nuts and seeds, nut butters, tahini, avocados, olives, olive oil, sesame oil, etc. may make it easier for heavily trained vegetarian athlete to meet energy and nutrient needs and ensure that intramuscular triglycerides are not compromised (34). On the other hand, nutritionists can still expect to encounter vegetarian athletes with diets that are lacking in CHO and too rich in saturated fat mainly from full-fat dairy products.Minerals, Vitamins and SupplementsCalcium. Calcium recommendations for active men and pre-menopausal women are not different than the RDA which is 800 mg for adults. Studies from Heaney's laboratory report that calcium intake of 1500 mg/d is needed to retain calcium balance in women with low circulating estrogens (35). Thus higher calcium intakes may be required for amenorrheic as well as postmenopausal athletes. Calcium intake, however, is one of many factors associated with calcium balance, and accounts for only ~11% of its variation (36). Urinary calcium excretion, on the other hand, accounts for ~51% of the variation in calcium balance and is influenced by dietary protein, sodium and possibly phosphoric acid intakes. There is evidence to suggest that vegans (and possibly vegetarians who consume little dairy products) may have lower calcium requirements due to their lower intakes of animal protein, total protein and sodium which increase renal calcium excretion (7). However, until more is known about calcium requirements in this group, it is prudent that all athletes meet the RDA for calcium. Low calcium intake has been associated with an increased risk of stress fractures (37) and low bone density particularly in amenorrheic females athletes (38).Eumenorrheic athletes can meet calcium requirements by including several servings of dairy products and/or calcium-containing plant foods daily. Calcium-rich plant foods include kale, collard and mustard greens, broccoli, bok choy, legumes, calcium-set tofu, fortified soymilk, TVP, tahini, calcium-fortified orange juice, almonds, and blackstrap molasses. Depending on their energy intake and food choices, female vegan athletes may need to use fortified foods or calcium supplements to meet their calcium requirements, particularly if amenorrhea is evident. Well absorbed calcium supplements such as calcium carbonate are appropriate when the athlete does not have access to, or cannot afford calcium-fortified foods. Iron. All athletes, particularly female endurance athletes are at risk of iron depletion and iron deficiency anemia. Iron loss is increased in some athletes, particularly heavily-training endurance athletes, due to gastrointestinal bleeding (39), heavy sweating (40), and hemolysis (41,42). Insufficient iron intake or reduced absorption, however, are the most probable causes of poor iron status. Snyder (43) found that female vegetarian runners had a similar iron intake but lower iron status than nonvegetarian runners. Most of the iron in a vegetarian diet is non-heme iron which has a relatively low absorption rate (2-20%) compared with heme iron (15-35%) (44). This may be of significance since low iron stores even without anemia have been associated with decreased endurance (45). In most cases, vegetarian athletes can achieve proper iron status without iron supplementation. However, they need to be educated on plant sources of iron and factors that enhance and interfere with non-heme iron absorption. For example, an