James Wilks wrote and produced the film with Joseph Pace (not pictured)

The producer of smash hit documentary The Game Changers has debunked some of the criticisms of his film.

James Wilks, who wrote and produced the movie with Joseph Pace, tackled various comments about the film - which is directed by Oscar-winner Louie Psihoyos and executive produced by Oscar-winner James Cameron - during an exclusive interview with Plant Based News founder Klaus Mitchell.

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Men's Health

Among the top critics of the film are Men's Health magazine, which published an article titled This New Documentary Says Meat Will Kill You. Here's Why It's Wrong. The piece was disputed by physician Dr. Loomis, who appeared in the movie and wrote a rebuttal My 'Beef' with the Men's Health Review of 'The Game Changers'.

Speaking about the Men's Health piece, Wilks told Mitchell: "The article started off saying the whole film was built around the study about the Roman gladiators which I came across. They said it wasn't a study, it wasn't peer-reviewed, there was no control group, and it wasn't published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

"First of all, there was a control group, it was a study, and the research was published in two peer-reviewed scientific medical journals. Second of all, the whole film wasn't based on the findings of the gladiators. That was just an inciting incident for me to look into other research. The article is extremely biased...the author has sold two books heavily promoting a meat-based diet, and he interviewed two 'experts', one of which had pretty poor credentials, the other one is funded by the meat industry...you have to look at what the motives are of people."

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Athletes 'built muscle on meat'

Another criticism of the film is that some of the athletes didn't build their muscle on a plant-based diet, but built their physiques before ditching animal products.

"It feels like it makes sense, but when you think about it, it really doesn't," said Wilks. 'All protein originates from plants and animals are just the middle-men, so where did that protein come from originally? That's the macronutrient that people are worrying about.

"Well the animals you're eating, they got their protein from plants, so I really don't see a good argument for it. I used to think you had to eat animal foods to get the protein...but animals are doing you a disservice. They are robbing the food of fiber and phytonutrients, they are concentrating the toxic heavy metals and the pesticides, and they are adding in inflammatory mediators which are not good for athletic performance or health."

Wilks tackles other criticisms in the video, including that the film is too 'agenda-led' and doesn't feature 'proper' experts, among others.