Writing Project 3: Film Review
Writing Project 4: Op-ed
Plant Based Diet: An Athlete’s Secret Weapon
Part 1:
As athlete’s, we have been taught to focus on three main things: sleeping, training, and most importantly eating. Why? To optimize how we perform, how we recover, and to see how far we can push our bodies for ultimate success. After watching the documentary “The Game Changer”, I know athlete’s should look at their plate and rethink their diet’s for optimal performance. I have been a Division 1 athlete for the past three years and the thought of eating a healthy, high protein diet is essential to be able to perform and grow in my sport. Healthy and high-protein has always been carved out by nutritionists as lean meat, dairy, and eggs. An egg and cheese omelet in the morning, a turkey sandwich for lunch, and a steak dinner. But what if this is not the best diet for an athlete’s body? This thought provoking documentary challenges the conventional beliefs athletes have been taught little about throughout their careers: advocating for a plant-based diet for optimal protein, strength, and performance.
The film begins by introducing James Wilks, a former UFC fighter who faced double knee surgery in his career. This downtime allowed him to spend his recovery investigating the link between diet and athletic performance. After learning that historic Roman Empire fighters ate a plant based diet, he embarked on a journey to explore the benefits of a plant based diet in today's age. Do I want to be an Ancient Roman fighter? No. But just like many athletes I want to increase my strength, speed, and vertical to compliment my sport. Wilks had this same mindset, and additionally he wanted to recover and heal faster.
I was skeptical as a plant-based diet challenges conventional wisdom that animal protein is necessary to be a high level athlete. How could some injured UFC fighter convince me to change how I have been eating my entire life? Wilks spends his time in the film encountering elite athletes from an array of sports that thrive off plant based diets. From bodybuilders to marathon runners to Olympic medalists, these athletes share their positive personal experiences. Ever heard of basketball player Chris Paul? Or Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton? Tennis player Serena Williams? They are the highest level athletes in their field and they account their success to the benefits of a plant based diet.
The story of Scott Jurek stood out to me as he completed the record-holding time for finishing the Appalachian Trail as an ultramarathon runner, eating solely a plant based diet. Just like many transitioning athletes, Scott was skeptical about changing to this new lifestyle, how would he be strong enough to finish his race without animal products? After winning not one, not two, but seven one-day ultramarathon events, he never looked back from his old eating habits when completing his dream. Still skeptical? I was too but Wilks sat down with Dr. James Loomis, a former team physician for a World Series winning team and a Super Bowl winning team. He broke down the idea that glycogen is needed to avoid chronic fatigue and loss of stamina for athletes to compete at their best level. This glycogen comes from carbohydrates, so Scott did not need any animal based products to stay energized for his intensely long runs…just a diet of mostly carbs!
Now if you are anything like me, you'd be thinking “but what about building muscle?” How do I get “big”, as advertised in the fitness industry, without meat? It is known that athletes need carbohydrates, fats, and lots of protein to keep our muscles strong for more impact sports. Luckily the film focused on other types of athletes, such as football players. 23 minutes into the film, a study was shown where Dr. Robert Vogel took three professional football players from the Miami dolphins and tested their blood to see how it was affected after the food they just ate. In the first test, two healthy omnivore meals and one healthy plant based meal were served. It was shown that the animal based meal impaired the endothelium, restricting blood flow and athletic performance. This was visually seen in the bloodwork as the blood post animal based meal was cloudy and the blood post vegan meal was clear. In the second test, they were all given the same healthy plant based meal, and the clear blood results were present for all three athletes. These athlete’s decided to stick with the plant-based diet, only reporting the positive experience they have seen from transitioning.
A hot topic I wanted to debunk was the rumored reports in the athletic community that plant based proteins are inferior to animal-derived proteins due to their inability to support muscle growth. The Journal of Nutrition released an article in 2023 stating that both omnivorous and vegan diets contain enough variety in protein sources that have essential amino acids, nutrients, and bioactive chemicals needed for muscle growth when paired with strength resistance training. With this information, we can conclude that when focusing on a healthy high protein diet, the type of protein being consumed will not alter the amount of muscle potential to be put on. With this being said, the article does highlight that the vegan diet has other health benefits for athletes such as lower cardiovascular risk, lower cholesterol, and increased stamina. To add along to this evidence, a narrative review written by Katharina C Wirnitzer shocked me with the results she researched about the vegan diet in athletes. In a table titled as “Overview of the health benefits resulting from vegan diets,” (pg. 8) she listed vegan athletes as having higher lifespans, lower resting heart rates, good bone and muscle health, and consuming fewer hazardous or toxic foods. She notes to see these tremendous results, one must be eating enough calories to receive the adequate amount of protein and critical nutrients.
After hearing the mix of scientific evidence and personal experience from high performing plant based athletes, I know I have been persuaded to experiment with a plant based diet. All these athletes had one common word of advice: take it at your own pace. I understand that it can be hard to suddenly never eat some of your favorite foods again. My personal relationship with food has been hard as an athlete because I was taught by my nutritionists that protein is the most important! Supplement with whey protein and eat all the highest protein foods possible such as greek yogurt, lean meat, and egg whites. Long story short, I cut out dairy from my diet about a year ago due to acne, inflammation, and tiredness, and I feel amazing! This film made me question if I should cut out another category of animal products to see if I can further progress in the energy slumps I occasionally face or the fact I have not been able to break my vertical jump touch in 4 years. I personally try to remind myself that if I want to be the best athlete I can be, and if this means eating less meat and eliminating eggs until I can fully commit to a plant based diet, I am willing to make the sacrifice to the diet I have known my whole life.
My message to athletes is this: you never know what will happen. Dotsie Bausch did not know she would be the oldest member to compete and dominate with the US Cycling team, Patrik Baboumian did not know he would be Germany’s Strongest Man and break multiple world records, and Morgan Mitchell did not know she would be a two time Australian 400 meter sprint champion… all after transitioning to a plant-based diet. We must work with our nutritionists and doctors to ensure we are receiving the adequate amount of nutrients to perform best, but by transitioning to a plant based diet I know the athletic community just got stronger, faster, and more competitive.
Part 2:
I first became interested in the benefits of a plant based diet after learning about the five Blue Zones located around the world. A Blue Zone is an area in the world where most people live to 100 years or older, in contrast to the average life expectancy of 77 years old. Located in Sardinia, Italy, Okinawa, Japan, Nicoya, Costa Rica, Icaria, Greece, and Loma Linda, California, these communities have adapted plant based diets, regular exercise, moderate drinking of alcohol, getting enough sleep, and spiritual social networks. With the vegan diet becoming popular within the health and wellness industry, I knew I wanted to deep dive into exploring the benefits to see if they outweigh those of a healthy omnivore diet. As an athlete myself, I found it most realistic to focus on the health and wellbeing of the body. I see trends that come and go on social media, but a plant based diet is one I have only seen increasingly grow. Due to this, I was most interested in understanding if a high level athlete could sustain their lifestyle on a plant based diet.
The plant based diet poses a challenge to conventional nutritional norms that high level athletes are “supposed to” follow. Since I began my career as a collegiate athlete, my nutritionists always recommended meat, eggs, and dairy as complete protein sources. And I believed them! Until I began seeing professional athletes in the news who had transitioned to a plant based diet who reported performing better and feeling younger. After the research I have conducted, high protein meals focused around legumes, tofu, tempeh, and quinoa are just as beneficial to muscle building as meat, eggs, and dairy. Consuming an adequate amount of protein is also beneficial to recovery and performance, but I learned that the plant based diet is best for overall health. These other aspects include improving cardiovascular health, lower cholesterol, lower rates of cancer, and increased longevity. Athlete’s testimonies are seen in the film “The Game Changers”, a thought provoking documentary highlighting an array of athletes and scientific information after transitioning to a plant based diet.
I originally wrote a film review of “The Game Changers” for Writing Project 3 because I did not think it was right to be persuasive about something I had not fully tried yet. While my Writing Project 4 is still focused around the film, I knew I had to be able to provide my own experience. After the original time I watched “The Game Changers” and my past history with dairy, I implemented two days a week to a plant based diet to work towards my goal of potentially transitioning to a plant based diet. After this, I knew I could include my personal thoughts that persuaded me to give this lifestyle a chance. I enjoyed this aspect of Writing Project 4 because I could explain what might persuade other athletes who want to see improvement in their performance. The goal of Writing Project 4 was to use the film and scientific journals as evidence for athletes to make a change to their diet for performance, recovery, and longevity, rather than simply being informative on if they should watch the film or not.
Works Cited:
Benatar, Jocelyne R., and Ralph AH Stewart. "Cardiometabolic risk factors in vegans; A meta-analysis of observational studies." PloS one 13.12 (2018): e0209086.
Fuhrman, Joel, and Deana M. Ferreri. "Fueling the vegetarian (vegan) athlete." Current sports medicine reports 9.4 (2010): 233-241.
Hannaian, Sarkis J., and Tyler A. Churchward-Venne. "Meatless Muscle Growth: Building Muscle Size and Strength on a Mycoprotein-Rich Vegan Diet." The Journal of Nutrition 153.6 (2023): 1665-1667.
“The Game Changers”. Netflix. Psihoyos, Louie. Monroe, Mark, and Pace, Joseph. 2018. https://www.netflix.com/search?q=the%20game%20chan&jbv=81157840