If you have been browsing Netflix recently, you may have noticed a new documentary called “What The Health”. It is another one of those documentaries that preaches that the vegan lifestyle is the healthiest. In doing so, it makes some pretty absurd claims about foods derived from animals – typical vegan propaganda… on steroids. Seriously, just wait until I show you some of the dumbfounding claims that the makers of this “documentary” tried making.
Introduction to “What The Health” Documentary
As I said, “What The Health” is a documentary on Netflix that tries to persuade the viewer to abandon any foods derived from animals. This includes meat, milk, cheese, eggs, etc. As is the case with these kinds of documentaries, findings from scientific research are cherry-picked and even altered to fit the specific narrative that they are trying to push.
Do not get me wrong, a vegan lifestyle is not the worst choice in the world and there are plenty of good things to take away from it, but I do not think that viewing this documentary is the right way to get introduced to veganism. On top of that, I would not be able to survive a month on a vegan diet. I need my meat!
Some Of The Most Absurd Claims Made In This Film
Before I start pointing out some of the craziest claims made in the documentary, let me preface it with this. The scientific “data” used by the makers to back up their claims could not survive even the slightest bit of scrutiny. In fact, when every piece of data presented in the documentary was analyzed, it was discovered that over 95 percent of the data was nowhere near conclusive enough to even remotely back up the claim in an actual scientific debate.
Most of the data used is either cherry-picked tidbits from larger studies or really small-scale studies conducted on a few people. Nowhere near a sufficient sample size to derive any meaningful conclusion from. In a comedic twist, some of the data they cherry-picked were taken from studies that ultimately contradicted the claims they were trying to make. That is a hallmark of a poorly researched documentary. Anyways, onto the claims!
Claim #1 – Meat causes diabetes, not sugar
A great way to kick off a vegan documentary is to start vilifying meat. And boy does “What The Health” ever do that. They show a random doctor who is of course the head of a pro-vegan organization who makes the wild claim that consuming foods with high sugar content does not caused one to get diabetes. What does this doctor say causes diabetes? Meat!
That flies in the face of decades of scientific research and there is hardly a grain of truth to it at all. In fact, the inverse is true. Some kinds of meats actually have properties that lower your risk of developing diabetes. As it pertains to sugar, there are piles upon piles of studies that conclusively show a direct correlation between sugar consumption and developing diabetes. Developing a resistance to insulin is a direct consequence of consuming too much sugar.
It is amazing that a vegan documentary is willing to whitewash the health effects that sugary foods pose just to vilify foods derived from animals.
I feel like I should mention that all sugar is not bad for you, though. Sugar that occurs naturally in fruits like bananas and various kinds of berries definitely poses way less of a risk to your health than artificial sugars found in processed foods. I advise that you run far away from any food that contains an ingredient called High Fructose Corn Syrup.
Claim #2 – Eggs vs Cigarettes: There’s no difference!
Your eyes do not deceive you. This documentary seriously tried to equate the health risks posed by smoking cigarettes with the supposed health risks of eating an egg every day. Obviously, this is not the case whatsoever.
The only reason people panic about eggs is because of how much of the daily recommended value of cholesterol is in just one egg. But guess what? The science is not even settled on cholesterol, let alone the kind of cholesterol that you get from eggs. Additionally, science is emerging that indicates that having too low of cholesterol can greatly increase your mortality risk. Put that in your cigarette and smoke it (or don’t, if you care about your health)!
And I can tell you, even if people’s worst fears about eggs are true, it would not even hold a candle to the negative health effects associated with smoking.
What is the bottom line here? As far as we know, eggs are good for your health whereas cigarettes are not. Cigarettes will damage your organs while eggs have shown to help improve the health and function of some organs (such as the heart and liver). Do not buy into the fear campaign pushed by vegans as it pertains to eggs.
Claim #3 – Stop eating poultry!
Because of course they want you to stop eating poultry. Despite it being incredibly nutritional and healthy for you, they are vegans and can’t stomach the idea of eating anything derived from an animal. So they have to come up with bogus theories backed up by bad science to vilify all kinds of meat. What is their big bad claim about poultry? It causes cancer!
There is a nugget of truth to this claim, but it is a microscopic nugget. Basically, their claim is that HCAs are produced in all kinds of meat when they are cooked. HCAs are cancer causing chemicals, in case you did not know. But here is the thing: Most people do not cook chicken in the way that can actually cause these chemicals to form. They only form at temperatures exceeding 425 degrees F. If you cook below that temp and marinade your chicken (or any meat really) correctly, you will not have to deal with this problem at all. But of course, the documentary would not want you to know that. They would rather let you think that all meat causes cancer no matter what temperature it is cooked at.
“What The Health” Was Not All Bad, Though
There is a bit of a silver lining to this dark cloud of the documentary. Some of the things they brought up were truths. They called out big food corporations for trying to skew scientific research to make their products look less harmful than they really are. I am looking at you, processed food companies. Additionally, corporate farms are a big problem in that they raise their livestock horribly.
They pump them full of growth hormone which can be detrimental to humans when consumed (depending on how much of the hormone they are pumped with and the kind of diet they are fed on). Props to the documentary for pointing this out. Unfortunately, they use these true claims to support their underlying narrative that all livestock is like this and that there is no discrepancy between small family farms and giant corporate farms.
Trust me, a poor old farmer is not going to be paying any scientific firm to skew data about the safety of a growth hormone.
This documentary also touches on the horrible conditions that many livestock are held in and how that can actually be detrimental to the health of humans that consume the food derived from that livestock. One such example comes from the state of North Carolina. Farmers here use fresh fecal matter from pigs as fertilizer for their crops. In case you are not in the know about proper farming, that is not a smart or healthy technique. In fact, fertilizing the crops with this fresh feces can greatly heighten the chances of the people who live near these crop fields of getting MRSA. And no shock, there are more cases of cancer and asthma amongst people who live near these crops than people who do not. Practices like these need to end. However, vilifying all farmers and all food products derived from animals is not the way to go.
Final Thoughts On The “What The Health” Documentary
“What The Health” is not a very good documentary and does not stand up to the slightest bit of scrutiny. Many of their claims are based on bad science that has no consensus at all. I hate to be overly critical, but it is really hard to take a documentary seriously when they claim that eating eggs is on par with smoking cigarettes and that sugar does not cause diabetes. I give them some kudos for pointing out some inconvenient truths about what goes on behind the scenes as it pertains to corporate farming. However, that little bit of good does not outweigh the heavy bits of bad in this flawed production.
If I were you, I would not waste my time watching this documentary. However if you want to, it is on available on Netflix. I advise that you do not change your eating habits based on what you hear in it, though.
