What Was Gamechangers

This documentary seeks to expose the negative effects of eating meat, while promoting plant based diets.  There were many statistics including that the main narrator who was recovering from severe knee injuries had tried 6 weeks on a plant based diet and shattered the record time at his gym on battle ropes of 20 minutes with his own personal best of 1 hour and 1 minute.  Another example is that “people who get all of their protein from plants reduce their risk of heart disease by 55 %”(36.28)

Staff, G. (2019, September 07)

Ideologies

The stereotype that vegetarians are not as strong as those who eat meat. Originally thought protein gives you energy but it was shown that that was false, glycogen from carbs and veggies give you the energy to exercise. All protein originates from plants, it’s what cows, pigs, and chickens eat. Patrik Baboumian was asked how “are you as strong as an ox without eating any meat?” He replied “ have you ever seen an ox eat meat?”  Another example is James Wilks, he was doing the ropes and the goal time to get is 20 straight minutes, and you write your time on the wall,  just from doing the plant based diet he was able to do it for over an hour.

Key Storylines

The documentary picked examples of primarily world records, but also pointing out smaller successes.  This meant anything from Olympic sports to erections.  In the case of the erections, all 3 subjects had them stronger and more often during the night after eating plant based.  I think they choose such a variety of situations in order to sell the plant based diet to as many people as they could.

Ranahan, P. (2021, March 10)

Linkages to Class

Culturally most people eat meat and it is a staple of their diets. In the weightlifting and sports world meat has been thought to be the only way to get bigger and stronger muscles and to excel in sports. In class we have discussed how food is advertised and aimed toward a certain race or a certain gender, but this plant based diet is being pushed to everybody to all races and genders. We have also talked about companies advertising and in a way are lying about the healthfulness of the food they are promoting. In this documentary it showed a nutritionist talking about how processed meats have no bad health effect, and people should feel free to eat as much as they want, because companies paid her to say that to keep the dollars rolling in.

Film Opinion

This documentary was very informative and it did a great job selling plant based diets.  However, it made it seem like all plants taste great or that getting access to great tasting plant based meals is easy.  From my experience this is a huge turn off for me.  As a college student I simply don’t have time to cook my own meals, not to mention that I have never enjoyed the process of cooking.  It is boring for me, not to mention it is stressful because I don’t want to mess it up and not have anything worth eating.  Also I have yet to find a plant based option that tastes anywhere near as good as one with meat.  That being said I am a picky eater, so a plant based diet to me would be pretty much nothing but lettuce and ranch dressing.  Tomato soup is okay, but I’m not a fan.  Vegetables like broccoli or carrots taste great if they are cooked right, but that also can make them less healthy as well.  As for fruit, I like apples, but I don’t like eating up close to the core, so I leave a good bit of it still on the core.  Bananas are fine, but relative to most other foods I wouldn’t choose one.  Same goes for grapes, and I stay away from any other fruit because I hate citrus so much, and I haven’t liked anything other than those 3 fruits.  So although the documentary made many compelling arguments, I would be unable to deal with the taste.  I don’t believe that I would feel better.  I do believe I might be healthier if someone else made everything for me, but on my own I would be constantly hungry, and I would not enjoy food like I do now.  It would be simply something I had to do to live rather than something I look forward to.  In the future when my metabolism isn’t so high and I have more money and time, maybe I could ease into it, but for now it is simply not an option for me.

References

James Wilks, Joseph Pace, Lewis Hamilton (Producers), Louie Psihoyos (Director). Game Changers [Motion Picture]. United States.

Guru, T. G. (n.d.). Dr Tom Little: Debunking Netflix sensation Game Changers. Retrieved from https://trainingground.guru/articles/tom-little-are-vegan-diets-a-game-changer-for-football

Staff, G. (2019, September 07). Patrik Baboumian, vegan strongman. Retrieved from https://www.greatveganathletes.com/patrik-baboumian-vegan-strongman/

Ranahan, P. (2021, March 10). Are Plant-Based Athletes the Ultimate Gamechangers? Retrieved from https://stonepierpress.org/goodfoodnews/gamechangers