Dietitians in all places launch a collective sigh each time Netflix releases a vitamin documentary, and with good purpose: traditionally, these docs are filled with bias, unhealthy knowledge, 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 Sport Changers, I knew I wanted to look at and overview it.

Learn my Sport Changers Evaluation 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 eating regimen versus an omnivore eating regimen.

Twins are genetically similar, which afforded researchers the uncommon alternative to achieve precious perception into how every eating regimen could influence one twin versus the opposite. In accordance with Christopher Gardner, vitamin scientist and one of many examine’s investigators, people reply in another 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 by way of poop and blood samples.

They inform viewers that they’re wanting peoples’ organic clock, physique composition, microbiome, and mind. The precise examine, which I discuss 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 Evaluation

In Episode Considered one of You Are What You Eat, we meet among 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 eating regimen. All the pieces they eat is made for them and delivered, so there’s no guesswork, and researchers can management every thing about every eating regimen. Each diets have been deemed to be ‘wholesome’ by scientists.

After the primary 4 weeks, the twins stay on their assigned eating regimen, however are left to prepare 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 identified promoter of a vegan eating regimen, 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 eating regimen and principally scaring folks about consuming animal merchandise. 

I’ve talked about Dr. Greger in my writing earlier than, basically calling him out for twisting details and blowing up claims to go well with his agenda. 

He shortly 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 loss of life within the US is the American Weight loss program’ (in keeping with 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 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 the planet didn’t eat meat and dairy, besides in very small quantities if in any respect.’

Once more, we have now an ‘skilled’ who’s clearly biased to in the direction of a vegan eating regimen. I’ve nothing in opposition to the vegan eating regimen, after all, however in a documentary, it’s at all times good to signify each side of an argument.

I stored ready for somebody with out a plant-based agenda to be revealed as an skilled, however SPOILER: I used to be disillusioned. 

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 the best way to create a balanced vegan plate. whereas speaking about meals apartheid for African Individuals in city centres. 

It is a actually precious 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 must 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 explanation 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 like an advert for a vegan eating regimen.

We study 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 a little bit 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 medication to advertise development and forestall illness in a irritating, unhygienic setting. ‘Lifesaving, crucial medicine are being squandered simply to make cheaper meat.’ 

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

Nonetheless, it’s authorized to make use of antibiotics in cattle for development promotion and illness prevention (right here and right here)

Ought to the typical individual be involved?

I’m unsure, as a result of we have been solely offered with one aspect of the argument. The common individual will in all probability take that unchallenged aspect as reality, which is problematic. I’d have appreciated to listen to from an unbiased farmer and scientist about this, and about, properly, your complete documentary. 

We hear a hen farmer who clearly hates what he does, discuss 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 Unattainable 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 creator, journalist and environmental activist tells us how the meat trade is principally killing the planet. ‘the agricultural trade is without doubt one of 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 regarded a bit bizarre, so I went on the lookout for the stats. 

Seems, the EPA has some totally different numbers:

Transferring 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 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 every of You Are What You Eat’s nice strengths. 

We see Don telling the twins how firms dye their fish crimson 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 way fattier than pizza and bacon. And, lest you consider that farmed salmon incorporates wholesome fat, he offers us the rubbish take of ‘these aren’t good oils, they’re omega 6s.’ 

Please Don, cease speaking. The twins choose up on his worry 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 images 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 crucial pondering abilities, this makes me very suspicious of their details.

As a little bit sidebar, Eric Adams, the Mayor of New York, talks about how eating regimen reversed his diabetes with Entire Meals Plant Primarily based eating regimen. He tells us that his endocrinologist didn’t study eating regimen and diabetes in medical faculty, so he took issues into his personal palms.

I discover the ‘medical doctors don’t know in regards to the worth of eating regimen’ tactic to be a extremely disappointing, lazy option to flip folks in opposition to standard medication and proposals. 

What did the Stanford Twins examine discover?

After all the effort, did the Twins examine end result favor a vegan eating regimen?

It did, in some methods. 

As you’ll be able to see within the graphic under, the vegan twins had a higher 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 larger than the omnivores’.

The truth is, 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 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 don’t have any longer-term follow-up.

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 worry 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 eating 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 choice? Isn’t that what a documentary ought to be about?

The one a part of You Are What you Eat that I assumed was simple, 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 eating regimen tendencies in 2024. Learn right here.