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World champion athletes who are known vegetarians, as compiled by “The Food Revolution” author John Robbins from various nutrition experts including Suzanne Havala’s “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Being Vegetarian,” Anika Avery-Grant’s “The Vegetarian Female” and Lisa Dorfman’s “The Vegetarian Sports Nutrition Guide” are Ridgely Abele, winner of eight national championships in karate; Surya Bonaly, olympic figure skating champion; Peter Burwash, Davis Cup winner and professional tennis star; Andreas Cahling, Swedish champion bodybuilder, Olympic gold medalist in the ski jump; Chris Campbell, Olympic wrestling champion; Nicky Cole, first woman to walk to North Pole; Ruth Heidrich, six-time Ironwoman, US track and field Master’s champion; Keith Holmes, world-champion middleweight boxer; and Dave Scott, six-time winner of the Ironman triathlon. The list goes on.

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“At the beginning of his study, these athletes were all on a typical meat diet. Chittenden had them then switch to a plant-based diet for five months. At the end of the study period when their fitness levels were reanalyzed, the athletes had improved a striking 35 percent.” As Dr. T. Collin Campbell, professor emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University once interviewed by Inquirer Science and Health, commented: “only the dietary change could have accounted for these remarkable results.” Campbell discusses this in his article “Muscling Out the Meat Myth.”