The idea of making fake meats from vegetables is not just something that has become popular with beyond meat. And it's not something that just popped up in the grocery aisles when brands like Garden Burgers came on the scene.
As a recent article in CNN details, there has been a history of making meatless meat dishes. Many of them were made due to the cost and scarcity of meat, not necessarily because people had an ethical problem with eating meat.
However, there is also an older, more ethically based diet in China that incorporates vegetarian foods. This was due to Buddhist diets. The Buddhists would not eat animals, but they would want to have a feast that was fit for guests. So, they spent great care creating meals that would be both animal free as well as extremely tasty.
Here' a great video that goes over the ideas behind Buddhist and vegetarianism.
The new documentary Game Changers has been released on streaming sites like Netflix and it's created a stir online. The film features a former fighter who became injured and then started to research the different ways he could improve his recovery time.
The first thing that he noticed that set him down the road to investigating the superiority of a vegan diet is that Gladiators were vegetarians. This was discovered by doing bone tests.
If you watch the film, one of the most striking scenes is where they feed three incidental meals (Mexican food) to three athletes. The only difference between the meals is the protein source. One is made with black beans and the other two are made using meat. Then the athletes blood is tested and the results are astounding. The amount of fat in the blood is vastly different.
The documentary highlights athletes of all kinds, from bodybuilders and powerlifters, to boxers who fight in the heavyweight division and distance athletes . This sort of coverage dispels the myth that it is only distance athletes who will benefit form a plant based protein diet.
Here is an interesting article that discusses how one of the worlds most famous bodybuilders saw the movie and wanted to switch to a plant based diet.
Kai Green (famous for his extended interviews in films like Generation Iron) was convinced to move towards a plant based diet.
