Moderators: JeffN, carolve, Heather McDougall
Aaron52101 wrote:Hi Jeff,
I know this might be a bit off topic from the usual discussion on this board, but I was wondering if you had the chance to watch the the documentary "What the Health" on Netflix yet? With its recent release it has been getting a lot of attention both good and bad about plant based diets and the dangers of animal products to our health. I don't have anything too specific I wanted to ask you, but I always value your insights and thoughts on these issues, and since it relates to your field so much, I was of wondering if you had seen, if you had any thoughts about the information presented, the way it was presented, etc. Obviously we all know where you stand about your view on diet and lifestyle, but as an expert in this field I was just kind of interested in your critique of this documentary because of the overlap it has with your own personal beliefs.
Again I understand this is a tad off-topic, but I figured if you had seen it you certainly would have some commentary on it.
Thank you,
Aaron
JeffN wrote:Aaron52101 wrote:Hi Jeff,
I know this might be a bit off topic from the usual discussion on this board, but I was wondering if you had the chance to watch the the documentary "What the Health" on Netflix yet? With its recent release it has been getting a lot of attention both good and bad about plant based diets and the dangers of animal products to our health. I don't have anything too specific I wanted to ask you, but I always value your insights and thoughts on these issues, and since it relates to your field so much, I was of wondering if you had seen, if you had any thoughts about the information presented, the way it was presented, etc. Obviously we all know where you stand about your view on diet and lifestyle, but as an expert in this field I was just kind of interested in your critique of this documentary because of the overlap it has with your own personal beliefs.
Again I understand this is a tad off-topic, but I figured if you had seen it you certainly would have some commentary on it.
Thank you,
Aaron
I am assuming you have seen it and have some thoughts about it, which spurred your post. I would be curious as to what your thoughts are, good and/or bad, in regard to the film.
Thanks
In Health
Jeff
Aaron52101 wrote: Sure! So just a little background about myself, I am currently a dietetics student finishing my degree with and currently also planning on taking my Masters in Human Nutritional Science.
Aaron52101 wrote: After years of research before I even started working towards my degree I was pretty convinced that the majority of evidence in the field of nutrition pointed towards a plant based diet being optimal for human health and that that the less we could incorporate animal products into our diet the better. I have been vegan for over 5 years for not just health, but also ethical and environmental reasons. I'm the only vegan among a few other vegetarians in my program, and probably the only who really believes in the actual power of following an optimal diet on the prevention of chronic disease, even among my teachers.
Aaron52101 wrote: I usually keep my beliefs about nutrition somewhat guarded and don't talk to openly about anything that I think might be grounds for coming off biased or like a conspiracy nut. Most people know I'm vegan, but I tend to just kind of go with the flow in my program and try not to ruffle any feathers.
Aaron52101 wrote: I've had many friends in my program have a few things to say about the documentary, which I don't really debate as I believe it never really goes anywhere. I've even seen a few blog posts that have made made by popular science skeptics already that have already called out the documentary for being unscientific.
Aaron52101 wrote: That being said, I would say I found about 90% of the content to be something I agreed with for the most part. There were always plenty of things that got a little sensationalized or taken out of context, but for the most part having known the majority of the people interviewed and respect their work I found most of it to be well stated. The problem I find is that when you take all this information that takes years to research properly and just throw it together into 90 minutes, it is going to be difficult for it to really be convincing. It's very easy to simply say information was cherry picked and that these "professionals" are not really credible. I kind of tried to think that if I were an outsider watching this documentary would I be convinced? And I kept thinking the natural skeptic in me would have probably thought a lot of the information could have been debunked, especially considering how against the grain a lot of the information is or sensationalized it feels. As someone in this field there were also a few claims made that I probably wouldn't have felt comfortable making myself that might not have the scientific backing (at least not at this point).
Aaron52101 wrote: I feel like there will be some people that will be inspired by watching it to make healthier changes, but like most the people I know who are in my field it will probably continue to have a lot of people calling it extreme/propaganda/cherry-picked/biased/unscientific, etc, which is likely due to a number of reasons. Partly due to people finding excuses to feed their bad habits, others who just simply don't really have a good understanding of the science of nutrition, and others who feel that if any of this stuff was as true as they say it is then we would know it by now and it wouldn't be such a big conspiracy to just have people eat this way.
Aaron52101 wrote: Overall, I did enjoy it, but I think this documentary is still going to be a tough pill to swallow (no pun intended) for a lot of people. The directors previous documentary, Cowspiracy may have done a better job at selling a plant based diet for environmental reasons than this one did at doing it for health reasons.
JeffN wrote:I think this review of the movie, What The Health, by Daivd Katz, MD, makes some of the exact same points you made and I agreed with.
Two Diet Wrongs Don’t Make a Diet Right
By David L. Katz, MD,
Senior Medical Advisor, Verywell
Updated July 24, 2017
David Katz, RD
https://www.verywell.com/two-diet-wrong ... ht-4147158
While I don't agree with all of his perspectives or writings, I think he makes some great points, similar to what I have written on I'm many threads. What we do is based on really good evidence and we don't need to exaggerate it, or make it something it is not.
This recently came up in this thread on plant vs animal sources of saturated fats and also animal fat vs animal protein.
viewtopic.php?f=22&t=56104&p=566882
Also, while it is no secret that I take a completely different perspective on "WFPB/Vegan" nutrition than my colleague Ginny Messina, RD, her review of "What The Health" makes some of these same points.
I mention this, because both of these reviews will get far reaching attention, not only in the WFBP world, but also the Vegan world and the whole Lifestyle Medicine world.
I am going to make a separate post that will link to all my discussions on some of these issues that I have addressed.
In Health
Jeff
A diet that is (1) based predominately on a variety of minimally processed fruits, vegetables, starchy vegetables, roots/tubers, whole grains and legumes, (2) low in fat, saturated fat, calorie density, and (3) low in added sugars, oils and salt, has been documented to prevent and/or reverse disease - even for those who are seriously ill - in many published studies over the last 60 years. The results from these studies, which use differing specific diets in them, documents the importance and the effectiveness of this overall dietary pattern over any one specific version of this diet. This dietary pattern is commonly referred to as the Whole Food, Plant-Based Low/No SOS diet or simply the WFPB SOS or just WFPB.
When discussing the WFPB diet, it is important to understand that there is no one single program but there are some common denominators among all of the successful programs. While the programs are all very similar, they are not identical. Not all of the programs are vegetarian or vegan. Some of the programs allow for a small amount of certain animal products and some don't. Some allow for a small amount of non-fat dairy and some don't. Some allow for a small amount of oil and some don't.
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