A Professional Review On The Netflix Documentary “The Game Changers”

Adrian Jordan
Nov 6 · 10 min read

For those that have not watched Game Changers, it is a documentary on Netflix about veganism in athletics. Truth be told, this is what I was hoping it would be about. It would have been much more interesting to see that. But it wasn’t. James Cameron who directed and produced the documentary (whom which by the way also owns a pea protein company) decided to take the direction of bashing meat and meat eaters and cause fear in their effort to try to convince people that being vegan is the only wait to become a better athlete and live a healthier life. It’s a propaganda film more than it is a documentary. A documentary gives you differing opinions and data and allows you to draw your own conclusions. Not scare you into eating a certain way. I feel like this had the potential to be a great film and raise some real questions, but truly dropped the ball.

As a bodybuilder I’m sure you’re thinking that I’m going to defend meat eating to the max at all costs. Well, That couldn’t be further from the truth. That’s what this documentary wants you to believe. Game changers decided to use a very old perception of how men used to eat. They showed commercials from the 90’s that portrayed meat as a “man food”, “real men eat meat”, and showed things like hungry man TV Dinners and massive steaks from steak sauce commercials, Etc. Fast forward to 2019, as a professional trainer and multi-sport athlete, we’ve come a long way and have a much better understanding of nutrition to know that you DO NOT get your primary source of energy from meat. They were referencing a TWO DECADE OLD MINDSET. Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke about his days of bodybuilding from the 70’s and 80’s. He did not mention that present day bodybuilders do not eat that way. Bodybuilders of this generation consume large amounts of carbohydrates. We understand that carbs are necessary in order to grow.

Testosterone-

The documentary discussed the risks of low testosterone levels associated with a plant based diet. They referenced a vegan IFBB Pro men’s physique bodybuilder. While I believe Delgado truly is plant based, he mentions how he has never had testosterone issues. While recent studies have shown a plant based diet does not cause Low T (some studies even show a rise in Testosterone but that was found in men with poor diets), he is not the best source of said information because he uses PED’s (all IFBB Pros use PED’s). Another statement made by Delgado was “people think I don’t get to eat carbs, I only eat plants and that I’m starving back stage. Truth is I’m actually loading up on carbs back stage while other guys are starving.” This statement REALLY grinds my gears because it’s a flat out LIE! True bodybuilders know that the last 48 hours before a show (at minimum) you are carb loading. Protein intake (from any source) is extremely low. Protein isn’t important at that point for the physique that competitors are looking to achieve before stepping on stage. Carbs are king before stepping on stage and Delgado knows this. I lost a lot of respect for him selling out and lying to the masses. He has a huge following on social media. And this is a reason why people get false information. Because ANYONE with a large following is considered “an influencer”. They have the power to manipulate thousands with false information. This is another invalid source of information supplied by the documentary.

Vegan UFC Fighter Nate Diaz vs. Omnivore Connor McGregor-

Another point that game changers tried to validate was that MMA Professional Fighter Nate Diaz, who follows a plant based diet, beat The Notorious Connor McGregor because he is vegan and because McGregor eating steak prior to the fight was the reason why he lost. The interview with Connor was extremely edited only to the few bits of him talking about steak. They did not show much else of that interview.

The documentary conveniently left out that the fighters were not in the same weight class. Nate Diaz was two weight classes above Connor prior to the fight. Diaz was not Connors initial opponent. This fight was agreed eleven days before they fought given that the fighters agreed to said variables. So yes, while Connor was eating steak everyday to bulk up leading up to the fight, I’m sure his nutrition team also had him loading up on carbohydrates as well in effort to close the weight gap between the fighters. Rushing this process in less than two weeks to try to catch up to Diaz puts Connor in a vulnerable state. He risks becoming slower and more sluggish due to the unfamiliar added weight that he packed on too fast too close to the fight. Connor still came in 15lbs. lighter than Diaz.

Lastly, couldn’t it just have been the fact that Nate Diaz was the better fighter that night regardless of nutritional status? They also left out that the second time they fought, Connor McGregor defeated Nate Diaz. As I’m writing this article, Nate Diaz lost another fight last night 11/2/19 against Masvidal, another professional fighter who is an omnivore.

The Gladiators-

Game changers took us back to barbaric times…With claims that gladiators, the greatest athletes in time (their words) were predominantly plant based. What I can say for a fact is that they were not plant based BY CHOICE. Grain and Barley are cheap. Meat is expensive. Gladiators were SLAVES who were forced to fight for entertainment! And if they were good enough and won often, eventually they MAY have been given their freedom. Because it was seen as “earned”. This wasn’t a choice for them. They were stripped from their families and sold to the rich and powerful.

This is not something to applaud or live by in modern time. In those times, they did not want the gladiator to win. They were fed a poor diet so it was one less factor on their side to help them succeed. Gladiators weren’t fed a balanced diet. They were fed so they can live, train, and die in the arena. This is a very hard claim to make on their behalf. To simply cite an ARTICLE and not actual evidence isn’t very scientific for a scientific based documentary is it?

Ex-Marine Vegan- I Liked Him!

The only person that I respect in the entire documentary was the ex-marine who moved to Zimbabwe to help the local law enforcement defend the animals against poachers. He even says at first he made up excuses that eating meat was still ok, because “there are plenty of cows on earth. They aren’t endangered”. But after a while he knew he was lying to himself. “It doesn’t matter if I’m protecting one species, I’m still killing and eating another”. And it didn’t sit right with him. So he became vegan. THAT is the true meaning of veganism. He has an ethical attachment to the culture and does not push an agenda onto others to become vegan. It was a deep personal choice.

Protein Quality — Plants versus Animals-

The filmmakers argue here that plant based foods are high quality and actually better and more complete sources or protein than animal based foods. Here is what the science actually says:

“Complete Protein” — contains all the essential amino acids in adequate amounts. Incomplete proteins are either insufficient in amounts of one or more EAA or devoid of them all together. Animal proteins have all the EAA you need to function in the correct amounts. Plants on the other hand, do not. While some may contain all of the EAA, you will have to combine plants to ensure you’re getting all EAA and in the right concentrations.

“Quality” with regards to protein pertains to its bioavailability, and your body’s ability to digest it. To over-simplify this concept a bit, an egg is considered a perfect protein, scoring 100%. Beef is a close second at 92%. The highest vegetarian source we have is a kidney bean which scores at 54%. *

The documentary cites the largest cross-sectional study ever done to compare diet patterns across populations of people.

The argument is that plant eaters not only get enough protein, but 70% more than they need and that meat eaters still get roughly half of their protein from plants.

Those numbers (from the cross-sectional, survey based study of 71,751 subjects) look like this:

Strict Vegetarian:

Total protein per day (median): 70.7g

  • Total protein from plants (median): 67.7g
  • Total protein from meat (median): 2.5g (weird)
  • Total protein from dairy (median): 0.6g (weird)
  • Total protein from soy (median): 10.9g

Non-Vegetarian:

Total protein per day (median): 74.7g

  • Total protein from plants (median): 42.7g
  • Total protein from meat (median): 29.4g
  • Total protein from dairy (median): 9.3g
  • Total protein from soy (median): 2.8g

Some important things to highlight:

The recommended daily protein intake (according to James) appears to be about 50g per day.

Meat eaters are still eating more protein than vegetarians.

There’s a funny bit here where they reference a peanut butter sandwich as containing an equivalent amount of protein to 3 ounces of beef. To achieve the ~20g of protein that is in 3 ounces of beef, you would need to consume 5 tablespoons of peanut butter. Which also contains 40g of fat and comes in at 470 calories. Would you consider this an optimal source of protein?

Cancer/Health Risks-

Plants are pretty good for us. Just because you eat a lot of plants doesn’t mean you can’t eat animal products and still be healthy. These documentaries have you thinking if you sniff a piece of meat, you’ll have an immediate heart attack. As a fitness professional I understand that a plant based diet is beneficial. By plant based I mean a diet that contains starchy sources of carbohydrates (rice, potatoes, oats, etc), leafy greens and vegetables, as well as a moderate amount of protein (0.8–1.2g of protein/lbs. derived from healthy meat sources. THIS is what plant based SHOULD mean.

⁣The documentary cites loads of epidemiological data but not much else. Epi data is useful to ask question but pretty terrible at drawing conclusions. Game changers was using it as CONCLUSIVE DATA POINTS. That’s not what these studies are intended for. Yes, increased meat intake is associated with higher rates of cancer, CVD, & inflammation while vegans have lower rates of all 3. But here’s the catch, there are a lot of confounding variables. According to a systematic review, vegans on average consume 600 calories per day LESS than omnivores and weigh less. That is HUGE when it comes to CVD, cancer, & inflammation. They also have higher rates of ‘health seeking behaviors’ compared to people who eat a lot of meat. For example they exercise more, and have other healthy habits. Your average person who is a meat eater exercises less, eat less fruits/vegetables, less fiber, & eat more processed food.

In a study where they examined health risk amongst vegans and non-vegans who had similar rates of health seeking behaviors they did not find these differences in health. The differences in behavior is like comparing apples & oranges. You’re comparing the habits of a healthy individual to the habits of a non-heathy individual. OF COURSE you’re going to find a difference. This is what the documentary did with the firefighters. These were men who were already overweight And unhealthy and did not have any type of proper exercise or nutrition regimen. If you give them any systematic diet to follow of course they’re going to notice a difference almost instantaneously. It happens with my clients ALL the time. It’s not magic. It’s a proper diet. These men would have noticed very similar results if they had been put on a controlled diet that contained a meat as well.

Further, the data showing cancer increase associated with meat (even if you don’t account for the cofounding variables), while consistent in the literature, is a small effect in size. We are talking about an increase in absolute risk from 5% (we all carry a 5% risk) to 6% chance of cancer (that’s a 1% increase). Now start to account for those cofounding variables & see if that still holds up. Compare that with smoking which increase the risk of cancer to 15 to 30 TIMES the normal risk. They aren’t even in the same ballpark. And that’s not even accounting for the confounding variables we discussed⁣.⁣

Inflammation-

As for inflammation, a recent study examined people eating high protein diets from either animal or plant protein but with calories equated between groups (both groups were in a caloric deficit). They found that both groups lost fat, both groups lost same fat from liver, and both groups decreased inflammatory markers equally.

Conclusion-

Game Changers missed the mark by being too heavy handed with the disdain for meat and plant based agenda. I agree everyone would benefit from including more fruits and vegetables in their diet. What I don’t agree on is that it has to be either/or. There are plenty of unhealthy vegans just as there are plenty of very healthy meat eaters in the world. Find what’s SUSTAINABLE for YOU, and stick with it.

I’d like to clarify that I don’t HATE vegans. Hate is a strong word. I have clients who are vegan and vegetarian and even they stated the documentary did a poor job at defending veganism.

I have zero issues with TRUE VEGANS. For those that don’t know, being “vegan” actually has an ethical component. Being a vegan are those who not only follow a vegan diet but extend the philosophy into other areas of their lives, and oppose the use of animals for any purpose. No leather, no furs, no rodeos, no horse races, etc. The correct terminology for the diet is actually not “vegan” it’s “plant based” diet.

I hope you all enjoyed this long read. I wouldn’t have been able to do a proper thorough review with anything shorter. In fact, there are a few more bullet points that I left out that I could have touched on but I felt this article is long enough. I hit the major key points I wanted to touch upon and I feel like the readers will hopefully get a good sense of they can really gain and not gain as useful information from the propaganda film Game Changers.

Please leave a like or comment your opinion. All feedback is welcome.

Thank you

-Adrian Jordan

References:

https://tacticmethod.com/the-game-changers-scientific-review-and-references/

Marsh KA, Munn EA, Baines SK. Protein and vegetarian diets. The Medical Journal of Australia. 2013 Oct 29;199(4):7–10.

Appleby PN, Key TJ. The long-term health of vegetarians and vegans. Proc Nutr Soc. 2016;75:287–93

https://www.biolayne.com/articles/research/the-game-changers-review-a-scientific-analysis/

The Game Changers — A Professional Review with Citations

A Professional Review on the Netflix Documentary “The Game Changers”

Adrian Jordan

Written by

Science-Based Personal Trainer, Online Training Coach, Nutritionist, Debunker of Health Myths, Transforming lives through health and fitness globally.

The Game Changers — A Professional Review with Citations

A Professional Review on the Netflix Documentary “The Game Changers”

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