Support Black-Owned Restaurants During Vegetarian Restaurant Week

If there's a Vegetarian Restaurant Week in your area, check to see if there's a black-owned spot participating and go and support them. Many of the black-owned restaurants have been around for 30+ years, even though some of us act like not eating meat is a relatively new concept to black people, if not 'something white people do'.

In Brooklyn, NY, there's Food 4 Thought Cafe and Bushbaby Coffee and Tea. Check the BKLYN Goes Veg! website for details.

New York Tomatoes are Safe to Eat!

Along with tomatoes from these states:

Alabama
Arkansas
California
Georgia
Hawaii
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Minnesota
Mississippi
New York
Nebraska
North Carolina
Ohio
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
Virginia

Click this FDA page for more info http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/tomatoes.html

I suppose this is what we get for demanding produce out of season...

May 29: NYS Council on Food Policy Listening Session in Harlem

The NYS Council on Food Policy is holding a series of Listening Sessions around the state to gain perspective from community members on several food policy issue areas and to seek opportunities to maximize collaboration among stakeholders. The Harlem Listening Session will be held from 5 to 7pm at the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building 163 West 125th Street, New York

The Listening Sessions are open to the public and are an open microphone format. Anyone who wishes to participate will have five minutes to present their opinions and must also provide their comments in written format. Comments should focus on the key issue areas identified by the Council.

Key issue areas include:

1) Maximize participation in food and nutrition assistance programs;
2) Strengthen the connection between local food products and consumers;
3) Support efficient and profitable agricultural food production and food retail infrastructure; and 4) Increase consumer awareness and knowledge about healthy eating and improve access to safe and nutritious foods.

RSVP with Mary Ann Stockman at (518) 485-7728 or maryann.stockman@agmkt.state.ny.us

Press Release: BVSNY Participates in NYC's First Veggie Pride Parade

For Immediate Release:

Press Contact

NAkisha Henry
Communications Director
718-362-9552 or nakisha[at]bvsny.org



The Black Vegetarian Society of New York Participates in Veggie Pride Parade


New York, NY May 9, 2008 - The Black Vegetarian Society of New York (BVSNY) will participate in the first US-based Veggie Pride Parade in New York City on May 18, 2008. Originally conceived in Paris, France in 2001, BVSNY hopes its participation in the parade will show that vegetarianism is not just a European/Western ‘fringe diet’ but a delicious and holistic lifestyle which can assist in managing and preventing disease.

"BVSNY sees plant-based diets as part of a new revolution - reclaiming the body from our slave food legacy to build a healthy future. We want Black New Yorkers to know this way of living is for them," says Melissa D. Haile, Executive Director of The Black Vegetarian Society of New York. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 52% of Black women and 31% of Black men are overweight or obese. Obesity is a known factor in a number of chronic conditions such as diabetes and certain cancers, conditions that disproportionately affect Black Americans.

The parade kicks off at 12 noon in the Meat Packing District and ends at Washington Square Park. BVSNY will be in the exhibitor’s area with literature on vegetarianism as well as information on how to join. For more information about The Black Vegetarian Society of New York, please visit http://www.bvsny.org/. Information about the Veggie Pride Parade can be obtained at http://www.veggieprideparade.org/.

The Black Vegetarian Society of New York is a statewide, non-profit, member-based organization offering a culturally relevant and holistic approach to plant-based nutrition and lifestyles. Our organization seeks to fill the gaps that exist in our communities; particularly in meeting and addressing the concerns of chronic and degenerative diseases that communities of color are disproportionately affected by such has high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease.

-end-

NYT: City Farmers' Crops Go From Vacant Lot to Market

Full Article

Common Renounces Veganism

The folks over at SuperVegan recently reported that Common, platinum rapper, burgeoning actor, and hip hop social activist, confirmed rumors that he started eating fish a couple of years ago.

His reasons?

"I needed some protein...it was tough being vegan."

Really?

Seriously?

With a stable recording career and five movies under his belt, including a go as the Green Lantern (rumored) in next year's Justice League: Mortal (if the issues get resolved), you'd think he'd be able to afford a nutritionist, personal chef and/or personal shopper, AT LEAST once a week.

I'm trying to cut him some slack. He's a busy person. And maintaining a healthy diet while juggling multiple projects is tough for anyone, even regular folks like you and me. But I just don't buy it.

Maybe, being vegan AND the new spokesperson for Lincoln Nagivator is tough, given that the cost of filling that SUV can compete with a week's worth of (organic) groceries.

Hood Diet

Carrot-Ginger Soup Experiment

When I get bored, one of the things I like to do is see what the Vita-Mix can do with vegetables.

Earlier tonight, I had some carrots that were almost ready to see the bin as well as other random veggies that I had no ideas for.

I threw the carrots (maybe 10 little ones) in the Vita-Mix with a stalk of celery, a slice of onion, a little safflower oil, a big chunk of ginger, two cloves of garlic, hot water, and a cup or two of Tangerine Orange Juice.

What I got was a beautiful chartreuse of liquid Vitamin A beta carotene antioxidant goodness.

But it's missing something.

The ginger is strong, but it needs something else. What, I don't know.

Any ideas?

What kind of recipes have you been experimenting with?

Email me at veghealthcoach at melissamail.net and I'll post them here.

Sistah Vegans

It's great to see that black people still read!

It's been a year since this article was originally published, and has recently been circulating through vegconscious email lists, so I thought I'd post it here for your reading pleasure.

Oh how I miss Satya.

March 2007
Sistah Vegans
The Satya Interview with Amie Breeze Harper



How can veganism resist institutional racism? What’s the source of reproductive health ailments among African American women? What’s it like being a black female vegan in this country? These are some of the questions Amie Breeze Harper, a graduate student at Harvard, was seeking answers to when she sent out a call for submissions from black identified female vegans for her Sistah Vegan anthology project. The resulting book, Sistah Vegan! Black Women, Food, Health, and Society, will be published in 2007 and is comprised of a collection of critical essays, narratives and poems from female vegans of the African Diaspora.

Harper is also looking at how black female vegans use cyberspace for health activism and create virtual communities of like-minded people. She started a Sistah Vegan Yahoo! discussion group where members discuss a wide variety of issues. Experienced Sistah Vegans mentor newbies on how to organize to get access to healthy foods in their communities, and they trade secrets on which plant-based foods shrink uterine fibroids and ease menstrual discomfort. The women also discuss body type issues. What does it mean to be a full-sized black female vegan in a culture that associates veganism with thinness and whiteness, or a thin Sistah Vegan in an African American community that embraces full figured women?

After returning from the annual YouthBuild USA Alumni Xchange Conference on Breaking Unhealthy Cycles, in Mobile, Alabama, Amie Breeze Harper spoke with Sangamithra Iyer about connecting racism and speciesim to food and health.

Tell us about the Sistah Vegan Anthology and why you started this project.
In September 2005, I transitioned to veganism because it aligned with my perceptions of social and environmental justice. I had been living in the Boston area for six years, and couldn’t find any other black identified vegans. I was also doing research on the internet just to look at veganism and African Americans when I somehow came to the BlackPlanet.com website. There was a dialogue about a PETA campaign and the images used—people suffering in the Holocaust, Native American genocide and African American slaves positioned next to nonhuman animals that were suffering from exploitation. There were 28 people on that dialogue and 27 were really annoyed and offended by this campaign. There was only one black woman who said she understood what PETA was trying to convey. I found that interesting and wondered if this was a case of racism from PETA or speciesism from the 27 black people on the forum.

I decided to do a call for papers and see if there were other female vegans of the African Diaspora in America. I wanted to look at how our philosophies are shaped by the fact most of us, collectively as black women, have experienced racism and classism. How does that shape how we understand food, nutrition, veganism and how we understand those connections to environmentalism and the treatment of nonhuman animals?

What was the response among Sistah Vegans to this PETA campaign?
I thought they would probably agree with PETA, but actually a lot of them did not. It’s not that they disagreed with the intention or what PETA was trying to convey, but were actually very offended by the appropriation of the images.

But there were several women on the site arguing they didn’t feel offended. They felt it wasn’t about appropriation. They wanted to look deeper, understanding speciesism isn’t good for anyone. Both sides had very good arguments.

What are some ways vegan and animal rights groups can be more effective in their outreach and incorporating larger justice issues?
In my experience, the majority of Sistah Vegans first approached veganism from a health perspective. They realized if they didn’t, they would lose their breasts, their uterus or die from diabetes like many people in their families. For many of them the catalyst didn’t come from being aware of animal rights, it was understanding that we are basically dying and had to combat and resist that.

Many of us first saw our health has been compromised because of racism and classism, and then started connecting that with the mistreatment of nonhuman animals. What nonhuman animals go through is almost the same as what black people historically have gone through in this country. A lot of people don’t want to admit that, but many women on this project see those connections.

This is something mainstream animal groups that are largely white and middle class should take note of if they want to enter communities of color. They should make the health aspect links first.

My biggest concern is how white middle class animal activists—as people that benefit from white privilege and systemic whiteness—enter into communities of color with their arguments. What does it mean for them to enter the community and say, your experience as slaves is parallel to the experience that nonhuman animals currently endure? I struggle with that. I can see both sides. I imagine most blacks would be offended. And then white animal advocates would be offended, by blacks being offended. It’s a hard area to dance around but I think we have to start addressing it.

How do we start?
What I learned is if you are part of a privileged group, whether it is race, class, sex, etc., you have to be careful not to appropriate, to understand the power dynamics behind what you are doing, and how it may potentially offend people you are “trying to enlighten.”

A lot of groups involved in social justice are not trained in what it means to be white and middle or upper class. I think groups should understand this before they begin to think their concept of justice and liberation is “universal.” While many groups don’t address systemic whiteness, they still benefit from it. I have to address it because it is wrong and I don’t benefit from it.

If somehow people could see that it is all connected; that the movement in the black community for racial and class liberation is not disconnected from the environmental sustainability movement which is not disconnected from ending exploitation of animals. Think of all the toxic waste coming out of the agribusiness industry. Where does it end up? It doesn’t end up in the backyard of Beverly Hills, but where there are working class people of color. If we dig to make those connections, we realize eating animals does affect me as a poor person of color. A lot of waste is going in my backyard and causing my community lots of health disparities and suffering.

Can you talk specifically about some of the health disparities related to food in the black community?
A lot of us have reproductive ailments. What also led me to practice veganism was that I was diagnosed with uterine fibroids, which apparently runs rampant in the black community. All the women in my family have had hysterectomies because of the fibroid situation. I read in It’s a Sistah Thing: A Guide to Understanding and Dealing with Fibroids for Black Women, that black women are three to nine times more likely to have fibroids than the general population. We also tend to get fibroids at a younger age than white women.

I’m hearing from black vegan women who don’t want to become another statistic. They realize our standard American diet is killing us. The awareness is there, but a lot of black women who are vegan newbies feel alone. They understand the food they’ve been eating for the last 20 or 30 years is causing these problems. For many, they are the only vegans they know and don’t know how to pursue proper vegan nutrition. A lot of them don’t even have access to good food and when they do, it is targeted and located in middle to upper middle class neighborhoods which they don’t live in or near.

How did you come to veganism as a means of addressing these health problems?
I didn’t want to go the route of hormonal therapy or surgery. I spoke with my dad and he asked what Africans did before slavery. What herbs were we using, what was our diet like? Then, a woman at work introduced me to Queen Afua, an Afrikan holistic health healer. Reading her work, I learned about foods that contributed to my reproductive issues and my physical and emotional problems. Queen Afua preaches taking all flesh foods out of your diet because they are high in estrogen, along with junk foods like refined white sugar and refined wheat flour. Her book Sacred Women talks about how our wombs are still suffering from the times of slavery. Our bodies had been used as breeders for hundreds of years, and our wombs are still trying to heal. It’s a physical trauma, a psychic trauma.

Black women were used as wet nurses for slave masters’ children. Their wombs were used to produce more slaves whether they wanted to or not. This is frighteningly similar to the suffering chickens and cows go through. They are exploited to the point where we use their reproductive cycles to feed us. This scary parallel goes even deeper. As women continue eating these eggs and flesh products, so high in hormones and other unhealthy substances, it makes estrogen levels in their bodies even higher. Our reproductive systems suffer because of the exploitation of the reproductive systems of chickens and cows.

Who else had a big influence on you?
Another influence that got me practicing veganism was reading about Dick Gregory in Doris Witt’s Black Hunger and seeing the connections he made to institutionalized racism dietary practices. I came across this quote that really made me think:

I personally would say that the quickest way to wipe out a group of people is to put them on a soul food diet. One of the tragedies is that the very folks in the black community who are most sophisticated in terms of the political realities in this country are nonetheless advocates of “soul food.” They will lay down a heavy rap on genocide in America with regard to black folks, then walk into a soul food restaurant and help the genocide along.

Can you talk more about veganism as an approach to combating institutional racism, and the legacies of colonialism and slavery?
It is important to note a lot of the health disparities we face result from legacies of colonialism, slavery and current systemic whiteness.

A lot of the foods African Americans have been eating we were given as part of the slave system and colonialism. Most of the food and preparation was never actually healthy—high flesh foods, high saturated fat and sugar foods. A lot of it came from exploiting nonhuman animals and the reason we are eating it is because we ourselves historically have been exploited as slaves. We need to start reflecting deeper in our practices of anti-racism and decolonization. Like Dick Gregory notes, we even need to look at our own traditional black soul food diet as part of this decolonization process.

One thing I’ve been thinking about lately is the work of Antonia Dumas who works at the Food Studies Institute in New York. In 2001 she went to Florida to the Bay Point School for boys where she worked with low-income “at risk” adjudicated black and Latino teens. She asked the boys to incorporate a plant-based whole foods diet for six weeks and keep a food journal about how they feel. In the journals the boys recorded that their moods changed drastically. Their grades changed for the better and physically they felt better. It was amazing. I listened to an interview of her on the radio show Animal Voices, out of Toronto. The interviewer noticed Antonia was having problems getting funding for this project and asked ‘Do you think this has something to do with how profitable the prison industrial complex is?’ I thought that was an interesting link to what a more mindful and compassionate diet means for at risk youth. Whole foods plant-based veganism is potentially a great way to lower the risk of these teenage boys entering the prison industrial complex.

A few months ago, we were having a discussion about how the public dialogue around ethical eating is dominated by a select few, and how it often doesn’t incorporate the larger justice issue we are talking about here. It seems to be more about modifying the status quo than challenging consumption. Can you talk about that?
I’ve been thinking about that since I read Peter Singer’s interview in Satya. I understood his intent that maybe if we get people mindful and aware of where their meat comes from, then they’ll start buying organic and free-range. Maybe it’s more “humane,” maybe eventually this will spark something in the person’s brain to really reflect on where their food comes from. I think he was hoping people will keep on enlightening themselves to the point where they’ll realize they don’t need to eat meat.

But I think someone can actually fall into being apathetic and complacent. It just puts a band-aid on the larger problem. Back to African slavery, there were people trying to figure out how to make the state of slavery better, how to make the slaves’ lives better. But that doesn’t address the question, is it okay to enslave human beings?

Supposedly by 2048 we will no longer have a seafood stock from the ocean. And people are saying ‘oh no, well what fish can we start breeding so we can have more to eat?’ My question is why are we not reframing the question to, why do we still need to eat fish?

At least there is some mindfulness and compassion behind fair trade coffee, chocolate and tea, but I don’t want it to stop there. It is a phenomenal idea because up until recently many people were suffering to give first worlders their addictive substances. But then, I started thinking why are we using their land to give us our addictive substances—sugar, tea, coffee and chocolate—even if it is fairly traded? Why don’t we reframe the question, and ask why can’t we just let them use that land to grow their own crops to be self-sufficient?

It’s problematic because we are not trying to get to the very root of the problem, which is, at least in the first world, overconsumption. We are not addressing our addictions.

To learn more visit www.sistahveganproject.com.

CORRECTION: SoulVegFolk

So in all my excitement, I incorrectly attributed the creation of SoulVegFolk to Bryant Terry, when it really belongs to Blactivegan and Nite*Vision.

The Soul of Veg Folks

You might be interested in this new community forum created by Bryant Terry, veg chef and co-author of Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen.

Soul Veg Folk

Breakfast Smoothie Recipe

I made this today. I adapted the recipe from The Ultimate Smoothie Book: 130 Delicious Recipes for Blender Drinks, Frozen Desserts, Shakes, and More!.

Prep time: Must start a day in advance, then less than 5 minutes in a good blender like the Vita-Mix

Breakfast Smoothie

1/2 cup rolled oats (not the quick cooking kind)
1/2 cup raisins
2 tbs almonds
2 tbs flax seeds
2 tbs pumpkin seeds
1/2 banana
milk of your choice (I used almond milk)
cinnamon, optional
pinch of sea salt, optional


In a bowl, add the oats, raisins, almonds, flax seeds and pumpkin seeds. Use enough milk to cover mixture. Cover bowl and refrigerate overnight. Add mixture to blender with banana, and optional cinnamon and/or sea salt. Blend well, adding extra milk if needed to reach your desired consistency.

This makes roughly 16 ounces (more or less depending on how much milk you use), so it's enough for two people.

This recipe does not require any added sugar, and salt is used to enhance the flavors, but it is not necessary.

Book Review: Deceptively Delicious and The Sneaky Chef

Can't get your kids to eat vegetables?


Well, now you can just sneak it into their food!

Jessica Seinfeld and Missy Chase Lapine both seem to agree that hiding vegetables in traditional recipes is the best way to get children to eat them.

Raise your hand if you agree that hiding vegetables in unsuspecting dishes will help your child develop the taste and desire to eat them.

Raise your hand if you agree that this teaches children how to delight in plant foods.

Raise your hand if you agree that sneaky behaviors such as this might reinforce your child's own sneaky behaviors in the future.

Oh, you don't plan on telling them that their favorite cookies have kale in them?

While I have to admit that I actually did not acquire a taste for a number of vegetables, like okra, kale and Brussels sprouts, until I started to prepare them myself, I don't think I would have appreciated my mother making me eat them by 'hiding' them in my favorite foods as a child. That would have just been added to the list of things she'd lied to me about previously, like the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus. She was probably more upset when I started when I started pulling my loose teeth out shamelessly handing them to her.

The things we do for money.

I fail to see how these books advocate healthy eating, when you'll be encouraged to buy any brand of a processed, pre-packaged box of whatever as an ingredient in say, Mac and Cheese, or worse, suggesting you use baby food past its usage. WHAT?!

Getting children to eat well is a very tedious undertaking. It should not be trivialized further by undermining the benefits of plant foods.

Want to get your kids to eat more vegetables?

Here are a few things to try:

1. Stop overcooking them. Seriously. Limp broccoli never appeals to anyone. Instead, try blanching or sauteeing veggies for a few minutes, until the color pops. It's important that vegetables retain their crunchiness.
   
2. Let your kids help with the meals. Kids want to help, so encourage them to eat their vegetables by allowing them time in the kitchen. They can help wash veggies, tear vegetables like kale, collards, and other leafy greens, and older kids can cut and chop other types.
   
3. Make green smoothies. You're not deceiving them by hiding anything, so throw a few spinach leaves in the blender with blueberries, banana and water for a refreshing alternative. (See Green for Life for Green Smoothie recipes)
4. See how Jinjee and Storm Talifero of The Garden Diet have no problem getting their kids to eat vegetables.

These books are just another attempt to capitalize on the diet book/obesity cure craze, with our children paying dearly for it.

Is anyone else insulted?

The 247lb Vegan & and The Vegan Athlete's Diet

From the online edition of the Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120122116182915297.html


NFL star Tony Gonzalez is out to answer a question: Can a football player live entirely on plants?

By REED ALBERGOTTIJanuary 25, 2008; Page W1

The protein-rich bounty of the football training table is supposed to grow the biggest and strongest athletes in professional sports. Kansas City Chiefs tight-end Tony Gonzalez was afraid it was going to kill him. "It's the Catch-22," says Mr. Gonzalez, 31. "Am I going to be unhealthy and play football? Or be healthy and get out of the league?"

So last year, on the eve of the biggest season of his career, Mr. Gonzalez embarked on a diet resolution that smacked head-on with gridiron gospel as old as the leather helmet. He decided to try going vegan.

Living solely on plant food, a combination of nuts, fruits, vegetables, grains and the like, has long been the fringe diet of young rebels and aging nonconformists. Even the government recommends regular helpings of meat, fish and dairy. Vegans of late have gotten more hip with such best sellers as the brash "Skinny Bitch," and its more scholarly cousin, "The China Study." Both books argue vegans can live longer.

But could an all-star National Football League player, all 6-foot, 5-inches and 247 pounds of him, live on a vegan diet and still excel in one of the most punishing jobs in sports?

For Mr. Gonzalez, the stakes were high. He'd just signed a five-year contract, making him the game's highest-paid tight-end. Entering the 2007 season, his 11th in the NFL, he had a shot at breaking all-time NFL records for career receptions and touchdowns at his position. To do that, he needed top performances in every game. Mr. Gonzalez knew he was out on a limb. "I was like, 'I'm going to look like a fool if this doesn't work out,'" he says.

Mr. Gonzalez joined a handful of elite athletes who have put the vegan diet to the test, either for their health or because they oppose using animals as food. But he was the first pro-football superstar to try. And the first to fail.

There's no evidence a vegan diet can improve an athlete's performance, says David Nieman, a professor of health and exercise at Appalachian State University. His 1988 study of vegetarian runners found they ran as well as their meat-eating rivals but no better. Although the vegetarian athletes in his study also ate eggs and dairy foods, he says, "there is scientific evidence that veganism, when done right, won't hurt performance." But, he adds, there is only anecdotal evidence that it can help.

Professional athletes, especially NFL players, need thousands of calories a day. Many enjoy a high-protein, high-fat smorgasbord of steaks, chops, burgers, pizza, ice cream and beer. Mr. Gonzalez's tight-end job requires him to push around monstrously sized opponents. Occasionally, he gets to catch a pass. Mr. Gonzalez is famous for combining the brute power of an offensive lineman with the acrobatic skills of a nimble receiver. "My biggest thing is strength," he says. "If you lose that strength you get your butt kicked."

Experts say athletes in training need as much as twice the protein of an average person to rebuild muscle. Their bodies also require a big dose of minerals and vitamins, as well as the amino acids, iron and creatine packed into fish, meat and dairy foods. It's fine to be a vegan, says sports nutritionist and dietician Nancy Clark, if you're willing to work at it. "It's harder to get calcium, harder to get protein, harder to get Vitamin D, harder to get iron," she says. "You have to be committed."

TRAINING AS A VEGAN

Read a Q&A with nutritionist Lisa Dorfman about training on a vegan diet.

DIETARY CHANGES

Compare the standard Chiefs training table menu to Tony Gonzalez's daily diet.
"Skinny Bitch" co-author Kim Barnouin is working on another book called "Skinny Bastard." "We want men to know that you're not going to be some scrawny little wimp if you follow this diet," she says. The book trashes meat, milk, eggs, cheese and sodas, saying men and women feel better and look better without them. "The more athletes who come forward and say, 'I'm doing this for my health,' the better," she says.

Mr. Gonzalez had never heard of the vegan diet when he boarded a flight from New York to Los Angeles last spring, about a month before preseason training. His seatmate turned down most of the food offered in first class, and Mr. Gonzalez finally asked why. The man told Mr. Gonzalez about "The China Study," a 2006 book by Cornell professor and nutrition researcher T. Colin Campbell that claims people who eat mostly plants have fewer deadly diseases than those who eat mostly animals. The evidence was drawn from diet surveys and blood samples of 6,500 men and women from across China.

MAC DANZIG

Mac Danzig took a diet risk four years ago. The 28-year-old mixed martial-arts fighter had long wanted to spare animals by going vegan. But he was afraid his trainers were right: that he'd lose to stronger opponents. Last month, on a diet of brown-rice protein, beans, soy, nuts and vegetables, Mr. Danzig defeated the last of his challengers in Spike TV's "The Ultimate Fighter." Kim Barnouin, co-author of the vegan best-seller "Skinny Bitch," says she loves the "Ultimate Fighter" show and cheered Mr. Danzig's win. When fight fans learned Mr. Danzig was a vegan, some said they didn't think he'd have the strength, or the stomach, to conquer the ultra-violent sport, which combines kick-boxing and wrestling. "It's about animal rights," Mr. Danzig says, "not human rights."

Mr. Gonzalez was intrigued. Earlier in the year, a bout with Bell's Palsy, a temporary facial paralysis, had focused his attention on health. He bought the book, and after reading the first 40 pages, he says, was convinced animal foods led to chronic illness. He was an unlikely convert. Mr. Gonzalez, who grew up in Southern California, says cheeseburgers were his favorite food. But he quit them, substituting fruits, nuts and vegetables. At restaurants, he ordered pasta with tomato sauce.

Three weeks later, he walked into the weight room at the Chiefs' training facility and got a shock. The 100-pound dumbbells he used to easily throw around felt like lead weights. "I was scared out of my mind," he says. Standing on the scale, he learned he'd lost 10 pounds.
Mr. Gonzalez considered scrapping the diet altogether and returning to the Chiefs' standard gut-busting menu. First, though, he called Mr. Campbell, who put him in touch with Jon Hinds, himself a vegan and the former strength coach for the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team. Mr. Hinds suggested plant foods with more protein.

Trainers for the Atlanta Hawks worried when shooting guard Salim Stoudamire decided to eat vegan at the end of the National Basketball Association season in 2006. Although the diet left him craving chicken, Mr. Stoudamire says, his biggest challenge was convincing coaches and teammates he could still perform on the court. Team managers forced Mr. Stoudamire onto a scale each morning of preseason training and wrote down his weight. After holding steady at 181 pounds, the bosses got off his back. Mr. Stoudamire says he felt better, and that his performance this season improved. So far, none of his teammates have joined him. "They all look at me like I'm crazy," he says.

The Chiefs' team nutritionist, Mitzi Dulan, a former vegetarian athlete, did not believe that was enough. With the team's prospects and Mr. Gonzalez's legacy at stake, she persuaded the tight-end to incorporate small amounts of meat into his plant diet. Just no beef, pork or shellfish, he said; only a few servings of fish and chicken a week.

Teammates nicknamed him China Study and razzed Mr. Gonzalez if he missed a block. But he wasn't ready to give up his new diet completely. After a preseason practice, he accompanied Mr. Hinds to learn a skill he believed as important as blocking techniques: how to shop for groceries. Mr. Hinds showed him nutritious fish oils and how to pick out breads dense with whole grains, nuts and seeds. "The best bread for you," says Mr. Hinds, "is if I hit you with it, it hurts." Mr. Gonzalez also learned how to make the fruit and vegetable shake he drinks each morning. He stocked his pantry with tubs of soy protein powder and boxes of organic oatmeal; soy milk and Brazilian acai juice crowded the fridge. His favorite dessert became banana bread topped with soy whipped cream from the vegan cafe near his home in Orange County's Huntington Beach.
Mr. Gonzalez soon recovered his lost pounds and strength, but prospects for a record-breaking season were still in doubt. The team lost its starting quarterback, Trent Green, in a trade, and the Chiefs' star running back was tied up in a contract dispute.

As the season progressed, the team lost more games than it won. But Mr. Gonzalez managed to stick to his diet and hold onto the football. He broke the touchdown record before midseason and was within reach of the career reception record. "I was like, 'OK, this is working,'" he says. "I have so much more energy when I'm out there." His wife, October Gonzalez, was astonished her husband could play the season without ordering a single cheeseburger. "I thought he'd cave," she says.

Mr. Gonzalez entered the final game against the New York Jets needing four catches to surpass the record held by former tight-end Shannon Sharpe. The contest turned into a sluggish defensive struggle with the Chiefs trailing the Jets 7 to 3. Still, Mr. Gonzalez made three receptions. With 2 minutes and 29 seconds left in the third quarter, Chiefs quarterback Brodie Croyle was fleeing defenders when he threw a 9-yard pass to Mr. Gonzalez, who scampered for a first down and a spot in the NFL record book.

Write to Reed Albergotti at reed.albergotti@wsj.com