Andreas Cahling Pro Mr. International. might not expect to find a plant based eater in world championship body-building competitions. But Andreas Cahling, the Swedish body builder who won the 1980 Mr.  International title, is a vegetarian, and has been for over ten years. 

Anthony Peeler "I am vegetarian and I love any restaurant that serves a good salad" 

Bill Pearl "I have now been vegetarian for almost 20 years. We have no fish, fowl, or red meat in our diet. Yet I can still carry the same amount of muscle as I did in winning my four Mr. Universe titles. People can't believe it. They think that to have big muscles you have to eat meat - it's a persistent and recurring myth."

Carl Lewis "When I went vegetarian I had the best year I had ever had."

Chris Campbell One of the oldest members of the US Olympic wrestling team and a Olympic bronze medalist is a pure vegetarian.

Brendan Brazier Brendan Brazier is not only a friend of mine, but a professional Ironman triathlete, two-time Canadian 50km Ultra Marathon Champion (Check out his health books Thrive Fitness and The Thrive Diet) Also visit www.thrivein30.com for free health lessons.

Dave Scott A six-time winner of the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon "It's a ridiculous fallacy to think that athletes need animal protein"

Edwin Moses The Olympic Gold Medalist went eight years without losing a race.

Gary Player "The closer you can live to being a vegetarian the better.” Gary Player

Ruth Heidrich Three time Ironman finisher, marathoner, and age group recorder holder. Author of the book: Race For Life.

Larry Bird Retired American NBA basketball player, widely considered as one of the best players of all time, and one of the top clutch performers in the history of sports.

Cynthia Cooper Won two NCAA basketball titles at USC (1983-84); won gold medal with U.S. team in 1988; 2-time WNBA MVP and 4-time league champion with Houston Comets; hired as head coach of WNBA's Phoenix Mercury in Jan. 2001

Phil Mickelson- The world famous golfer has finally switched to a plant based diet due to his health complications.
 

There are many more athletes than the few I have listed here who are finding nutrient dense foods the most efficient way to have the most advanced sports performance. This helps your body to work effortlessly at digesting and break down your fuel. The more efficient your fuel is the more efficient the athlete is in converting that fuel into energy and power. Your immune system will be higher, and you will also be able to recover quicker from training.

The biggest myth out there…People equate muscle mass, sex appeal, and strength to consumption of animal protein. Exercise is very important for a healthy body. Oxygenation to the cells helps keep our immune systems strong. Whether you are eating a plant based diet for peak athletic performance, more energy,  or just to stay disease free you are raising your standards of living.

I work out--so I am healthier? Most of America has the notion if we see a ripped muscular person that they are probably healthy. Sometimes they are healthier than others, but the outside can be deceiving. People can have organs about to fail, or plaque lined arteries. How many body builders have we heard of dying because their organs can no longer sustain the abuse of the food they are consuming? Does working out unclog our arteries and make our blood clean again? The only way to do that is to stop putting cholesterol, toxins and non-efficient food into our bodies.

Did You Know? Plant based eaters have more Stamina than Meat-eaters!
from Veggie Sports Association (http://www.veggie.org/)

Yale Study
Tests have shown that vegetarians have twice the stamina of meat eaters. At Yale, Professor Irving Fisher designed a series of tests to compare the stamina and strength of meat-eaters against that of vegetarians. He selected men from three groups: meat-eating athletes, vegetarian athletes, and vegetarian sedentary subjects. Fisher reported the results of his study in the Yale Medical Journal 2.

"Of the three groups compared, ... the flesh-eaters showed far less endurance than the abstainers (vegetarians), even when the latter were leading a sedentary life." 3

Overall, the average score of the vegetarians was over double the average score of the meat-eaters, even though half of the vegetarians were sedentary people, while all of the meat-eaters tested were athletes.

Paris Study
A comparable study was done by Dr. J. Ioteyko of the Academie de Medicine of Paris. 4 Dr. Ioteyko compared the endurance of vegetarians and meat-eaters from all walks of life in a variety of tests.

Danish Study
In 1986, a Danish team of researchers tested a group of men on a variety of diets, using a stationary bicycle to measure their strength and endurance.

The men were fed a mixed diet of meat and vegetables for a period of time, and then tested on the bicycle. The average time they could pedal before muscle failure was 114 minutes.

These same men later were fed a diet high in meat, milk and eggs for a similar period and then re-tested on the bicycles. On the high meat diet, their pedaling time be-fore muscle failure dropped dramatically - to an average of only 57 minutes.

Later, these men were switched to a strictly vegetarian diet, composed of grains, vegetables and fruits, and then tested on the bicycles. The lacks of animal products didn’t seem to hurt their performance - they peddled for an average of 167 minutes. 5

Belgium Study
Doctors in Belgium systematically compared the number of times vegetarians and meat-eaters could squeeze a grip-meter. The vegetarians won handily with an average of 69, whilst the meat-eaters averaged only 38. As in all other studies which have measured muscle recovery time, here, too, the vegetarians bounced back from fatigue far more rapidly than did meat eaters. 6

References
1.Robbins, John, Diet For a New America, Stillpoint, 1987, pgs. 156-158.
2.Fisher, Irving, "The Influence of Flesh Eating on Endurance," Yale Medical Journal, 13(5):205-221, 1907.
3.Ibid.
4.Ioteyko, J., et al, Enquete scientifique sur les vegetariens de Bruxelles, Henri Lamertin, Brussels, pg. 50.
5.Astrand, Per-Olaf, Nutrition Today 3:no2, 9-11, 1986.
6.Schouteden, A., Ann de Soc. Des Sciences Med. Et Nat. De Bruxelles