It’s obviously propaganda for veganism, but I suppose if you think anything vegetarian is wimpy and hate green things on your plate then this could be an eye opener for you.
Almost everyone I know including myself needs to eat more vegetables, but not to the exclusion of meat.
Here’s a good critique of the show, and it’s apparent science:
If i remember right, there were nothing about total carb intake(?). Could be really that simple; they ate more carbs → more quality training sessions, more recovery etc → better performance overall. So was the meat the problem or the unbalanced diet? Too much protein…? Not enough carbs…? Many Vegan/plant based protein sources also have carbs, so i bet they ate more carbs.
It was never going be balanced but it’s done a good job at challenging what marketing sells you about meat and turned it back on itself.
It’s a complex topic beyond fitness [local and global environmental impact/ethics/general health, etc.] but I try to keep things simple and ask; would the world - on balance - be a better place if we ate less meat?
Yes I believe so.
It has motivated me to try and see how I feel reducing dairy/eggs.
I’m increasing my veggie intake and reducing my meat intake partially because of that movie.
All these documentaries i take with a grain of salt. But they make some good points. Heck up here in Canada the food guide was revised to increase plant based source GREATLY, and put dairy on a more equal footing with other food sources (as dairy produces used to be lobbying big time before and used to have a big say in what would be included).
I’ll see what kind of effect it has on me and at this stage, it’s a lot of “trying new things” which keeps in interesting. Just did refried beans for the first time yesterday and ERMAHGERD, so freaking good. Id put that $hit on everything! I made it with meat and cheese for my wife and people we had over but just put more refried beans in mine and i was fine. Although to make it less dry i did cheat by adding sour cream. But it’s a learning process! Baby steps.
The human performance outliers podcast recently featured Tim Shieff who was a well know Vegan within social media and on the sports scene ( I think he won ninja warrior or something like that) who was shunned by the ‘community’ when he announced that being Vegan had ruined his health and that he no longer was!
On this podcast he talks about all of that plus how he was involved with this film but had asked for anything featuring him to be removed from it in the end. Its an interesting listen.
It’s the very definition of bro science. It’s not advocating plant-based diet for ethical reasons but for performance. The documentary is full of anecdotes and left me with lots of questions:
Ultimately, if a plant-based diet were such a boost to performance wouldn’t the majority of the pro-peleton be all over it?
If anything it just highlight the importance of not eating junk. Eat your greens. Stop the burgers and burritos.
Sounds like he’s been on quite a long philosophical journey
A few years ago I did a 2 week experiment and ate exactly according to the food guide. First thing I realized was that it’s a LOT of food! There’s no way an average person should be eating that much! It got so disgusting that I didn’t even last the entire 2 weeks. Nothing to do with the movie, just throwing that out there. 
In Canada they unveiled the new one in January this year which uses more common sense
Whereas the old one prescribed amounts
It was an interesting documentary. Entertaining and thought provoking.
I was disappointed with the lack of environmental awareness for the impact reduction that comes with shifting to plant based diets.
Performance is not why my diet has shifted towards more plant based than in the past. It’s the environment. Improved performance is simply icing on the cake, frankly.
It’s made me think about my diet, I almost choked on my burger
I wish people were as conscientious about car ownership as some people are about eating meat.
Since I have never owned a car in all 44 years of my life (long live the bicycle!), perhaps I can be excused a burger every once in awhile? 
I really liked the movie, although it’s obviously not very scientific and the parts with night erection or beet juice magic power are plain dumb.
But it’s not made to appeal to scientists - it’s made to appeal to the average Joe. It’s clearly propaganda, but if it helps even a little to fight the propaganda we’re getting from the other side, it’s good to me.
Looks like Vegan advocates are starting to discover what the bike industry and Scientology have been on to for decades: appeal to authority works.
If you can identify people that are successful at something and get them to say this product or that lifestyle choice are key to their success…people will adopt that product or that lifestyle. If the product is expensive or the lifestyle change is arduous, ironically, cognitive dissonance will make it harder for adopters to admit if the change/adoption makes no or negative difference.
That’s what Game Changers is: appeal to authority marketing of a certain lifestyle. Not good or bad. Just what it is.
I don’t advise anybody to select a diet, religion, crankset, healthcare provider, etc based on what some other famous person says they do. Due diligence on any topic should be more thorough than that. Babe Ruth didn’t dominate baseball because of beer and cigarettes but in spite of them…so bad lifestyle choices can be overcome by sufficient talent. Always keep that in mind.
I’m still waiting for this to happen to me… 
really interesting article. I think there is also the factor of grazing land to consider (who knew, climate science is complicated?) but I’d never heard of that before so thanks for bringing it to my attention.
CO2 emissions from transport, heating (and cooling, for those with more blessed climates) are at insane levels. In the UK, the train companies need to get their act together and make it a no-brainer to take the train long distance. I can’t fathom how, when my car is limited to 70 mph (ish) and the trains can do 150 mph, it always seems to take longer on the train except for the direct link to London.
…cycling should be encouraged too, but I’m a bit biased.
that’s what cowspiracy was for. honestly they’re approaching it from a multiprong approach trying to hit different aspects
It’s one big logical fallacy then.
Which is a good summary actually, but I’d argue that of itself is bad.
The purpose of the piece is to enroll viewers into veganism. While appeal to authority may be a logical fallacy it is marketing gold. Not one in one thousand people will recognize that adopting a dietary lifestyle on the basis that a successful athlete/actor/whatever has adopted that lifestyle is a fallacy. On the other hand, if you can get a nice looking actor to say it’s a good idea to stick a chunk of jade up your hoo-hoo folks will line up to buy chunks of jade. Appeal to authority is a very powerful marketing ploy. It can make the absurd popular.
Actually, in addition to B12, vegan diets are deficient in the omega 3 fats DHA and EPA. Human conversion of alpha linoleic acid as found in flax for example is marginal at best and worsens as we age. Important to keep inflammation under control and vital for optimum nerve function