With statistics pointing to nearly half of the Black population being obese, fitness expert John Lewis is on a mission to spread the word about veganism.
The 40-year-old started his nutrition brand, Bad Ass Vegan, in 2010. He’s hoping to encourage more and more Black people to try the vegan lifestyle.
As a co-founder of VeganSmart, Lewis and his Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity brothers created a combination of vegan shakes and delicious recipes to fight the obesity that’s plaguing the Black community.
“As Black people, we’re about taste. So we started with taste first, then we worked on the nutrients,” Lewis told Black Enterprise about the VeganSmart products.
At age 13, the Missouri-raised health ambassador was 315 pounds. He eventually lost the weight as a football and basketball player in high school and in college.
After receiving his MBA from Nova Southeastern University in Florida, according to his website, he created Bad Ass Vegan to educate people on plant-based nutrition.
Today, Lewis is a healthy 220 pounds and champions a veganism for feeling good physically and being in shape.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 48 percent of non-Hispanic Blacks are obese, followed by 42 percent Hispanics and 34 percent whites. Also, Black men with higher incomes are more likely to be obese than those with lower income.
Lewis wants people of color to know that they can be in control of their health. Vegans are often confused with vegetarians, who don’t eat meat, fish or poultry. In addition to those foods, vegans also do not use animal products or by-products including eggs, dairy and honey.
“Vegans aren’t filling up the hospitals,” Lewis told Black Enterprise. “Nobody is coming in with a heart attack, because they had too much salad that day or too much fruit.”
To learn more about Lewis and his vegan lifestyle, check out his website at badassvegan.com.
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