The Game Changers

The Game Changers is a 2018 American documentary film about the benefits of plant-based eating for athletes.

Directed by Louie Psihoyos. Produced by Joseph Pace and James Wilks.

Morgan Mitchell

A lot of people had doubted me when I first became vegan, but my energy levels increased incredibly and my iron, my B12, everything that people said would become deficient, were amazing. I thought, I'm gonna make sure I'm beating them all on the track. I mean, we're all friends, but it was pretty cool to finish my Australian domestic season undefeated. And to win the nationals was obviously that little cherry on top.

I grew up in Kentucky so that's the land of casseroles and barbecue and meat. So when I transitioned over to an entirely plant-based diet, I wasn't sure if I was gonna survive. And I actually became like a machine.

When I made the switch to a plant based diet, people, they were like, "I don't know how you're gonna lift that much weight." And, "You're not gonna be eating anything, you're just gonna eat grass. Like, how you gonna be strong?" I qualified for my third Olympic team, you know what I'm saying? I broke two American records. I won at the Pan-Am games. I was like, "Man." Like, "I think, I should've done this a long while ago." Like, "Why didn't I research this before?"

In the NFL, the injury rate is a 100 percent. It's a violent game. And so, how you respond to injury and how quickly you heal from injury is important because if you're not on the field, you're not helping the team. I was reading the research and seeing that a plant-based diet could be beneficial, specifically for recovery. And so I started incorporating it and I started seeing really good results with it. I was recovering better. I wasn't getting as sore. I was a lot less swollen.

In all of western civilization, there is nothing more common than coronary artery heart disease, and that is because of the foods that most people eat every day.

When you eat animal products, you start to form plaques in the coronary arteries. Plaque formation in the arteries doesn't just limit the function of the arteries, it can also block the blood flow, and that's when the heart starts to have some real problems keeping up with the demands of the body.

The amino acids that come from animal sources tend to make our cells rev up and multiply faster. For example, there is accumulating evidence that high consumption of proteins from dairy sources is related to a higher risk of prostate cancer. That chain of cancer causation actually seems pretty clear.

Meat plays a disproportionately large role in causing this overuse of freshwater. Twenty-five percent of the rivers in the world no longer reach the ocean, because we're taking out so much water to produce animal feed.

When you eat a healthy, whole foods, plant-based diet, it changes the expression of your genes. It turns on the good genes, turns off the bad genes. Your genes are a predisposition, but your genes are not your fate.

We all wanna feel great. We all wanna look great, have more energy. The most important thing is about having the right fuel in your body. I can't remember feeling this great in my whole 32 years of my life.

It's not about being the strongest and the biggest. It's really about what are you going to do with your strength, and what are you going to do with the power that you have.

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The Game Changers