Dietitians in all places launch a collective sigh each time Netflix releases a diet documentary, and with good motive: traditionally, these docs are filled with bias, unhealthy information, and sensationalism…none of which really helps anybody take change of their well being.
Like I at all times say, misinformation doesn’t empower anybody. Simply the alternative, really.
After I heard that You Are What You Eat was directed by the identical one that directed The Recreation Changers, I knew I wanted to look at and assessment it.
Learn my Recreation Changers Evaluation 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 revealed on the finish of 2023, used 22 pairs of twins to find out the cardiometabolic results of a vegan weight-reduction plan versus an omnivore weight-reduction plan.
Twins are genetically an identical, which afforded researchers the uncommon alternative to realize helpful perception into how every weight-reduction plan might influence one twin versus the opposite. Based on 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 speak about 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 Evaluation
In Episode One in every of You Are What You Eat, we meet a number of 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-reduction plan. All the things they eat is made for them and delivered, so there’s no guesswork, and researchers can management every little thing about every weight-reduction plan. Each diets have been deemed to be ‘wholesome’ by scientists.
After the primary 4 weeks, the twins stay on their assigned weight-reduction plan, however are left to cook dinner their very own meals.
The twins even have a coach, who they work out usually with.
It was straightforward to see the place this documentary was going when Dr. Michael Greger, physician and recognized promoter of a vegan weight-reduction plan, pops up on the display screen. He was additionally in The Recreation Changers and What The Well being, each Netflix documentaries whose overarching message was selling a plant-based weight-reduction plan and mainly scaring individuals about consuming animal merchandise.
I’ve talked about Dr. Greger in my writing earlier than, primarily calling him out for twisting information and blowing up claims to go well with 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 behind dying within the US is the American Weight-reduction plan’ (in response to the CDC it’s coronary heart illness, really, however there are lots of components that contribute to this), and what we put in our mouth is extra necessary than the rest.
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 planet didn’t eat meat and dairy, besides in very small quantities if in any respect.’
Once more, we have now an ‘knowledgeable’ who’s clearly biased to in direction of a vegan weight-reduction plan. I’ve nothing in opposition to the vegan weight-reduction plan, after all, however in a documentary, it’s at all times good to signify each side of an argument.
I saved ready for somebody with out a plant-based agenda to be revealed as an knowledgeable, 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 how you can create a balanced vegan plate. whereas speaking about meals apartheid for African Individuals in city centres.
This can be a actually helpful 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 positively 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 pointers committee, and the way agricultural lobbyists affect the verbiage within the pointers. That is additionally an issue, and the rationale why Well being Canada refused to have meals trade on the desk when creating the newest meals pointers.
The remainder of You Are What You Eat, sadly, looks like an advert for a vegan weight-reduction plan.
We be taught in regards to the animal agriculture trade. 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 just a little injured hen and contaminated ponds.
Dr. Greger pops in to inform us that extra antibiotics are fed to livestock than are utilized in all of human drugs to advertise progress and forestall illness in a disturbing, unhygienic atmosphere. ‘Lifesaving, crucial medication are being squandered simply to make cheaper meat.’
Or, possibly there are much more animals than people, which accounts for these numbers?
And wait, as a result of in response to the WHO, antimicrobials usually are not solely utilized in animal farming, but additionally crops as effectively. 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 typical particular person be involved?
I’m unsure, 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 favored to listen to from an unbiased farmer and scientist about this, and about, effectively, the whole documentary.
We hear a hen farmer who clearly hates what he does, speak about how disgusting the scent and filth of the hen barn is. That birds are bred to have such massive 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, just a little puff of smoke goes up within the Amazon. That smoke is the ‘second hand smoke out of your burger.’
George Monbiot, an creator, journalist and environmental activist tells us how the meat trade is mainly killing the planet. ‘the agricultural trade is without doubt one of the biggest 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 appeared a bit bizarre, so I went in search of the stats.
Seems, the EPA has some completely 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 in opposition to salmon farms. He tells us that ‘if individuals realized the total 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 corporations dye their fish purple to cover the truth that it’s farmed. He says that this synthetic coloration 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 way fattier than pizza and bacon. And, lest you consider that farmed salmon comprises wholesome fat, he provides us the rubbish take of ‘these aren’t good oils, they’re omega 6s.’
Please Don, cease speaking. The twins decide 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 superbly 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 pictures 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 influence 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 individuals pushing an agenda. As somebody with crucial considering expertise, this makes me very suspicious of their information.
As just a little sidebar, Eric Adams, the Mayor of New York, talks about how weight-reduction plan reversed his diabetes with Entire Meals Plant Based mostly weight-reduction plan. He tells us that his endocrinologist didn’t study weight-reduction plan and diabetes in medical college, so he took issues into his personal fingers.
I discover the ‘docs don’t know in regards to the worth of weight-reduction plan’ tactic to be a extremely disappointing, lazy solution to flip individuals in opposition to standard drugs and suggestions.
What did the Stanford Twins research discover?
After the entire effort, did the Twins research end result favor a vegan weight-reduction plan?
It did, in some methods.
As you’ll be able to see within the graphic under, 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’.
In actual fact, the one metrics that have been vital 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 necessary to notice that the research was quick and small, and the topics have been predominantly girls. The second week was not managed, so theoretically, every group may 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-reduction plan fed to the twins was restrictive, and that “clinicians ought to enable sufferers to make knowledgeable selections that assist them to decide on which dietary strategy is most fitted for them.
At a inhabitants stage, 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’ll be able to. Purchase what you’ll be able to 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 assist a plant-forward weight-reduction plan, I believe it’s insulting and weak to not give a balanced perspective. Why not give viewers ALL of the knowledge earlier than permitting them to make their very own resolution? Isn’t that what a documentary ought to be about? It’s too unhealthy, as a result of ‘eat extra crops’ is a good 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 information are certified by a mixture of specialists, You Are What You Eat is sensationalized vegan propaganda at its very most interesting.
Let’s do away with these diet and weight-reduction plan tendencies in 2024. Learn right here.
