Although I am going to mention "The Game Changers": pro-vegan diet documentary, and we have a seperate
thread for it, I decided to write here, because the implications of this propaganda are broader than pushing the plant-based diet agenda on athletes.
So some time ago Joe Rogan had
an interview with Chris Kresser. Kresser is a Functional Medicine Practitioner and was mentioned on this forum in several threads. He wrote "The Paleo Cure" book and has a more omnivore approach toward nutrition than the "mostly meat" approach.
And in this interview he criticized "The Game Changers" documentary, showing that it's easy to confuse supposed benefits from the plant based diet with any other natural or holistic diet, when switching from the crappy standard American diet. That basically any diet would show improvement in health when choosing to stop eating crap. He also emphasized that vegan diet isn't for everyone, just like low carb diet isn't for everyone, and that although it is possible to thrive on the vegan diet, it requires a lot of research and a lot of work in order to compensate for things that we usually get by eating meat. All in all it was an interesting interview.
But clearly the creators of "The Game Changers" were not happy and probably demanded Rogan to give them an opportunity to explain themselves. Not sure who proposed the idea of the debate, but Kresser no doubt now regrets that he agreed to what turned out to be the most agressive character assasination.
The debate was with James Wilks. He participated in the movie and also helped to create it. Wilks is a retired professional mixed martial artist.
The first 10 minutes were horrible. I wanted to turn this thing off. What a manipulative piece of weasel this James Wilks turned out to be. But I continued listening and at one point when Wilks made one really overt attempt to discredit Kresser, both Kresser and Joe called him out on that. So that was good. But, unfortunately, as the debate continued, Joe didn't do anything to stop the attack on Kresser's credibility, and even encouraged Wilks.
And it was incredible how Wilks reminded me of Israelis and their Hasbara tactics. I even went to read up about him to see if he has Jewish roots or something. Nope, apparently he is British, but appears to have Mediterranean genes in there?
Anyways, it was such a shameful attack on Kresser. He was being demolished by this angry vegan. Instead of answering Joe's question that he asked again and again why Wilks thought meat is harmful, instead he was busy with discrediting and pointing out mistakes Kresser made in his first interview, and Wilks made it with such a glee, even if this guy was partially right, he behaved like a total asshole.
And that's why I think that the documentary and this debate are much more than just a fight between two approaches to nutrition. Wilks kept barraging Kresser with points that this documentary was checked and vetted by many mainstream nutritional experts and also was accredited by the Defence Health Agency and the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. Basically, his attacks on Kresser's credibility had to do a lot with the fact that Kresser's methodology isn't based on the accepted nutritional guidelines.
Personally, I don't know Kresser's work that well to say if his approach to nutrition is lacking in any way, and there were some points that he admitted as erronous, but still...this "debate" was totally disingenious, and despite Joe Rogan's show being the best opportunity ever to get exposure, I would advise anyone to think twice before agreeing to give an interview there. That's what Joe wrote on Instagram after the show:
Vegans, you’re gonna LOVE this one! @lightningwilks, one of the producers of “the game changers” came on to challenge some of the criticism that Chris Kresser presented about the movie, and to say he did well would be a tremendous understatement. James knocked it our of the park, and defended himself and the film quite spectacularly. So much so that I’m actually considering taking the original breakdown of the film offline.
He threw Kresser under the bus and clearly has a blind spot when it comes to pathology. My take on the "Debate" and Wilks, that vegans appear to be the Zionists of the nutritional world, and are employing Hasbara tactics, and with the similar backup from various agencies, organizations and companies.
P.S Here's Shawn Baker's take on the debate:
And part 2
here. He talks not only about the unwarranted attack on Kresser, but also explains why Kresser was better at arguing his point of view than Wilks.