A Recommended Movie to Watch: "The Game Changers"

I watched a documentary that completely blew my mind about how much energy you will get from having a plant-based diet. The name of the film is <The Game Changers>. I totally recommend it to those who are working out; who are doing exercises; and for those who would like to be more healthy. 

We would probably all think of “protein” when we think of words like “exercise”, “fitness”, “muscle”, “strong”, or “energy”. And seems like it's natural to associate protein with meat in modern days. But why? Have anyone ever try to think of the reason why and when protein and those words have become synonym? 

The movie talks about the history of protein and those words. The idea of “Meat Gives You Energy” came out in the 19th century in German, when a famous chemist, Justus Von Liebig, publicized that the muscular energy came from animal protein and that vegetarians weren’t capable of doing prolonged exercise. He’s believe was so wildly accepted that even inspired the first USDA protein recommendation. However, by the time science proved his theory false with the discovery of hard-working muscles run primarily on the carbohydrates found in plants, it was too late. People all around the world had already bought into believing Liebig’s idea about meat and energy. 

The documentary features a retired British professional mixed martial arts fighter, James Brett Wilks, who now teaches self-defense in U.S. special forces. The documentary was made when he suffered serious knee injuries on both feet and was looking for a quick way to recover from his injuries. In his search, he stumbled upon a quick cure for his injuries, which is a plant-based diet.

The popular perception of "vegetarians" is similar to Liebig’s, that they can't do strenuous exercise, they're small and thin and weak, and so on. To be strong, we should eat more meat, drink more milk and supplement more protein from animal foods, because animal foods give you protein that vegetables can’t. 

But look at these former Olympians and athletes, they're all vegetarians! They are the game changers about the stereotype of vegetarians. 

• 1908 Emil Voigt, gold medal in the 5-mile race
• 1920-1928 Paavo Nurmi, 9 gold medals in running
• 1956-1960 Murray Rose who won 4 swimming gold medals 
• 1976-1984 Edwin Moses, 2 gold medals in the steeplechase
• 1984-1996 Carl Lewis, 9 gold medals in running  

In modern times, there are also a large number of athletes who do not eat animal food at all that distributed in various kinds of sports. For instance, from sprinting to the marathon; from weightlifting to boxing; or from firefighter to bodybuilder; moreover, a UFC mixed martial arts champion. In many sports, there are many athletes who only eat a plant-based diet, and they performed better than any other players in their field.

• Morgan Mitchell: two-time Australian 400-meter champion
• Dotsie Bausch, an 8-time USA national cycling champion and 2-time Pan-American gold medalist 
• Kendrick James Farris: the only male weight lifter to represent the United States at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games
• Patrick Baboumian: one of the strongest man on earth, he’s the world-record-holding strongman
• Bryant Jennings, boxing heavyweight title contender

The tobacco industry frantically denied the connection between secondhand smoke and lung cancer back then. Did it ever occur to you that the same play might be playing again in today’s meat industry? The meat industry refuses to acknowledge the negative health effects of animal food or its link to disease. Did you know that many published literature and papers which show that animal food is not a threat to human health have been sponsored and funded by meat companies? 

Consumers won't be able to analyze what is good or bad to them when they aren't given enough correct information. What I really want to do is hoping the public can have a chance to be aware of the issues. 

The more plant that you can eat, and the less meat that you consume, the better. In my opinion, this would be a solution for global warming and climate change as well (read my previous post about “how you can save the world by eating less meat”). When we are all desperately concerning carbon emission, why not just have a small daily behavior change on your daily food choice by eating less meat or even switch to a plant-based diet? Besides defending what’s from the outside, have you ever thought of “internal defense” by eating what is really beneficial to your health? Who says you have to eat meat to be strong? Go watch <The Game Changers>!