Which physical culturists were vegetarian?

[David Gentle]

Re eating, a great hobby, does anyone believe or know of the results of Vince Gironda supposedly eating so many eggs? I have read various accounts and seen differing evidence of whats good and bad re eating eggs. When kids out in the wild countryside i lived, we did eat some of the larger wild birds eggs after boiling them, but i quit one day after breaking the shell to find a fully formed baby bir (dead and boiled) inside and went back to relying on hazel nuts and blackberries to sustain us during out daily trips to our tree house in a local cops, supplemented by the occasional nicked pint of milk off the milk cart when he had to slow down going up a steep hill, ......naughty boy David

[peter yates]

I have been a vegan for 20 years and it has worked for me, I do not take any soy. You do not need dairy or meat to be strong that is a common myth. I recommend the you-tube channel Hence Herbivore he does a lot of good videos on vegan diet and how to gain muscle.

One reason that it may be hard to find physical culturists that were vegan is because the word vegan was not coined until 1944. I suspect throughout history there have been vegan bodybuilders or strongmen but they are not wider known.

VB.

Welcome VB, thanks for sharing your personal experience. The only truth there is.
Regards,Peter.

[peter yates]

Re eating, a great hobby, does anyone believe or know of the results of Vince Gironda supposedly eating so many eggs? I have read various accounts and seen differing evidence of whats good and bad re eating eggs. When kids out in the wild countryside i lived, we did eat some of the larger wild birds eggs after boiling them, but i quit one day after breaking the shell to find a fully formed baby bir (dead and boiled) inside and went back to relying on hazel nuts and blackberries to sustain us during out daily trips to our tree house in a local cops, supplemented by the occasional nicked pint of milk off the milk cart when he had to slow down going up a steep hill, ......naughty boy David

David, when i was a kid,and for many years after, i would eat anything and everything that was not tied down.I also nicked the odd pint of milk off the cart when it stopped and the farmer was not looking. In those days it was delivered by horse and cart.
Regards,Peter.

[Internalfitness]

These guys on YouTube do some fun videos, and this one came up last week:


youtu.be/vsViCHOJOkc

By the end, they pretty much admit its drinking all the milk that did them in!

Richie.

[psychologist]

A new one to add to the list is the wrestler Killer Kowalski

He became a vegetarian in 1953. He died in 2008.

https://www.vegetarianusa.com/feature_a ... alski.html

Killer: Well, my first meal of the day is just fruit. That's all. Maybe once in a while when I went to bed very late after a long trip, I'd wake up a little late and I'll have a regular meal. A regular meal is salad. I eat salad, I eat avocados. I do not eat head lettuce. I eat romaine---romaine lettuce and green leaf lettuce, that's what I eat. And cucumbers. I eat celery in my salad. And I do eat a can of beans or something like that. But I do read the label beforehand and make sure the beans are packaged only in water, no potassium sorbate and chemicals like that. I read labels very consciously. And I don't drink milk, it makes me gag. I eat some pasta. I do not eat eggs. That's what my diet consists of mainly. And the strange part of it, when I make my salad, I put everything together in a great big bin---I put everything together, not separately, raw cauliflower, raw broccoli, everything together.

Killer Kowalski was actually a vegan! He did not eat dairy or eggs.

[psychologist]

In Ed Spielman's The Mighty Atom: The Life and Times of Joseph L. Greenstein, he says:

After the match , Volanko , Gama , and the boy sat in the shade as the two wrestlers talked idly and all shared from a large basket of fruit , a gift to Champion Gama who was a strict vegetarian.

However this is contradicted by other sources. The Great Gama was not a strict vegetarian.

[psychologist]

From my research so far, Killer Kowalski was the first vegan physical culturist. He did not consume dairy, eggs or meat nor drink alcohol or smoke.

According to sources he became a vegan in 1953. I would be interested in knowing if any pre-date him.

[peter yates]

Thanks Daryll, i had forgotten about him.A tough strong man who wrestled for a very long time.
Regards,Peter.

[psychologist]

Here is some information on the diet of Steve Reeves.

On the subject of nutrition, Reeves was, in the main, very much in time with modern beliefs on the value of a well-balanced diet complete with a wide variety of wholesome ingredients and plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. Perhaps he had an advantage here, for his mother was a nutritionist who provided her son with a sound education in this field. Steve also believed in the power of a daily protein drink, consisting of fresh orange juice, Knox gelatin, 2 to 4 raw eggs, a banana, honey, and some protein powder. He made his own powder consisting of egg-white powder, skimmed milk powder and soy protein powder, and also believed in the power of a special energy drink that he used to take during his workouts, which consisted of lemon juice with honey. Figs were another favorite and it also seems that he liked to eat steak with salad. Reports that he was almost a vegetarian are untrue, although he certainly ate a large quantity of fresh vegetables and fruits. He also liked goat’s milk and would often drink two quarts of it on a daily basis.

http://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2011/07/gr ... rican.html

[psychologist]

Re eating, a great hobby, does anyone believe or know of the results of Vince Gironda supposedly eating so many eggs? I have read various accounts and seen differing evidence of whats good and bad re eating eggs. When kids out in the wild countryside i lived, we did eat some of the larger wild birds eggs after boiling them, but i quit one day after breaking the shell to find a fully formed baby bir (dead and boiled) inside and went back to relying on hazel nuts and blackberries to sustain us during out daily trips to our tree house in a local cops, supplemented by the occasional nicked pint of milk off the milk cart when he had to slow down going up a steep hill, ......naughty boy David

I have not looked into Vince Gironda's diet yet. Bruce Randall may have eaten the most eggs.

It says here he could eat 28 fried eggs a day.

https://www.starkcenter.org/igh/igh-v11 ... 101p28.pdf