If you were to say the words "plant-based" to someone 15 years ago, they might have stared at you, head tilted slightly, and said, "Huh?"
That's because 15 years ago the term didn't really exist. Neither did Forks Over Knives, or Impossible Burgers, or fake chicken at KFC.
Now everyone from Mike Tyson to your mother-in-law is eating plant-based, and reporting that they've lost weight, dropped their cholesterol levels, and increased the amount of pep in their step at least threefold.
And a new documentary called The Game Changers is pushing the "plant-based" lifestyle even further. The film, produced by James Cameron, argues that eating any animal products — including meat, fish, eggs, and dairy — can hinder athletic performance, wreak havoc on your heart, impair sexual function, and lead to an early death. In the film, James Wilks, a former MMA fighter, narrates his personal journey of switching from a diet that included animal products to one that doesn't.
Throughout the film, Wilks cites scientific research, interviews numerous medical doctors, and features a number of vegan and vegetarian athletes (although those words, "vegan" and "vegetarian" are rarely uttered).
"Veganism and vegetarian are stigmatized," Wilks said, in an interview with Men's Health. "We're not trying to tell people to go vegan. We are presenting the facts and letting people make their own decisions." Except that The Game Changers presents only one side of the facts, often via controversial sources, grand extrapolations from small studies, and statements that are flat-out misleading.
Here's are three things The Game Changers gets wrong and one thing it gets right.
Wrong: The Research on the Benefits of Non-Meat Diets Is Vast and Well-Established.
Wilks begins the movie, and builds its entire concept around, a study he came across that reported Roman gladiators didn't eat meat. Except that the study isn't actually a study. It's a short narrative by Andrew Curry, a contributing writer to Archaeology, a publication of the Archaeological Institute of America. Curry recounts a visit to the Medical University of Vienna where he held a gladiator skull and remarks upon how gladiators ate "a vegetarian diet rich in carbohydrates, with the occasional calcium supplement."
There's no peer review. There's no control group. It's not published in a medical journal. Yes, this is a minor point, but it's indicative of the often misleading portrayal of "research" to come. And The Game Changers is filled with research. Studies flash upon the screen at a wild rate — sometimes three or four in a row. Medical experts offer long explanations of scientific conclusions in lab-coat speak. The amount of data is daunting, with the implication being: Look at all the science! How can veganism be wrong?!
The problem is that the study findings are often twisted and presented to the viewer without giving them a full understanding of the research. In one instance where Wilks does cite actual peer-reviewed research, he narrates: "And when it comes to gaining strength and muscle mass, research comparing plant and animal protein has shown that as long as the proper amount of amino acids are consumed the source is irrelevant." What Wilks doesn't call out is that the same study states this: "as a group, vegetarians have lower mean muscle creatine concentrations than do omnivores, and this may affect supramaximal exercise performance."
Elsewhere in The Game Changers, Wilks name-checks studies that feature small sample sizes and then extrapolates broad generalizations. The most glaring instance of this is when Wilks claims that cow's milk can increase estrogen and lower testosterone in men....read more>>>...
