NFL lineman Lawrence Guy says he switched to a vegan diet, and he's fitter and healthier than ever

• New England Patriots lineman Lawrence Guy is a 6'4", 315-pound vegan.
• Guy switched to a vegan diet "a couple of years ago" and said it made his body feel better.
• A typical day for him involves eating pancakes for breakfast, a lot of cauliflower, and sweet potatoes.

New England Patriots offensive lineman Lawrence Guy is one of the biggest vegans in sports.

Guy, who is six-foot-four, 315 pounds, told GQ his new vegan diet has helped him maintain his weight, feel energized, and stay fit despite the physical toll of football.

Guy said he and his wife decided to gradually remove meat products from their diet a few years ago, and they've reaped the physical benefits of the switch ever since.

Now, he says, they no longer feel groggy when they wake up in the morning, they don't get bloated. Guy says he also no longer feels pain in his knees and joints.

"Every offseason I wanted to truly help my body fully recover," Guy told GQ reporter Danielle Cohen. "My wife and I started taking out heavy red meat products and my body felt better, my joints felt better. I never really drank milk. Then we started taking out chicken. Then you go to the fish."

"We didn't cut it down immediately. I needed to make sure I slowly worked myself into this. When people jump straight into it, you get the headaches and you start losing too much. We did it over the years, constantly going towards a more plant-based diet," he added."

Vegan diets are associated with a number of health benefits, including a lower risk of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.

A 2019 review of 32 studies found that vegan diets can help improve markers of diabetes and reduce inflammation. According to a 2009 study, vegan diets can also help with weight loss due to increased fiber intake, in addition to blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

Guy eats vegan pancakes, cauliflower pizza, and green smoothies

Guy's typical daily meal plan involves plant-based variations of popular foods like pancakes or pizza.

On workout days, Guy said he has pancakes or some cauliflower hash browns. (In 2020, he said, he had pancakes every single morning.)

Then, after workouts, he'll have a green smoothie or an acai bowl. His smoothies and acai bowls are made up of flax seeds, carrots, kale, spinach, mango.

Throughout the day, he'll snack on potatoes, sweet potatoes, and apples to keep up his energy. While potatoes are a big part of his diet, he says these days he prefers sweet potatoes as he believes they are "cleaner for his body," according to GQ.

Cauliflower is also a key ingredient in the meals Guy and his wife eat. They include cauliflower rice in a lot of their meals, and use it to make pizza crust with hummus.

"Last year everything was about cauliflower. She'd make cauliflower rice, she had cauliflower pizza, lasagna, those cauliflower hash browns," Guy told GQ. "Last night, it's gonna sound weird, we had a cauliflower hummus grilled pizza. The cauliflower crust, hummus on top, and grilled veggies on top of that."

Guy avoids regular white rice, saying it makes him feel bloated, so these days he mainly goes to cauliflower rice or brown rice.