Game Changing? Perhaps Not
Published 2.11.2025: These are my (lightly edited) notes as I watched the film, Game Changers, years ago at this point. I am going through old content and publishing it… because it’s written, and I have no other outlet for it.
This is a vegan documentary appeared on Netflix (quite awhile ago at this point, but it’s still there). In this documentary, they are pushing how strong you can be in you eat a whole foods plant based diet (The world vegan apparently has too much baggage associated with it).
Interesting, according to the film, marshall arts are useless if you get attacked. Okay, this is UFC (ultimate fight something) which I never watch, and won’t do so for this too. So this guy (the main guy) was a UFC fighter who got injured, and researched how to recover quickly.
Which lead him to gladiators, who apparently ate a lot of plants. “Beans and barley” is what they ate. The film doesn’t say they were vegans, but they ate mostly plants. That’s not a small distinction— a point I have made many times here in various pieces. Eating mostly plants is different than eating only plants. Eating mostly plants does not require supplementation. Eating only plants does.
I should interject her (in 2025) that the above statement is true for younger healthy bodies. Things change as you get older, even if you remain healthy. However, it is still true that omnivores would survive the zombie apocalypse, whereas vegans would not.
Back to the notes: Also, spare me the refrain that, “Many omnivores take supplements too.” Yes they do. The difference is that omnivores take them because they want to, not because their survival requires it. If omnivores lost access to their supplements for the remainder of their lives they would survive and be healthy. Vegans in the same situation would not. 2025: which is basically what I said above, but without the old age qualifier— can you tell my doctor has me supplementing? Back to the notes.
So they go through the stereotypes of plant eaters. Meat eaters are supposed to be stronger. And again, he’s not openly talking vegan (at least not yet). But there’s the ultra-runner they focus on doesn’t eat meat.
The host talks to James Loomis who is based in St Louis, and who I think I’ve have heard before in the various online seminars I used to attend. (2025: yes I’ve listened to him and published on him before— as part of the 2017 Diabetes Summit, some but not all of which I wrote up. I have no idea if they still do these summits…)
Per the film (I’m not fact checking, just reporting) Justus Von Liebig (in the 1800s) started the theory that meat was important for energy and strength. Vegetarianism comes up, but vegetarian isn’t vegan.
At the 11:30 moment the word vegan is first invoked by an athlete — who I think is Carl Lewis— talking to Oprah. A second athlete (Australian) also drops the “v” word.
The next topic addressed is where does the protein comes from when you eat plants. Apparently the host never heard of the food chain because he proclaims surprise that all protein starts with plants.
Every single plants contains ALL the essential amino acids? I’ve listened to a bunch of these things (not recently) and I don’t remember this being the case. That being said amino acids are the building blocs of protein, not proteins themselves. Healthy young bodies can make what they need. Older or sick bodies? Not so much— or certainly not as efficiently.
Added in 2025: All plants do contain all of the amino acids, but not at levels that humans need. Hence the old advice to match certain grains with legumes to get all the protein needed. This is apparently not pushed now because it put people off of plant based eating, because you have to think about it more than just eating meat.
Ironically (these words are also being typed in 2025), vegans now say that in order to successfully eat as a vegan your diet needs to be “well-planned” otherwise you’re doing it wrong… because many people have tried, and FAILED to eat and be healthy as a vegan. And many (most?) have gone back to eating animals.
So at about the 18 minute mark, it becomes clear (contra Unnatural Vegan— I need to watch her whole thing once I’m done here) that they ARE talking about veganism, not vegetarianism, which allows eggs or dairy.
No mention yet of B12, except for the short term Australian runner vegan who said her levels were fine. In the short term, they would be. Dr Robert Vogel (he's associated with the NFL) I haven’t heard of him. He’s talking about endothelium and how food affects whether it opens up to allow blood flow.
Dr Scott Stoll, who is an Olympic doctor with the Bobsled team and former Olympian. He’s talking about how protein comes with “inflammatory” elements. Dr, Esselstyn (who I've written about before) shows up talking to the host’s dad after he had a heart attack.
And then Dr. Dean Ornish
Dr, Kim Williams
Dr. Columbus Batiste
Dr, Helen Moon (talking about heme iron) Per her: 1 mg of heme iron idea is dangerous. Hamburger has 2-3 mg. Again, I'm reporting, not fact checking.
AND now we come to the Paleo diet. And how plants are under represented in the record. Then we get to “the brain needs glucose”, Which isn’t controversial to ME, but is to keto folx, who think that ketones are the brain’s favored food. (Biases out front:) I think that’s nuts.
FINALLY in the 46th minute, B12 is mentioned!! Oh, saints preserve me, he’s invoking eating dirt to get B12. No. No. NO. NO. NO. Do NOT do this. Take a damn B12 supplement!
Plus, the fact that meat eaters MIGHT be low in B12 does NOT mean you should eat dirt to get B12. No. No. No. NO. NO. NO.
Aaron Spitz is interviewed. Okay…. I got nothing on the penis thing… Pants are better (what a shock).
Testosterone is discussed: Soy is not evil (unless you’re allergic or sensitive). Entire civilizations have used tofu (soy!) as a staple in their diets. Soy is not evil.
And that’s where the notes end. Plainly as some point I stopped noting the points the interviewees were making, either because I’ve heard them before or I disagreed with them. Interesting that the penis thing comes up, that was a controversial part of the series made about the Stanford Twin trials. I should write up that one too… Though the TL;DR would be eat more plants…
This is a vegan documentary appeared on Netflix (quite awhile ago at this point, but it’s still there). In this documentary, they are pushing how strong you can be in you eat a whole foods plant based diet (The world vegan apparently has too much baggage associated with it).
Interesting, according to the film, marshall arts are useless if you get attacked. Okay, this is UFC (ultimate fight something) which I never watch, and won’t do so for this too. So this guy (the main guy) was a UFC fighter who got injured, and researched how to recover quickly.
Which lead him to gladiators, who apparently ate a lot of plants. “Beans and barley” is what they ate. The film doesn’t say they were vegans, but they ate mostly plants. That’s not a small distinction— a point I have made many times here in various pieces. Eating mostly plants is different than eating only plants. Eating mostly plants does not require supplementation. Eating only plants does.
I should interject her (in 2025) that the above statement is true for younger healthy bodies. Things change as you get older, even if you remain healthy. However, it is still true that omnivores would survive the zombie apocalypse, whereas vegans would not.
Back to the notes: Also, spare me the refrain that, “Many omnivores take supplements too.” Yes they do. The difference is that omnivores take them because they want to, not because their survival requires it. If omnivores lost access to their supplements for the remainder of their lives they would survive and be healthy. Vegans in the same situation would not. 2025: which is basically what I said above, but without the old age qualifier— can you tell my doctor has me supplementing? Back to the notes.
So they go through the stereotypes of plant eaters. Meat eaters are supposed to be stronger. And again, he’s not openly talking vegan (at least not yet). But there’s the ultra-runner they focus on doesn’t eat meat.
The host talks to James Loomis who is based in St Louis, and who I think I’ve have heard before in the various online seminars I used to attend. (2025: yes I’ve listened to him and published on him before— as part of the 2017 Diabetes Summit, some but not all of which I wrote up. I have no idea if they still do these summits…)
Per the film (I’m not fact checking, just reporting) Justus Von Liebig (in the 1800s) started the theory that meat was important for energy and strength. Vegetarianism comes up, but vegetarian isn’t vegan.
At the 11:30 moment the word vegan is first invoked by an athlete — who I think is Carl Lewis— talking to Oprah. A second athlete (Australian) also drops the “v” word.
The next topic addressed is where does the protein comes from when you eat plants. Apparently the host never heard of the food chain because he proclaims surprise that all protein starts with plants.
Every single plants contains ALL the essential amino acids? I’ve listened to a bunch of these things (not recently) and I don’t remember this being the case. That being said amino acids are the building blocs of protein, not proteins themselves. Healthy young bodies can make what they need. Older or sick bodies? Not so much— or certainly not as efficiently.
Added in 2025: All plants do contain all of the amino acids, but not at levels that humans need. Hence the old advice to match certain grains with legumes to get all the protein needed. This is apparently not pushed now because it put people off of plant based eating, because you have to think about it more than just eating meat.
Ironically (these words are also being typed in 2025), vegans now say that in order to successfully eat as a vegan your diet needs to be “well-planned” otherwise you’re doing it wrong… because many people have tried, and FAILED to eat and be healthy as a vegan. And many (most?) have gone back to eating animals.
So at about the 18 minute mark, it becomes clear (contra Unnatural Vegan— I need to watch her whole thing once I’m done here) that they ARE talking about veganism, not vegetarianism, which allows eggs or dairy.
No mention yet of B12, except for the short term Australian runner vegan who said her levels were fine. In the short term, they would be. Dr Robert Vogel (he's associated with the NFL) I haven’t heard of him. He’s talking about endothelium and how food affects whether it opens up to allow blood flow.
Dr Scott Stoll, who is an Olympic doctor with the Bobsled team and former Olympian. He’s talking about how protein comes with “inflammatory” elements. Dr, Esselstyn (who I've written about before) shows up talking to the host’s dad after he had a heart attack.
And then Dr. Dean Ornish
Dr, Kim Williams
Dr. Columbus Batiste
Dr, Helen Moon (talking about heme iron) Per her: 1 mg of heme iron idea is dangerous. Hamburger has 2-3 mg. Again, I'm reporting, not fact checking.
AND now we come to the Paleo diet. And how plants are under represented in the record. Then we get to “the brain needs glucose”, Which isn’t controversial to ME, but is to keto folx, who think that ketones are the brain’s favored food. (Biases out front:) I think that’s nuts.
FINALLY in the 46th minute, B12 is mentioned!! Oh, saints preserve me, he’s invoking eating dirt to get B12. No. No. NO. NO. NO. Do NOT do this. Take a damn B12 supplement!
Plus, the fact that meat eaters MIGHT be low in B12 does NOT mean you should eat dirt to get B12. No. No. No. NO. NO. NO.
Aaron Spitz is interviewed. Okay…. I got nothing on the penis thing… Pants are better (what a shock).
Testosterone is discussed: Soy is not evil (unless you’re allergic or sensitive). Entire civilizations have used tofu (soy!) as a staple in their diets. Soy is not evil.
And that’s where the notes end. Plainly as some point I stopped noting the points the interviewees were making, either because I’ve heard them before or I disagreed with them. Interesting that the penis thing comes up, that was a controversial part of the series made about the Stanford Twin trials. I should write up that one too… Though the TL;DR would be eat more plants…