Guest guest Posted October 25, 2005 Report Share Posted October 25, 2005 Hi Savannah, Just thought you might be interested in this information from John Robbins' book Diet for a New America to share with your husband. It shows that not only can someone survive on a vegan or vegetarian diet, they can athletically thrive on one. These people would not have been able to accomplish such amazing feats (winning Olympic medals and setting World records) if their plant based diets were insufficient. The following remarkable athletes are either vegan or vegetarian: Dave Scott (vegetarian) - universally recognized as the greatest tri athlete in the world. He has won Hawaii's legendary Ironman Triathlon record four times (no one else has won it more than once). In three successive years he broke his own world record for the event. Sixto Linares (vegan) - Broke world record for the one day triathlon (swimming 4.8 miles, cycling 185 miles, and then running 52.4 miles). Robert Sweetgall (vegetarian) - world's premier ultra-distance walker. Edwin Moses (vegetarian) - Olympic gold medalist in the 400 meter hurdles. Went eight years without ever losing a race. Paavo Nurmi (vegetarian) - " Flying Finn. " Set 20 world records in distance running and won nine Olympic medals. Bill Pickering (vegetarian) - Set the world record for swimming the English Channel. At the age of 48 set a new world record for swimming the Bristol Channel. Murray Rose (vegetarian since age 2) - When 17 won 3 gold medals in the 1956 Olympics. In the 1960 Olympics he became the first man in history to retain his 400 meter freestyle title, and later broke both his 400 meter and 1500 meter freestyle world records. Andreas Cahling (vegetarian) - Swedish body builder. Won the 1980 Mr. International title. Has been vegetarian for over ten years of the highest level of world championship body building competitions. Stan Price (vegetarian) - Holds world record for bench press in his weight class. Roy Hilligan (vegetarian) - Mr. America weight lifting crown among many others. Pierreo Verot (vegetarian) - Holds the world record for downhill endurance skiing. Estelle Gray and Cheryl Marek (vegan) - Hold the world record for cross country tandem cycling. James and Jonathon DeDonato (vegetarian) - Jointly hold the world record for distance butterfly stroke swimming. Ridgely Abele (vegan) - Won the US Karate Asso. World Champion in both the Master Division Title for fifth degree black belt and the overall Grand Championship. Has won eight national championships. I hope this info is helpful to you in convincing your husband that he can be an incredible athlete on a plant based diet. Good luck, Melissa In a message dated 10/24/05 11:34:52 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, writes: Message: 8 Sun, 23 Oct 2005 09:11:36 -0700 (PDT) Savannah Hanna <savannahcat Kids, choices & grandparents I am fortunate to have a supportive husband now. He's not entirely vegetarian, but I think it'll happen. He's open minded and aware. He's just athletic and has a hard time seeing himself succeeding as an athlete whithout animal protein (ick!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 25, 2005 Report Share Posted October 25, 2005 I've been following this thread with interest. I have raised my 2 boys (12 and 7) as vegetarian from birth. My brother is vegan and has been trying to 'convert' us on and off for years. My youngest and I both do soymilk but still eat cheese. My oldest still drinks cow milk so I buy organic grass-fed cow milk from cows allowed to graze in a field, and the eggs I buy are the free-range type, although I don't actually know how humane they are. I have been divorced for years now and luckily although my ex is a meat eater he has respected our diet on the days he has the kids, and so has his family. Before reading this thread I didn't realize how lucky I was in that regard! Recently my brother talked my oldest into promising not to eat eggs or egg products. This is fine with me but seriously upset his father, who doesn't want any more difficulties in finding food choices for them on his days. He says my brother shouldn't impose his views and beliefs on a 12 year old. My brother thinks 12 is old enough to make your own decisions. I'm not sure who's side to take ! I don't want my son to feel in the middle, and frankly any decision he makes is probably going to be based on what will make the most grown-ups happy, less then what is the most humane choice. Advice? FareChase: Search multiple travel sites in one click. http://farechase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 26, 2005 Report Share Posted October 26, 2005 Mybluerat, I don't have any answers either, but I feel you on the subject. I love this thread because I think it gets to the very bottom of why we are all here on this board - exploring how to be good vegetarian parents. Luckily my only child so far is only 2, and my husband is totally onboard with our kids being vegetarian. (I felt that painful little twinge of guilt this morning as I served him his spinach omlet, so veganism is soon to come, and I'm sure hubster will be cool with that too, except for the sucky vegan cheese.) I haven't had to address the topic of decisions based on humane issues yet with my son, but I do want to be prepared. I worry that issues of animal abuse in the food industry are really heavy topics for kids. Too heavy, actually. I wonder how old my son will be when I can discuss with him some (and all) of the things that occur every second on factory farms. I don't want him to have haunting visions of hurt or lonely animals, as I often have. I don't want him to lose his love of people by knowing how harmful and ignorant and, well, evil they can be. I don't even want him to know that that stuff on his friends' and family members' plate is really a dead animal, let alone how tortured the animal was before being killed. So when I hear parents say that their kids tell people, " I love animals and I don't eat them " it saddens me that kids have to deal with such a grotesque topic. Just like any serious topic parents must address (drugs, sex, war) we as parents want to prepare our kids on the subject before they stumble on it on their own, or they receive misinformation from undesired sources (friends, in-laws, tv, etc). I think that kids are exposed to way too much ugliness as it is these days, and it breaks my heart to think that my little boy may one day feel guilty for eating the ravioli both made from scratch by hand in the lovely Italian way) that his Noni might proudly and lovingly offer him, or feel weird at birthday parties. Even worse than feeling weird, I don't want him to judge others for eating the things that all of here know are, well, wrong. I want my boy to live thinking that the Hundred Acre Wood is real, and that animals on farms really do lollygag and luxuriate on green pastures under a blue sky filled with puffy white clouds. I want him to continue to twirl and smile and clap his hands when he hears the song Old MacDonald Had a Farm. He can deal with the truth much much much later. On the other hand.... I'll stress out about the other hand later too. Nikki , Shirley <mybluerat> wrote: > > I've been following this thread with interest. I have > raised my 2 boys (12 and 7) as vegetarian from birth. > My brother is vegan and has been trying to 'convert' > us on and off for years. My youngest and I both do > soymilk but still eat cheese. My oldest still drinks > cow milk so I buy organic grass-fed cow milk from cows > allowed to graze in a field, and the eggs I buy are > the free-range type, although I don't actually know > how humane they are. I have been divorced for years > now and luckily although my ex is a meat eater he has > respected our diet on the days he has the kids, and so > has his family. Before reading this thread I didn't > realize how lucky I was in that regard! Recently my > brother talked my oldest into promising not to eat > eggs or egg products. This is fine with me but > seriously upset his father, who doesn't want any more > difficulties in finding food choices for them on his > days. He says my brother shouldn't impose his views > and beliefs on a 12 year old. My brother thinks 12 is > old enough to make your own decisions. I'm not sure > who's side to take ! I don't want my son to feel in > the middle, and frankly any decision he makes is > probably going to be based on what will make the most > grown-ups happy, less then what is the most humane > choice. Advice? > > > > > FareChase: Search multiple travel sites in one click. > http://farechase. > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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