Vegan champion athletes share their experiences and the “power of veganism”: being a vegetarian can be healthy!

Many people have misconceptions about vegetarianism, believing that eating vegetarian food will lead to malnutrition and weakness. The Humanities Lecture Hall of Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital invited champion athletes including: Bakashi Klub, a Thai who won the 13th World Bodybuilding Championship in 2022, and wrestling champion Lu Shiyong. They used their own testimonies and the spirit of not giving up to change the public's impression that vegetarian food is monotonous and boring, and told everyone that being a vegetarian can also be healthy.

Deputy Director of Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital, Lin Mingnan, started eating vegetarian food 15 years ago and understands the importance of vegetarianism to good health. Over the past decade, under the leadership of CEO Lin Junlong, he has promoted health promotion in the hospital, encouraged colleagues to eat vegetarian food, and promoted Taiwan's experience overseas. It has also gradually developed into the world's third largest database, becoming an important asset for international research in the field of vegetarian nutrition. To date, 13 papers related to vegetarianism and health have been published, showing that vegetarians have become healthier than meat eaters. Vice President Lin introduced Ni Mingjun and praised his persistence in promoting vegetarianism.

Da Ai TV news anchor Ni Mingjun has been a vegetarian for many years and has spared no effort in promoting vegetarianism. He believes that a vegetarian diet is healthier for humans, animals and the earth. He cited many examples of athletes who were healthier by being a vegetarian, and that every one of them was an elite athlete. A documentary recorded that many internationally renowned athletes are vegetarians. Among them, Djokovic, who won the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, said: "I found that eating meat made me waste more energy to digest." In order to actually prove the benefits of being a vegetarian, he invited wrestling champion Lu Siyong and world bodybuilding champion Bakashi Klub to share the "power of veganism."

Having been a vegetarian for twenty years, wrestling champion Lu Shiyong is a vegan athlete. He watched wrestling with his father since he was a child, and was moved by the spirit of the wrestlers who kept taking blows but kept standing up and fighting back, and even won the game in the end. So he joined the ranks of professional wrestling and founded a wrestling league. The training process was arduous, and he nurtured rising stars and brought Taiwanese wrestling to the international stage. 17 years ago, because my father suffered a severe cerebral hemorrhage, I vowed to become a vegetarian. In the wrestling world, he insists on eating meatless vegan meals for every meal, and he has found that his physical fitness, muscle endurance, and muscle recovery have improved. In 2017, he also became the singles and doubles champion in the league. Now he is nearly 40 years old, and his physical fitness or technical performance is not much worse than that of young people. All these are the benefits of a vegetarian diet.

Wrestling champion Lu Shiyong lifted Vice President Lin Mingnan high up and spun him around, demonstrating his full strength. (Photo courtesy of Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital)

Vegan Thai Bakashi Klub won the 13th World Bodybuilding Championship in 2022. When he was young, he was very thin and looked like a drug addict. He started fitness at the age of 15. At that time, he ate meat, and his recovery from muscle soreness and fatigue was slow. I made up my mind to become a vegetarian at the age of 24. People around me advised me that being a vegetarian would cause weakness in my limbs and lead to malnutrition. But I persisted for more than two years and my weight dropped from 48 kg to 65 kg, and I could lift up to 100 kg. Now standing on the stage, he uses his toned physique to demonstrate the benefits of vegetarianism to the body and welcomes the new generation of young people to join the vegetarian ranks.

Bakashi Klub of Thailand became a vegetarian and won the 13th World Bodybuilding Championship. (Photo courtesy of Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital)