert Cheeke and Matt Frazier, citing numerous studies, write that to support metabolic adaptation, repair and protein turnover, athletic adults should consume a protein range of 1.2-2.0 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. For a 165-pound person, that translates from 90 to 150 grams of protein per day.
Dr. T. Colin Campbell is widely recognized as one of the founding fathers of the modern whole-food, plant-based movement. Now 92, Dr. Campbell, a Professor Emeritus at Cornell University, led what is widely considered the most comprehensive study of health and nutrition ever conducted.
“My father studied protein and its connection to human health more than any other person who has ever walked the planet, and in the deepest ways possible,” says Nelson Campbell, Dr. Campbell’s son. Dr. Campbell conducted the China Project, a massive, multi-decade study launched in 1983 to examine the relationship between diet, lifestyle and disease mortality rates. It led to his bestselling 2005 book, "The China Study: Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health."
Nelson Campbell said in his newsletter this week, “Today our community is full of influencers who have jumped on the protein bandwagon, advocating that we obsess about eating the most protein-rich plant foods, or that we take supplements to cover this supposed shortfall. The Recommended Dietary Allowance for protein works out to about 9-10% of calories. My father’s work suggests that this is close to the ideal amount, and a varied plant-based diet easily clears the bar. The average American, however, consumes considerably more than this-closer to 17-18%. My father found through decades of research that this excessive protein consumption, mostly in the form of animal products, is detrimental to our health.”
A growing number of professional pickleball players who don’t eat meat or dairy are well aware of this.
Meghan Dizon says, “I’ve found that I can absolutely get what I need from plants while feeling great and performing at a high level.”
Thoughts of the week, not all pickleball
· I don’t have my old joint pains anymore. The knots I have in my upper back, my doctors tell me, are mostly due to my age (73 later this month) and playing so much pickleball. I have more pain relief sprays, roll-ons and creams in my house than a Walgreens. And ice packs fill two shelves in the refrigerator’s freezer. There are almost as many ice packs as frozen foods in there.
· The Tampa Bay Rays star Junior Caminero taunted Yankees fans after his team swept the punchless Bronx Bombers in three games by making exaggerated sweeping motions to the crowd, as if holding a broom. It might have been poor sportsmanship (remember that word?), but as someone who has despised the Yankees forever, it made me laugh out loud.
· Then again, as a Mets fan, I can’t say a word after the season they had.
· I get much more satisfaction during a pickleball match from winning on a soft, well-placed shot than a slam.
· I think Amazon’s “Deal Days” on October 6th and 7th were just okay. It depended on what product you wanted, a guess some had as much as 50% off. Black Friday prices are traditionally better and more items are on sale. Americans buy too much stuff they don’t need anyway. Just ask me. I own way too many pickleball shirts, shorts, and shoes. At least the rest of my wardrobe is so small. So small that I had to buy a suit for an upcoming wedding.
· I still see paddle reviewers saying that they receive a commission when their discount code is used, but wish they would disclose the exact percentage they get.
· I would really love to know how much each paddle company pays to every reviewer. If a particular paddle brand pays a reviewer more than another brand, will that reviewer ever say anything bad about that brand? Maybe a couple of the more successful reviewers will, but the lower tier reviewers, not so much. I love pickleball, but let’s be honest, the business side of it contains more and more conflicts of interest with each passing week.
· Speaking of paddle reviewers, I get that they cannot pay for the hundreds of paddles they review every year. But why do some reviewers during their podcasts wear free hats or T-shirts with paddle company logos on them? That’s a brand endorsement at the most and a plug at least. The reviewers are critiquing paddles, not apparel. I think they should tell paddle company owners to stop sending the freebies\\\ going forward.
I have tried a dozen brands of court shoes and my favorite come from Montis Pickleball, a company that is all about the sport. Its shoes were designed with input from pros and are the most comfortable, stable and durable court shoes I have worn. They also happen to look great and come in several colors. I discovered Montis when I saw an instructor wearing them and he raved about them. Use discount code MS10 at checkout and your cost will be $98.10. I was asked to be an ambassador for several shoe companies before Montis and declined because I didn’t find their shoes good enough. Full disclosure: I receive a 10 percent commission when my code is used. It’s not making me rich, but makes me happy when someone thanks me.
If you buy any Hudef paddle that costs $169.99, enter my discount code MS30 at check-out to knock down the price by 30%, to $119.99. For the new Mage SCF1 Supercritical Foam, use code MS10 to make your price $135.00. Any less expensive paddle, the code is MS15, giving you 15% off. Again, I receive a 10 percent commission.
