CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James shared with cleveland.com a tidbit of how he's been able to maintain his durability throughout a 13-year, predominantly healthy NBA career.

For the last seven years, he said he has eliminated pork from his diet. One of his uncles first suggested he give it a try about a decade ago to see if he might notice an improvement in his physical wellness.

After initially refusing, James eventually gave it a shot and never looked back.

"Oh, you can tell the difference," James told cleveland.com. "It's in how I recover, the energy I have. It has helped a lot with my performance. Overall, I've just been feeling good."

James has played in 987 of a possible 1,050 regular-season games, a 94 percent appearance mark. That's quite a feat considering the workload and pounding he takes on a nightly basis.

For three of those seven years he didn't eat red meat, but his nutritionist advised him to restore it to his diet in order to supply more iron. His food intake consists of mainly chicken, fish and pasta.

That night in Milwaukee makes sense now.

On April 5, the Cavaliers had beaten the Bucks, 109-80. James had completed his media obligations. He mumbled that he was hungry and then asked his teammates if there was any post-game pizza left. There was plenty on the table in the middle of the locker room.

James walked over to the table, looked down at the pizza, shook his head and departed without picking up a slice. I always wondered what that was all about. As it turns out, all that was remaining was pepperoni pizza. Pepperoni is usually made out of a combination of pork and beef.

He's serious about his diet and the results speak for themselves.

"It has worked for me," James said. "It has been one of the best things I've decided to do for my career."