The Nutrition Blueprint Podcast: The Game Changers Documentary, Plant-based Eating, and Athletic Performance

The Game Changers Documentary, Plant-based Eating, and Athletic Performance

Nov 7, 2019

A very controversial documentary was released on Netflix a few weeks ago and as it is usually expected from most documentaries: It had an agenda.

Let’s just start by stating important facts. As sports registered dietitian, I am NOT against plant-based diets, vegetarianism or veganism, however, I have a strong case against content that is misleading and filled with misinformation. Sadly this is the case for the Games Changers documentary and the agenda they push to advocate for veganism by presented facts that are misconstrued and manipulated to present their version of the truth. I am NOT saying that being a vegan is a bad approach to health, on the contrary, it is something I support, but not in an environment that creates superiority over other dietary regimes, even more so in a population that is known to be uneducated on basic nutrition principles

I waited a couple of weeks to watch this documentary as I always like to dive into the rebuttals and responses from all communities. I used a couple of great reviews that presented factual information and contextual research to support or go against some of the claims in this documentary

Meredith Root - THE GAME CHANGERS – A SCIENTIFIC REVIEW WITH FULL CITATIONS

Dr. Ryan Lowery - Fact or Fiction: Debunking The Game Changers Movie

Here are some of the arguments made in this documentary

Gladiators in ancient times were vegan or plant-based eaters
Plant-based Athletes have more endurance and perform better on a plant-based diet
Plant-based protein sources are of high quality and more complete sources than animal-based sources
Plant-based Diets support endothelial function
Animal-based diet is related to heart disease and heart problems
Consumption of meat is directly related to cancer
Erectile Strenght and duration is higher after consuming a plant-based food
Farming and Green House Emissions and the environmental impact of meat consumption is worse than the effect of transportation (cars, planes, ships, etc)

During this episode, I dissected some (not all of those claims) in detail and provided references below. I pulled these references from the article written by Meredith Root here

Gladiator Diets

Nucilli, R. (2018). Gladiators Diets Were Carb-Heavy, Fattening, and Mostly Vegetarian. Atlas Obscura.
https://archive.archaeology.org/0811/abstracts/gladiator.html

These are the studies cited with regards to vegetarian diets for athletes:

Endothelial Function