What the Health Movie Review
This movie gets so much right, but when it goes wrong, it heads right off the track. Like many food documentaries, What the Health begins by telling us everything that’s wrong with the food industry – which is a lot. Unfortunately, the movie then turns into a propaganda fest for veganism. Not that I think being a vegan is a bad thing- I don’t.
This movie shows people getting healthy by eliminating processed food and becoming vegan. Unfortunately, they attribute all the positive changes to being vegan. They even go so far as to say eating sugar doesn’t cause health problems. The Magic Pill, a pro meat documentary takes the opposite stance, but also gets people well by eating real food. Both movies miss the boat by claiming health is decided by whether you eat meat or not.
The fact is we can be healthy eating meat or excluding it from our diets. As long as we eat organic, free range, and humanely treated animals; we can be perfectly healthy eating meat. So, let’s not focus on people’s personal agendas, when what we need is have people understand how unhealthy processed food is. Then, make a personal decision to eat meat or not based on your own preference and ethical standards.
Overall, I give this film a thumbs down because it misleads people into believing that all you need to do to be healthy, is not eat meat. Several of my diabetic patients watched the movie and decided to stop eating meat and keep eating junk. If you’re wondering, no this did not work well for either of them.
A billion-dollar food industry wants us confused and addicted to their processed crap. Let’s not let them win. What we need is to learn what real food is and start eating it. Otherwise, you spend you are the mouse on the wheel addicted to what the food industry sells you. At some point we all need to take responsibility for our health and wellbeing.
Dr. Jamie Gutheil DC and Clinical Nutritionist