Giving Compass' Take:

• Katherine Martinko at TreeHugger reviews the documentary, The Game Changers, which argues that animal meat products inhibit athletic performance because they don't give the body what it needs and in fact, a plant-based diet is the most impactful.

• The documentary states that you can still be a high-performing athlete on a plant-based diet. How can we incorporate more plants into our diet? 

• Here are 9 reasons why plant-based meat is the food of the future. 


Last night I finally watched The Game Changers, the Netflix documentary that has everyone talking about plant-based eating. There hasn't been this kind of controversy in my CrossFit-centric Facebook feed since Forks Over Knives came out in 2011, so of course I was eager to find out what it was all about.

The film, which is directed by Academy Award winner Louis Psihoyos and produced by James Cameron, follows former mixed martial arts fighter and military combative trainer James Wilks, who is recovering from a serious knee injury and begins researching how to speed along that process. What he discovers is that plant-based eating (also known as a vegan diet) is not only effective at helping athletes to recover more quickly, but it can also significantly enhance athletic performance.

The film introduces viewers to numerous professional athletes, including ultra-marathon runner Scott Jurek, Tennessee Titans linebacker Derrick Morgan, world-record-holding strongman Patrik Baboumian, eight-time national cycling champion Dotsie Bausch, weightlifter Kendrick Farris, and boxing heavyweight title contender Bryant Jennings (among others), all of whom attribute their elite performance to their plant-based diets – and say they got better after cutting out animal products. (Arnold Schwarzenegger has a few things to say, too.)

Read the full article about The Game Changers by Katherine Martinko at TreeHugger.