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Omagosh there's so many things to notice about this movie. You can start before the movie does, one of the main producers is Arnold Schwarzenegger who is not in fact a vegan. He claims he cut down on meat consumption for both health and environmental reasons, so right there he A.) knows there is a beneficial quantity of meat consumption B.) Environmental issues have nothing or a very tenuous relation at best to health. Whether plant based is good for the planet is a whole other topic that doesn't belong in a movie about health , and I could make a compelling case for mixed animal husbandry/agriculture as being truly the most earth friendly. But again, that's another topic.
The movie begins by making some dubious claims about gladiators, from the supposed "proof" in strontum levels in bones to the assertion they were "highly prized and cared for" athletes. There were a few who gained enough fame during roman times that their names were recorded, but we don't have many names because they were largely expendable slaves, and were probably fed accordingly.
The athletes in the movie are gifted no doubt, but their achievements are misrepresented somewhat. The strong man Patrik Baboumian is a hulk for sure, but he has not won any competitions at the level of "worlds strongest man" as is implied.
It doesn't take long into the movie to see it is agenda driven rather than evidence, all the anecdotes from the cast aside there's no evidence to say more than plant based doesn't preclude high performance, none to link it directly to such.
Every society since the dawn of man has been omnivore, some more animal based and some more plant based, and of those that remain as traditional societies there are healthy examples of each (see masai, innuit, kitavans, tokalau islanders, paupa new guinans et al). Anyone selling something extreme too hard is suspect IMO. The carnivore ppl are just as bad when they go on with no evidence that our physiology is not designed to break down plants and suggest that broccoli and kale are aKsHuLly bad for you.
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