15 juil. 2025

Veggie Dishes for Swiss Winter Sports

A day of alpine skiing with two hours of actual sliding costs a 70 kg person roughly 794 kcal. A half-and-half fondue served at 200 g of cheese per person, bread included, delivers 1401. The arithmetic of a winter sports week almost never fails on the energy side, and nothing about that is specific to vegetarians.

The real problem sits elsewhere, and it is uncomfortable: most of the cheeses that define Swiss winter cooking are not vegetarian. The specification for Raclette du Valais AOP states that “only animal rennet made from calf abomasum is authorised”. The one for Vacherin Mont-d’Or admits nothing but “natural rennet”. And Swiss law does not require anyone to print that word on the packaging, because rennet counts as a processing aid.

This page starts from there: what each winter discipline actually costs, what the four emblematic dishes contain to the gram, what the regulations say about cheese, and how to build a week that holds up against Swiss reference values.

What each winter discipline actually costs

The 2024 Compendium of Physical Activities assigns a MET value to each activity. One MET equals resting expenditure; energy spent is estimated by multiplying METs by body weight in kilos and by duration in hours. For winter sports the Compendium adds a detail that changes everything: alpine skiing values are given for “active time only”.

Activity	MET	1 h at 60 kg	1 h at 70 kg	1 h at 80 kg
Alpine skiing or snowboarding, light effort	4.3	258 kcal	301 kcal	344 kcal
Alpine skiing or snowboarding, moderate effort	6.3	378 kcal	441 kcal	504 kcal
Alpine skiing or snowboarding, vigorous effort	8.0	480 kcal	560 kcal	640 kcal
Slalom	9.3	558 kcal	651 kcal	744 kcal
Recreational snowboarding, mountain	7.5	450 kcal	525 kcal	600 kcal
Cross-country skiing, 4.0 to 4.9 mph	8.5	510 kcal	595 kcal	680 kcal
Cross-country skiing, brisk pace	11.3	678 kcal	791 kcal	904 kcal
Cross-country skiing, skating technique	13.3	798 kcal	931 kcal	1064 kcal
Snowshoeing, moderate effort	5.3	318 kcal	371 kcal	424 kcal
Snowshoeing, vigorous effort	10.0	600 kcal	700 kcal	800 kcal
Sledding, tobogganing, luge	7.0	420 kcal	490 kcal	560 kcal
Ice skating, general	7.0	420 kcal	490 kcal	560 kcal

The alpine skiing column is the one that misleads most. A nine-hour resort day is not nine hours at 6.3 MET: between lifts, queues, lunch and terrace stops, actual sliding time rarely exceeds two to three hours. At 70 kg and 6.3 MET that gives 794 kcal for two hours and 1390 kcal for three, on top of basal metabolism and walking around.

A 2016 study in the Journal of Sports Science and Medicine measured this gap directly. Twenty-one healthy subjects performed alpine skiing, cross-country skiing and indoor cycling across three four-minute stages, with oxygen uptake, energy expenditure, heart rate and lactate recorded. The authors concluded that roughly two and a half hours of alpine skiing are needed to match the energy expenditure of one hour of cross-country skiing or cycling. Heart rate, VO2 and lactate were highest in cross-country skiing, while perceived exertion in the legs was highest in alpine skiing. That matches what everyone feels: you come home from a ski day with burning thighs and a modest calorie burn.

In practice, two people walking into the same chalet at the same hour can have needs that differ twofold. Three hours of skate skiing at 70 kg approaches 2800 kcal; a relaxed alpine day with plenty of lift time can stay under 700 kcal of activity expenditure. Serving them the same plate makes no sense.

The rennet problem, and why the label does not solve it

Swiss winter cooking rests on cheese. Traditional rennet is extracted from the abomasum, the fourth stomach of young calves, which means the animal is slaughtered. Vegetarians who accept milk generally do not accept that ingredient.

The decisive point is that the AOP specifications, published in the register of the Federal Office for Agriculture, settle the question at source. For Raclette du Valais AOP, article 9 lists water, salt, rennet and cultures as the only admitted ingredients and processing aids, then states in paragraph 2 that “only animal rennet made from calf abomasum is authorised”. For Vacherin Mont-d’Or AOP, article 14 authorises only “natural rennet”, the specific selected cultures and cooking salt, with “any other auxiliary material or additive” forbidden. For Gruyère AOP, article 21 states that the milk is treated with in-house starters and rennet, and article 24 describes coagulation at around 31 degrees for 30 to 50 minutes.

Other specifications are worded differently. Sbrinz AOP refers in article 10 to “rennet, its substitutes and salt”, which does not rule out an alternative coagulant, and Berner Alpkäse AOP bans in article 12 only those substitutes derived from genetically modified organisms, which implies other substitutes remain conceivable. The rule is therefore not uniform across appellations, and the check has to be done cheese by cheese rather than by category.

The second layer of the problem: even when the rennet is animal, it does not appear in the ingredient list. Article 9, paragraph 1, letter b, number 2 of the Swiss ordinance on food information exempts from declaration those enzymes “used as processing aids”. Rennet falls into that category. A wheel of cheese can therefore carry an ingredient list reduced to “milk, salt, cultures” while saying nothing whatsoever about the coagulant.

The only enforceable statement is set out in article 40 of the same ordinance. A food may carry the indication “vegetarian” or “ovo-lacto-vegetarian” when it “contains neither ingredients nor processing aids of animal origin”, with milk, milk components, eggs, bee products and lanolin as the sole exceptions. Paragraph 2 adds a nuance that matters: a product obtained from ingredients made using animal-origin processing aids may carry that indication if it has been separated from the protein components of those aids and purified.

In other words, the word “vegetarian” on a Swiss cheese wrapper is a regulated statement that binds the producer, rennet included. Its absence tells you nothing. The practical rule is simple: look for the explicit statement, and if it is missing, write to the producer or pick a cheese that does display it.

The origin of the rennet itself was documented by Swiss public broadcaster RTS in March 2026. According to the director of Kämpf Fournitures laitières, the main supplier in French-speaking Switzerland, the imported rennet comes 80% from New Zealand abomasa and 20% from France, Germany and Italy. John Haldemann, a cheesemaking specialist at Agroscope, explains that Switzerland produces no rennet because its calves are slaughtered at a minimum of 160 days, whereas the process requires very young animals. The quantities are tiny, on the order of one litre of rennet per several thousand litres of milk, but the principle stands for anyone who objects to slaughter.

Alternatives exist and are widespread in industrial cheeses: microbial coagulants from moulds, fermentation-produced chymosin, and plant coagulants based on thistle. They turn up mostly in supermarket ranges, non-AOP raclette cheeses and explicitly labelled products. Our pages on plant-based alternatives to Swiss cheese and on homemade plant-based cheeses cover the options when the statement is missing.

What a fondue and a raclette actually weigh

The values below are calculated from the Ciqual 2020 table published by ANSES, using quantities matching what is actually served. Percentages refer to the reference intakes in annex 10, part B of the Swiss ordinance on food information: 2000 kcal, 70 g of fat, 20 g of saturated fat, 260 g of carbohydrate, 50 g of protein and 6 g of salt.

Dish, per person	Energy	Protein	Fat	of which saturated	Salt	Calcium
Half-and-half fondue, 200 g cheese + 200 g bread	1401 kcal	74 g	72.8 g	40.6 g	3.85 g	2262 mg
Fondue at 150 g cheese + 150 g bread	1068 kcal	55.6 g	54.6 g	30.5 g	2.89 g	1698 mg
Raclette, 200 g cheese + 300 g potatoes	933 kcal	52.6 g	56.3 g	37.3 g	4.22 g	1303 mg
Rebalanced raclette, 120 g cheese + 400 g potatoes	752 kcal	36.0 g	34.8 g	22.6 g	2.95 g	813 mg
Vegetarian Älplermagronen with apple compote	923 kcal	25.5 g	43.5 g	24.1 g	0.58 g	642 mg
Rösti with a boiled egg	296 kcal	11.1 g	12.2 g	1.9 g	0.19 g	49 mg
Squash and chestnut soup	219 kcal	3.7 g	9.6 g	3.7 g	0.10 g	129 mg

Three figures deserve a pause. The 40.6 g of saturated fat in the fondue represent 203% of the daily reference intake, reached in a single meal. Its 3.85 g of salt cover 64% of the reference, and the raclette 70%. And its 74 g of protein exceed on their own the 50 g reference intake for the whole day: anyone worrying about protein during a ski week is asking the wrong question.

These dishes are not to be avoided, they are to be placed. A fondue at 200 g of cheese covers 70% of the 2000 kcal reference in one plate. Served after a hard cross-country day it lands about right. Served three evenings running after days spent mostly on chairlifts, it does not.

The rebalanced raclette, 120 g of cheese instead of 200 and 400 g of potatoes instead of 300, deserves a note. It removes 40% of the saturated fat and 30% of the salt for only 181 kcal less, because the potatoes replace part of the cheese energy without carrying the fat load. It still supplies 813 mg of calcium, more than the 800 mg reference value. Our vegetarian fondue and raclette tips go through the side dishes in detail.

Älplermagronen adapts well to a vegetarian version, since the bacon in the traditional recipe is an addition rather than the basis of the dish. At 923 kcal and 103 g of carbohydrate per portion, compote included, it is the most coherent of the four for restoring glycogen after a big day, and its salt stays at 0.58 g against 4.22 g for the raclette.

Rösti, meanwhile, is surprisingly light. At 296 kcal with an egg it works better as a side dish or a midday meal than as a single recovery plate after a long outing.

A full day, weighed from morning to evening

Here is a ski day fully calculated for a 75 kg person. It serves as a numerical reference point, not a prescription.

Breakfast: porridge made with 80 g of oats cooked in 300 g of semi-skimmed milk, with 120 g of banana and 25 g of almonds. In the pocket for the day: 60 g of dates and 30 g of almonds. Midday: a sandwich of 150 g of wholemeal bread with 80 g of hummus and 40 g of Gruyère, plus a thermos of lentil and squash soup. Evening: the rebalanced raclette at 120 g of cheese, followed by 150 g of apple compote.

The total, calculated on Ciqual: 3040 kcal, 118 g of protein or 1.57 g per kilo, 337 g of carbohydrate or 4.49 g per kilo, 121 g of fat of which 40.6 g saturated, 64.6 g of fibre and 6.31 g of salt.

Nutrient	Intake	% of Swiss reference value
Calcium	1991 mg	249%
Magnesium	652 mg	174%
Zinc	16.3 mg	163%
Potassium	5058 mg	253%
Iron	13.9 mg	99%
Vitamin B12	1.76 µg	70%
Vitamin C	61.5 mg	77%
Vitamin D	3.10 µg	62%

Two things in this table are uncomfortable. First the fibre: 64.6 g, more than double the 30 g usually recommended, in a day that is in no way eccentric. Porridge, wholemeal bread, hummus, lentils and potatoes are enough to get there. That reads beautifully on paper and is sometimes miserable in practice, especially for someone unaccustomed to it whose day begins on a chairlift. Better to move the legumes to the evening meal and lighten the breakfast than to discover the problem on the slopes.

Then the salt: 6.31 g, or 105% of the reference intake, with not a single salt shaker involved. Cheese, bread and hummus do it on their own. Adding an instant soup or a bowl of crisps at après-ski pushes that figure up for no benefit at all.

Calcium at 249% and protein at 1.57 g per kilo show that the classic worry of the vegetarian athlete targets the wrong nutrients. The two that genuinely stay low are B12 at 70% and vitamin D at 62% of the 5 µg reference value. Those are the ones worth attention, and they are precisely the ones chalet cooking does not fix by itself.

Vitamin D: the one genuinely seasonal micronutrient

Vitamin D is the nutrient whose status specifically deteriorates in winter, and it is also the one that winter sports make paradoxical.

The NHS sets the requirement at 10 micrograms a day, or 400 international units, for adults and children from one year old, and recommends considering a daily supplement in autumn and winter because sunlight is no longer strong enough for the skin to produce enough between October and early March at our latitudes. The nutrient reference value used for Swiss labelling, in annex 10 of the ordinance on food information, is 5 µg, a labelling figure rather than a physiological target. The upper limit given by the NHS is 100 µg a day.

Vegetarian food sources are thin. Oily fish is excluded from a vegetarian diet; that leaves egg yolk, unfortified dairy in small amounts, and explicitly fortified foods. The day calculated above, despite being heavy in dairy, tops out at 3.10 µg.

The winter sports paradox is real: at 2000 metres, at altitude, on a snowpack that reflects radiation strongly, ultraviolet exposure far exceeds anything on the plateau. But the area of exposed skin is limited to the face, and even that sits under sunscreen, a helmet and goggles that are indispensable for other reasons. A ski week is therefore not a vitamin D cure, however tanned you come home. The supplement question arises exactly as it would for any winter spent at low altitude, and belongs in a conversation with a doctor or pharmacist rather than in a judgement based on how bright the week felt.

Hydration in the cold: less intuitive than it looks

In winter, thirst is blunted and sweat evaporates fast, which makes fluid loss hard to notice. The usual advice follows: drink far more than you feel like. Measured data invite more nuance.

A 2018 study in Frontiers in Physiology followed twenty finishers of a 24-hour mountain race run at an average temperature of -14.3 °C, with blood and urine samples before and after. Estimated fluid intake was 0.30 L/h in women and 0.46 L/h in men, with no statistical difference between the sexes. Hydration status, measured through plasma sodium, plasma osmolality, urine osmolality and urine specific gravity, remained stable. A more troubling detail: five of the twenty runners, a quarter of the field, already had plasma sodium below the reference range before the start. The authors also note that more experienced runners drank less than less experienced ones.

The practical lesson is therefore not “drink enormously” but “drink regularly, without forcing”. One to one and a half litres over a ski day, spread across breaks, matches the order of magnitude observed, and the Swiss dietary recommendations set the general daily marker at 1 to 2 litres of unsweetened drinks.

A hot drink has one concrete advantage in the cold: it actually gets drunk, unlike a freezing bottle, and that is the only criterion that really counts. Tea, herbal infusion, light broth or warm water in an insulated flask all do the job. For a day on the pistes there is no measurable argument for an isotonic drink or added salt: sweating is modest and the day’s food already supplies, as shown above, more than 6 g of salt. Our page on hydration and electrolytes for vegetarian athletes covers the cases where the question genuinely arises.

Alcohol deserves a separate remark. Après-ski drinking is a social habit, not a recovery strategy: it compensates for no loss, and it adds a hepatic load and a diuresis at precisely the moment you are trying to rehydrate and sleep.

Altitude: what actually happens between 1500 and 3000 metres

Swiss resorts sit almost entirely between 1000 and 3000 metres, which the literature classes as moderate altitude, the 1500 to 3500 metre band used in the 2019 meta-analysis in Frontiers in Physiology on weight and body composition changes. The marked weight loss and appetite suppression described in mountaineering concern mainly high altitude, 3500 to 5300 metres, and extreme altitude beyond that. Transposing Himalayan expedition advice to a week in Verbier makes no sense.

Two points nonetheless hold in a resort. The first is acute mountain sickness, covered by Wilderness Medical Society clinical practice guidelines updated in 2024. Headache, nausea, abnormal fatigue and disturbed sleep in the hours following a rapid ascent are not a lack of fitness or a dietary deficiency. They are not corrected by food, and no recipe prevents them. If those symptoms appear after a rapid gain in altitude, the course of action belongs with a health professional, and descending remains the reference measure.

The second is more mundane: the first day of a resort week is almost always the worst managed. Travel, rapid ascent, a shifted meal schedule, and the urge to get value out of the lift pass. A lighter first day is not excessive caution, it is what allows the next six to be skied properly.

The 2018 review in Frontiers in Physiology on the health benefits of alpine skiing, which retained 21 original articles, deserves to be quoted with its own caveat: the authors state explicitly that the data supporting the proposed mechanisms remain scarce. Skiing is physical activity, with the benefits of physical activity, and nothing more should be expected of it.

On the slopes: what survives in a pocket

The constraint on refuelling in winter sports is not nutritional, it is mechanical. You need something that will not freeze, will not get crushed in a jacket pocket, can be eaten wearing gloves, and tolerates being stuffed back half-eaten.

Few foods meet all four conditions. Dried fruit and nuts do well: 60 g of dates and 30 g of almonds supply about 42 g of carbohydrate and 6.7 g of protein for 90 g in the pocket. Homemade compact bars, based on oats and nut butter, stay pliable in the cold, unlike very sugary industrial bars that go rock hard. Dark chocolate handles cold without trouble. A dense bread sandwich with hummus or cheese travels fine if it is wrapped properly.

What works badly: bananas, which blacken and squash; sports gels, whose texture becomes awkward in the cold and which serve no purpose for three hours at moderate intensity; and yoghurts or fruit purée pouches, which freeze.

A thermos changes the day more than any choice of bar. A lentil and squash soup, at roughly 90 kcal per 400 g as in the calculation above, is not a major energy contribution, but it delivers heat, fluid and salt in a context where everything else is cold. Our pages on batch-cooked winter soups and on long-lasting raw energy bars give the base recipes.

For cross-country skiing, where expenditure is genuinely high and the effort continuous, the logic moves closer to classic endurance: taking carbohydrate every hour beyond the first becomes relevant, which our page on vegetarian diet and endurance sports covers.

Iron and vitamin B12 over a resort week

A winter sports week creates no particular iron or B12 requirement, but it changes normal eating habits deeply enough for intakes to slip.

For iron, the day calculated above reaches 13.9 mg, or 99% of the Swiss nutrient reference value of 14 mg. That figure is misleading in isolation, because plant-source iron is absorbed in far smaller proportions than haem iron, and because the calcium from dairy, heavily present in that day at 1991 mg, interferes with absorption. The practical consequence is simple: better to place iron-rich meals, lentils and wholemeal bread, away from the evening cheese meal rather than on the same plate. Our page on plant-based iron absorption sets out the measured factors.

For B12, the same day tops out at 1.76 µg, or 70% of the 2.5 µg reference value, even though it contains milk, cheese and plenty of dairy. A lacto-ovo-vegetarian covers requirements from those sources, but without margin. The concern applies mainly to vegans and to people who, in a resort, replace cheese with unfortified plant alternatives: B12 then drops very low with nothing to signal it. Our page on vitamin B12 deals with supplements and dosing.

One last point on protein, since it is the question everyone asks: the day calculated supplies 1.57 g per kilo, with no particular intent and no supplement whatsoever. Protein on a vegetarian ski trip is a non-problem, and our page on being vegetarian and a big protein eater shows why with numbers.

Seven common mistakes

Treating a resort day as a high-expenditure day. Nine hours outdoors are not nine hours of effort. The 2024 Compendium says so explicitly for alpine skiing: the MET values apply to active time only.

Hunting for microbial-rennet cheese among the AOPs. For Raclette du Valais, animal rennet is the only one the specification allows. The advice cannot be applied to the very product it is most often aimed at.

Believing the ingredient list answers the question. A processing aid does not have to appear there. Absence of a mention is not absence of animal rennet.

Adding salt or an isotonic drink for a day on the pistes. The day’s food already exceeds the 6 g reference intake. Sweating on the slopes does not justify more.

Loading breakfast with fibre before a long day outdoors. An ordinary vegetarian day easily reaches double the recommended 30 g. Timing matters as much as quantity.

Treating a ski week as a vitamin D cure. Exposure is intense but the area of bare skin is minimal, and that area is what determines synthesis.

Three fondues on three consecutive evenings. At 40.6 g of saturated fat per portion, or 203% of the daily reference intake, that is a different question from an occasional fondue.

By profile

Occasional piste skier. Activity expenditure is modest, between 500 and 900 kcal. No need to increase habitual portions; the attention belongs on salt and saturated fat in chalet meals, not on energy.

Cross-country or ski touring. Expenditure is genuinely high, 1500 to 2800 kcal on a long outing. This is the profile where dense dishes, Älplermagronen or fondue, are physiologically coherent, and where taking carbohydrate during the effort makes sense.

Vegan in a resort. The main constraint is cheese, which structures the entire local offer. The points to watch are B12, which drops as soon as dairy goes, and calcium, which requires fortified plant drinks checked on the label.

Family with children. Children spend proportionally more and cool down faster. Regularity of snacks matters more than their composition, and a thermos of hot drink beats an extra snack.

Anyone watching salt or saturated fat. The rebalanced raclette, 120 g of cheese and 400 g of potatoes, removes 40% of the saturated fat and 30% of the salt for 181 kcal less. It is the most effective lever on this whole page.

The limits of what is written here

The Ciqual table is French. Swiss AOP cheeses do not appear under their protected names, and the values used here for Gruyère and raclette cheese come from generic entries whose composition may differ from any given wheel, particularly for salt, which varies with ageing. The raclette cheese entry is also incomplete in Ciqual for iron, B12 and vitamin D, which slightly understates the totals in the calculated day.

MET estimates carry a margin of roughly 20%. They take no account of equipment weight, cold, technical level or snow type, four factors that genuinely affect expenditure on skis.

The trial comparing alpine skiing, cross-country skiing and cycling covers 21 subjects and four-minute stages under controlled conditions, not full resort days. The two-and-a-half-hour ratio between alpine and cross-country skiing is a robust order of magnitude, not a constant.

AOP specifications are amended periodically; those cited here are the versions published in the register of the Federal Office for Agriculture. A producer may also make non-AOP cheeses with a different coagulant alongside its AOP production.

Finally, this page does not deal with medical questions. Acute mountain sickness, diagnosed deficiencies and supplements belong with a health professional.

Frequently asked questions

Is Gruyère AOP vegetarian? Its specification provides for coagulation with rennet without restricting the type in the way Raclette du Valais does by mandating animal rennet. In practice, the rennet used in the Swiss industry is animal and imported. Only the “vegetarian” statement on the packaging, governed by article 40 of the ordinance on food information, binds the producer on this point.

How can I tell whether a cheese contains animal rennet? The ingredient list will not say, because rennet is a processing aid exempt from declaration. Look for a “vegetarian” statement or an explicit mention of a microbial or plant coagulant, or ask the producer.

How many calories does a ski day really burn? For two hours of actual sliding at moderate effort, about 794 kcal at 70 kg. Time spent on lifts and terraces does not count towards that figure.

Do I need to eat more at altitude? At Swiss resort altitudes, between 1000 and 3000 metres, the appetite suppression and weight loss described in mountaineering do not apply. Activity determines the requirement, not altitude.

Is fondue a good recovery meal? In energy terms yes, with 1401 kcal and 98 g of carbohydrate. In saturated fat terms, 40.6 g against a daily reference intake of 20 g, it does not lend itself to daily repetition.

How much should I drink while skiing? One to one and a half litres over the day, spread across breaks, matches the measured orders of magnitude. Since cold blunts thirst, a regular rhythm matters more than the volume.

Are isotonic drinks useful? For piste skiing, no: sweating is moderate and a resort day’s food already exceeds the salt reference intake. For a long cross-country outing the question is different.

Do vegetarians run short of protein during a ski week? A typical day calculated at 75 kg supplies 118 g of protein, or 1.57 g per kilo, with no supplement and no particular intent. The cheese that is everywhere in a resort contributes heavily.