COMMENTARY – Ronald Peters, MD
Roman gladiators, the renown warriors of the first century before Christ, were vegetarians eating mostly barley and beans. More recently, the Tarahumara Indians of northern Mexico can run 75 to 100 miles a day kicking a football and they too are vegetarian, eating mostly beans, corn and squash. Kenyan and Ethiopian distance runners often dominate the modern Olympics, and guess what, they are 99% vegetarian. Modern research on elite athletes mostly echoes the same message – vegetarian athletes perform better than meat eaters.