Muscle for Life

You don’t have to look far to see that extremism and alarmism sells. Turn on any cable news network at just about any time of the day, for instance, and it’s a daisy chain of drama and conflict—”breaking news” banners preceding humdrum bits of information and “countdown clocks” to minor events underscored by melodramatic music and striking sound effects. The same forces are at work in the health and fitness space as well, and especially in the realm of diet and nutrition. Everywhere you look there's another self-styled expert selling the superiority of one regimen or another, and plant-based dieting is a favorite of many. Its popularity is also bolstered by a number of successful documentaries produced over the last decade, including Forks Over Knives, What the Health, and the most recent, The Game Changers. I wrote and recorded a long, evidence-based review of What the Health a couple years ago, and as The Game Changers repeats many of the same talking points, I was disinclined to repeat the process. I kept