Recently, the great Sir Paul McCartney wrote an article in the Huffington Post called "My Life as a Vegetarian", reflecting on the life of his late wife Linda McCartney, who started a movement with Meatless Mondays, and who like John Robbins, among others leaders in plant-based nutrition, brought to our awareness the fact that eating animals every time we sit down for a meal; for some multiple times per day, has a huge, negative impact not only on our health but on other species inhabiting our planet and the environment.

It's a great article and is accompanied by a new campaign that Sir Paul is coming out with to continue her legacy. Have a read...

That said, many people miss the main point about eating More Plant-Based, Nutrient Rich and 'potentially' going Vegetarian or Vegan.

Let me clarify...

From a 'nutritional' point of view (which is where most people are focused, on health and weight loss...), eating More Plant-Based, Nutrient Rich is not primarily an animal rights or environmental issue. These points of view are directly related, but whole 'other' conversations in and of themselves. And while these are major reasons why many people choose to eat less or eliminate meat or animal products from their diet, reasons I/we as a company do support for switching up the way people eat; they are not the primary reasons we need to be eating more plant-based, nutrient-rich diets. Not understanding the main reason, is also the primary cause of diet, weight and long-term health issues.

Note: We say plant-based, "nutrient rich" because according to Joel Fuhrman M.D. the SAD Standard American Diet is actually a "plant-based" diet with 62% of calories coming from refined plant foods, 25% of calories coming from animal products, and roughly 12% coming from vegetables and fruit (mostly from fries and ketchup), of which, only 5% come from fresh produce!

Translation: If you understand that refined foodstuffs are nutrient-barren, even if they come from plants, then the above statistics reveal that 90% or more of the foods people are eating are nutrient poor- meaning they are devoid of any substantial amount of phytonutrients, fiber, vitamins and minerals and health-promoting forms of protein, carbohydrates and fat.

Eliminating or limiting meat and going "plant based" is not enough; not nearly. Even if you eliminate or limit nutrient-poor animal foods from your diet, you may still be eating just a healthier version of the same SAD nutrient barren diet, as many do, resorting to fake meats and an endless variety of refined foods that are not much better than the foods they aim to supplant; which is why we say, "More Plant-Based Nutrient Rich".

"Nutrient Rich" means the foods are whole food of plant origin, not refined (they can be processed, but not refined). Understanding this, is what ensures you will actually be eating healthy. And for many, realizing this prompts them to make the "switch" to 90% or More, Plant-Based, Nutrient Rich, healthy eating, or to at least get on that path, away from how they are eating right now.

So, when we talk about eating More Plant Based Nutrient Rich, we are first and foremost talking about eating in a way that optimizes your health, by eating mostly micronutrient-rich foods--leafy, green, and colored vegetables and fruits, beans, seeds, nuts, and whole grains, small amounts of animal products if you choose to eat them and outright eliminating refined foods which provide no nutritional value whatsoever; in great-tasting ways you like and enjoy.

Eating "nutrient rich" is not 'about' going vegan or vegetarian (although by all means do if you are ready and want to). Few, if any primates are actually 100% vegan (at the very least, they are also consuming insects, etc.). Even though we can thrive very well in being 100% vegan (there is more than enough science to make this point intelligently, and we are in no way discouraging you from going vegan; the main point in eating More Plant-Based, Nutrient Rich and potentially going vegetarian or vegan is about making sure you are meeting all your nutrient needs. In addition, not overwhelming your body with substances that it does not need from foods, and eating foods in as close to their natural state as possible to protect nutrient integrity.

You want to make sure you are in line with The 5 Golden Rules of Healthy Eating.

So, if you are going to go vegan (which can be an ideal way to eat if it's nutritarian or nutrient rich), or improve the way you eat in any way towards that direction, make sure you understand the main point-- its a necessity to eat the More Plant Based Nutrient Rich foods for purposes of staying healthy!

Nutrients, Nutrient Diversity and Nutrient Quality. Learn More, next.

The post Are You Missing the Main Point of Eating More Plant-Based Nutrient Rich and Potentially Going Vegetarian or Vegan? appeared first on Nutrient Rich.

There is a new voice in the nutrition community—and it is a booming one! John Allen Mollenhauer, a leading proponent of the More Plant-Based Nutrient Rich^® Approach to nutrient rich healthy eating, is proud to announce the re-launch of nutrientrich.com, a robust website chock full of goodies including The Complete Nutrient Rich^® Healthy Eating Plan and Support System that enables people to make “the Switch” from nutrient-poor unhealthy eating to the great-tasting “nutrient-rich” healthy eating style that is growing in popularity. The site also offers Mollenhauer’s Switch to Rich Digest, a Blog of well-written and researched relevant articles and current event commentary, on this revolutionary new eating style; a delicious and nutritious line of raw, whole, organic super food nutrition products at The Rezealiant Living Store; a comprehensive support system; and a healthy Recipe Database that is second to none! It is the culmination of his life’s work—and it shows! John Allen has wrapped it all up into the simplest and most direct path to success!

The beauty of the nutrient-rich way of eating and living is that you can eat Vegetarian or Vegan or not, gluten-free or not, organic or not, low calorie or not, low fat or not, and even low-carb or not--and still be eating the Nutrient Rich Way. It is an eating style that starts with optimizing the foods and meals you eat for nutrient density, variety, volume and great taste, free of addictive substance so you eat the right amount of calories for you, when you are truly hungry.

It is based on the emerging body of nutritional research that demonstrates the healing powers of higher-micro-nutrient per-calorie foods that detoxify the body, promote natural weight loss, dramatically improve health, reverse disease, and promote slower aging, a younger look and a longer life.

This is not a one-diet-fits-all approach; rather, nutrient-rich healthy eating is a normal and natural way to eat that is designed to meet all of your needs, all the time, including Great Taste!

“This is not just a website—it is a complete healthy eating system that starts delivering the minute you subscribe,” states Mollenhauer, a nutrition education trainer and performance lifestyle coach.

When people enter the site, they are invited to download a very revealing guide called, Wow, I Thought I Was Eating Healthy! Have You Tricked Yourself into ‘Believing’ You’re Eating a Healthy Diet? A must read, as it illuminates the 9 ‘healthier’ diet tactics that are causing us to gain weight, drain our energy and age faster.

After reading this insightful Guide, users are then invited to take a Personal Diet Quality (PDQ) Assessment, which provides them with a Nutrient Rich^® Healthy Eating Score, and recommendations for improvement, as well as a fun icon that inspires users to take the way they eat to a whole new level.

Next they get The Nutrient Rich Healthy Eating Plan, which is available in printed and digital formats including .pdf, and .epub and .noki for Ipad, Nook and Kindle ereaders, etc., and consists of:

• Step 1: Switch to Rich—Nutrient Rich^® Healthy Eating  
• Step 2: Shop, Organize, Prepare & Eat Out The Nutrient Rich^® Way
• Step 3: Simple, Quick & Easy^™ Nutrient Rich^® Recipes (created by Chef Ramses Bravo)
• Step 4: How to Lose Weight the Nutrient Rich^® Way!

The Plan also comes coupled with an extensive Membership Site, which includes online and phone support, a Member Forum, Training and Q&A Calls, with John Allen, and much, much more, as well as a free 300-gram, 30-day supply of Rezealiant "Living Feast" —the great-tasting, whole food, nutrient-rich low-calorie way to fill up, and also speed up body detoxification and natural weight loss!

After many years of being on the path of improving his eating and overall lifestyle, while developing a new worldview on how to live a healthy lifestyle successfully, and be better able to achieve your goals, known as Performance Lifestyle^®, John Allen wanted to establish a new standard of eating. Naturally, he arrived at eating nutrient rich because, as John Allen says, “All paths of dietary practice eventually lead to nutrient-rich healthy eating.”

Mentored early on, by Joel Fuhrman, MD, a leading physician and high-nutrient density nutrition researcher, John Allen became a consummate student on the subject and ultimately launched nutrientrich.com, and was one of the first in the world to begin defining how to eat in a nutrient-rich way.

John’s approach is fresh, modern and to the point. His clear and direct message fully explains what it means to eat "nutrient rich"—the buzz term for healthy eating that we have been hearing so much about these days, which is based on the cornerstone of nutrition called, "nutrient density.”

Mollenhauer says, “When I first caught wind of this idea, I didn’t approach it from a weight loss-only or an "eating healthier" motivation because, as a former body-builder, I had already traveled those paths and knew they didn’t provide sustainable results. Rather, I wanted to find the healthiest and most successful way to eat, and make that ‘The New Normal’ for people who were clearly suffering from hidden lifestyle challenges that were holding them back—the biggest of which, was how they were eating!”

And thanks to his tireless work this healthy eating style is finally being discovered by a whole new generation of people! However, John Allen admits that he did not discover this eating style all on his own and clearly acknowledges that The Nutrient Rich^® Healthy Eating Style and Plan were developed on the shoulders of giants—all of whom cleared the way by heroically doing the long-term studies, clinical work and research on plant-based nutrition and lifestyle intervention, as the way to live disease free. Throughout his career, John Allen has had the leadership and mentoring of many of these leading health and performance professionals, several of whom he now calls close friends, and many of whom are members of The Lifestyle Health and Science Advisory at nutrientrich.com. John simply mined all of the information and ideas he could find, taking the best of the best to create The Complete Nutrient Rich^® Healthy Eating Plan and Lifestyle Support System—the most direct path to success.

Nutrient-Rich eating is The Great-Tasting Healthy Way to Eat that delivers what he has coined as The 7 Success Results Every Body Wants—detoxification, natural weight loss, optimized health and performance, reversal of life-style induced diseases (being overweight, heart disease, and diabetes, etc.), slower aging, looking younger and maximized longevity.

“Eating nutrient rich is not a fad—once you discover it, you can’t go back,” adds Mollenhauer, CEO, Nutrient Rich Life., Inc.

"I can only imagine starting from this place when I began my search for the healthiest and most successful way to eat,” says John Allen, with a smile.

John Allen Mollenhauer invites the public to check out http://nutrientrich.com, where they can take their time in understanding this amazing new eating style, by reading and discovering their own paths to Nutrient Rich^® Healthy Eating!

The post Develop a “New Normal” Healthy Eating Style You Can Call Your Own appeared first on Nutrient Rich.

That said, many people take an absolute stance on being vegan as a personal, ethical, and environmental stand and ultimately a stand for their health and performance as eating 100% plant- based, nutrient rich becomes the preferred way of eating after a while. A body free of animal foods for a significant period of time starts getting so sharp, it will let you know, in no uncertain teams, that it does not want what it doesn't need.

Many Athletes have made the Switch to a plant-based eating style. Whether or not it's as "nutrient rich" as you will learn here at nutrientrich.com, is something we would need to discover, but nonetheless these athletes have gotten over the cultural biases towards eating diets rich in animal protein and products that are often associated with athletic strength and performance (which is just not true) and they are winning gold!

Here is an article from The Vegetarian Dispatch that announces the "first Gold and Silver Medals won by vegetarian and vegan athletes at the 2012 Olympics, with more expected soon", with comments by nutrientrich.com.

The first silver medal was won by Lizzie Armitstead. She has just won the silver medal in the grueling 87-mile road cycling race, no less. Lizzie says “One of the most common misconceptions I’ve come across is that vegetarians are pallid, gentle creatures who would recoil in a tough sporting arena. Despite the fact I was breaking school records on the track, people still questioned my diet’s ability to make me strong.”  She subsequently moved on to focus on long distance cycling.

This is very common, when otherwise animal-based eaters have to face their true condition during the detoxification phase of making the Switch, to a plant based, and ideally nutrient rich healthy eating style. They misinterpret what's going on, and due to misinformation about the bodies need for protein and animal protein at that, which is incredibly stimulating (like caffeine) they think they need meat to function and perform well. They don't.

Vegan tennis star Serena Williams, who recently won the 2012 Wimbledon women’s doubles title with her sister Venus, has been following a vegan diet since being diagnosed with Sjogren’s syndrome last fall, and now has just won a Gold Medal at the Olympics.  Sjogren’s syndrome is an autoimmune disease that causes fatigue and joint pain and affects some 4 million Americans. There is no cure. Venus, 32, dramatically overhauled her diet to deal with the chronic fatigue caused by her condition and says that “changing my diet has made a big difference, I’ve made huge improvements since I was first diagnosed, so that has been huge for me, and it’s a journey that I continue on.”

Ironically, many people make the Switch to a plant based diet, after they are sick, Venus Williams was no exception. But here's something to really think about...

If a more plant-based, nutrient-rich, healthy eating style (in this case vegan) can help a top athlete overcome autoimmune diseases and chronic fatigue once it's already in play, and help countless others live disease-free from diabetes, heart disease, arthritis and even cancer, what does that say about the power of the diet and what it can do for overall health and performance before you are si

It speaks volumes. Why wait until your sick, the very same diet that will help you reverse heart disease, will be the very same diet that help you perform like a champion, whether or not you ever go to the Olympics!

We’re expecting more medals to be won by vegetarians soon!

Surely. And in Rio, and beyond the number of athletes will surely increase and people wake up to the fact that eating More Plant-Based Nutrient Rich diets, is the way to go and the Olympics Committing stops accepting advertising from corporations selling nutrient poor junk foods, endorsed by athletes who are supposed to be models of healthy, active lifestyles.

Many people are surprised to learn that vegetarians and vegans are nothing new in the world of Olympic medalists,  so we thought we’d give a selection of medalists from the veg hall of fame from both the summer and winter Olympics.

Edwin Moses was a force to be reckoned with in the track and field arena. He won gold medals in the 400m hurdles at the 1976 and 1984 Olympics. He won 107 consecutive finals in 122 consecutive races and set the world record in his event four times. Moses is a confirmed vegetarian, humanitarian and advocate for peace. He has been chairman of Laureus World Sports Academy since 2000, and promotes the use of sports as a tool for social change around the world.

A pioneer to say the least. Edwin Moses what on the path, long before making the Switch became vogue.

Ronda Rousey was the first U.S. woman to earn an Olympic medal in judo in 2008.  Although she has occasionally equivocated, after winning the bronze medal she was asked about her diet and said firmly “I am a vegan.” She became an MMA fighter in August of 2010 and is currently the Strikeforce women’s bantemweight champion and #1 ranked 135-pound female MMA fighter in the world.

Chris Campbell is a world champion and Olympic bronze medalist wrestler. He is a pure vegetarian and one of the oldest men to win an Olympic medal. At the age of 37, he won the bronze medal for the 1992 Olympic team in Barcelona, Spain. Campbell is a very unique individual, He practices Zen and dabbles in poetry. He’s a vegetarian who likes nothing better than tofu stroganoff. He leg-presses 700 pounds, meditates, and quotes everything from The Sermon On the Mount to The Teachings of Buddha.

Hannah Teter is a vegetarian and also a gold and silver Olympic medalist for snowboarding. Hannah says, “I feel stronger than I’ve ever been, mentally, physically, and emotionally. My plant-based diet has opened up more doors to being an athlete. It’s a whole other level that I’m elevating to. I stopped eating animals about a year ago, and it’s a new life. I feel like a new person, a new athlete.”

Carl Lewis is probably the most well known, historic vegan Olympian in the world or at least the U.S. He won 10 Olympic medals, 9 of which were gold. His Olympic career ran from 1979 to 1996. He wrote an introduction for Jannequin Bennett in her book “Very Vegetarian” saying, “It’s a myth that muscles, strength and endurance require the consumption of large quantities of animal-based foods. This myth began before anyone even talked about protein.” He ended his introduction with, “Your body is your temple. If you nourish it properly, it will be good to you and you will increase its longevity.”

Paavo Nurmi is one of the greatest distance runners in history. The ‘Flying Finn’ won nine gold medals in long-distance running events during the 1924 and 1928 Olympics, including the 1,500m and 5,000m on the same afternoon in Paris in 1924.

Emil Voigt was the last British man to win a gold medal for long-distance running at the Olympics, in 1908 in London. Voigt was a writer for the British newspaper The Guardian, as well as a dedicated vegetarian.

Bode Miller has been a vegetarian since birth. He has won five medals in the Winter Olympics for different ski disciplines. His diet has not really changed since he now owns his own organic farm, similar to the one he had growing up. According to Bode, “We grew our own produce. It was all organic.” His organic farm is in New Hampshire. He is an advocate for sustainable food, farming and living.

Murray Rose is fondly remembered as one of the world’s most historic vegan athletes. He was Australia’s Olympic swimming star. He had set 15 world records and won six Olympic medals, including four golds, which made him a sports legend and hero in Australia. During Rose’s long career he ate a vegan diet and followed a vegan lifestyle. In 1958 he told Groucho Marx on the radio program “You Bet Your Life” that his gold medals in 1956 could be attributed to his veganism.

Whether or not you every choose to go vegetarian or vegan, is your choice, just know this. Nutrient Rich foods are plant based, not animal based as virtually all nutrients come from plants. For those who want to be healthy and perform at peak levels free of disease, switching to a More Plant Based Nutrient Rich healthy eating style is the way to go. It will continue to pick up speed (pun intended), as more and more people realize this.

The post Plant-Based Olympians--Win Gold appeared first on Nutrient Rich.

What I would like to add to Ms. Pope’s article is a third option that goes beyond the modern day omnivorous eating style, or that of the strict Vegan, which presents a dilemma for most people. It is the More Plant-Based Nutrient Rich® healthy eating approach, which bridges the gap that causes so many people to fall short of their desired outcome.

Ms. Pope points out that going Vegan, at the “snap of a finger,” can be “fraught with challenges.” I acknowledge this. It can be challenging to go from being a modern-day omnivore, who is eating approximately 25% animal foods, and over 60% refined foods, with approximately 12% or less coming from actual whole, plant-based nutrient-rich foods, to a strict herbivore (aka Vegan) diet.

That is a big leap—and anyone with experience knows it’s not simply a matter of making “the Switch.” Deciding to make a “Switch” to a More Plant-Based Nutrient Rich® eating style or a Vegan diet is first and foremost, a decision.

What follows is a transition, or what we call a nutrition transition. As with any other style of living, it takes time as you develop the mindset and skill set you need to succeed. When you try to take a big leap in a single bound, without enough inspiration, education and support, which is what most people do, the chances are good that you won’t make it. You will fall prey to the many challenges that Ms. Pope outlines in her article.

As a Performance Lifestyle Trainer, who spends a good deal of time training people on Nutrient Rich® healthy eating, I have never been a proponent of lifestyle changes that take you too far too fast--with the exception of those people who are suffering from critical conditions, who need to take immediate, deliberate and uncompromising measures. President Clinton, who Ms. Pope and I refer to, is a good example of this.

But, for the average person, who simply no longer wants to deal the negative consequences of the Standard American Diet (SAD), and is tired of weight loss-only diets that may help you lose weight, but keep you stuck, diet-trapped for life, and want more motivation than simply eating “healthier” provides (a vague term at best), going Vegan seems like a potentially clear cut decision—one that is charged with emotion and logic.

But, as Ms. Pope points out, it can be fraught with "physical, social and economic challenges," and, to be honest, this is true for any other dietary changes. These challenges are not about “going Vegan,” they are about making a lifestyle change. There are costs on many levels when making a change, and they can be challenging when you don’t have the knowledge or experience. So challenge yourself!

Why is that a problem? Even an article, like Ms. Pope’s, can deter people from change if the challenges aren’t seen in the proper context. I don’t know about you, but if I was newbie, her article might deter me. But, facing challenges is how you get successful, and eating a More Plant-Based Nutrient Rich®, potentially Vegan, diet if you choose, is the healthy and successful way to eat so you can detoxify your body, lose weight naturally, dramatically improve your health, reverse lifestyle-induced diseases, age slower, look younger and live longer.

As much as we support people in going Vegan, we suggest that you start eating in a More Plant-Based Nutrient Rich® way as the most viable approach. It’s a more natural mindset, which is flexible, but no less committed than you are to a healthy eating style. It helps to mitigate the many challenges, which are par-for-the-course of any significant change, such as going Vegan, because it’s not an all or nothing approach. By the same token, we encourage people to get to 90% or More Plant- Based Nutrient Rich®, because that’s the zone where you will experience the most success, which we define as The 7 Success Results, at nutrientrich.com.

With this approach, you aren’t “fraught with struggle,” trying to “stick with a Vegan diet.” Rather, if you want to go Vegan, you can go through the natural change process to get there. If you don’t, taking on too much too fast will leave you struggling with ideas like “I need a personal chef,” “I have to give up my favorite foods” and what will my “unsympathetic friends” say—all while you are personally dealing with all the nutritional, psycho social and economic changes that will come your way when you change too fast. Under less duress, when you transition your eating style, you will resolve and evolve through all of these issues. That’s what every person goes through, and it’s not going to be any different for you.

This all brings up the main point of this blog post. Even in Vegan circles, many people, including health professionals don’t use the “V” word simply because it’s perceived as a big leap from how most people eat, and one that will prevent most people from even getting started, because it’s so black and white. Couple that with a limited nutritional education and experience with this kind of change, and you are set up for failure.

The nutritional world is full of ex Vegetarians and Vegans, who have resorted to far less healthy diets that make them “feel” better, simply because they tried to go Vegan or Vegetarian too fast focused mainly on “giving up” meat, before they learned how to eat a More Plant-Based Nutrient Rich® healthy eating style, which is what we teach at nutrientrich.com. If you then want to go Vegan, great!

The Truth is, if you gave most people $1m, they wouldn’t know how to manage it, and would likely blow it. But, someone who has grown into developing wealth has fewer challenges, even though they may have had them at an earlier time. It’s the same with nutrient-rich healthy eating—you have to transition into it over time, even if you go gangbusters at the start, if you expect that you are going to sustain the change.

When you have the right nutritional knowledge, combined with the emerging experience you get with a plan and support to guide you, even eating a 100% plant-based Vegan style can be attained and enjoyed in a big way. But, you have to go through the natural change process.
So here’s what the natural change process looks like. It was inspired by a research article, called Consumer’s Readiness to Eat a Plant-Based Diet which is based on original research from W. F, Prochaska.

The Natural Change Process:

• Pre-contemplation—not yet acknowledging that there is a problem behavior that needs to be changed, such as eating the Standard American Diet (SAD), focusing on weight loss alone at the expense of your health, or thinking you are eating healthy, when you are not.

• Contemplation—you acknowledge that there is a problem, but are not yet ready or sure you want to make a change. Ms Pope’s article doesn’t help that cause.

• Preparation/Determination—getting ready to change, by learning a new way, like you are doing right now by reading this article. It may inspire you to become a subscriber at nutrientrich.com, where you will learn how healthy an eater you really are, and will be encouraged to make the Switch to Rich, Nutrient Rich—The Great-Tasting Healthy Way to Eat.

• Action/Willpower—actually changing the behavior (the way you eat). At nutrientrich.com, we will help you do just that.

• Maintenance—maintaining the behavior change (new eating style), with a community of friends going through a similar process.

• Relapse—returning to older behaviors and abandoning the new changes, which will happen if you don’t have a community of friends that support your new behavior or the right approach!

Unfortunately, too many people experience relapse, and it’s simply attributed to trying to change too far too fast by going Vegan from a previous eating style that is miles away. It’s the reason why people feel like they have to “give up” their old food favorites and they struggle with that. They haven’t yet created the desire for new foods, and get too caught up in missing what they now feel they can’t have anymore. Can you blame them? I can’t. I felt that way too.

It doesn’t need to be that way. With a More Plant Based Nutrient Rich® approach, where up to 90% or more of the foods and meals you eat are derived from plants, you leave yourself at least 10% wiggle room for your old food favorites, as you make the transition.

For example, if you eat a 2,000 calorie diet, 1800 calories will come from nutrient-rich foods in the optimized way you will learn about in The Nutrient Rich Healthy Eating Plan, and 200 calories can come from nutrient-poor foods, if you so choose. It can take several exposures to a new food for your taste buds to change, but your taste buds will change along the way, and soon, you’ll be desiring great-tasting nutrient-rich foods, the same way you used to desire your old food favorites.

In reference to Ms. Pope’s comments about how hard it is to give up dairy or any other nutrient-poor foods for that matter, no one wants to “give up” anything that they like. You have to look at this differently if you are going to be successful. And, that is to enjoy the dairy and cheese in your 10%, until you don’t need it any more.

In conclusion, I appreciate Ms. Pope and her candid revelations about the challenges one may face when going Vegan. Yet, I need to point out that these challenges are only that “challenging” when you are going Vegan in the same way most people “go on a diet.”

There are thousands of people who have make the Switch to a More Plant-Based Nutrient Rich® healthy eating style, without all of that “struggle” and it has everything to do with the approach.

The post The Truth about Going Vegan appeared first on Nutrient Rich.

Manny Pacquiao Vs. The Vegan

If you think, switching to a more plant-based nutrient-rich diet, is for skinny hippies you are in the wrong decade! One of the big fights coming up in the next couple of months is Manny Pasquiao vs. The Vegan and it's going to be a showdown of a new kind-- well, not as new as it might have been even just a few years ago. It is the fight between a traditional meat eater (typically associated with athletic ability) and a 100% plant-eater, who is creating the new image for athletic ability. Why else would this be news?

Things have been changing over the last several decades--particularly in the last five years, since the nutrient-rich revolution began. People are beginning to make the Switch to Rich-The Nutrient Rich Way to Eat, and to near vegan or flexitarian plant-based diets, or 100% plant-based vegan diets because the health, performance and disease-free living benefits are becoming clearer. In an economy where it still is survival of the fittest, from the boxer and the MMA fighter right on over to the non-athlete Joe and Jane, who are beginning to eat a plant-based "nutrient rich" diet.

The Wall Street Journal said...

Pretty soon the boxer will pass on the burger. He will deny the cheese. He will skip the sushi that he adores, and he will not—as Sylvester Stallone did so memorably and nauseatingly in "Rocky"—break five eggs into a glass, and slurp them down raw. Instead, the boxer will embrace the quinoa. He will thrill to the avocado and befriend the almond. He will enjoy the spinach, the tofu, and the $7.95 organic smoothie that bears his not-yet-household name.

The Vegan, is Timothy Bradley Jr. and on June 9, in Las Vegas, after several months of strict  training and eating a 100% plant-based diet, this undefeated boxer plans on having the fight of his life—he wants to defeat the world-renowned champion Manny Pacquiao.

Here's what Timothy Bradley Jr had to say...

"Dude, I swear, it's the most unbelievable feeling ever," Bradley said. It was Thursday morning in New York City, and Bradley, 28, was riding to a news conference in a slick SUV, praising the diet he believes gives him a pronounced advantage in the ring.

"The reason I love it so much is that I feel connected to the world," Bradley said. He was wearing a charcoal gray suit jacket, a purple dress shirt, and jeans. "My thoughts are clearer, crisp. I am sharp. Everything is working perfectly—I feel clean. It's a weird feeling, man. It's just a weird feeling."

Bradley, who lives and trains in Palm Springs, Calif., first began experimenting with a vegan diet in 2008, when he was getting ready for a title fight in London, England. An adviser suggested that a plant-based nutrient-rich 100% vegan regimen would give him more energy and endurance. Bradley was then given a list of foods to consider.

By his own description a "meat and potatoes guy," Bradley was staggered to feel an almost-immediate surge in preparation and competition. "I was able to outwork a lot of my opponents," he said.

"He really liked it," said Bradley's trainer, Joel Diaz. "His body felt different."

Timothy Bradley Jr in Action!

Since then, Timothy Bradley—nicknamed "Desert Storm"—stuck by a 100 percent plant-based vegan diet as he became junior welterweight champion and built an unblemished record of 28-0. For three months leading up to a bout, he will eat vegan, with no exceptions. This is what he intends for his MGM Grand showdown with Pacquiao on the second Saturday in June.

Bradley also noted that...,

"I'll still be a vegan even after the weigh-in,"

So you see, even the pro's are getting on the band wagon and making the Switch to a plant-based nutrient-rich diet, whether or not they go 100% vegan or not, and as you can see by the picture, I don't think Timothy Bradley is worried about whether or not he's getting enough protein!

The post Manny Pacquiao vs. The Vegan appeared first on Nutrient Rich.