Arnold Schwarzenegger is arguably the greatest bodybuilder the world has ever seen.
In his prime Arnie won seven Mr Olympia titles and his famous physique won him action hero roles in all our favourite bloke films from Predator to Terminator.
So we imagine he knows a thing or two about diet and nutrition.
We examined the diet that Arnie followed in his bodybuilding heyday and unsurprisingly it was brimming with protein-rich meat, fish and eggs.
So we were quite surprised with the 68-year-old’s latest diet advice.
The Terminator star teamed up with his former director on the film James Cameron to get more people to ditch meat to improve health and combat climate change.
While his old school training diet was packed with meat and dairy, the former California governor is now cutting it out of his meals.
“I’m slowly getting off meat and I tell you: I feel fantastic, he says during a video for WildAid which hopes to get Chinese and American audiences to halve their meat consumption.
Arnie, who has been hearing from doctors to lay off meat for his health, added: “If they tell you to eat more meat to be strong—don’t buy it.”
He’s not the only one – boxer David Haye, who is vegan, gets all his protein from plant sources and Mr Universe Barny Du Plessis still builds muscle with his 6,000-calorie diet without meat and dairy.
Schwarzenegger’s new stance on diet and health comes after the Chinese Government announced it was planning to cut the country’s meat consumption by 50%.
Meat and dairy are blamed for soaring obesity and diabetes rates, with more than 100m people suffering with type 2 diabetes in the country.
If China can cut its meat consumption by half it could reduce carbon emission by 1bn tonnes by 2030, according to the Guardian, as 14.5 per cent of greenhouse gases that warm the planet come from keeping livestock.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
