Meet David Carter, Pro Football Player, Competitive Powerlifter, and Vegan

from One Green Planet

David Carter sure doesn’t look like the weak stereotype that many perceive those on a vegan diet to be. This 300-pound athlete is the defensive lineman for the Oakland Raiders in the NFL, and he does not eat any animal products. He is 26-years-old, has a height of 6-6 and can bench 470 and squat 660 pounds.



Carter grew up eating meat and believed it was necessary to eat it in order to be big and strong. “Every coach, trainer, nutritionist, and doctor all pointed me in the direction of animal products,” he wrote on his blog. “From protein shakes to weight gainers there was no other alternative, so I did as I was told and followed the standard athlete’s diet regimen. Whey protein, raw eggs, gallons of milk, and casein were in just about every supplement I took.”

So why did he make a healthier change? ”One night my wife and I were watching Forks Over Knives and I realized that all the effort I was putting in to get big and strong for football was actually killing me,” he wrote. So, he started eating vegan!

Carter is awesome for showing the world that you can thrive and be strong enough to play football with the biggest of meat eaters. He played college football at U.C.L.A. and was drafted in 2011, making this season his fourth year in the NFL. Now, he is in the process of launching his personal website, The 300 Pound Vegan, where you can read posts about his vegan diet and catch up on news relating to the athlete. The site plans to allows readers to make a difference by submitting donations.



“I have always seen the benefits of being vegan, but I never thought I could have a plant-based diet and keep weight on for football,” Carter wrote on his blog. ”After being vegan for only two months I can honestly say that being vegan is not the only most efficient way to be full body strong, it’s also the most humane; everyone wins.”

Images’ source: The 300 Pound Vegan

Endangered Species Watch: Vegetarian Power Hitters

here's an article from the Human Society from last summer:

Prince Fielder sounds like the name of a baseball player who’s pretty good with the glove. Indeed, the first baseman for the Milwaukee Brewers isn’t too bad at scooping up ground balls or pulling a throw out of the dirt. But he’s best known as a terror at the plate—hitting more than .300 with 22 home runs and knocking in 78 runs in the first half of the Major League Baseball season, earning him a place on the National League All-Star roster.

And last night, the 6-foot, 270-pound first baseman cleaned up at the Home Run Derby that is the warm-up act for tonight’s All-Star Game in St. Louis. He won the competition, besting hometown favorite Albert Pujols of the Cardinals, and hitting the longest drive of the night (estimated at more than 500 feet).

He’s also an ethical vegetarian—converted after his wife shared Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin's bestselling book "Skinny Bitch" with him, and he read about the mistreatment of animals in agriculture.

There was speculation that his conversion to vegetarianism would sap his strength—that his wife’s act of giving him "Skinny Bitch" was like Delilah’s cutting off of Samson’s hair. But the fear proved unfounded, and Fielder has quieted the critics with his towering drives.