Real Doctor Reacts to The Game Changers "VEGAN" Documentary

a debate is controversial a debate is about winning a conversation it's about seeking the truth together when I saw the debate turn into personal attacks I felt like that was a loss for me as a viewer Hey guys, I want to talk about this new Netflix

documentary

called the

game

changers

, it's all the buzz in town, my patients ask about it, you ask, so I decided to make a video on the topic, but instead of overloading you with a ton of information, I decided to look for sources. three of the most popular questions that you have and three of the most popular questions that my patients have and I'm going to answer them in this full disclosure video.

Not only did I watch the entire

documentary

but I also watched both episodes of Joe. Rogan's podcast, the first in which Chris Cresser essentially debunked the documentary and then the second in which he brought in James Wilkes from the documentary to have a debate with Chris Kresser about those qualms, which is in total about seven hours of footage. I saw it all. I wanted to make sure I was prepared to answer all of your questions. I want to start this video by giving you my basic thoughts on the topic before watching the documentary so you can be aware of my cognitive biases now that we all have a In fact, when I watched a debate between James and Chris on Rogan's podcast, I saw that They were showing their cognitive biases and I think if you are more aware of my cognitive biases and where I'm starting, my starting point is that you will be able to make a better judgment about whether or not the information I present to them is accurate or where it comes from and why.

I think what I think as a board certified family

doctor

who has done a lot of research on the subject the recommendation I most often give to my patients is a primarily plant based whole food diet, it doesn't mean

vegan

, it means getting the majority of your calories from non-animal sources, but it also means that it is okay to eat fish meat, even if it is red meat, in moderation and We are moving processed meats as much as possible now in this diet you will have lots of fruits, vegetables, healthy fats like avocado, nuts, olive oil, things like that, it's actually quite similar to the Mediterranean diet, although we have to remember that nutritional advice should

real

ly be given on an individual level, so I don't recommend that to all my patients, that's my general advice and then we do small changes based on that person's body, their health, their conditions and what they hope to achieve while I have I have never explicitly recommended the

vegan

diet to someone if a patient comes and wants.

I make sure you do the best you can by supplementing your blood work and making sure you plan to get the right macronutrients. Let's get into my thoughts before we begin. skip to the questions. I am very happy that this documentary was made. It's debunking a lot of the myths that we've been propagating for such a long period of time like that we need to eat a certain amount of meat to gain a lot of muscle. All of these have been proven false and I'm happy to have this documentary out there. In fact, I'm glad we're discussing nutrition.

We are actually learning about what constitutes good research. Why are we so deceived? certain headlines that we see in the media I love that we are discussing this I mean this video the rogan video the documentary itself all the response videos all of this is a healthy debate that we must do more and more often in nutrition so that we can Raise the bar on the type of research we are doing, we can actually have a significant impact on future generations with nutrition research, that being said, the science of the documentary is pretty solid, all the facts are well stated, there are sources to everything that appears on the screen, I love that, in fact in many of my videos I try to include links for further reading from important organizations like Who CDC or if I'm referencing a specific study I put that study in there too, the only thing What I will say is that I feel like it was done from the point of view of an activist scientist.

The reason I have to point it out is that they didn't present any counterargument and when you're making a documentary, I think the best thing for the documentary is if the interest of the documentary is to seek the truth to include all perspectives, at least the most common ones, so that we, as viewers, can decide for ourselves what is

real

and what is not. The experts they had in the movie are credible experts. They are some of the leading experts in the world, but when you only have them talking about it and no one else on the other side of this conversation, you are leaving a void there and it seems like it was done intentionally from an activist point of view, now not I know.

I want to blame someone or assume why that is done, I just think it would have been a more complete picture if we had heard from the other side of the conversation about maybe how much meat is healthy, there is no healthy meat and in some ways , get a A little more details on that now, James Wilkes, who is the star and co-producer of the film, explicitly stated that his goal with the film was not to make everyone go vegan, but to reduce the amount of animal products that they consume. I love that goal, I think we should all think about it, especially for the sake of the environment, but what it feels like to watch this movie and talk to a lot of people about it, my patients included the feeling that everyone feels when watching it is that eating any amount of animal product is incredibly unhealthy and we'll get into that as we go through this video, but I think if your goal was to send a message, but in reality or from a practical standpoint you're sending a different message.

I think something needs to be adjusted when you compare animal feed companies to tobacco companies and we talk about dangerous words like inflammation, cancer, and you refer to the fact that just in terms of animal products you are at least scaring people. In its whole. in their minds, so we have to be very careful not only in presenting all the information objectively, but also in how the audience understands it. Let's start with the YouTube questions, the first one was the most voted and it was true. that all proteins come from plants and that animals are just a vehicle for that.

I think when we make these kinds of reductionist statements we can really get lost as to the practical value of them, let's use a metaphor: all people were once lower forms of organisms due to evolution, so just because we were once bacteria doesn't mean technically let's be bacteria, not really and just because a cow can eat a ton of grass and turn it into a lot of protein doesn't mean we can eat that same thing. grass and turns into a lot of protein, there are differences between animals and humans so I don't know what to make of that statement.

I hope that answers your question, question number two, will going vegan give me more energy? First of all, it depends on what you are changing. and what are you switching to if you're switching from a very unhealthy diet, let's say the standard American diet, where you eat a lot of hamburgers and pepperoni pizzas and things like that, and then you switch to a healthy vegan diet. You will feel like you have a lot of energy, but now, on the other hand, let's say you were already following a Mediterranean diet and now you switch to a vegan diet, but it's not healthy, you're eating a ton of refined carbs, processed foods that are still If you are vegan, you will not see a dramatic increase in your energy, in fact, your energy levels may decrease.

I don't think it's a magic pill like in the documentary, some of the athletes said, "Oh, I was performing so horribly before and now everything is a disaster." suddenly I have more energy if they ate healthy before and switched to a vegan diet I don't know to what extent we can say that it was the vegan diet that caused it directly maybe in individuals we can say that but not as a general rule We haven't seen the evidence for that question number three. How did you feel about the experiments they showed in the movie? That was probably one of my biggest problems with the movie.

I understand what you are looking for. They are trying to discredit. a lot of these myths around performance and masculinity and how you can be vegan and still be successful in all these aspects of your life and that's true, but I wish they wouldn't resort to a lot of these examples that weren't scientifically significant like? What does it mean to see triglycerides floating in the blood? What does it mean that these three gentlemen didn't get proper erections overnight when they ate something else? It is not a controlled experiment. There are so many variables at play and the sample size is small.

I understand why they had to do these visual demonstrations because it works so well in the documentary. In fact, when producers call me to do morning shows or daytime talk shows, they always ask me to bring demonstrations like this or little experiments, but unless I can say that they are scientifically valid or whatever it is I'm demonstrating there's no point. I feel like I have to because I don't want to mislead the audience in any way okay, let's move on to the patients' questions, these are the main questions that apparently everyone had at the center of the discussion.

If you ask number one, I'm looking to gain muscle and I want to go vegan. Can I increase size? Absolutely yes, and I think the strength of this documentary was debunking that old myth that you can't be vegan and gain muscle, you absolutely can, you have to plan accordingly, supplement accordingly, making sure you meet all your amino acid demands, but other than that, make sure you have a good workout routine. In fact, I'll show you my workout routine in a video coming soon. Are there any health problems with going vegan? Can we all go vegan? The vegan diet is appropriate for all stages of life, they said in the documentary.

I couldn't agree more that it's not necessarily the first diet I follow when recommending it to my patients, but it absolutely can work, it's important that it's appropriate and well planned and I know that in the joe rogan debate, james made a It makes sense to say that all diets must be well planned. This is true, but the vegan diet requires more effort because you really need to plan your protein and your supplements and you usually don't have to if you're following an omnivorous diet. If you go vegan but do it in an unhealthy or unplanned way, you could actually cause serious harm to your body.

You can develop a B12 deficiency which will cause anemia. You may develop other vitamin or mineral deficiencies, especially vitamin D and calcium. and also if you're trying to gain muscle if you're not planning your protein sources correctly you could run into problems that way too, but for most people that shouldn't be a big problem and the father of them all. The final question, the question that so many people have asked me, the question that I have even reflected on after watching the documentary. Are meat or animal products as unhealthy as they say? Do I need to get rid of all of them to stay healthy?

I am rarely very direct when answering questions like this because there is usually a lot of nuance, but the answer is no. I think the documentary went too far in instilling fear in people by completely eliminating meat from their diets. In fact, James talks about Joe Rogan. podcast said that he, frankly, he believes that no amount of meat is safe or healthy. I don't think that's the case. I don't think the evidence has shown that to be the case. I think we just don't know enough. I think the research. what we have is really flawed we have industry funded research underfunded research research that is done with questionnaires my answer would be if you are eating a healthy diet based on whole foods and plants and you eat some meat, I think that is a very healthy diet, I think eliminating meat is completely a personal choice, I don't think it's something you normally have to do for your health, although nutrition is an individual matter and if your

doctor

recommends it, there may be a different conversation for you, but There is one thing I love about this. documentary I want us all to take away from it we should all reduce the amount of animal products we eat we are consuming excess calories as specifically animal products processed animal products we need to eliminate this rubbish from our diet it is one of the main reasons why obesity is rampant in the United States, in addition to refined carbohydrates, so yes, we should reduce our dependence on animal products, we should eat more fruits and vegetables and, in fact, I am eating whole foods30 right now, One of the takeaways I've gotten from this is that I should eat more fruits and vegetables and that I've relied on getting all of my protein specifically from animal sources, sothat this documentary raised awareness about that and I'm very proud of doing it just by saying that.

We should eliminate all animal products completely, since James said he's not a big fan of that. I don't think there's any evidence to support that. I think that when you compare a vegan diet to a standard American diet, it does an incredible job of reversing disease, but when you compare a vegan diet to someone who is otherwise healthy and omnivorous, I have never seen evidence to show that the vegan diet is superior and the interesting thing is that most, if not all, major organizations agree that James made a big deal in the podcast saying that Chris Cresser's views on nutrition did not match the scientific consensus.

Well, James' opinions don't match the scientific consensus. I haven't seen any guidance from the WHO or the CDC to say that we should not eat animal products at all. I have seen them recommend that we should increase our intake of fruits and vegetables, decrease our processed foods, refined carbohydrates, our red meats or processed meats, but saying that we eliminate all animal products is not a scientific consensus. I want to leave you with some thoughts I had on Joe Rogan's podcast where James Wilkes and Chris Kresser discussed the documentary. I know Joe Rogan framed this as a debate where Chris discredited the documentary.

James saw that episode and was very upset about it and wanted them to do it. fight or clash with your information I don't necessarily want to see a debate between these two gentlemen I want to see a conversation a debate is contentious a debate is about winning a conversation is about seeking the truth together when I saw the The debate turns into personal attacks. I felt like that was a loss for me as a viewer. I think these guys are so smart, they've done countless hours of research on each other and can add a lot to the conversation.

I think both. The gentlemen agreed more than they disagreed and it didn't come out that way because of the way they talked to each other, it almost seemed like they didn't agree on everything, that's not true and I think their only real point of contention is whether you get to a hundred. percent free of animal products or mostly free of animal products and I think that's my new difference that our research with the low quality that it is right now I can't really tell which one of them is correct so I still tell you to my patients that they should eat a predominantly plant-based diet with some animal products eliminating processed foods as much as they can.

I put together a playlist for you with all my nutrition videos, including going vegan for 30 days, so click here and if you have any. Residual questions leave them below in the comments section because I want to answer them