Changing The Game?

For years, meat has been seen as the basis of the athlete's diet, the idea of a athlete sitting down for a steak or drinking raw eggs is part of the culture of sports. Plant-based diets have grown in popularity, but plant-based athletes seem to be rare.

The movie "The Game Changers", is an attempt to show that a plant-based diet and the nutritional demands of athletes are not incompatible. The film takes a familiar format for documentaries, a person looking for facts. In "Game Changers", that person is special forces trainer and winner of the reality program "The Ultimate Fighter", James Wilks.

The film focuses on several athletes, but emphasizes three; strength athlete Patrick Baboumian, who after setting a world record for carrying weight celebrates with a shout of "Vegan power!", ultra-marathoner Scott Jurek, who is trying to break a record for completing the Appalachian Trail, and American Football player Derrick Morgan and some of his Tennessee Titans teammates. A firehouse in New York City and Wilks's own father also play a role in story.

The film has facts to make the case for greater adoption of a plant-based diet, and shows how the meat industry, much like the tobacco industry has sown confusion.

The film is aiming for a younger, male, audience. Much of the footage is of Mixed Martial Arts, and one of the studies conducted involved the frequency and size of erections, small spoiler alert--it is a matter of blood flow.

As someone familiar with the benefits of a plant-based diet, a lot of the material in "Game Changers" were things I already knew. It was interesting to see that larger athletes like a weightlifter, a heavyweight boxer or a strength athlete could maintain their nutritional demands on a plant-based diet.