50-Year-Old Bodybuilder May Be PETA’s ‘Most Beautiful Vegan’

Bülent Güneralp Is One of Five Finalists Vying for Top Honors in Group’s Annual Contest for the 50+ Set

For Immediate Release:
October 29, 2020

Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382

PETA Prime is preparing to crown this year’s Most Beautiful Vegan Over 50—and local opera singer, teacher, and bodybuilder Bülent Güneralp is in the running for the top spot. He beat out entrants from across the country to advance to the final round of five contestants, and visitors to PETA Prime’s website can now help the group select the lucky winner.

Güneralp stopped eating meat in 1997 out of concern for animals—then, nine years ago, he read vegan triathlete Brendan Brazier’s The Thrive Diet, and as he tells PETA, “I confidently and joyfully became a vegan.”

He now shares with his vocal students how vegan eating fuels his performance, both as an opera singer and as an athlete. When they learn that Güneralp’s physique comes from healthy vegan eating and functional bodyweight training, many of them go vegan, too. “It’s such a joy to see their shining faces, increased energy, happiness, [and] optimized vocal performance,” he tells PETA. He has a soft side, too: He posts videos of local wildlife to his website, calling them “friends in residence.”

“The size of Bülent Güneralp’s heart is rivaled only by his plant-powered biceps,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “The finalists in PETA Prime’s Most Beautiful Vegan Over 50 Contest are setting an example for people of all ages by choosing compassion every time they sit down to eat.”

In addition to each sparing the lives of nearly 200 animals each year, vegans are less prone to suffering from heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity than meat-eaters are and help prevent future pandemics: SARS, swine flu, bird flu, and COVID-19 all infected humans as a result of confining and killing animals for food.

Voting for the finalists to help PETA Prime determine the winner ends on November 11. The group will choose the winner based on several factors, including vote count. See the full contest details here. The winner—who will receive a $125 gift certificate to the PETA Shop and an exclusive profile story on the PETA Prime website—will be notified and announced on November 20.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit Prime.PETA.org.