Baseball's Vegetarian Prince

From a New York Times article, "Meat Is Out at Fielder’s Plate," on Prince Fielder of the Milwaukee Brewers. Originally linked by Vegan.com. Emphasis is mine:

Fielder, 23, decided to make the switch over the winter after
reading how cattle and chickens were treated and “was totally grossed
out,” he said. His wife, Chanel, preferred a no-meat diet as it was, so
he embraced a new approach.

Fielder had been as carnivorous as your average puma — pushing 200 pounds
since he was 12, he scarfed down a 48-ounce porterhouse as a teenager and had
barely slowed down since. (He played last year with 270 pounds on his 5-foot-11
frame, not all of it muscle.) But he figured he could get his protein from beans and shakes instead of meat and fish, leading to conversations since the beginning of spring training that have grown quite tiresome...

"Yeah, I’m a vegetarian — but still, some things are just nasty,” Fielder
said. “I like salads. But sometimes, they get too creative. I like
regular food, just no meat in it.”

Muscles cannot tell the difference between the protein found in soy
burgers and poultry, [Leslie Bonci, the Brewer's nutritional
consultant] said, so eating one or the other should not affect something
even as timing-sensitive as hitting a baseball...

Less than 24 hours later, Fielder stood in the batter’s box against one of
baseball’s best young left-handers, Cole Hamels of the Philadelphia
Phillies. Fielder smoked two home runs in the Brewers’ 5-4 win. Less
filling, tasted great.

The article also makes mention of Tony Gonzalez of the Kansas City Chiefs, who is vegan. It's so great to see mainstream media coverage of vegetarian and vegan diets from people who don't fit the supposed veg mold--athletes, black men, Hispanic men, former Porterhouse steak devourers. I find articles like this inspiring. Although I have no problem walking right past the meat counter without looking (in fact, I try not to look), I do still look longingly at the cheese and pastry aisles. Knowing so many people easily eat, move, and live well without meat, eggs and dairy gives me motivation to keep at what has been the biggest and most exciting life changes I've ever made.

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