--- title: "VEGETARIANISM FOR STRENGTH - SENSITIVITY - SERVICE - IVU - International Vegetarian Union" description: "VEGETARIANISM FOR STRENGTH - SENSITIVITY - SERVICE: Leadbetter, on page, 145, tells of great athletes of the early 20th century who were vegetarians, and the "Indian Review" of that period is replete with stories of strong men and athletes: For example we have that Indian Hercules, Sri" url: "https://ivu.org/international-vegetarian-union/resources/interviews/3985-congress-wvc57-souvenir-strength.html" date: "2026-11-06T00:21:56+00:00" language: "en-GB" --- # VEGETARIANISM FOR STRENGTH - SENSITIVITY - SERVICE ![VEGETARIANISM FOR STRENGTH - SENSITIVITY - SERVICE](https://ivu.org/images/legacy/history/banners/congress-wvc57-souvenir-strength.png) **VEGETARIANISM FOR STRENGTH - SENSITIVITY - SERVICE** Bishop C. W. Leadbetter, on page, 145, tells of great athletes of the early 20th century who were vegetarians, and the "Indian Review" of that period is replete with stories of strong men and athletes: For example we have that Indian Hercules, Sri Saint Nihal Singh who permitted an elephant weighing four tons to pass over his person, a country cart loaded to capacity over his thighs and chest; and on his chest, and back a stone weighing three thousand pounds on which men with heavy sledgehammers broke rock; he snapped a stout chain of one-eighth inch in diameter by merely raising his shoulders. Though born in a non-vegetarian family, he tested both the flesh and fleshless, eggless diet and decided in favour of the latter. He claimed that will-power alone was the basis of his feats. We read of George A. Olby who broke 200 cycling records and won the Cawerdine Cup and Dibble Shield. On a milk and ice-cream diet, in 1899 Guo Egloff, 19 years, rode 1000 miles on long roads in Ireland in 4-1/2 days. There was the British beauty, Miss Alison, a vegetarian by birth who excelled in such sports as skating, rowing, and swimming, the ballet dancers and swimming champions Geraldine Turnbull and Annette Kellerman who swam way into her 60s. On page 174 herein we read of the inestimable services rendered to the vegetarian cause by that great athlete Mr. Henry Light. But the 1950s show no less prowess among the vegetarian fraternity than did the 1900s. The various vegetarian papers are continually recounting the exploits in record-breaking, hikers and swimmers, Bill Pickering, for example, who swam the English Channel in 1955 achieved a world record. Murray Rose, whose body is builded only of natural foods, including eggs, milk and its products, soya beans, millet, sesame and sunflower seed meal, in 1956 set world swimming records that established him beyond doubt as one of the greatest all round swimmers of the day. Felicity Loveday is another swimming record breaker of 1953 and 1955. There is Paul Berger, wrestling champion of Switzerland who lives on nuts, honey, goats' milk, and bread. In Lhasa, he wrestled successfully with the local champion Asnah Utpaki, gaining plaudits from the Buddhist monks. Then, many dancers and actresses have taken up the vegetarian way of life. On pages 130-1 we note some of these names. In addition, we have Mary Munro, a classic ballet dancer, Svetlana Beriosova, Nora Kovach, and the art critic Peter Craig Raymond who eats "no meat, fish, flesh, or fowl." Felice Vldoek, the Polish Nightingale," a prima donna of the Vienna Opera Co. cancelled a lucrative engagement to appear at a Vegetarian Convention. But read the thrilling stories for yourselves in the various vegetarian journals of both the new and old worlds. | A note on this archive. The history section of this website is drawn from a body of legacy content originally compiled by John Davis, former manager of the International Vegetarian Union. It represents his curation of historical material, and in places includes passages written by him directly. Over the years, the IVU website has migrated between several different hosting servers. In the course of these migrations, a number of PDF files were unfortunately lost, and **some links to PDF documents may no longer function**. Where this is the case, we have chosen to leave the original link text in place, as it may itself carry information of historical value. - Hits: 1094 ### Vegan Recipes - [![Chocolate Pots with Piped Biscuits ](https://ivu.org/media/zoo/images/Feb_Choc_Pots_1_d1d7dd72c86e70c9d71dca7b909ec089.jpg "Chocolate Pots with Piped Biscuits ")](https://ivu.org/vegan-recipes-around-the-world/vegan-food-academy/front-page/item/chocolate-pots-with-piped-biscuits.html "Chocolate Pots with Piped Biscuits ") #### [Chocolate Pots with Piped Biscuits ](https://ivu.org/vegan-recipes-around-the-world/vegan-food-academy/front-page/item/chocolate-pots-with-piped-biscuits.html "Chocolate Pots with Piped Biscuits ") [Baking](https://ivu.org/vegan-recipes-around-the-world/vegan-food-academy/front-page/category/baking.html) [Desserts](https://ivu.org/vegan-recipes-around-the-world/vegan-food-academy/front-page/category/deserts.html) [Snacks](https://ivu.org/vegan-recipes-around-the-world/vegan-food-academy/front-page/category/snacks.html) [European](https://ivu.org/vegan-recipes-around-the-world/vegan-food-academy/front-page/category/european.html) [United Kingdom ](https://ivu.org/vegan-recipes-around-the-world/vegan-food-academy/front-page/category/united-kingdom.html) - 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