"I found out that one quarter-pound hamburger requires over 660 gallons of water to produce. Here I've been taking these short showers, trying to save water, and to find out just eating one hamburger is the equivalent of showering two entire months."

"Walter Willett"

"Rip Esselstyn"

"Richard Wrangham"

"I had to come to the full conclusion, the only way to sustainably and ethically live on this planet with seven billion other people is to live an entirely plant-based vegan diet. I decided instead of eating others, to eat for others. At first, like these environmental groups, I was afraid of what it’d mean to change. But now, I embrace it. All this talk about sustainability sounded like our planet was on some sort of life support. And I don’t want her to simply survive or to sustain, but to thrive. Life today is not about sustainability. It’s about thrive-ability. She’s given so much to us for so long, it was time to give back. A hundred and eight percent of everything we have. It felt good. It was an alignment."

"Richard Oppenlander"

"Bryant Jennings"

"Dotsie Bausch"

"Griff Whalen"

"It's not about being the strongest and the biggest. It's really about what are you going to do with your strength, and what are you going to do with the power that you have."

"Meat plays a disproportionately large role in causing this overuse of freshwater. Twenty-five percent of the rivers in the world no longer reach the ocean, because we're taking out so much water to produce animal feed."

"James Wilks"

"Derrick Morgan"

"When I made the switch to a plant based diet, people, they were like, "I don't know how you're gonna lift that much weight." And, "You're not gonna be eating anything, you're just gonna eat grass. Like, how you gonna be strong?" I qualified for my third Olympic team, you know what I'm saying? I broke two American records. I won at the Pan-Am games. I was like, "Man." Like, "I think, I should've done this a long while ago." Like, "Why didn't I research this before?""

"The amino acids that come from animal sources tend to make our cells rev up and multiply faster. For example, there is accumulating evidence that high consumption of proteins from dairy sources is related to a higher risk of prostate cancer. That chain of cancer causation actually seems pretty clear."

"When you eat animal products, you start to form plaques in the coronary arteries. Plaque formation in the arteries doesn't just limit the function of the arteries, it can also block the blood flow, and that's when the heart starts to have some real problems keeping up with the demands of the body."

"Scott Jurek"

"Caldwell Esselstyn"

"In all of western civilization, there is nothing more common than coronary artery heart disease, and that is because of the foods that most people eat every day."

"Michael Pollan"

"We all wanna feel great. We all wanna look great, have more energy. The most important thing is about having the right fuel in your body. I can't remember feeling this great in my whole 32 years of my life."

"Johan Rockström"

"Mark Thomas"

"Arnold Schwarzenegger"

"Lucious Smith"

"I grew up in Kentucky so that's the land of casseroles and barbecue and meat. So when I transitioned over to an entirely plant-based diet, I wasn't sure if I was gonna survive. And I actually became like a machine."

"A lot of people had doubted me when I first became vegan, but my energy levels increased incredibly and my iron, my B12, everything that people said would become deficient, were amazing. I thought, I'm gonna make sure I'm beating them all on the track. I mean, we're all friends, but it was pretty cool to finish my Australian domestic season undefeated. And to win the nationals was obviously that little cherry on top."

"When you eat a healthy, whole foods, plant-based diet, it changes the expression of your genes. It turns on the good genes, turns off the bad genes. Your genes are a predisposition, but your genes are not your fate."

"In the NFL, the injury rate is a 100 percent. It's a violent game. And so, how you respond to injury and how quickly you heal from injury is important because if you're not on the field, you're not helping the team. I was reading the research and seeing that a plant-based diet could be beneficial, specifically for recovery. And so I started incorporating it and I started seeing really good results with it. I was recovering better. I wasn't getting as sore. I was a lot less swollen."

"What's really sad is that we cannot trust information from these leading health organizations like the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association because they are taking money from the very industries who are causing the problems that they are supposed to be helping to prevent."

"If people adopted a plant-based diet, the changes we would see in our individual health, in our national health situation and in this physical, environmental world we live in, would be so profound!"

"If you look at the incidence of hypertension and diabetes and mortality in men, they actually get reduced when you get higher and higher in how much you restrict animal products."

"We can actually change the expression of genes — tumor suppressing genes, tumor activating genes — by what we eat, what we put into our bodies. So, even if you've been dealt a bad genetic deck, you can still reshuffle it with diet."

"When people are eating meat, I think of it as a bit like smoking. It's sort of Russian roulette. You may not get diabetes, but your chances of getting diabetes, about 1 in 3. You may not get cancer, but, your chances, if you're a man, about 1 in 2. A woman, 1 in 3. Your chances of gaining weight, 2 out of 3. It's not all diet, but, most of it is. The best thing that you can do to make sure that you empty all those bullets out of the chamber and not taking a risk with your health is to get the animal products out of your diet and eat healthy foods."

"When you're treating diseases with drugs, you know there's one drug you take for cholesterol, a different class of drugs you take for high blood pressure, different class of drugs you take for diabetes, but, with diet, a plant-based diet affects all these diseases. One diet to kinda rule them all."

"If I could deliver one message to the researchers who are looking for the cause of diabetes, and the cause of clogged arteries, and the cause of high blood pressure, and the cause of obesity, I would tell them the answer is in three words. It's the food!"

"I realized there was so much more about diet and disease that I hadn't ever learned. It felt as if this information had been practically withheld. Processed meat causes cancer. Sugar doesn't cause diabetes. I had doubt about the claims these doctors were making, so I did some searching on my own. Harvard researchers looked at nine prospective studies finding that just one serving of processed meat per day increased risk of developing diabetes by 51%. The link between eating meat and developing diabetes became undeniable. But, when I went on a leading diabetes organization's website, the American Diabetes Association, not only did they not have this information front and center, they were featuring recipes for red and processed meat. And on their recipes for healthy living, they had bacon-wrapped shrimp. What the health?"

"Surely, if slaughterhouses had glass walls, would not all of us be vegetarians. But slaughterhouses do not have glass walls. The architecture of slaughter is opaque, designed in the interest of denial, to ensure that we will not see even if we wanted to. And who wants to look?"

"Animals hear the screaming and crying of other animals being slaughtered and are terrified. They know they are about to be killed and they are panic-stricken. When their young are taken from them, cows kick stall walls in rage and frustration and literally cry with grief. Think of how you feel when you are angry, afraid, and grief-stricken. Bear in mind the physical feelings that accompany these emotions. These emotions—fear, grief, and rage—produce chemical changes in our bodies. They do the same to animals. Their blood pressures rise. Adrenaline courses through their bodies. You are eating high blood pressure, stress, and adrenaline. You are eating fear, grief, and rage. You are eating suffering, horror, and murder. You are eating cruelty. You are what you eat. You cannot be thin and beautiful with a glowing complexion when you eat fear, grief, and rage."

"Milk=fat. Butter=fat. Cheese=fat. People who think these products can be low fat or fat free=fucking morons."

"And when all feels hopeless, remember that you are in charge of what goes into your body, you don't answer to anyone, and you are allowed to eat anything you want. Often just knowing we can eat whatever we want is enough to keep us from eating whatever we want. We're so rebellious."

"What we call salmon, hamburger, steak, chicken, bacon, sausage, ham, roast beef, salami, bologna, turkey, hot dog, and duck are actually decomposing, rotting animal carcasses. Bon appétit! Closing your eyes to the problem will not make it go away. You don't want to see it, but you'll eat it? So, yeah, if you want to get skinny, you've got to be a vegetarian—someone who doesn't eat dead animals or seafood."

"Whenever you see the words “fat-free” or “low-fat,” think of the words “chemical shit storm.”"

"Before you say, “I could never give up meat,” realize that nearly every single vegetarian on the planet said those same words. Then shut the fuck up, look at an inspirational picture of a skinny bitch, and clean out your freezer."

"Never feel like or say you are “giving up” your favorite foods. Those words have a negative connotation, like you are sacrificing something. You're not giving up anything. You are simply empowered now and able to make educated, controlled choices about what you will and won't put into your body, your temple"

"All kidding aside, if everyone did yoga, we would have world peace."

"Perhaps you have a lumpy ass because you are preserving your fat cells with diet soda."

"Now that you're a Skinny Bitch, don't turn into a skinny bitch. We conceived of the title, Skinny Bitch, to get attention and sell books. We just wanted to spread our message far and wide and thought Skinny Bitch was a good way to do it. But we are not bitches, and we have no desire to promote bitchiness. There is nothing uglier than a pretty woman who's nasty. If you look great, you should feel good about yourself and be happy."

"Soon, you'll notice people (especially men) flocking to the new you. Not just because you're skinny but because you are happier, healthier, and eating a cruelty-free diet. So feel free to share your new wealth of information with everyone who asks. Spread the good word, but be careful not to preach. You'll see that some people get very defensive about their diets when you tell them about yours. Even if you are being very non-judgmental, people may feel threatened by your righteousness. Understandably, your being a vegan shines a spotlight on the cruelty they're contributing to, and it makes them feel uncomfortable."