Bill Pearl: Vegetarian Body-Builder

"My wife Judy and I first gave up red meat, but continued eating chicken and fish. Then one night at a fried chicken take-out place I cracked open a piece of chicken and saw a large growth on the joints. When I found out that this was due to the female hormones they feed the chickens to make them grow faster, I decided I didn't want excess female hormones floating around in my system, so Judy and I gave up chicken. Then, when we were down to fish as our only animal flesh, the mercury scare came along and we gave up fish as well... Judy and I have now been vegetarians for almost 35 years. We have no fish, fowl or red meat in our diet. Yet I can still carry the same amount of muscle mass as I did in winning my four Mr. Universe titles. People can't believe it. They think that to have big muscles you have to eat meat—it's a persistent and recurring myth. But take it from me, there's nothing magic about eating meat that's going to make you a champion bodybuilder. Anything you can find in a piece of meat, you can find in other foods as well."
Billy Pearl
More about him on Wikipedia.