If you’re a die-hard meat eater, the veganism documentary on Netflix, The Game Changers (TV-MA), may just change your mind! It’s a fascinating study on the effect of plant-based eating in people ranging from top athletes to firefighters to grandparents. It doesn’t just offer testimonials about feeling better or getting healthier, it provides some really interesting scientific exploration that will give you some “food for thought.” 😉
Dr. Robert Vogel said, “What you eat immediately before an athletic endeavor can have major impact on how you perform. There’s a direct correlation between a meal and endothelial function. The endothelium is the lining of blood vessels. It regulates blood flow throughout the body. Plant-based meals allow the endothelium to open up. Animal-based meals restrict it.” This is why the athletes in the documentary were able to go longer and harder after they switched to plant-based.
According to The Game Changers, a single hamburger can increase inflammation by 70%, while a plant-based diet reduces inflammation in the body. This has a huge impact on athletic performance, especially recovery! Not only that, plant-based foods contain, on average, 64 times the antioxidants of animal-based foods. In fact, iceberg lettuce has more antioxidants than salmon or eggs!
Top plant-based athletes highlighted in the film include:
Morgan Mitchell (2-time Australian 400-meter champ)
Dotsie Bausch (8-time USA national cycling champ, 2x Pan-American gold medalist, at 39½ Dotsie is the oldest person—male or female—to win gold in her event)
Kendrick Farris (only male weightlifter from the US Olympics in 2012 and 2016, broke 2 American records, won the Pan-Am games)
James Wicks (MMA champion & documentary host)
Nate Diaz (beat UFC champion Conor McGregor)
Scott Jurek (record-breaking ultra runner, won Badwater Ultramarathon 7 times in a row, set a new record for the 2200 mile Appalachian trail)
Patrick Baboumian (multiple world records: front hold, keg lift, log lift / set a new record: carried 1,224 pounds for 33 feet)
Arnold Schwarzenegger (we all know Arnold!)
Lewis Hamilton (5-time Formula One World Champion)
But non-meat eaters aren’t just emerging on the sports scene, they’ve been winning gold at the Olympics for more than 100 years!
Vegan and Vegetarian Olympic gold medalists include:
Emil Voigt (gold in 1908)
Paavo Nurmi (9 gold medals from 1920–1928)
Murray Rose (4 gold medals from 1956–1960)
Edwin Moses (2 gold medals from 1976–1984)
Carl Lewis (9 gold medals 1984–1996)
And if you ask the athletes who switched from meat-based to plant-based, it’s had everything to do with their success. Many of them actually began breaking and setting new records after their transition to eating vegan!
But how will I get my protein in? Plants aren’t complete proteins!
Well, as stated in the film, every single plant contains all the essential amino acids in varying proportions. As long as the proper amount of amino acids are consumed, the source is irrelevant.
We often use the idiom “strong as an ox” to describe someone who is unusually strong, but how often do we stop to think about what an ox eats? That’s right, a plant-based diet! They aren’t consuming animal protein in order to build muscle and increase strength, it’s all done with plants! Other strong herbivores include:
Elephants
Hippos
Horses
Gorillas
Rhinos
Bison
So the perception that we must eat meat in order to be strong or see gains is actually false.
“The quest for truth is only useful if you’re prepared to take action on what you find.”
-Bruce Lee
Environmental Concerns
Veganism isn’t just about what it can do for our bodies, it’s also about what it can do for our planet.
There was a slew of interesting facts in The Game Changers, including:
Roughly ¾ of all the agricultural land in the world is used for livestock production.
Meat, dairy, egg, and fish farming use 83% of the world’s farmland, yet provide only 18% of the world’s calories—on average, animals consume 6 times more protein than they produce.
More than 70 billion animals are consumed globally each year
The single biggest source of habitat destruction is the livestock sector.
25% of rivers in the world no longer reach the ocean because we’re taking out so much water for animal feed.
27% of freshwater consumption goes to produce animal foods.
In the US, farm animals produce more than 50 times more waste per year than the entire human population, polluting rivers, lakes, and groundwater all across the country.
But what can eating vegan do? In the US, where meat consumption is three times the global average, shifting away from an animal-based diet would reduce agricultural emissions by up to 73% and save 1 million liters of water per person per year. This would free up an area of land the size of Africa.
Can I eat Vegan on the FASTer Way to Fat Loss?
The vegan lifestyle has steadily grown in popularity over the years. In fact, in the FASTer Way to Fat Loss, we’ve seen such a big increase in vegan clients that we now offer a vegan meal plan in addition to our regular meal plan. One of the most common questions we get is: “Can vegans do the FASTer Way?” and the answer is a resounding YES!
As long as you focus on whole, nutrient-dense foods, we don’t require a certain pattern of eating, which is one of the most appealing aspects of the program. We teach sound principles but let YOU decide what to eat—while providing plenty of guidance, should you want it.
We believe you should eat the way that best suits your body, but we also believe in arming you with all the best knowledge so you can make an informed decision. If veganism is the right fit for you but you aren’t sure how to incorporate it with other healthy strategies like Intermittent Fasting, Carb Cycling, and macro tracking, then we’ll teach you how in the FASTer Way to Fat Loss!
Learn more about The Game Changers here. This film is FULL of interesting facts, studies, and observations that will help you decide if a vegan diet is right for you.
For other interesting Netflix documentaries focused on nutrition, check out
What The Health (TV-PG)
Forks Over Knives (PG)
Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret (TV-14)
Have YOU tried eating plant-based? If you’re intrigued but not sure how you’ll do it, try going plant-based one day per week. Let us know how it goes!