"What The Health" – my thoughts

I watched “What The Health” the other night on Netflix.

Short answer is… I’m not a fan. The movie has a very obvious vegan agenda, which is fine… whatever.  I have nothing against vegans. But it turns a very complex subject (the question “what should we eat?”) into black and white, misses the entire concept of bioindividuality and leaves out a significant portion of nutritional research – particularly on the potential negative effects of a vegan diet on the brain.

I wavered on whether to even write a response, but given that most of my audience struggles with mental health, learning and development issues I felt compelled.

 

My main concern:

Parents are going to get very confused by this film and either throw up their hands feeling guilty about everything or worse, adopt a diet that might not suit their family’s needs because of the “oh my god, really?” response this film evokes.

If you’re going to change your family’s diet, do it based on a full spectrum of information. 

Here’s part of the film I agree with:

Factory farming and processing of animals is not good for our health, for our planet, for our fellow humans, or for animals. It produces poor quality food and is inhumane and unhealthy on so many levels.

But I’d add that large-scale agriculture and processing of plants might not be a heck of a lot better. The nutritional and bacterial diversity of soil and the food grown on it is being depleted by farming practices, and chemicals like glyphosate and other pesticides are proving detrimental to health. Period.

The film does not address this. The message is just, “if you want to live, run from animal foods”.

Another part I agree with:

Corporate interests have overtaken food policy, health care, the government agencies that are supposed to protect us, and even nutritional research. We’ve reached a new level of insanity and it’s incredibly hard to know who and what to trust. 

But while the film points a finger at the dairy and meat industries, no mention is made of the wheat, sugar, corn, or soy lobbies which are just as fierce.

The biggest problem I have with the film:

The science it explores is far from complete, and this is going to cause mass confusion.

We’re busy parents who just want to do right by our kids and I worry this movie will scare parents into making food choices while keeping them unaware of some really important info.

I’m not going to spend time dissecting the science from the movie or point fingers. Truth is, the doctors in this film are doing great work with vegan diets and are seeing great results and helping a lot of people. I’ve nothing against that or against them.

But this film does not explore the entire story of how food influences the body and a vegan diet is not right for everyone. 

There’s no mention of how a Mediterranean-style diet that includes moderate amounts of meat, dairy, and fish might improve depression, or how a grain-free diet can improve blood pressure, insulin resistance, autism, Crohn’s, or anxiety. There is no mention of the amazing work of doctors who use a Paleo approach to reverse autoimmune disease (see references below). Not even a whiff or a nod.

Again… it’s, “if you want to live, run from animal foods”. And, quite frankly, that’s not always the case.

What I want parents to hear about this film….

By all means, try a vegan diet if you want to. Eat more fresh plants for sure. They’re full of fiber, micronutrients, enzymes, and phytochemicals that are part of a healthy diet.

Plants can keep the bowels moving, the gut bacteria healthy, and the immune system strong.

If you’re going to ditch animal foods, here are my cautions:

• A vegan diet is not all about what you take out… it’s just as much about what you put in. Forgetting this is a major pitfall of any restrictive diet approach.
• If you're going to try a vegan diet, do it out of curiosity rather than out of disgust or fear; do it consciously with your eyes wide open and maintaining a mindset of possibility
• Have a firm understanding of nutritional deficiency symptoms associated with zinc, iron, B12, B6, fatty acids, vitamin A, and choline. You’ll find those symptoms outlined in appendix F and K in my book. They are common deficiencies for vegans and can be detrimental to brain health. 
• If you are considering a vegan diet for a child be cautious if they are entering or in puberty. They need tons of nutrients to weather this hormone storm - particularly zinc, cholesterol, and B vitamins, low levels of which have been linked to the development of eating disorders, acne, aggression, anxiety, and depression (which often coincide with puberty).
• Be cautious about going vegan if you or your child has ADHD. Nutrient deficiencies including zinc, the B, iron, essential fatty acids, and phospholipids have been linked to ADHD and a vegan diet might make matters worse if you’re not careful.
• Be cautious if you are recovering from pregnancy, especially if you are experiencing mood changes. Read this post for more on that.

The Bottom Line

Please don’t get confused by this film.

A vegan diet can reverse health conditions in some people (like those in the film); it can cause health conditions in others.

You could argue that it’s better for the environment, but then again, you could also argue (as Joel Salatin does here) that animal farming is imperative for plant agriculture, it’s just that “Big Ag” is doing it wrong.  

Factory farming and corporate influence aren’t good for anyone. But Veganism isn’t right for everyone. There are many paths to health. 

If you want to get beyond diet dogma and really focus in on what makes a diet healthy read this post.

For more about nutritional contributors to mood and behaviour issues see the references below

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A few selected references:

On zinc and eating disorders: http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/11930982

On cholesterol and aggression: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359178998000093?via%3Dihub

On nutrients and ADHD: http://www.feingold.org/Research/PDFstudies/Kidd00.pdf

On Fatty acids and ADHD: http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/71/1/327S.short

On nutrients and ADHD: https://academic.oup.com/nutritionreviews/article-abstract/66/10/558/1825726

On nutrients and ADHD: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1586/ern.09.7

On red meat and depression: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9158235/Red-meat-halves-risk-of-depression.html

On mediterranean diet and nutrients and depression https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-017-0791-y

On Paleo diet and pre diabetes https://www.nature.com/ejcn/journal/v63/n8/abs/ejcn20094a.html.

On glyphosate http://people.csail.mit.edu/seneff/

On pesticides and the brain https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/health-benefits-organic-food-farming-report/

On corruption in scientific journals https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2964337/

On Paleo and autoimmune disease: http://terrywahls.com/about-the-wahls-protocol/ |  https://www.thepaleomom.com/start-here/the-autoimmune-protocol/

On grain free and autism: http://www.crohnsboy.com/linked/scdsumm.pdf | http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0024585

On grain and Crohn’s:  http://journals.lww.com/jpgn/Abstract/2014/10000/Clinical_and_Mucosal_Improvement_With_Specific.20.aspx