Last Updated on April 23, 2023 by admin
Making the switch to veganism isn’t necessarily easy, especially if you’ve eaten meat and dairy your entire life. Perhaps you’ve always had an interest in veganism and you’ve even tried going vegan once or twice, but it just hasn’t stuck. It could be that you need to learn more about what meat does to your body or how animals suffer through food agriculture by watching a vegan documentary on these subjects. Which vegan documentaries should you check out?
These 10 veganism documentaries should convince you to abandon a meat-eating lifestyle:
- The Game Changers
- Forks Over Knives
- Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret
- What the Health
- Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead
- Food, Inc.
- Vegan: Everyday Stories
- Vegucated
- Eating You Alive
- The End of Meat
Curious to learn more about any of these vegan documentaries? You’re in luck. In this post, we’ll talk more about all 10 great titles, including why one or more of these films just may change your mind on veganism for the better.
10 Vegan-Centric Documentaries to Check out If You Still Eat Meat
The Game Changers
Our first pick, The Game Changers, is a newer one, as it was released in 2018. It tells the story of James Wilks, who used to fight for the UFC, and his quest to learn more about vegan diets as he heals from an injury.
In the vegan documentary, Wilks speaks to the likes of Dotsie Bausch, Patrik Baboumian, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Besides discovering how a plant-based diet affects athletes, Wilks also intersperses real scientific data through the film to prove how veganism can help everyone feel better, not just athletes.
Forks Over Knives
The 2011 vegan documentary Forks Over Knives is undoubtedly one of the best-known in the veganism community. That’s for a good reason, as the film features the work of T. Colin Campbell, a biochemistry expert and vegan who has made a huge splash for his awesome work. Also, Caldwell Esselstyn, a physician, shows a growing body of research about the benefits of a vegan diet in this vegan documentary.
Campbell and Esselstyn both believe that it’s possible to ward off cancer, cardiovascular diseases, obesity, and other diseases by cutting out animal-produced foods and byproducts. If you’ve read Campbell’s 2005 book, The China Study, some of the findings in there are featured in the vegan documentary as well.
Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret
Did you know the Netflix version of Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret is produced by Leonardo DiCaprio? As of this didn’t give you enough reason to spend some time on this vegan documentary, which was released in 2014, then there’s the content itself.
In Cowspiracy, such topics are explored as ocean dead zones, deforestation, water use, and global warming and how animal agriculture may play a role. Oceana, Rainforest Action Network, Surfrider Foundation, Sierra Club, and Greenpeace are all featured in the film as well, sharing their thoughts on veganism and the potential for a healthier planet.
What the Health
When What the Health came out in 2017, its advertising slogan was “the health film that health organizations don’t want you to see.” The vegan documentary, which is written, produced, edited, and directed by Kip Anderson, stars him as well.
Anderson speaks to many professionals, including physicians, as he tries to connect the dots between pharmaceuticals, dairy, and meat production industries. He claims that eating dairy and meat can lead to some major health consequences, and Anderson even goes so far as to suggest there’s a conspiracy to make this information less readily available.
Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead
Joe Cross comes all the way from Australia to the United States in 2010’s classic vegan documentary Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. He works with the Nutrition Research Foundation’s Joel Fuhrman, another major name in veganism today.
Under Fuhrman’s guidance, Cross begins a juice fast that begins to turn his health around. He then gets on the vegan diet. Since working with Fuhrman, Cross mentions that he doesn’t need to take medication anymore, plus he shed 100 pounds. If you like this vegan documentary, then make sure you watch the sequel, 2014’s Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead 2!
Food, Inc.
Next, we’ve got 2008’s Food, Inc., which got nods from the Independent Spirit Awards and the Academy Awards, being nominated for the Best Documentary Feature from both. Robert Kenner, the writer, producer, and director, explores agribusiness practices and US-based corporate farming in the film.
Kenner shows how not only are the animals mistreated in animal agriculture, but employees as well. You’ll also learn more about how pork, beef, and chicken are produced, from the beginning to the bitter end. Then, the film transitions into how chemicals such as fertilizers, pesticides, and more regularly make it into the foods you eat as a non-vegan.
Vegan: Everyday Stories
If you’re looking for a gentler take on reasons to go vegan, then 2016’s Vegan: Everyday Stories may be the vegan documentary for you. In it, we meet four people who are as different as they can be. They all happen to have one thing in common though, and that’s veganism.
One of the four is a little girl who wants her large family to eat better. The second is a food truck owner who decides to make a major dietary and lifestyle switch through veganism. The third is the Texas-based wife of a cattle rancher, who not only goes vegan, but turns her cattle ranch into an animal sanctuary. There’s also an ultramarathon runner who uses veganism to stay clean from addiction and run in races that are up to 100 miles long.
Vegucated
Are you Vegucated? You will be if you watch this 2011 film of the same title. In Vegucated, Marisa Miller Wolfson, the director, speaks to three New Yorkers who have eaten dairy and meat regularly for years. Then they sign up to be in her film.
You’ll watch the three participants go vegan for six weeks, which just may convince you to do the same. Also augmenting the vegan documentary are discussions about plant-based diets from T. Colin Campbell and Joel Fuhrman. You even get to take a look at a once-used slaughterhouse to uncover the horrors within.
Eating You Alive
Another newer documentary to add to your watch later list is 2018’s Eating You Alive. Director Paul David Kennamer Jr. investigates the link between what we eat and our propensity to develop chronic diseases. Kennamer Jr. says in his film that the change to a vegan diet can ward off these diseases, keeping us alive longer.
Supporting his claims are interviews with scientists and health experts, including doctors. If you need a further incentive, then you’ll want to turn on this vegan documentary for the celebrity cameos, including Penn Jillette, James Cameron, and even Samuel L. Jackson, all of whom are vegan.
The End of Meat
Last but certainly not least, we’ve got The End of Meat, released in 2017. The vegan documentary, which is directed by Marc Pierschel, takes a deep dive into eating meat and what it does to our bodies. Pierschel wants us all to live in a world without meat, a world he spends a lot of time shaping and framing in the film.
He speaks to activists, artists, scientists, and philosophers who all feel passionate about quitting meat as well. Using these insights, Pierschel is able to share how animals and our planet would benefit if everyone gave up meat wholeheartedly. Oh, and The End of Meat features a scene with Ester the Wonder Pig as well.
Conclusion
If you’re on the cusp of going vegan but just need a little push, we recommend viewing one if not all of these 10 great, inspiring vegan documentaries. They center around veganism, yes, but they explore the diet through different angles.
Some filmmakers focus on the lives of people who are positively impacted by veganism. Others show what happens to animals in agriculture in harrowing detail. More still portray a better, healthier planet through a plant-based diet. If you have any lingering questions or doubts about veganism, these vegan documentaries should erase them all. Happy watching!
Recent Posts
You’ve read this blog and it’s certainly piqued your curiosity about what it means to be an SOS-free vegan. You’ve learned about this branch of veganism from our introductory post and maybe...
Vegans Desserts! Few things taste better than a refreshing ice cream cone on a hot summer’s day. Now that you’ve given up sugar and oil (not to mention salt) and gone vegan though, you may feel...