The 247 lb. Vegan - WSJ.com

These guys are really brave. But one thing I’ve noticed about all people who go at life full-throttle, like high level atheletes, they all go with what works. Something to think about.

By REED ALBERGOTTI
January 25, 2008; Page W1

The protein-rich bounty of the football training table is supposed to grow the biggest and strongest athletes in professional sports. Kansas City Chiefs tight-end Tony Gonzalez was afraid it was going to kill him. “It’s the Catch-22,” says Mr. Gonzalez, 31. “Am I going to be unhealthy and play football? Or be healthy and get out of the league?”

Kansas City Chiefs tight-end Tony Gonzalez

So last year, on the eve of the biggest season of his career, Mr. Gonzalez embarked on a diet resolution that smacked head-on with gridiron gospel as old as the leather helmet. He decided to try going vegan.

Living solely on plant food, a combination of nuts, fruits, vegetables, grains and the like, has long been the fringe diet of young rebels and aging nonconformists. Even the government recommends regular helpings of meat, fish and dairy. Vegans of late have gotten more hip with such best sellers as the brash “Skinny Bitch,” and its more scholarly cousin, “The China Study.” Both books argue vegans can live longer.

But could an all-star National Football League player, all 6-foot, 5-inches and 247 pounds of him, live on a vegan diet and still excel in one of the most punishing jobs in sports?

For Mr. Gonzalez, the stakes were high. He’d just signed a five-year contract, making him the game’s highest-paid tight-end. Entering the 2007 season, his 11th in the NFL, he had a shot at breaking all-time NFL records for career receptions and touchdowns at his position. To do that, he needed top performances in every game. Mr. Gonzalez knew he was out on a limb. “I was like, ‘I’m going to look like a fool if this doesn’t work out,’” he says.

Mr. Gonzalez joined a handful of elite athletes who have put the vegan diet to the test, either for their health or because they oppose using animals as food. But he was the first pro-football superstar to try. And the first to fail.

There’s no evidence a vegan diet can improve an athlete’s performance, says David Nieman, a professor of health and exercise at Appalachian State University. His 1988 study of vegetarian runners found they ran as well as their meat-eating rivals but no better. Although the vegetarian athletes in his study also ate eggs and dairy foods, he says, “there is scientific evidence that veganism, when done right, won’t hurt performance.” But, he adds, there is only anecdotal evidence that it can help.

Professional athletes, especially NFL players, need thousands of calories a day. Many enjoy a high-protein, high-fat smorgasbord of steaks, chops, burgers, pizza, ice cream and beer. Mr. Gonzalez’s tight-end job requires him to push around monstrously sized opponents. Occasionally, he gets to catch a pass. Mr. Gonzalez is famous for combining the brute power of an offensive lineman with the acrobatic skills of a nimble receiver. “My biggest thing is strength,” he says. “If you lose that strength you get your butt kicked.”

Experts say athletes in training need as much as twice the protein of an average person to rebuild muscle. Their bodies also require a big dose of minerals and vitamins, as well as the amino acids, iron and creatine packed into fish, meat and dairy foods. It’s fine to be a vegan, says sports nutritionist and dietician Nancy Clark, if you’re willing to work at it. “It’s harder to get calcium, harder to get protein, harder to get Vitamin D, harder to get iron,” she says. “You have to be committed.”

TRAINING AS A VEGAN

Read a Q&A with nutritionist Lisa Dorfman about training on a vegan diet.

DIETARY CHANGES

Compare the standard Chiefs training table menu to Tony Gonzalez’s daily diet.

“Skinny Bitch” co-author Kim Barnouin is working on another book called “Skinny Bastard.” “We want men to know that you’re not going to be some scrawny little wimp if you follow this diet,” she says. The book trashes meat, milk, eggs, cheese and sodas, saying men and women feel better and look better without them. “The more athletes who come forward and say, ‘I’m doing this for my health,’ the better,” she says.

Mr. Gonzalez had never heard of the vegan diet when he boarded a flight from New York to Los Angeles last spring, about a month before preseason training. His seatmate turned down most of the food offered in first class, and Mr. Gonzalez finally asked why. The man told Mr. Gonzalez about “The China Study,” a 2006 book by Cornell professor and nutrition researcher T. Colin Campbell that claims people who eat mostly plants have fewer deadly diseases than those who eat mostly animals. The evidence was drawn from diet surveys and blood samples of 6,500 men and women from across China.

MAC DANZIG

Mac Danzig took a diet risk four years ago. The 28-year-old mixed martial-arts fighter had long wanted to spare animals by going vegan. But he was afraid his trainers were right: that he’d lose to stronger opponents. Last month, on a diet of brown-rice protein, beans, soy, nuts and vegetables, Mr. Danzig defeated the last of his challengers in Spike TV’s “The Ultimate Fighter.” Kim Barnouin, co-author of the vegan best-seller “Skinny Bitch,” says she loves the “Ultimate Fighter” show and cheered Mr. Danzig’s win. When fight fans learned Mr. Danzig was a vegan, some said they didn’t think he’d have the strength, or the stomach, to conquer the ultra-violent sport, which combines kick-boxing and wrestling. “It’s about animal rights,” Mr. Danzig says, “not human rights.”

Mr. Gonzalez was intrigued. Earlier in the year, a bout with Bell’s Palsy, a temporary facial paralysis, had focused his attention on health. He bought the book, and after reading the first 40 pages, he says, was convinced animal foods led to chronic illness. He was an unlikely convert. Mr. Gonzalez, who grew up in Southern California, says cheeseburgers were his favorite food. But he quit them, substituting fruits, nuts and vegetables. At restaurants, he ordered pasta with tomato sauce.

Three weeks later, he walked into the weight room at the Chiefs’ training facility and got a shock. The 100-pound dumbbells he used to easily throw around felt like lead weights. “I was scared out of my mind,” he says. Standing on the scale, he learned he’d lost 10 pounds.

Mr. Gonzalez considered scrapping the diet altogether and returning to the Chiefs’ standard gut-busting menu. First, though, he called Mr. Campbell, who put him in touch with Jon Hinds, himself a vegan and the former strength coach for the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team. Mr. Hinds suggested plant foods with more protein.

SALIM STOUDAMIRE

Trainers for the Atlanta Hawks worried when shooting guard Salim Stoudamire decided to eat vegan at the end of the National Basketball Association season in 2006. Although the diet left him craving chicken, Mr. Stoudamire says, his biggest challenge was convincing coaches and teammates he could still perform on the court. Team managers forced Mr. Stoudamire onto a scale each morning of preseason training and wrote down his weight. After holding steady at 181 pounds, the bosses got off his back. Mr. Stoudamire says he felt better, and that his performance this season improved. So far, none of his teammates have joined him. “They all look at me like I’m crazy,” he says.

The Chiefs’ team nutritionist, Mitzi Dulan, a former vegetarian athlete, did not believe that was enough. With the team’s prospects and Mr. Gonzalez’s legacy at stake, she persuaded the tight-end to incorporate small amounts of meat into his plant diet. Just no beef, pork or shellfish, he said; only a few servings of fish and chicken a week.

Teammates nicknamed him China Study and razzed Mr. Gonzalez if he missed a block. But he wasn’t ready to give up his new diet completely. After a preseason practice, he accompanied Mr. Hinds to learn a skill he believed as important as blocking techniques: how to shop for groceries. Mr. Hinds showed him nutritious fish oils and how to pick out breads dense with whole grains, nuts and seeds. “The best bread for you,” says Mr. Hinds, “is if I hit you with it, it hurts.” Mr. Gonzalez also learned how to make the fruit and vegetable shake he drinks each morning. He stocked his pantry with tubs of soy protein powder and boxes of organic oatmeal; soy milk and Brazilian acai juice crowded the fridge. His favorite dessert became banana bread topped with soy whipped cream from the vegan cafe near his home in Orange County’s Huntington Beach.

Mr. Gonzalez soon recovered his lost pounds and strength, but prospects for a record-breaking season were still in doubt. The team lost its starting quarterback, Trent Green, in a trade, and the Chiefs’ star running back was tied up in a contract dispute.

As the season progressed, the team lost more games than it won. But Mr. Gonzalez managed to stick to his diet and hold onto the football. He broke the touchdown record before midseason and was within reach of the career reception record. “I was like, ‘OK, this is working,’” he says. “I have so much more energy when I’m out there.” His wife, October Gonzalez, was astonished her husband could play the season without ordering a single cheeseburger. “I thought he’d cave,” she says.

Mr. Gonzalez entered the final game against the New York Jets needing four catches to surpass the record held by former tight-end Shannon Sharpe. The contest turned into a sluggish defensive struggle with the Chiefs trailing the Jets 7 to 3. Still, Mr. Gonzalez made three receptions. With 2 minutes and 29 seconds left in the third quarter, Chiefs quarterback Brodie Croyle was fleeing defenders when he threw a 9-yard pass to Mr. Gonzalez, who scampered for a first down and a spot in the NFL record book.

Write to Reed Albergotti at reed.albergotti@wsj.com

Researchers use neuroimaging to study ESP
To study whether or not ESP exists, Moulton and Kosslyn presented participants with two types of visual stimuli: ESP stimuli and non-ESP stimuli. These two types of stimuli were identical with one exception: ESP stimuli were not only presented visually, but also were presented telepathically, clairvoyantly, and precognitively to participants.

You see, in a test set up to prove the existence or non-existence of ESP, they presented the participants with “ESP stimuli”.  The problem is, they can’t possibly know or measure whether or not the senders of this ESP stimuli actually were successful in sending anything.

As anyone who has had ESP experiences should be able to know, it doesn’t work that way.  It isn’t something that will ever be measured in a lab.  It is not a phenomenon of the brain.  It is a phenomenon associated with Mind.  The brain provides for the physical expression of Mind.

Maybe, some future world, we will have the necessary technology to measure the phenomena of ESP.  At this time, we couldn’t even imagine such a thing.  It is that far beyond the machinery we have today.

In the modern world, we often believe that we need fancy gyms, equipment, and all of it.  Look at these kids.  If the spirit is there, it will find a way to express itself.  This is one of the most beautiful pictures I’ve ever seen.  God bless these kids.

May I, with the gentle reader’s permission and indulgence, don the hat of “futurist” for a moment?

In the New Age crowd of the turn of the Century (20th Century, that is) many predicted that in the future, the human species would evolve into a transgender thing. You know, no men and women, but only one gender, which would include both sexes. This dream, if you will, never really went away (as it should have), but found a home with the post 70s feministas.

I ran into some of these curiosities in Chico, California, sometime about 1990. It was in a class in Religious Studies about gender and feminism. There were some in the class, including one of the men!, who thought that part of this evolution could be helped along by men donning dresses. In this regard, I would also refer my most gentle and intelligent reader to the book, The Televisionary Oracle, by Rob Brezsny. In this book, the main character undergoes the distinctly female initiation of first menstruation. This was part of his “evolution” as a man. Evidently, the women don’t need to evolve. They are already perfect. (Actually, I agree with this part of the theory!)

Anyway, I used to think all of this was largely baloney. But then, this morning, I came upon this lovely picture. I’m a convert, what about you? Come on, now, look at those eyes. Look at that punim. Evolution is so cool!

By the way, and as an afterthought, here is a picture from the wedding reception…

It is the supreme elixir
That  overcomes the sovereignty of death.
It is the inexhaustible treasure
That eliminates poverty in the world.
It is the supreme medicine
That quells the world’s disease.
It is the tree that shelters all beings
Wandering and tired on the path of conditioned existence.
It is the universal bridge
That leads to freedom from unhappy states of birth.
It is the dawning moon of the mind
That dispels the torment of disturbing conceptions.
It is the great sun that finally removes
The misty ignorance of the world.

Shantideva

In this passage, Shantideva goes completely the opposite way of how most people understand prayer, and their relationship to God, the Ultimate, to the Masters, and so forth. Most people pray for help in some form. Shantideva is doing the opposite. He is taking complete responsibility for his own fate, and praying, really affirming, his support of God, the Divine, the Masters, all the Buddhas, whatever and whomever.

Here is a partial quote, so that you can see what I mean:

“The perfections of the bodhisattva do not support me–it is I who support them….I alone, standing in this round and adamantine world, must subdue Mara, with all his hosts and chariots, and develop supreme enlightenment with the wisdom of instantaneous insight!… I work to establish the kingdom of perfect wisdom for all beings. I care not at all for my own deliverance. I must save all beings from the torrent of rebirth with the raft of my omniscient mind. I must pull them back from the great precipice. I must free them from all misfortune, ferry them over the stream of rebirth.”

Think, for a minute, what Shantideva is saying here. Imagine yourself saying, and meaning, these same words. This is courage. This is the kind of thing that an enlightened masters does.

This web can condense or change its ontological status and become part of an individual’s own personal awareness.

Link to Art by Anton Jaks (all has been destroyed)

This awareness is about Ultimate Freedom.   It is a feeling, a state of mind.  But it is much more than simply a subjective feeling. It is an objective reality of which the complete dimensional substantiation is found in our own DNA.

Art can be a transformational doorway into the hyperdimensional, holographic, super conducting genetic DNA matrix.  Daily doses induce a hyperspatial zeitgeist, altering the continuum of shared perceptions for all sentient beings, universally. (more…)

But the mind is not an epiphenomenon of the brain. It is not chemical in nature, although its expression can be influenced or even completely suppressed by chemicals. (more…)

1. First, you must have good conduct. Here are 10 precepts that you must observe or your practice will be largely a waste of your time. (more…)

   Related Posts

   • Vatican defends duty to evangelize and accept converts
     The story linked here - Vatican defends duty to evangelize and accept converts | Reuters point...
   • The Spiritual Brain: An Argument Against Materialism and Neuro-determinism
     This book is a welcome counterpoint to the majority of neuroscientists and psychologists who are gen...
   • Stargate To Heaven - Serpent Power and King Tut
     There are so many theories about why the pyramids of ancient Egypt were constructed, and how they w...
   • Tattoos as evangelical chic - popularity of religious tattoo symbols with evangelical youth as expressions of their faith - Brief Article Christian Century - Find Articles
   • Archaic Revival - Terrence McKenna and the Demonic Self-Imaging of Our Culture
   ]]> http://99mind.com/2007/07/07/6/feed/