Dietitians in every single place launch a collective sigh each time Netflix releases a diet documentary, and with good motive: traditionally, these docs are stuffed with bias, unhealthy knowledge, and sensationalism…none of which truly helps anybody take change of their well being.
Like I all the time say, misinformation doesn’t empower anybody. Simply the other, truly.
After I heard that You Are What You Eat was directed by the identical one that directed The Sport Changers, I knew I wanted to observe and assessment it.
Learn my Sport Changers Overview right here.
On this You Are What You Eat assessment, I check out Netflix’s newest diet documentary.
The doc focuses on the execution of the Stanford Twins Examine. This 8-week research, which was simply printed on the finish of 2023, used 22 pairs of twins to find out the cardiometabolic results of a vegan weight loss plan versus an omnivore weight loss plan.
Twins are genetically equivalent, which afforded researchers the uncommon alternative to achieve useful perception into how every weight loss plan could affect one twin versus the opposite. In keeping with Christopher Gardner, diet scientist and one of many research’s investigators, people reply otherwise to the identical meals, so getting people who find themselves genetically the identical eliminates this confounder.
Twins have the identical genetic make-up, making them the right controls for each other.
Over the course of the 8 weeks, investigators will monitor indicators of cardiovascular well being, metabolic standing, and intestine microbiome through poop and blood samples.
They inform viewers that they’re wanting peoples’ organic clock, physique composition, microbiome, and mind. The precise research, which I discuss within the final a part of this assessment, doesn’t point out the microbiome, mind, or organic clock. I’m questioning if these components are upcoming.
You Are What You Eat Netflix Overview
In Episode Considered one of You Are What You Eat, we meet among the specialists that have been concerned within the research, together with 4 units of the research’s twins.
Within the first 4 weeks, every twin is randomized to both a vegan or omnivore weight loss plan. All the things they eat is made for them and delivered, so there’s no guesswork, and researchers can management the whole lot about every weight loss plan. Each diets have been deemed to be ‘wholesome’ by scientists.
After the primary 4 weeks, the twins stay on their assigned weight loss plan, however are left to cook dinner their very own meals.
The twins even have a coach, who they work out frequently with.
It was simple to see the place this documentary was going when Dr. Michael Greger, physician and recognized promoter of a vegan weight loss plan, pops up on the display screen. He was additionally in The Sport Changers and What The Well being, each Netflix documentaries whose overarching message was selling a plant-based weight loss plan and mainly scaring folks about consuming animal merchandise.
I’ve talked about Dr. Greger in my writing earlier than, primarily calling him out for twisting details and blowing up claims to swimsuit his agenda.
He rapidly does the identical factor in You Are What You Eat, telling viewers how an excessive amount of dairy will increase threat for Parkinson’s illness and prostate most cancers (with out citations or proof, naturally). He lets us know that ‘the #1 reason for demise within the US is the American Food regimen’ (based on the CDC it’s coronary heart illness, truly, however there are a lot of components that contribute to this), and what we put in our mouth is extra vital than anything.
That is basic Greger, making claims which are overblown and completely with out nuance.
Dr. Michael Greger
We additionally meet a ‘plant primarily based dairy innovator’ named Miyoko Schinner, who tells us that cheese is ‘biologically addicting,’ which is ridiculous and never factual. She follows up by trotting out the vegan calling card that ‘milk is for child cows, not people.’
She tells us that ‘most populations on the earth didn’t eat meat and dairy, besides in very small quantities if in any respect.’
Once more, now we have an ‘skilled’ who’s clearly biased to in direction of a vegan weight loss plan. I’ve nothing towards the vegan weight loss plan, in fact, however in a documentary, it’s all the time good to signify either side of an argument.
I saved ready for somebody with out a plant-based agenda to be revealed as an skilled, however SPOILER: I used to be disenchanted.
Because the documentary progresses, we study meals deserts and concrete farms.
Right here’s why we don’t all have the identical 24 hours in a day.
Tracye McQuirter, a Public Well being Nutritionist and self-proclaimed ‘vegan activist,’ explains tips on how to create a balanced vegan plate. whereas speaking about meals apartheid for African Individuals in city centres.
This can be a actually useful lesson, and it’s correct – meals deserts do exist, particularly in racialized communities. They’re intimately linked with poor well being outcomes, and we most undoubtedly have to do one thing to enhance entry to wholesome meals in North America.
One other good lesson we get is across the conflicts of curiosity among the many dietary tips committee, and the way agricultural lobbyists affect the verbiage within the tips. That is additionally an issue, and the explanation why Well being Canada refused to have meals business on the desk when growing the most recent meals tips.
The remainder of You Are What You Eat, sadly, looks like an advert for a vegan weight loss plan.
We study in regards to the animal agriculture business. We’re taken inside manufacturing unit farms. We hear how soiled they’re, how the animals are injected with antibiotics, and the way hog feces and urine are sprayed throughout adjoining fields. We see a little bit injured rooster and contaminated ponds.
Dr. Greger pops in to inform us that extra antibiotics are fed to cattle than are utilized in all of human drugs to advertise progress and forestall illness in a aggravating, unhygienic atmosphere. ‘Lifesaving, essential medicine are being squandered simply to make cheaper meat.’
Or, perhaps there are much more animals than people, which accounts for these numbers?
And wait, as a result of based on the WHO, antimicrobials should not solely utilized in animal farming, but additionally crops as nicely. Conveniently, we don’t hear about that.
Nonetheless, it’s authorized to make use of antibiotics in cattle for progress promotion and illness prevention (right here and right here)
Ought to the common particular person be involved?
I’m undecided, as a result of we have been solely offered with one facet of the argument. The typical particular person will in all probability take that unchallenged facet as reality, which is problematic. I might have preferred to listen to from an unbiased farmer and scientist about this, and about, nicely, the complete documentary.
We hear a rooster farmer who clearly hates what he does, discuss how disgusting the scent and filth of the rooster barn is. That birds are bred to have such giant breasts, that their organs and skeletal system can’t sustain. The birds scratch one another, leaving wounds which are infested with micro organism.
We see an environmental activist lawyer speaking about antibiotics in meat, and Pat Brown, the Founding father of Unimaginable Meals, who tells us that ‘each time you eat a steak, a little bit puff of smoke goes up within the Amazon. That smoke is the ‘second hand smoke out of your burger.’
George Monbiot, an writer, journalist and environmental activist tells us how the meat business is mainly killing the planet. ‘the agricultural business is among the best sources of greenhouse gases on earth.’
We’re proven a graphic that states that greenhouse gases from the agricultural sector are 31%, versus 14% for the transportation sector.
I assumed these quantity seemed a bit bizarre, so I went in search of the stats.
Seems, the EPA has some totally different numbers:
Shifting from the horrible risks of meat to what’s terrible about farmed fish, we’re launched to extra activists, one being Don Staniford, who campaigns towards salmon farms. He tells us that ‘if folks realized the complete horrors of salmon farming they’d keep away from it just like the proverbial plague.’
Hyperbole appears to be one in all You Are What You Eat’s nice strengths.
We see Don telling the twins how firms dye their fish pink to cover the truth that it’s farmed. He says that this synthetic colour has been ‘linked to human well being issues,’ though we don’t get any particulars about which issues.
He talks about how farmed salmon is much fattier than pizza and bacon. And, lest you imagine that farmed salmon accommodates wholesome fat, he provides us the rubbish take of ‘these aren’t good oils, they’re omega 6s.’
Please Don, cease speaking. The twins choose up on his concern mongering, calling the farmed salmon ‘diseased meals’ and throwing it into the precise rubbish.
Are seed oils dangerous? Learn my publish right here.
We’ve gone from speaking about meals deserts and entry to nourishing meals, to throwing a wonderfully good piece of fish into the rubbish. Disgusting.
Alexandra Morton, Biologist and activist, tells us that tons of waste is ‘pouring out of those farms’ and exhibits us disturbing photographs of diseased fish. She claims that greater than 98% of the samples fish she purchased in supermarkets and sushi eating places have been contaminated with a salmon blood virus, though she admits that there’s no analysis on how these pathogens affect people.
I’m not going to say that these points the activists are speaking about are false, however with none counterbalance, all of it comes off as folks pushing an agenda. As somebody with essential pondering expertise, this makes me very suspicious of their details.
As a little bit sidebar, Eric Adams, the Mayor of New York, talks about how weight loss plan reversed his diabetes with Complete Meals Plant Primarily based weight loss plan. He tells us that his endocrinologist didn’t study weight loss plan and diabetes in medical faculty, so he took issues into his personal fingers.
I discover the ‘docs don’t know in regards to the worth of weight loss plan’ tactic to be a extremely disappointing, lazy technique to flip folks towards standard drugs and proposals.
What did the Stanford Twins research discover?
After the entire effort, did the Twins research consequence favor a vegan weight loss plan?
It did, in some methods.
As you may see within the graphic beneath, the vegan twins had a larger discount in LDL-C, the ‘unhealthy’ ldl cholesterol. However, their HDL or ‘good’ ldl cholesterol additionally went down greater than the omnivores,’ and the vegans’ triglycerides ended up far increased than the omnivores’.
Actually, the one metrics that have been important between the 2 teams have been LDL-C, insulin, and weight, though each teams misplaced weight.
The vegan twins misplaced extra muscle mass than the omnivorous twins, which is regarding.
It’s vital to notice that the research was brief and small, and the themes have been predominantly ladies. The second week was not managed, so theoretically, every group might have strayed from their diets in weeks 5-8, confounding the outcomes. We additionally haven’t any longer-term follow-up.
Within the research conclusions, did admit that the vegan weight loss plan fed to the twins was restrictive, and that “clinicians ought to enable sufferers to make knowledgeable decisions that help them to decide on which dietary strategy is best suited for them.
At a inhabitants degree, wider adoption of a culturally applicable dietary sample that’s increased in plant meals and decrease in animal meals can promote well being and environmental advantages.”
As a dietitian, my suggestions received’t change due to this documentary. Eat as many crops as you may. Purchase what you may afford. Watch out for concern mongering ‘specialists’ who clearly have an agenda. Know that Netflix diet documentaries are low-bar and deceptive.
Curiously, Actuality Blurred uncovered the doc as ‘a documentary directed by a vegan, primarily based on a research accomplished by a vegan (who directs a program funded by Past Meat, whose CEO is featured on this film)…and completely none of that is disclosed.’
You Are What You Eat assessment, briefly:
You Are What You Eat is a basic Netflix diet documentary, flawed from the start with clearly biased ‘specialists’ and activists going unchallenged all through the movie.
Whereas I do help a plant-forward weight loss plan, I believe it’s insulting and weak to not give a balanced perspective. Why not give viewers ALL of the data earlier than permitting them to make their very own choice? Isn’t that what a documentary needs to be about? It’s too unhealthy, as a result of ‘eat extra crops’ is a superb message. I don’t assume it must be supported with misinformation and hyperbole.
The one a part of You Are What you Eat that I assumed was easy, was the messaging round meals fairness. Till all sides are represented and all details are certified by a mixture of specialists, You Are What You Eat is sensationalized vegan propaganda at its very best.
Let’s eliminate these diet and weight loss plan developments in 2024. Learn right here.
