(Photo: baranq/Shutterstock.com)

Vegan Bodybuilder Massimo Brunaccioni Wins World Championship Prize

Vegan athlete Massimo Brunaccioni won the Men’s Physique Contest at the Natural World Bodybuilding Championship in New York last week.

“I realized my dream of an athlete: to become Natural Bodybuilding World Champion” Brunaccioni wrote on Instagram after his win.

“Beyond the enormous personal satisfaction, I believe this victory is another brick laid for the construction of a better world…starting from a diet that respects all creatures and the Planet.”

The Natural World Bodybuilding Championship is hosted by the World Natural Bodybuilding Federation (WNBF) — “the oldest, largest and most respected natural bodybuilding federation in the world.”

The WNBF emphasises a drug-free environment, and has strict regulations in place to ensure competitors do not use performance enhancing substances.

Brunaccioni, who works as a vegan coach and personal trainer, says that he follows a plant-based diet for ethical reasons.

“It is love, compassion and respect for all the animals that led me on this path.”

Massimo Brunaccioni follows a plant-based diet (Photo: RONEDYA/Shutterstock.com)

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Vegan Bodybuilding

The number of bodybuilders and professional athletes following a vegan diet is growing.

Popular plant-based documentary The Game Changers has further fuelled this upward trend. Multiple athletes have cited the film as the reason they decided to give plant-based eating a try.

Tour de France champion Chris Froome is one of the most recent athletes to ditch meat and dairy, shortly after bodybuilder Kai Greene made the same decision.

Do you think we’re about to see more plant-based athletes in the world of competitive sport? Let us know in the comments below!