staying healthy in the fast laneally switched to a whole-food, very high plant-based diet, plus fish
four times per week and free-ranged chicken a couple of times per
week as his predominant animal foods.^21 He felt he needed more
animal protein to maintain his large muscle mass and strength to
play pro football. If you read his book, The All-Pro Diet: Lose Fat,
Build Muscle, and Live Like a Champion, you’ll see that he’s eating a
really clean diet that is still very highly plant-based.^22
I hope what Tony Gonzalez has done in changing his diet to a
whole-food diet and eating a lot more unprocessed, micronutri-
ent-rich plant foods will positively influence professional athletes
who are walking down a very unhealthy path, as well as non-pro-
fessional athletes and kids looking at him as a role model. Instead
of selling needless and potentially harmful protein supplements in
gyms, they should sell Tony’s book. Though it’s not a vegan diet, it
gets people pointed in the plant-strong direction.
It should also be noted that Tony Gonzalez was significantly
influenced to change to a more unprocessed plant-based diet after
reading The China Study by T. Colin Campbell, PhD, which provides
the science and evidence behind a worldwide shift to a strict plant-
based diet to prevent and reverse chronic disease.
The Animals Are Very Important
Being a vegan also eliminates needless cruelty to animals. I
never heard of anyone say that slaughterhouses and meat-packing
plants are kind and “humane” to animals (and to their workers), es-
pecially the limited number of people to whom I have spoken who
have worked in them. There is not one scientific reason that we as
humans have to eat a single bit of animal food to procreate, thrive,
evolve, prevent disease, and be well as a human species. The only
reasons we kill animals for food that I can think of are fivefold:
- We are just used to doing it. It’s part of our culture.
- It’s easier for some people to just eat more meat and go off
grains all together. This eliminates a lot of their junk food
containing excess sweet-fat calories. Some grain intolerant
people will also feel much better and for many it’s easier to