This story was updated in April 2015 to correct outdated links. 

Have you heard of Frank Medrano? He’s a body builder, and he does stuff like this.

And his strength comes from plants. That’s right: Frank Medrano is vegan.

Frank, like most people, wasn’t born vegan. He ate meat for 30 years. And though he’s been training for 7 years now, it was a little over a year ago when he learned that two good friends of his, Dan Attanasio and Noel Polanco, were vegan. They were body builders, too, and Frank was intrigued. His two friends helped him get started with a plant-based diet, helped him make meal plans and answered all of his questions, and within 2-3 months, Frank was feeling all the amazing benefits of a plant-based diet. The most notable were the increase in energy – “real high energy” – and quicker recovery times. He calls the benefits of a plant-based diet “super wellness.”

“I thought I was healthy and strong before, but [after adopting a plant-based diet] I started to feel energetic and I was having quicker recovery after training,” Frank said.

Help from friends made the transition easier, but Frank admits it wasn’t a completely effortless transition from an omnivorous diet to plant-based. “The hard part was in my head,” he said. “My head was telling me I was missing something, but I wasn’t.” Through trial and error, Frank discovered his new favorite foods, and within 2-4 weeks, he was on track and feeling great.

After about three months on a vegan diet, Frank approached Dan and Noel about joining forces and spreading the word about the benefits of eating vegan. Together, the trio formed Vegan Calisthen-X. Through their website they shared information, answered questions, and created videos of their plant-strong feats of strength.

Naturally, Frank gets a lot of feedback from passers by, wanting to know, “How do you do that?!” Frank loves chatting with people about fitness and plant-based nutrition, and people are most often shocked when they find out he eats zero animal products. “Ninety percent of the time, the first thing people ask is, ‘What do you eat?’” Frank says. He also states that many people look disappointed after he explains his diet, but that he hears success stories, too. Later he’ll run into someone that he had spoken to before and they’ll report to him that they’re trying to go vegan, or have gone vegan, and with excellent results. Their excitement and success feels rewarding. Knowing that he has had a positive influence on someone, Frank says, “It’s fulfilling to know what you’re doing is right.”

Through his website, Facebook, and Youtube channel, Frank answers a lot of questions and shares a lot of information, including his favorite inspirational resources. Among them, the film, Forks Over Knives, rates highly as a must-see. He also recommends those interested in fitness to check out Robert Cheeke and his site, VeganBodyBuilding.com. For those interested in filling their plates with delicious and nutritious plant-based fare, he refers them to NakedCore.com.

So, what more is on the horizon for Frank Medrano? He’s focusing on adding more information and creating more videos, as well as performing at fitness expos. He would love to have more speaking opportunities. Frank recently had two photo shoots for a feature in the new Vegan Health and Fitness magazine. And he will, of course, continue to educate and inspire everyone on how to thrive (and beyond) on a plant-based diet.

The post Frank Medrano: Powered by Plants appeared first on Forks Over Knives.

A report released Friday in the journal Heart found an alarming result: taking a calcium supplement to prevent bone loss puts people at a significantly greater risk for heart attacks. The 24,000 participants in the study, all between the ages of 35 and 64 and taking calcium supplements regularly, were found to be a whopping 86 percent more likely to have a heart attack than those who did not take supplements.

According to the study, “Calcium supplements have been widely embraced by doctors and the public on the grounds that they are a natural and therefore safe way of preventing osteoporatic fractures. We should return to seeing calcium as an important component of a balanced diet.”

Dr. Matt Lederman, featured in Forks Over Knives, advises, “There are often unintended consequences when taking nutrients in isolation. The research to date shows that the amount of calcium found in a whole-food plant-based diet is adequate – and that more isn’t necessarily better.”

The authors of the study noted that excessive calcium, a common side effect of taking calcium supplements, is where the harm may begin.

Says Lederman, “For good bone health, the most important factors are eating a healthy plant-based diet, getting an adequate amount of sunshine, and doing strength-oriented exercise.”

The post Calcium Supplements Can Cause Heart Attacks appeared first on Forks Over Knives.

The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health and published by New England Journal of Medicine, tested several ways for newly diagnosed diabetic teenagers to manage their blood sugar. It found that half of the teens failed to control their blood sugar and one in five suffered serious complications, such as hospitalization due to very high blood sugar.

Since a third of American children and teens are now overweight or obese, they face a greater risk of “diabesity”: type-2 diabetes brought on by obesity.

Recent evidence suggests that embracing a plant-based lifestyle can prevent, and even reverse, type-2 diabetes. A recent study found that Seventh-Day Adventists adhering to a vegan lifestyle were 60 percent less likely to develop type-2 diabetes than those on a non-vegetarian diet; while a 72-week study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in May 2009 showed that type-2 diabetics who went on a low-fat, vegan diet dramatically improved their blood sugar, cholesterol, weight, and kidney function.

“A plant-based diet is by far the best approach for managing diabetes at any age,” said Dr. Neal Barnard, author of Dr. Neal Barnard’s Program for Reversing Diabetes. “Avoiding animal fat and cholesterol is the best thing you can do for your arteries—and all the rest of you, too.”

For more about diabetes and the plant-based diet, watch this Forks Over Knives video featuring Dr. Barnard.  

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