Lessons from “The Game Changers” on Netflix

In the interesting and thought-provoking documentary “The Game Changers” (2018, 1h 25min) on Netflix, we meet visionary scientists and top athletes, and the main thread is a UFC fighter who, during his recovery phase after injuries, embarks on a journey to find the optimal diet for human performance and health.

Key Points

• According to Dr. James Loomis: the actual energy for training comes mainly from carbohydrates, in the form of glycogen that we store in the muscles. When we sacrifice the carbohydrate calories, for protein calories in our diet, you will develop a chronic depletion of carbohydrates or glycogen. This leads to chronic exhaustion and loss of stamina.
  
• Justus Von Liebig (1800s German chemist) hypothesized that muscle energy comes from animal proteins, and that vegetarians were theoretically incapable of prolonged exercise. His ideas was so widely accepted and widespread that they inspired the USDA’s first protein recommendations.
  
• Even after science disproved Liebig’s theories and seemed to point to carbohydrates from plants as the main energy source for exercise, people stuck to his ideas as too many had already bought into this mindset.
  
• A number of World Records and Olympic Records has been set by athletes on pure vegetarian or vegan diets:
  • Dana Glowacka: fitness
  • Serena and Venus Williams: tennis
  • Kendrick Farris: weight lifting
  • Lewis Hamilton: formula 1
  • Patrik Baboumian: strongman
  • Nate Diaz: MMA
  • Bryant Jennings: boxing
  • Dotsie Bausch: track cycling
  • Fiona Oakes: marathon runner
  • Neil Robertson: snooker
    
• All protein originate in plants. Animals are only the middlemen, so to say.
  
• According to Dr. Robert Vogel (in the NFL’s subcommittee on cardio vascular health): what you eat immediately before an athletic effort can strongly affect your performance. There is a direct correlation between a meal and endothelial function. The endothelium is a thin membrane that lines the inside of the heart and blood vessels. It regulates blood flow through the body. It notices when a particular muscle group or an organ needs more blood flow, and it dilates. When the endothelium is impaired, it cannot allow blood flow to increase to the same extent, thus impairs athletic performance. It has been shown that a vegetable meal improve endothelial function, while a meat meal (animal protein and fat) impairs it. The effect on the endothelial function after a meal lasts on average about 6-7 hours.
  
• Some controlled studies have found that simply consuming beetroot juice before training, allows you to cycle 22% longer and increase your bench-press total weight by 19%.
  
• Dr. Scott Stoll (former Olympian and team physician for the US Olympic team) explains that when consuming animal protein, you also consume anti-inflammatory molecules like Neu5Gc, endotoxins and heme iron. When we consume animal products, it changes the microbiome. The bacteria species that has been shown to promote inflammation becomes particularly widespread, and they begin to produce inflammatory mediators, such as TMAO (Trimethylamine N-Oxide).
  
  When consuming plant-based protein, you’re also getting anti-oxidants, phytochemicals, minerals and vitamins that contribute to reduce inflammations and optimize the microbiome. This will also optimize blood flow and the body’s performance. On average, plant-based food have 64% more anti-oxidants than animal-based food. Studies have shown that switching to a plant-based diet can help reduce inflammations by 29% in only 3 weeks.
  
  A whole-food and plant-based diet will optimize the growth of blood vessels in damaged tissue, that is required to make new tissue in tendons and muscles. It will stimulate the immune system to fight off infections. Thus, on so many levels, the recovery phase will be accelerated.
  
• Heme iron is found in read meat, poultry and fish. A meta-study has found that 1 mg of heme iron pr day appeared to be significantly associated with a 27% increase in risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). To put this into perspective, an average hamburger contains 2-3 mg of heme iron. Furthermore, a plat-based diet is the only diet that has been shown to lead to recession of even severe coronary atherosclerosis.
  
• People with a diet high in animal protein have a 75% increased risk of premature death from all causes, and a 400-500% increased risk of dying from most forms of cancer (prostate, breast, colon) as well as type 2 diabetes.
  
• The amino-acids that comes from animal sources have a tendency to make our cells multiply faster. There’s a growing body of research indicating that a high consumption of proteins from milk products is related to a 40% higher risk of prostate cancer.
  
• Research funded by the National Cancer Institute found that vegetarians that had one or more portions of white meat (e.g. chicken, fish) pr week, more than tripled their risk of colon cancer.
  
• Recent research has found that our human ancestors were nearly all vegetarians. We have longer digestion tracts than carnivores, which allow us to digest plants and fiber that require more time. We also lack the ability to produce our own vitamin C. Vitamin C is found in plants, thus the facts that we cannot make our own, indicates how reliant upon plants we really are. We have trichromatic color vision. This sets us apart from carnivores, which have dichromatic vision. We can see more colors, which is especially important to find fresh and ripe fruit. Furthermore, our brain runs mainly on glucose, whereas plants, rather than meat, is good source of glucose (through carbohydrates). Our teeth are also shaped for crushing and grinding plants, rather than typical scissor-shaped teeth of carnivores (to better be able to cut meat into slices before swallowing).
  
• Contrary to popular belief, vitamin B12 is not made by animals, but by bacteria found in soil and water which is then consumed by animals. Thus, just as with proteins, animals are the middleman for vitamin B12. Our ancestors got B12 by eating vegetables with traces of soil and by drinking water from rivers and streams. Now however, pesticides, antibiotics and chlorine is killing the bacteria that produces vitamin B12, even farm animals (e.g. chickens) must be given B12 supplements. Thus at this stage, the best way of getting the required B12 levels, is by taking supplements.
  
• In general, no difference are found in testosterone levels in men on a plant-based diet vs. meat-based diet. Soy products contains phytoestrogen, which looks like estrogen, but actually has the opposite effect, and blocks some of the body’s estrogen receptors. Animal-based food, on the other hand, contains estrogen such as chicken, egg and dairy products. Simply drinking cow milk can increase a mans estrogen levels by 26% in only an hour, while reducing the testosterone levels by 18%.
  
• The “stress hormone” cortisol is linked to reduced muscle mass and increased body fat. Research show that people who replace animal food, with a plant-based diet rich in carbohydrates experience an average drop in cortisol level by 27%. Unprocessed carbohydrates such as oats, bananas and sweet potatoes are associated with decreased body fat.
  
• About 75% of the world’s agricultural land is used for livestock, which imposes a huge toll on biodiversity. The single largest source of habitat destruction and deforestation is the livestock sector. Meat, dairy and fish farming uses 83% of the world’s farm land, yet only provide about 18% of our calories. The reason that livestock requires so much land is that animals is just a middleman which consume on average 6 times more protein than it produce. Meat also requires a disproportionate amount of water. 25% of the world’s rivers, no longer reach the ocean because we spend so much water to produce animal food. One hamburger takes about 2 400 liters of water to produce. 27% of our fresh water consumption goes to produce animal food. Pollution of rivers lakes and ground water is also a major problem driven by our large scale livestock.
  
• In the US the average meat consumption is 3 times that of the global average. By switching to a plant-based diet, agricultural emissions will be reduced by up to 73% and save a million liters of water pr person, pr year. Globally this would free up a total area of land the size of Africa.

Even though “The Game Changers” is quite solid, it does have some flaws and is not completely non-biased. In order to get a bit more insight into some of these flaws, please consider this article from Men’s Health.

It would also be advisable to view this Joe Rogan Experience episode (#1389) with Chris Kresser to consider some of the counterarguments to the points raised in “The Game Changers“. Chris Kresser, M.S., L.Ac is a globally recognized leader in the fields of ancestral health, Paleo nutrition and functional and integrative medicine.

Furthermore, this Joe Rogan Experience episode (#1393) allows the director of “The Game Changers“, James Wilks, to respond to come of the critical comments and feedback in a debate with Chris Kresser.