Welcome to Strength at Length (hey, I like rhyming). Let's jump right in.
PETA, known the world over for being a filthy group of jackasses, recently released a list of twelve vegan "bodybuilders" who break the vegan stereotype. Sure, with you so far. Here's the thing--most of them aren't even bodybuilders, and beyond that, none of them seem particularly impressive physically.
I want to start off by saying that I am not at all anti-vegan. In fact, I respect the shit out of vegans. They clearly actually do have some solid moral high ground, and while I can acknowledge that, I honestly don't give enough of a shit about doing the right thing to stop feasting on delicious cuts of environment-destroying beef. That's just never going to happen.
That said, I do take issue when you try to convince me that veganism goes beyond just being better for the environment and reducing the suffering of innocent animals and is not just healthier, but conducive to the iron game. But we'll get to that. First, here's the article in question. If you click on the athlete's names, you can get a more detailed description of their background, diet, training, and views on veganism. If you look through all of them, you'll find that most of these athletes aren't even bodybuilders. From what I can tell, only two or three of them are. The rest are powerlifters, bikini competitors, or figure competitors.
Let's start with the actual bodybuilders. The first, Giacomo, has actually won a show! Oh wait, he won a show in 2002, but only became a vegan in 2004. Since then, he has placed, but not won. Granted, that could be due to many factors, but so far he isn't making a great case for veganism. Next up is Christian, a 160 lb. bodybuilder who has never competed. As far as I'm concerned, you can't call yourself a bodybuilder until you don a thong and step onto the stage.
As far as bikini competitors, I will just say that it seems to me (granted, I have never competed in bikini--my cock always pops out of those things) that the contestants don't really have an appreciable amount of muscle mass. From what I can tell, they are usually just naturally slender women who decided to compete at being skinny.
Now that I've already undoubtedly offended a large chunk of my potential audience, let's move on to the figure competitors. Erin hasn't competed since becoming a vegan. Melissa has actually won a show, but she also claims to have been vegetarian since 2009 and dairy-free since 2012, only to go on to say that she cut out seafood after cutting out dairy. Something doesn't add up there. Next up is Dani. She too has won a show. Not bad. The one thing I'll say here is that she "went from being 205 pounds and very sedentary to 135 pounds with a vegan diet and exercise." The importance of exercise may have been understated a bit. Finally, we have Ashlee. Ashlee has never competed. Great.
Lastly, we have the powerlifters. Kelly is a powerlifter who has never competed and doesn't have her numbers listed. Jason is a 198 lb. powerlifter with a sub-950 total, which is far from impressive to me.
So overall, I have a few issues with this article. Number one is that they lump all strength and physique athletes together and call them all "bodybuilders." This glaring inaccuracy ensures that the reader knows that the author has no idea what they're talking about. The next is that these are the best twelve representatives that PETA could find. Where are the IFBB pros? The IPF champs? I will admit that the physique competitors did seem to get decent results, but that's not what the article is about, right? The conclusion of the piece even implies that you can look as good as all of these people by following a vegan diet. If only I aspired to be scrawny.
I would like to reiterate that I really have nothing against vegans, and I'm not writing this to bully them. My point is just that by grasping at straws to try to make the point that your lifestyle is beneficial to people looking to bodybuild, you only lose credibility and sound ridiculous. That said, it's fine that a vegan diet isn't helpful for bodybuilding. Neither were Gandhi's hunger strikes, but nobody seems to care that he wasn't all that swole.
Does veganism reduce animal suffering? Yes. Benefit the environment? Yes. Help you gain lean mass? Hell no.
