EDGE
RETRO
Veg Out
Back in ’95 we said only losers don’t eat meat.
BY MATT TUTHILL
MILOS SARCEV and Sharon
Bruneau showed off their toned
midsections on the cover of the
February 1995 issue. It perfectly
captured the spirit of ’90s M&F, which
was to say inspirational, if a bit
nonsensical. Are they on uneven bars?
Overall, it was a solid issue in which
we pondered the risks of HGH, went
in-depth on a Gary Strydom training
feature, and caught up with the
ageless Robby Robinson.
But we jumped the shark with a
story on the “meat-muscle connec-
tion,” which serves as a perfect
reminder of just how far we’ve come
in the past 21 years. Back then, author
Bob LeFavi all but kicked sand in the
faces of vegetarians everywhere. “We
hate to reinforce the stereotype, but
we’d be lying if we said we didn’t
notice that often vegetarians seem
less muscular than non-vegetarians…”
Later, he adds, “For bodybuilders
interested in maximizing muscle mass
and maintaining an anabolic environ-
ment, avoiding meat might be akin to
shooting oneself in the foot!”
All this, despite citing several
exceptions to the rule, including
bodybuilding vegetarians Bill Pearl,
Andreas Cahling, and Steve Brisbois.
Today, in this very issue, both editor
in chief Shawn Perine and executive
editor Arnold Schwarzenegger urge
all of us to lay off the meat at least
occasionally in the name of saving
the planet, if not your own health.
M&F senior editor Zack Zeigler is also
fully vegetarian, though you’d never
be able to guess by the size of the
guy’s biceps.
So, while the entire article is not off
base (it rightly dismissed cholesterol
concerns as largely overblown), we’re
proud today to at least retract the
spirit of this article, which implied that
you were dead in the water if you
didn’t eat meat. Balance your diet, and
your life, and success will follow.
“LEANING” OUT
At left: Sadly, Milos Sarcev would go
on to wreck his legendary symmetry,
bloating his arms and legs with
synthol. At top: Mike O’Hearn and a
piece of meat. Above: Solving the
“puzzle” of muscle growth.