Reviewing The Game Changers

I have finally watched The Game Changers documentary. I have a lot of issues with the documentary (and some things that are probative, some). In the past, there have been very similar documentaries on nutrition like What the Health, Fed Up and Supersize Me and they have something in common: they are one sided with an extremist mentality.

In elementary school we learn that scientific data should be peer reviewed. A documentary with extreme claims about health and performance should be no different. This is as one sided as it gets. Zero information from the other side outside Hardee’s commercials. Zero information from the other side that isn’t also an extremist meat eating monger. Throughout the documentary they make claims and quickly gloss over these with suggestive data with nothing conclusive. At one point one of the doctors even says “This is not a scientifically validated study but...”

Being one sided goes as far as the funding for the documentary and the motives for making it. The main star, James Wilks, made a rebuttal to a meat-based diet book saying that it had other motives than truth because of the meat industry funding it and that people should always question those projects. He also explicitly said in an interview that the executive producers of The Game Changers would not make a dime but instead did it because they believed in the project.

Chris Paul, executive producer, has invested in Beyond Meat who has used this documentary to clearly take advantage of the switch overs. Not convinced? Go to the Beyond Meat website. James Cameron, another executive producer, had this to say once going plant-based “We started looking at our investments, our business opportunities. At this point, aside from Jim’s film work, they all go through a plant-based lens." It’s a money thing, not a belief thing. Everybody funding the film that I looked up had skin in the vegan/vegetarian game. Literally all of them.

My next thoughts go to some of The Game Changers arguments that I gave hesitation to so I did a little (not really a little, a lot) research but I’ll stick to my favorite: athletes perform better and recover faster.

Here’s the truth on some athletes in the film and some outside but with outspoken vegan diets. I’ll keep the list short because it could go on forever it seems.

1. Derrick Morgan the main football draw of the Game Changers says his breakout year, at age 27, was because of going vegan (maybe it could have been three years after switching the linebacker and being at all great pros peak age). A year later he retired because he had so many injuries to which he had been healthy prior to going vegan.
2. Executive producer, Chris Paul since going vegan spent a whole season not able to recover from a non-surgical hamstring injury. And this year (maybe because he’s an old NBA player) he’s having his worst statistical season to date.
3. MMA fighter Nate Diaz who they use as a vegan athlete beating omnivore Conor McGregor. Here’s the truth Diaz was a 170 fighter cutting to 155 and McGregor was trying to move up (in a week) from 145 to 155. Also truth, Diaz regularly eats fish and eggs.
4. Kendrick Farris the weightlifter did qualify for his third olympics but after going vegan his total went down 5 kilos and that’s while moving up a weight class. He hasn’t competed since 2016.
5. Bryant Jennings, in the film, was a whopping 17-0 then went vegan and has gone 7-4 since then. In his defense, the competition got better as he progressed.
6. Novak Djokovic, another executive producer, was dairy-free, gluten-free and was number one in the world. He went vegan and dropped to number 22 (the lowest he had been since being a teenager). So he added meat back and jumped back to number one.
7. Kyrie Irving went vegan prior to the 2017 NBA season. Since going vegan he hasn’t played a full season and at NBA peak ages his stats are not improving. This was following no serious injuries since college.
8. Cam Newton went from MVP to torn rotator cuff then went vegan and the injuries stacked up. He re-injured his shoulder and broke his foot after an extremely healthy career.
9. CC Sabathia went vegan in January of 2018 by July of that season he had been put on the 10 day IR three times after an extremely healthy career. And he never recovered.
10. Carl Lewis in the 90s had his best year in his first year full vegan but the following years looked like this: failed to qualify in sprinting events and within two years was injured to the point of retirement.

This list of ten athletes is not an anomaly. It’s the trend among athletes that follow strict vegan diets. If your goal is health and remotely hints at performance, the chances are vegan is not for you. What I did like about the Game Changers? Eat more plants, eat more things from the ground, but not exclusively.