Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Can Vegetarians Build Muscle?

Can Vegetarians Build Muscle?

One of Berardi's vegan meals.

I blogged a couple of weeks about Dr. John Berardi's experiment with a plant-based diet for building muscle. Now the folks over at T-Nation have become interested, as well, and have interviewed him about his project. Good reading.

I'm still undecided about following this course myself, but I am hoping Berardi has a positive outcome to help push me toward a plant-based diet.

On the humor side of things: "I'm not a vegetarian because I love animals. I'm a vegetarian because I hate plants." ~ A. Whitney Brown.

Can Vegetarians Build Muscle?

The call came in at 2 a.m.

"Hello," I answered, still half-asleep.

"We have a code red," the voice on the other end of the line said.

"Who?"

"Dr. John Berardi."

"But that's impossible," I said. "Berardi is one of us. He eats, like, a whole cow a week. Chickens fall over dead at the sound of his name. Fish mommies and fish daddies tell their fishy kids stories about Berardi to scare them into behaving. He's their boogeyman."

"No mistake," the voice said. "Berardi has gone ... vegetarian."

I hung up the phone, threw on some clothes, and grabbed my passport. Something had to be done. I couldn't let one of our own go veghead. I had to fly to Canada and organize an intervention for my friend John ... and maybe a barbecue, or two.

Five hours later, I landed in Toronto. That's when I learned what was really going on.


Testosterone Muscle: John, what the heck are you doing, and why the heck are you doing it?

John Berardi:

TM: So what gave you the idea to try it out on yourself?

JB:

TM: Wait, your goal is actually to build muscle on a vegetarian diet?

TM: What's your goal?

Can Vegetarians Build Muscle? Can Vegetarians Build Muscle?

Berardi before his plant-based diet: 179.6 pounds, 5.5 percent body fat

TM: We've been saying "vegetarian" and "vegan" here, but I know you don't actually like those terms. Why?

JB:

TM: Great point. So what is included? Is it all plant-based, or is there some animal food involved?

TM: Is meat really bad to begin with? Are the vegetarians on to something, or are they just weird smelly dudes in hemp sneakers?

JB:

TM: I just heard the state of Texas scream.

TM: But what's the link? Can we buffer the risk?

JB:

TM: This reminds me of your "Defeating Dietary Displacement" articles. The problem is that meat eaters are displacing things like leafy greens.

JB:

Go read the rest of the interview (scroll down to the bottom of the page).


6 comments:

Hokai said...

Oh my, this really is a loaded topic, and I've been on both sides of the argument. Instead of discussing dietary behavior, we should be discussing types of people, as Ayurveda has been doing for centuries if nor millenia. Metabolic typing is the most fundamental level, then blood type, and finally slow vs. fast oxidizers. These three distinctions make the reasonable discussion of all dietary things a real possibility once again.

Anonymous said...

It's really impressive what he's looking to achieve with this. I agree that a more balanced approach to eating would be ideal. I'm interested to see what else Dr. Berardi gets out of this 'experiment'

Anonymous said...

what's with this weight lifting, muscle building obsession?

blows me away. i'm from a different generation.

william harryman said...

Hokai,

I agree in principle, and in principle I am an omnivore (and may remain so), but I have been having some (new to me) moral pangs about eating animals, you know, being Buddhist and all. I've rationalized it as a health issue in the past, but that is less comfortable than it used to be (the joys of cognitive dissonance). If Dr. Berardi can show the way to be healthy without meat, I might be on-board.

Re: Anonymous,

Some of us develop the body as well as the heart, mind, and soul (integral life practice). Part of that is having a strong and capable body, which requires muscle. Personally, I'm happy to be my current 200 lbs, no need for more muscle. But I do like getting stronger, pushing my limits, which requires the same attention to diet and nutrition as building muscle, just fewer calories.

Peace all,
Bill

Anonymous said...

I'm all for the healthy body, healthy mind, healthy spirit stuff.

Love it. Just the bulking up with weights thing, being a figure athlete thing strikes me as narcissistic.

You can live a blissful, useful, inspired, enlightened life of service without having killer pectorals and a six pack, ya know?

I don't have to obsess about my teeth to enjoy my dinner, ya know?

Just brush em, floss em and be done with it.

I'm from another generation.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe someone thought those pictures were porn. Hope he was kidding.
me