Digesting the Netflix Documentary “You Are What You Eat”
We (Jessica and Beth) both watched the docu-series You Are What You Eat on Netflix (released Jan 2024). Naturally, we have some thoughts, comments, and things for you to think about.
But first, a summary in case you have not watched it - which makes this an official spoiler alert.
Christopher Gardner, a nutrition scientist at Stanford University enrolled 21 sets of twins in a study on two different types of diets and various health markers to see if one diet was healthier than the other. Four sets of the twins were showcased in the documentary.
One twin was assigned a healthy omnivore diet and the other a plant-based vegan diet. For one month they were both given all of their meals and snacks by the researchers and then the second month they cooked their own meals per the prescribed diets. In addition, they were given exercise recommendations to complete on their own and with a trainer. This exercise piece is a little fuzzy in the docu-series, but this is what I was able to surmise.
Health tests tracked microbiome (gut health), blood tests for metabolic markers like cholesterol, glucose, etc, body composition, physical fitness, biological age, and sexual health in females.
Why twin studies? Because it’s the closest apple-to-apples comparison we can do in a timely and cost-effective way to measure differences in certain inputs. It’s not a perfect set-up but given the cost and other challenges in human studies in health, it’s pretty good.
We are both always hesitant to watch these types of documentaries because we’re skeptical about who's presenting the information, how the data is collected, what data is collected vs presented, etc. It's usually by someone who's pushing one side or another. In general, this documentary did have an angle that they were pursuing, however, the study design is all things that have been done in research settings in the past - this one happened to be video-tapped for a viewing audience.
It was a pro-plant-based vegan diet documentary however, it was not outright that all animal products are bad. More so, that our current American system of large-scale animal production is bad for the environment, the animals, and humans. It did highlight regenerative animal agriculture as a solution to support the health of the environment, animals, and humans.
It wasn’t AS fear-mongering as some pro-vegan docs we’ve seen in the past but you are still aware of the agenda. They did a great job of persuasion and I bet anyone watching this will be convinced. Many other vegan docs compare the standard American diet (SAD) to vegan or even SAD to juicing and those comparisons are not helpful IMO. The information shared was not off-putting or demonizing it felt like hey we need to wake up - we’re all suffering here.
Now on the results-ish.
Though the docu-series was pro-plant based. The vegans didn’t necessarily “win” all the challenges. Both sides had some pros/cons. We’re not going to go into heavy detail on the results - just a highlight. Overall, the plant-based vegan diet group did better on many metabolic markers like cholesterol, glucose, and telomeres. Body composition was mixed, it seemed that some were able to gain muscle as easily on both diets, and some lost muscle either because they did not eat enough overall or did not do enough strength-based exercises.
The females’ sexual health was measured because they have plenty of male data (shocker!) and not much female data. The plant-based vegan women participants had a dramatic improvement in sexual health compared to baseline and their omnivore twin.
Downsides to the docu-series - the study was only eight weeks. However, this is pretty standard in research studies. It’s a challenge to get long-term studies done, mainly the cost of these types of studies and the ability to get people to stay in the study and to get them to adhere to the diet plans prescribed.
We think they needed to address more about processed vegan food vs. whole food. It would seem implied, but when people get busy they go for the easy and that’s the same for any diet. Most processed foods lack nutrients and fiber and often have preservatives and additives that are less than ideal.
The docu-series highlighted Impossible Burger a lot and from a health professional standpoint I don’t think is a product that should be consumed frequently - it still has a decent amount of fat and saturated fat from the oils (safflower and coconut). It’s processed soy, some binders, and some flavoring. It’s not the same as eating whole foods - whole soy, beans, and other intact fiber-rich foods. Will it help bridge the gap for people to reduce meat consumption, yes, but to claim that this as the future of food - eh - I don’t think so. The issue continues to be that large-scale factory animal production is not sustainable for the planet, animals, and people. Full stop.
Should you watch it? Yes, it’s informative of the issues at hand that affect the health of people and the planet. We need to be aware, we can’t stick our heads in the sand and hope that companies and the government will solve this issue. Information is power and we vote with our dollars.
Diet wise it all comes down to we all need to include an abundance of plant-based foods every day. Explore beans, lentils, a variety of vegetables, and fruits. Cut down on oils and processed food. Our body receives information from the food we eat. Each person is unique so the makeup of what works for each person will vary. Explore. Don’t be married to one way of eating because that is worked for Suzy’s grandmother's neighbor. If you are feeling good, your blood tests are good then that way of eating is working for you. If you don’t feel great, and your blood tests are off, then seek some expert help to see what will bring YOU into balance.
