Squash Obesity! Praise Seitan!

Mike Its my belief that you are not wrong. But neither am I. Bad diets are bad for you healthy diets are good for you. Its that simple. Of course less fat is beneficial. But you still need some fat. I choose to get my nutrition from different sources. Plus I don't forsee myself running marathons in the future so the point means nothing to me really. I have a car to cover 26 miles.

Mike I would hope you understood what I was trying to say about top notch athletes being able eat whatever and still performing at high levels. Obviously they can't eat candy bars and tubs of lard and be the best. Ruth Heidrich is an amazing example of what the human body can do. However are you suggesting that if everybody switched to a vegan diet we would be running marathons at the age of 72? This woman obviously loves running. She must orgasm when she gets her runners high. I used to wrestle lots of running and I also went through Officer Canidate School for the USMC lots of running at the time I was in great shape so the running was pretty easy. However I still hated every minute. I just don't like running. Ruth does. This woman is a freak of nature. So it is unfair to compare her to the average person or Kenyans. I guess I would argue that there is only one Ruth Heidrich and hundreds if not thousands of Kenyan runners. Most eat a similar diet which consist of meat portions. She is a great exaple but hardly typical.

Kurt I have to take issue with a couple of your statements "They would be able to perform at the level no matter what their diets consist of." So a topnotch athlete can get by on loads of Mars bars Twinkies and Coke? Somehow I doubt that. "Then of course there are the thousands of other athletes that eat high protein diets that consist of eggs chicken and lean beef. Are they wrong? Would they be better off with vegan diets? Probably not." That's total conjecture on your part. Unless they try a vegan diet for awhile they'll never know. Kenyan runners would have their hands full dealing with the likes of Ruth Heidrich. "Ruth Heidrich now 72 yrs. of age was named by Living Fit magazine as one of the ten fittest women in North America the other nine were all under 35 years of age!" She has been a vegan for 25 years. If you wiki Scott Jurek's name you'll see an amazing list of accomplishments all done on a vegan diet. Jurek was selected as UltraRunning Magazine's North American Male Ultrarunner of the Year in 2003 2004 2005 and 2007 and placed second in 2006.

Kurt Read the profile on LaRussa in Wikihe is a veg. Don't forget that baseball and football are not the only sports in the world. Only three names? There are some incredible unknown athletes that never get the press or the exposure of baseball football and hockey. Don't forget also that vegheads only comprise a fairly small percentage of the population. Try googling a few of those vegetarian athletes' names like I did and you might be quite surprised at the extent of their accomplishments. For example "Tim MacartneySnape successfully climbed Mt. Everest by a new route without oxygen from Tibet in 1984 and then again from Nepal in 1990 during his famous Sea to Summit expedition." "Pam Boteler is a topranked worldclass athlete activist and raw vegan who has been making waves in her sportSprint Canoefor the last 8 years. Pam made USA CanoeKayak history at the 2000 National Championships by becoming the first woman to compete in sprint canoeagainst the men. Not only did she compete she won Gold. Up until 2000 women were prohibited from racing canoe at the US Nationals and in almost every other country around the world. She continued to race against the men in 2001 earning Gold again and finally in 2002 USA CanoeKayak the national governing body changed its bylaws to allow women to compete at the National Championships in events of their ownin all age and boat categories. She is undefeated in the US since the year 2000." "Dave Scott of Davis California is universally recognized as the greatest triathlete in the world. He has won Hawaii's legendary Ironman Triathlon a record four times including three years in a row while no one else has ever done it more than once. The event consists in succession of a 2.4mile ocean swim a 112mile cycle and then a 26.2mile run." Pat Reeves "She has held of a British Masters' Powerlifting title for many years and of several Divisional Commonwealth and Masters' records. Competing at 42.9kg bodyweight Pats personal bests include 90kg Squat 55kg Bench Press a British record 130kg Deadlift a British Record." I have now followed a plantbased eating regime for fortyfour years wow that's so long!" And Kurt you should check out the incredible achievements of vegans Scott Jurek and Ruth Heidrich.

Mike That is quite some list. Considering I reconize about three names on that list and one of them is a coach. Tony LaRusa is my favorite coach evergotta love the Stl Cardinals. I don't recall ever hearing anything about him be a vegitarian but if you say so. I do know that he was never a great baseball player. Average at best. He is one of the best managers of all time and one of the crankiest short tempered coaches ever. This list really doesn't mean much besides a handful out of the thousands of athletes in the world are vegitarian.