The producer of vegan documentary The Game Changers has hit back against objections raised by critics after the film’s release.

The documentary promotes a plant-based diet for athletic performance received rave reviews and has been the most successful documentary of all time on iTunes.

But some critics have accused the film of being biased, misleading and a tool to further the business objectives of those involved.

Speaking to Plant Based News founder Klaus Mitchell in an exclusive interview, producer James Wilks tackled the top criticisms the film has received.

‘Meat will kill you’

He responded to accusations raised in an article about the film in Men’s Health starting with – ‘This New Documentary Says Meat Will Kill You. Here’s Why It’s Wrong’.

Wilks said: “The article started off saying the whole film was built around the study about the Roman gladiators which I came across. They said it wasn’t a study, it wasn’t peer-reviewed, there was no control group, and it wasn’t published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

“First of all, there was a control group, it was a study, and the research was published in two peer-reviewed scientific medical journals. Second of all, the whole film wasn’t based on the findings of the gladiators. 

“That was just an inciting incident for me to look into other research. The article is extremely biased…the author has sold two books heavily promoting a meat-based diet, and he interviewed two ‘experts’, one of which had pretty poor credentials, the other one is funded by the meat industry…you have to look at what the motives are of people.”

Elite athletes

The second point of criticism was that the athletes in the movie didn’t build their physiques with vegan food, highlighting that Arnold Schwarzenegger’s diet when he became Mr. Olympia was not plant-based.

James replied: “It feels like it makes sense, but when you think about it, it really doesn’t.

“All protein originates from plants and animals are just the middle-men, so where did that protein come from originally? That’s the macronutrient that people are worrying about.

“Well the animals you’re eating, they got their protein from plants, so I really don’t see a good argument for it. I used to think you had to eat animal foods to get the protein…but animals are doing you a disservice. They are robbing the food of fiber and phytonutrients, they are concentrating the toxic heavy metals and the pesticides, and they are adding in inflammatory mediators which are not good for athletic performance or health.”

Experts

The third point of contention was the absence of registered dieticians, to which James countered that the academy handing out degrees for registered dieticians was funded by the meat industry, and therefore were likely to be biased. 

However, he continued that the film did interview leading researchers and their opinions were documented.

• Read: Doctors plan to show patients vegan documentary The Game Changers

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