[chunkyslink]

> philosophical hangups

This is a strong statement, when there is more than enough evidence to support that everything is available in a plant based diet.

Modern scientific thinking will tell you that eating a plant based diet is

1. The best way to fight climate change and ecological destruction and species extinction.

2. The health benefits to athletes of a meat free diet are now known and logged.

The only slightly philisophical hangup would be against animal cruelty and global agribusiness.

The rest is science and in the public domain.

[dalore]

There is no evidence (and actually evidence to the contrary) that a plant based diet can provide all essential nutrients.

Sounds like you watched Game Changers on Netflix and now that's your knowledge. None of that was scientific at all and full of inaccuracies.

All the athletes mentioned saw their performance go down after adopting a plant based diet.

There are virtual no athletes at the top of their sport who got there on a plant based diet (plenty who started on animal and then moved to plant, but you will see their performance drop).

Animals are needed to fight climate change. Without them the soils would have no nutrients. It's a symbiotic relationship. They eat plant matter we can't. Grown on areas that we couldn't grow stuff. So they are vital to supplement our food. Going plant based would be a huge ecological disaster.

[chunkyslink]

> All the athletes mentioned saw their performance go down after adopting a plant based diet.

I'm sorry I must have watched a different film. The complete opposite of what you claim is portrayed in the film. Also my personal experience of regularly running and recovering from Ultramarathons suggests that you are wrong. My times and recovery rates are much much better on plant based diets.

Also the Amazon is being cleared for Beef and agribusiness to food humans. We don't need to do this and we don't need to eat meat. Please read some decent news and science and try and think things through.

[dalore]

Perhaps you did. The documentary does sound quite compelling. There is no doubt that switching to a vegan diet from a standard processed food diet will see improvements. But those athletes built themselves up as omnivores.

Some examples from athletes in the film:

-Griff Whalen: went vegan 2014 out of the league 2016

-Bryant Jennings: went vegan end of 2013 (17-0 before vegan, 5-2 after vegan)

-Mischa Janiec: went vegan fall of 2015 - no wins 2 years after

-Kendrick Farris: went vegan 2014 -performed poorly in the 2016 Olympics

-Patrik Baboumian went vegan 2011 - 5'-7" and never ever part of the World Strong Men competition.

-Morgan Mitchell went vegan 2014... in 2017 finished 26th place world championships

-James Brett Wilks went vegan 2011, retired from MMA in 2012

- Lewis Hamiliton suffered depressive breakdown on twitter

Typically within 2 years after going vegan, performance goes down. So veganism based on many of the athletes in the film is a sub-optimal diet for athletic performance.

As to your comment about the Amazon, we aren't eating Amazon beef. You're right it's being cleared, to make way for soy and other processed food. When you buy a steak from the butcher it's not coming from the Amazon, it comes from your local butcher, from a grass fed field, using less carbon then your bananas from Panama.

Tim Rees (amongst other) have written several writeups about the "evidence" in the movie. https://medium.com/@timrees/watched-the-game-changers-now-yo...

Greenhouse gas emissions of meat is also very questionable. Here is a PhD GHG expert, who has looked a bit closer: https://www.sciencealert.com/sorry-but-giving-up-on-meat-is-...

As always it's not as so simple. I believe the place to start is with science-based facts.

[dalore]

More evidence http://paleozonenutrition.com/2019/11/04/the-game-changers-m...