11619 My thoughts on The Game Changers
Heavy Day//
Hang Squat Clean Thruster 3’s
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Recently, I had a couple of convos where the popular Netflix Food Documentary, The Game Changers came up. I hadn’t seen it, but knew the basics and and was already formulating a blog post to respond. Without watching, I already knew that the producers are heavily invested in plant based processed food companies and also participating in anti-meat political lobbying to legislate their plant based agendas. I also knew that none of the “elite” athletes highlighted were still competing and that they had transitioned to plant based after already being established successful athletes having eaten meat their entire lives.
So honestly I’ll just say it, I had no interest in watching some Netflix doc to tell me about a subject I’m really passionate about. It’d be like Martin Luther reading a picture Bible. “Hey you’re really into CrossFit, you should watch these great fitness DVD’s I got, they’re called P90X.” Or Julia Child getting baking advice from a box of Fun-fetti birthday cake. And also to be fair, I haven’t watched the Keto Documentary for the same reason. Well that was certainly arrogant!! Deep breath, ok I’d at least better watch it if I’m going to write about it.
So I watched it, thinking it would be a complete waste of my time, but surprisingly... it was a complete waste of my time. It was everything I expected.
If you haven’t heard of The Game Changers, it’s a documentary that entertwines vignettes of elite athletes who eat plant based diets and short scientific explanations that point to their claims that eating “plant based” is magical, it will cure your every ailment, send you to the Olympics, and you’ll be able to fart rainbows at will.
The basics of what you should know and where every single one of their claims falls apart is that nowhere in the documentary, do they clarify any of their definitions. And they omit the definitions deliberately to leave it for you to decide what they’re talking about. The main definitions they fail to establish are what I would think to be the most important ones—“Meat Based” and “Plant Based”. What do you mean by meat based? Because at one point you called a hamburger Meat-Based and the little graphic had a bun, toppings and all. Sure there’s meat in it, but it also has plants and processed carbohydrate. You called a table full of whole unprocessed fruits and vegetables, plant based. All undeniably nutritious by any measure. So that’s the definitions they’ve presented to me, someone with a critical understanding of food.
Meat Based= typical American diet of meat and processed foods. Plant based=precise selection of foods to provide all the essential parts of a healthy diet, most likely curated by expensive dietitians. And to the typical American, the definitions read: Meat Based=anything that has meat even if it’s otherwise mostly carbohydrate. Plant Based=no meat and therefore magical.
I’ll admit the documentary is pretty clever...pretty. The claims and arguments are crafted for some specific audiences. Mainly non-questioning audiences (typical Americans). Example: They prepare an argument based on the premise that people think protein fuels exercise and activity. First of all, If you think exercise is fueled by protein, you are DEFINITELY going to be duped by this documentary. But since I don’t think that “protein=energy” is an actual idea held by most, they invite you into their sciency science, “duhh, those dummies think protein fuels exercise! Good thing we’re all smarter and stuff!” It’d be like saying, “most people think the earth is flat, but it’s actually round.” You’d be like, “psh I already knew that, I’m just like these smarter guys!”
So now that you’re in with the cool kids, they piggyback some actually strongly held beliefs. That cholesterol is bad and that red meat causes cancer and heart disease. Both of which, are false.
Cholesterol is very important. It’s a critical component in many cells including the red blood cell membrane. Your brain is made mostly of cholesterol and so it’s a critical piece in cognitive function. We’re seeing the fallout of the cholesterol scare right now actually with increased rates of Alzheimer’s. 40 years ago, docs and the government told everyone to lower their cholesterol, eat a low fat diet full of “heart-healthy” grains and legumes. The result has been no real progress as far as decreasing mortality from adding statin drugs or lowering cholesterol. Any significant gains have been from vast decreases in American smoking habits.
But what about heart disease, plaque in the arteries and all that stuff? Plaque or arterial calcification happens when the endothelium (a cell wall that lines your circulatory and lymphatic system) is damaged and cholesterol builds and hardens in those enflamed spots or even gaps in the endothelium. Endothelial damage occurs from excess blood sugar and insulin, smoking, or inactivity. It’s the worst in type 2 diabetics, metabolic syndrome patients, and really sedentary people. Yes cholesterol is involved in the process of arterial calcification. But to look to cholesterol as the root cause of heart attacks is like saying that people die of gunshot wounds because the gun powder poisons their blood.
The documentary actually does a little vignette about the endothelium which surprised me actually. It’s the key to understanding why cholesterol is actually a good thing and why excess carbohydrate is a very deadly thing. They only tell the viewer that it’s important and when it gets damaged, it’s dangerous. That’s it. No explanation of what actually damages it- high blood sugar, smoking, inactivity.
And so they do this experiment. A cute little blood test where they fed one athlete a burrito with meat and cheese and two of his teammates vegan burritos then drew blood samples. The “healthy blood” was supposed to settle clear, and the “unhealthy” (not actually unhealthy) blood should settle cloudy. The experiment echoed the flaw in all cholesterol research. It’s never been done in the absence of excess carbohydrate or even any carbohydrate. A burrito wrapped in a processed carb (tortilla) and full of fixing (more carbs) with a little meat and cheese. And goddamnit if that meat didn’t have any sugar in it either! WHAT THE EFF would you expect?!?!? Lets jack up this dudes endothelium with a tortilla and draw his blood with spiked insulin, no activity and add cholesterol. Of course his blood will have visible triglycerides. And the vegan burritos? Cholesterol free/ low fat. They also had jacked up endotheliums (endothelei?) but no visible cholesterol to show for it.
That’s a great segue into the athletes. Here I’ll concede that yes, you can get your required protein from plant sources. That being said, their are 9 essential amino acids and yes they are in all plant matter, but no they do not occur together in completion in most plant matter. Quinoa is the exception and in order to attain the minimum, you’re looking at a very hefty carbohydrate load. To be an elite plant based athlete it takes a dang near PhD to incorporate all 9 amino acids while balancing energy. Conveniently enough, all of these athletes featured, transitioned to plant-based after reaching elite status and having access to the information or guidance to dial in such a precise protocol. And back to the dishonestly established definitions, we don’t know how these athletes ate before and many of them admitting that they previously were just eating like assholes, “before every game, we eat fried chicken. I love fried chicken”. It’s really intellectually dishonest to generalize the typical American diet as “meat-based” and that the simple omission of meat is a higher and healthier calling. Neither are true by any stretch. Yes, Of course switching from the American diet full of processed foods to a whole food diet will improve health and performance, but it’s the whole-foods not the omission of meat. You can’t go from eating Big Mac’s and Cokes, to eating veggie Big Mac’s and Cokes and expect any sort of change.
If someone chooses to be a whole food vegan for their own consciences or motivations, I’m not in the least bit concerned. What does concern me is that James Cameron has a lot of money and is using it to push meat-free on the masses. His stated goal is a completely meat free society in 20-30 years. He hired some compelling storytellers and has plenty of powerful political connections. He’s heavily invested in the plant based meat alternatives and what better way to make money than for the government to mandate meat alternatives while claiming that it’ll save our environment? It’s certainly happened before! Our federal government encouraged the eradication of the American Bison— telling people it was to make room for growing crops and eliminate competition with cattle grazing— the true purpose was to starve out the Indian tribes of the Midwest plains.
Impoverished Americans already eat the least amount of meat. Legislating away meat won’t make them go from eating Top Ramen and Mt. Dew to “shopping around the perimeter of the supermarket”. It’ll just mean they won’t have pepperoni on their Dominoes Pizza. It’d be the Walmartification of America.
I could go through the entire movie to highlight the dishonesties, half truths, or lies, but I think I’ve covered the basics here. And when you’re discussing the movie with friends or family, the thing to remember is that the documentary compares a typical Processed American diet (calling it meat based) to a precise Whole Foods vegan diet, yet claiming that it’s the omission of meat that is magical aside from the precise and whole-foods aspects.
And finally, I agree that everyone’s diet should focus on whole-unprocessed foods, but the typical American will see much more health improvement with a truly meat-based diet incorporating nutrient dense plant foods to supplement. Eat meat and vegetables, some fruit, little starch, no sugar!