Dietitians in all places launch a collective sigh each time Netflix releases a vitamin documentary, and with good motive: traditionally, these docs are stuffed with bias, dangerous 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.

Once 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 overview it.

Learn my Sport Changers Overview right here.

On this You Are What You Eat overview, I check out Netflix’s newest vitamin documentary.

The doc focuses on the execution of the Stanford Twins Research. This 8-week examine, which was simply revealed on the finish of 2023, used 22 pairs of twins to find out the cardiometabolic results of a vegan food regimen versus an omnivore food regimen.

Twins are genetically an identical, which afforded researchers the uncommon alternative to achieve precious perception into how every food regimen could influence one twin versus the opposite. In line with Christopher Gardner, vitamin scientist and one of many examine’s investigators, people reply in a different way 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 proper 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 examine, which I speak about within the final a part of this overview, doesn’t point out the microbiome, mind, or organic clock. I’m questioning if these elements are upcoming.

You Are What You Eat Netflix Overview

In Episode Certainly one of You Are What You Eat, we meet a number of the specialists that have been concerned within the examine, together with 4 units of the examine’s twins. 

Within the first 4 weeks, every twin is randomized to both a vegan or omnivore food regimen. Every thing they eat is made for them and delivered, so there’s no guesswork, and researchers can management all the things about every food regimen. Each diets have been deemed to be ‘wholesome’ by scientists.

After the primary 4 weeks, the twins stay on their assigned food regimen, however are left to prepare dinner their very own meals. 

The twins even have a coach, who they work out commonly with.

It was straightforward to see the place this documentary was going when Dr. Michael Greger, physician and recognized promoter of a vegan food regimen, pops up on the display. He was additionally in The Sport Changers and What The Well being, each Netflix documentaries whose overarching message was selling a plant-based food regimen 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 dying within the US is the American Weight loss program’ (in keeping with the CDC it’s coronary heart illness, truly, however there are lots of elements that contribute to this), and what we put in our mouth is extra essential than anything.

That is basic Greger, making claims which are overblown and completely with out nuance.

Dr. Michael Greger

We additionally meet a ‘plant based mostly 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 this planet didn’t eat meat and dairy, besides in very small quantities if in any respect.’

Once more, we’ve got an ‘professional’ who’s clearly biased to in the direction of a vegan food regimen. I’ve nothing towards the vegan food regimen, in fact, however in a documentary, it’s all the time good to characterize each side of an argument.

I saved ready for somebody with out a plant-based agenda to be revealed as an professional, however SPOILER: I used to be upset. 

Because the documentary progresses, we find out about 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 the way to create a balanced vegan plate. whereas speaking about meals apartheid for African Individuals in city centres. 

This can be a actually precious lesson, and it’s correct – meals deserts do exist, particularly in radicalized 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 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 growing the most recent meals pointers. 

The remainder of You Are What You Eat, sadly, looks as if an advert for a vegan food regimen.

We study concerning the animal agriculture trade. We’re taken inside manufacturing facility 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 bit of injured hen and contaminated ponds. 

Dr. Greger pops in to inform us that extra antibiotics are fed to cattle than are utilized in all of human medication to advertise progress and forestall illness in a demanding, unhygienic atmosphere. ‘Lifesaving, vital medication are being squandered simply to make cheaper meat.’ 

Or, possibly there are much more animals than people, which accounts for these numbers?

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 undecided, as a result of we have been solely offered with one aspect of the argument. The typical particular person will in all probability take that unchallenged aspect as truth, which is problematic. I might have appreciated to listen to from an unbiased farmer and scientist about this, and about, properly, the complete 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 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 Not possible Meals, who tells us that  ‘each time you eat a steak, a bit of 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 trade is mainly killing the planet. ‘the agricultural trade 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 believed these quantity appeared a bit bizarre, so I went on the lookout for 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 total horrors of salmon farming they’d keep away from it just like the proverbial plague.’

Hyperbole appears to be certainly one of You Are What You Eat’s nice strengths. 

We see Don telling the twins how corporations dye their fish pink 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 imagine that farmed salmon accommodates wholesome fat, he offers 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 submit 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 reveals 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 folks pushing an agenda. As somebody with vital pondering expertise, this makes me very suspicious of their details.

As a bit of sidebar, Eric Adams, the Mayor of New York, talks about how food regimen reversed his diabetes with Entire Meals Plant Based mostly food regimen. He tells us that his endocrinologist didn’t find out about food regimen and diabetes in medical college, so he took issues into his personal arms.

I discover the ‘docs don’t know concerning the worth of food regimen’ tactic to be a extremely disappointing, lazy approach to flip folks towards typical medication and suggestions. 

What did the Stanford Twins examine discover?

After all the effort, did the Twins examine final result favor a vegan food regimen?

It did, in some methods. 

As you possibly can see within the graphic under, the vegan twins had a higher discount in LDL-C, the ‘dangerous’ ldl cholesterol. However, their HDL or ‘good’ ldl cholesterol additionally went down greater than the omnivores,’ and the vegans’ triglycerides ended up far larger than the omnivores’.

Actually, the one metrics that have been vital between the 2 teams have been LDL-C, insulin, and weight, though each teams misplaced weight. 

It’s essential to notice that the examine was quick and small, and the themes 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 examine conclusions, did admit that the vegan food regimen fed to the twins was restrictive, and that “clinicians ought to permit sufferers to make knowledgeable decisions that help them to decide on which dietary method is best suited for them.

At a inhabitants stage, wider adoption of a culturally acceptable dietary sample that’s larger in plant meals and decrease in animal meals can promote well being and environmental advantages.”

As a dietitian, my suggestions gained’t change due to this documentary. Eat as many crops as you possibly can. Purchase what you possibly can afford. Watch out for concern mongering ‘specialists’ who clearly have an agenda. Know that Netflix vitamin documentaries are low-bar and deceptive.

You Are What You Eat overview, briefly:

You Are What You Eat is a basic Netflix vitamin documentary, flawed from the start with clearly biased ‘specialists’ and activists going unchallenged all through the movie. 

Whereas I do help a plant-forward food regimen, 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 determination? Isn’t that what a documentary must be about?

The one a part of You Are What you Eat that I believed 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 do away with these vitamin and food regimen traits in 2024. Learn right here.