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The documentary What the Health is generating a lot of buzz these days. The claim? That animal sourced food is slowly killing us and most of our major diseases can be prevented by adopting a plants-only diet.
The evidence? Nonexistent when you do the fact-checking. (Complete list of scientific references at the article’s end.)
Filmmakers Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn try to stir up some credible statistics to support their vegan agenda, but to those who understand the scientific method, this film is totally unconvincing. They repeatedly indulge in what’s called confirmation bias, i.e., talk only to those who believe exactly as you do; offer a few studies with cherry-picked data; and never admit to the extensive body of opposing evidence from highly respected sources. Oh, and be sure to stick in some emotional testimony and made-for-Hollywood drama. This is sure to work up fear and dread in your viewers.
I do appreciate that the filmmakers remind us of the link between poor food choices and disease, whether vegan or omnivore. However, What the Health is irresponsible journalism. It fails to present any valid evidence that an omnivorous diet is inherently unhealthy and that plants-only eating is the road to disease-free good health.
Below are 9 reasons why What the Health will have you shaking your head in disbelief long before the credits roll.
Inconvenient Science Conveniently Omitted
Conveniently omitted from this heavily biased documentary are decades of research confirming that the healthiest, longest-living populations on earth consume fish, meat, and/or dairy as a regular part of their diet, along with an abundance of plants. These cultures include, among others:
- Japanese (Okinawa)
- Italians (Sardinia)
- Costa Ricans (Nicoya)
- Greeks (Ikaria)
- Spanish
- French
- Swiss
Sardinia: Long Lived Blue Zone
As one of many examples, Sardinia boasts more centenarians than anywhere else on the planet. (Age 75 is considered youthful here!) Residents on this Mediterranean island consume plentiful local sheep or goat’s milk, rich in protein, calcium, zinc and anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids.
Their diet is low in sugary foods and high in fresh vegetables. Small quantities of local fish or meat are eaten several times a week, and an afternoon glass of red wine is considered essential—alongside a generous chunk of goat cheese.
Sardinians, whose livestock roam on open pasture, enjoy enormous benefits from their varied diet and active lifestyle. These benefits include high bone density, low risk for fractures, and low chronic disease rates. Conversely, research to date on vegans reveals significantly lower bone mineral densities compared to meat or dairy eaters. Moreover, vegans suffer from a substantially higher risk for fractures and osteoporosis.
Serious Vegan Health Issues
Why does What the Health fail to even mention all the health issues that cause many vegans to quit? These health woes, showing up in many respected studies, include:
- Seriously low serum levels of brain-protective DHA omega-3 fatty acids
- High levels of pro-inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids
- Increased risk of anxiety and depression
- Increased risk of dental caries and gum disease
- Inadequate protein and calories during critical growth years
- Fertility issues, including low sperm count
- Vanishing menstrual periods due to insufficient calories and fat to support normal hormone production as females try to “get vegan skinny” (Amenorrhea, the loss of menses for 3 months or more, has serious implications for reproductive and heart health.)
What about the claim that meat and dairy eaters are harming their hearts? Data from four combined studies—two Seventh-day Adventist plus the EPIC-Oxford and Heidelberg—conclude that both fish eaters and dairy/egg consumers have lower levels of heart disease incidence than vegans.
Well Researched Mediterranean Diets Ignored
Rigorously studied for over half a century, traditional Mediterranean-style diets are consistently lauded by nutrition authorities as the world’s healthiest, resulting in prolonged life and reduced risk for cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. Included in these high-fat diets are nuts, olive oil, fresh fish, legumes and veggies, with pastured meat, eggs, and fermented dairy consumed in moderate amounts.
While the world’s best diets contain plentiful phenol-loaded plants, they are not vegetarian—and not even close to vegan.
Why were all these long-life, hale and hearty populations—the world’s so-called “blue zones”—never mentioned in What the Health? Because veganism is agenda-driven. And when you start with a conviction instead of a question, you put on blinders to an abundance of scientific and historical evidence.
Not once does this film recognize traditional, whole food omnivorous diets that confer superior health and have stood the test of time. Just as critical, it fails to present even one population group that has thrived on a vegan diet. Why? Because there are none.
Instead, What the Health plays on our fears and indulges in bias and bad science.
And I won’t even comment on narrator Andersen’s habit of showing up unannounced at institutes like the American Cancer Society, insisting that receptionists respond to his urgent questions about diet and disease links. When these front desk, low-paid employees aren’t able to answer his questions, he concludes this is proof of collusion and deception.
What the…..??!
Stuck in the 1980s
In their rush to condemn all animal-derived nutrition, the filmmakers fail to make the critical distinction between GMO corn-fed factory animals from Big Ag and grass-raised herbivores from family farms; between highly processed dairy, like America’s sugar-drenched uncultured yogurt, and the acidophilus-rich, protein-dense organic yogurt eaten by healthy Greeks for centuries.
In failing to distinguish the nutrient-dense, grass-fed animal nourishment of our ancestors from the processed, GMO grain-stuffed, antibiotic-injected animal food thrust upon an unwitting public for the past 50 years, What the Health loses all credibility. It’s like this film is stuck in the 1980s, with a few carefully selected pro-vegan doctors spouting old, invalidated myths to advance their belief system.
What The Health Sound Bites Debunked
“Americans eat way too much protein!”
Actually, nearly 60% of us fail to meet even the minimum daily protein requirement to avoid muscle wasting, according to the National Health and Nutrition Survey. Recommendations have been steadily rising, especially for active people, and our protein needs increase further as we age.
“We are not carnivorous apes!”
Umm, apes aren’t carnivores and neither are humans. A doctor actually said that??
“The largest, strongest animals are herbivores!”
They also have simple brains. Despite almost non-stop grazing, large herbivores simply can’t get enough calories and essential nutrients on their vegan diet to support a large, complicated, labyrinth brain. Energetically, it’s an evolutionary trade-off. Omnivorous humans got smaller bodies, way smarter brains.
More myths spouted by this nonsensical film
“Eating 1 egg per day is just as bad as smoking 5 cigarettes per day!”
“More carbs equals less diabetes!”
“All animal food is bad for you!”
Never, of course, does this film note that whole eggs are rated the highest in biological value of all foods (a perfect 100, along with breast milk); that they don’t raise cholesterol in the vast majority of us; and a plethora of new studies confirm it’s healthy to eat an egg every single day.
Likewise, a growing number of experts believe diabetics need to monitor their carbs and reduce intake.
The filmmakers also refuse to acknowledge that high cholesterol has been vindicated as the cause of heart disease: half of all heart attack victims have normal cholesterol levels. And the renowned Framingham Heart Study adds a further fascinating twist: “In Framingham, the more saturated fat one ate, the more cholesterol one ate, the more calories one ate, the lower the person’s serum cholesterol.”
The vegan propensity to select a few outlier sources that support their ideology—and ignore exceptional research recognized by the larger scientific community—creates a huge trustworthiness gap in their argument. The pro-vegan China Study has been debunked for this same reason; moreover, it didn’t even study vegans!
Meanwhile, we won’t know the lifetime health results of today’s vegans for several generations. It’s simply too new a diet in human history.
Veganism Has ZERO Historical Record of Success
Another basic truth remains unspoken in this misleading film.
Not once is it revealed to would-be vegans that a plants-only diet is new in human history.
Except for a few scattered, tiny enclaves of religious cults over the centuries (and we’ve no idea if they died young or old), veganism as an extended lifestyle has never been done before.
As I write in Vegan Betrayal: “Veganism is, in a word, untested. Only now it is being tested on the bodies of our daughters, sons, friends and lovers, maybe even you.”
So why are vegan proselytizers promoting this restrictive diet for everyone—adults, children, even infants—when we don’t yet have the lifelong health data to know if this non-historical leap to plants-only will prove wise or tragic?
Proposed Law in Italy Would Jail Parents of Vegan Children
In Italy, 5th “longest-life” nation on earth (just behind ham-loving Spain and dairy-adoring Switzerland), a proposed law would mean jail time for parents who force a vegan diet on their children. In France, the parents of a baby breastfed by a vegan mother who died from malnourishment did indeed serve time in jail.
I don’t necessarily agree with this, but we also can’t argue with Italy and France’s outstanding omnivorous health results. Which brings us to Italian Emma Morano who, upon reaching 116 years, credited her astonishingly long life to daily fresh eggs and an early bedtime.
Veganism is Not A Bloodless Diet
Although their long-term health outcomes are unknown, vegans seem convinced they are at least winning the ethical argument. So the creators of What the Health chose to include scenes of animal slaughter, and that’s a good thing. All meat eaters need to comprehend the source of their food, numbers involved, and ethical and environmental implications.
But what this film fails to disclose is that industrial plant agriculture, which almost all vegans rely upon (think Whole Foods, Natural Grocers, Safeway, etc.) is responsible for the death of billions of wild animals. How so? From scraping away the native landscape, intensive field operations, pesticides if non-organic, and fish-killing nitrogen runoff into rivers and lakes.
In many cases, whole intact ecosystems—grasslands, wetlands, forests—are destroyed in order to cultivate giant fields of hemp, flax, rice, soy, peas, wheat, etc. By contrast, Alaska’s wild salmon fisheries are a rare example of ecosystem sustainability in the commercial world.
Yes, entire food chains of native animals and plants once thrived in our agricultural fields, and most of that land is used to feed humans. (Just 33% of croplands worldwide are used for livestock feed, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.) Is the life of a field mouse of less worth than that of a chicken? Not according to PETA and animal rights doctrine.
Veggie or omnie, everyone who eats large-scale industrial food is implicated. So if these film-makers really care about animals, they should be telling all of us to stop supporting carbon-intensive, soil-depleting, wild-animal-destroying industrial agriculture. And give our loyalty and dollars instead to small, organic, no-till, mixed animal-plant farms which replenish the soil, store carbon, and regenerate the earth!
Vegans Dropping Out En Masse
Political vegans, the kind who preach or make biased documentaries, want you and everybody in the world to go vegan just like them. It’s very similar to the fervor of a religious fundamentalist. Their way is the only way. And the rest of us have not yet “seen the light.”
The truth is a lot of ex-vegans HAVE seen the light. According to a large respected survey, 70% of vegans ditch their diet; 86% of vegetarians. Nearly 1/3 of these vegans/vegetarians cite poor health as a prime factor, with 82% from this group confirming that their health improved within 2 days to 3 months once meat was reintroduced.
But this survey was conducted by the American Beef Association, right?
No, it was conducted by a pro-vegan group, The Humane Research Council, which was hoping to uncover very different statistics. Releasing these damaging numbers is testimony not only to the integrity of this group, but the failure of veganism as a valid, complete, long-term diet. Health concerns commonly cited by vegans include:
- weakness
- ongoing fatigue
- depression
- endocrine disruption/loss of menses
- poor sleep
- anxiety
- dental problems, including demineralization
- plummeting concentration and brain fog
Vegans do get favorable marks for lower blood pressure and body weight. Certainly you can lose pounds on this low-calorie diet. And if you’re old, obese and diseased, it can start you on a path toward better health. Traditional healing practices prescribe a vegan-type diet as temporary medicine for just such times—much like your dog seeking grass when he’s sick. So yes, short-term veganism may work for purposes of cleansing or healing from illness or disease. However, this restricted diet was never, ever meant to be a long-term lifestyle.
Missing Nutrients in Plants
Nutrient deficiencies can take years to reveal themselves and by then any damage to your health can be severe or even permanent. That’s unfortunate because there are a whole lot of nutrients and compounds in animals that aren’t found in plants, or exist in deficient quantities. These include vitamin B12, vitamin D3, retinol (true vitamin A), taurine (a functional nutrient), carnitine, carnosine, heme iron, creatine, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), and the long-chain fatty acid DHA. (Research on algal DHA is largely industry-funded; thus far it shows increased LDL cholesterol.)
What’s more, nutritional science is still in its infancy. New nutrients and co-factors are continually being discovered, and isolated supplements can never replace the complex synergy of whole foods. Eating a wide variety of organic, whole, real foods from both plants and animals—as all the longest-living populations on earth do—is the very best way to ensure your body is getting all the nutrients it needs. Our ancestors resorted to eating only plants during times of drought or illness, not by choice, and always returned to a mixed diet in order to get the entire palette of nutrients that humans evolved to need. And yes, despite what this film infers, the science is clear: our human ancestors were omnivores.
What Anthropologists Say About Plants-Only Diets
“Animal foods play a special role in the nutritional physiology of our species,” confirms anthropologist Marvin Harris. The hominoid that rigidly stuck to plants, the big-jawed vegetarian with massive molars, Paranthropus robustus, did not in the end turn out to be so robust. Its line went extinct. The Homo erectus line survived in large part due to a varied diet that included meat, resulting in a large, complex, problem-solving brain. Meanwhile, the docile, plant-eating P. robustus vanished into the African mist.
Researcher Suzana Herculano-Houzel of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences confirms:
It is biologically implausible that humans evolved our large brain on a plants-only diet.
Our ancestors needed meat in order to obtain all of the nutrient-dense calories, proteins, fatty acids, and vitamin B12 required for large-brain evolution and maintenance.
What The Health: Confusing Ideology with Facts
In summary, pro-vegan advocates, including the directors of What the Health, are confusing ideology with the facts. Yet the science is clear. Our ancestors, including our great-grandparents, ate whole animal food along with plants—and thrived. (Past humans died from infectious diseases, not cancer, diabetes, and heart attacks.) Understanding how our bodies evolved to need the nutritional collaboration of both plant and animal food is a fascinating journey—and one that every vegan or would-be vegan should undertake.
Anthropology, history, and non-biased nutrition research tell us something very different than “eat only plants!” Moderation, not extremism. Plentiful plants balanced with select amounts of highly nutritious, animal-based whole foods, like wild Alaskan salmon, wild sardines, and pastured organic eggs. Vegans are messing with our complex dietary co-evolution with other animals and plants. And they’re dropping out in droves for good reasons.
Bottom line: this film offers a simplistic, sensationalized view of humankind’s evolution and dietary needs. It lacks complexity, credible evidence, and any real depth of understanding.
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Rod
I eat a whole food, plant based diet. Started slowly and learned how to eat properly. I have lost weight and I am very healthy and strong. I don’t see any of the issues that you describe, but your arguments are somewhat convincing. It has been 7 years for me. I am more active than almost all of my friends, my endurance is excellent and my handshake is strong. Be well! I’ll get back to you if I start eating meat.
Sarah
Maybe you have a strong handshake (anyone can learn a firm handshake), but betcha it’s cold and clammy especially if you’ve been vegan for awhile. Have fun guinea pigging!
Lisa
Then how is it possible that I could cure my autoimmune disease after starting a vegan diet? My blood levels have never been better and I have never felt better. I am neither weak nor pale looking. Maybe the article talks about vegan fast-foodies. But in this case you compare apples to oranges.
And how do you want to feed the whole earth population with “healthy” grass fed animals and their products in a sustainable manner? It is just not possible to do this without intensive livestock farming and there you have the bad quality meat and dairy products again. Plus the animal cruelty. And I am pretty sure that most of the meat eaters don’t eat grass fed meat but buy their meat in supermarket or discounter shelves. So it might be good to keep things in perspective here…
Sarah
Vegan diets definitely have short term detoxification benefits. Long term is where the danger comes in .. my guess is that you haven’t been vegan that long (a few months to a few years at most).
Demi Moore (long time vegan) recently had her two front teeth fall out inexplicably. She blames “stress”. In fact, it’s her diet! Very bad teeth issues is a hallmark of vegan diets because they are so nutrient poor.
Regarding your “save the earth” reason for eating vegan … pesticide heavy agriculture (frequently to grow GMOs) is destroying ecosystems far worse than grazing livestock. It also is killing millions of animals and bees unnecessarily. See references in the article above.
Georgia
It is time to stop comparing oranges to apples. Of course a vegan who eats unprocessed organic local plant-based food is healthier than a person who eats the standard American diet. And of course a person who eats good quality meat and dairy is healthier than a person who eats only fast food veggie burger and fries (technically a vegan). Is this a fair comparison? I would be so interested to see a study that compares the health of people who follow the recommendations of the Weston A. Price foundation to vegans who eat good quality plant-based food. Are you aware of such a study?
But the moment you tell a vegan that you eat meat, eggs and dairy nothing else matters. They definitely mix philosophy with facts. They call you a ‘murderer’ and a ‘corpse-eater’ and they are hostile. Interestingly enough deficiency of some B vitamins manifests as aggressiveness. I am wondering if there is a connection here…
Sarah
Yes … the book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration presents a compelling anthropological study! Dr. Price wanted very much to find a traditional vegetarian culture that was healthy and comparable to the traditional cultures that ate meat (some ate a lot of meat, others not as much) but he couldn’t find one! While the ancestral vegetarian cultures were far healthier than the Americans of that time (1920’s and 1930’s), they still didn’t compare to the ancestral cultures that ate BOTH meat and plants. This was a shock and a surprise to him … hence his groundbreaking book only contains 14 ancestral cultures that were healthy enough to make the cut and NONE of them were vegetarian. Of course .. vegans weren’t even on the radar as a healthy ancestral culture of vegans has never existed on planet earth.
Lynn
Unfortunately, like the vast majority of vegan sources, the film does not differentiate between factory farmed and free range dairy or meat. In my country, the dairy is all grass fed, and hormones like HCG and even antibiotics are banned. I have drunk raw milk straight from the farm, and I can assure you there is no pus in it. OTOH, when I travelled in America I ate vegetarian a lot because I refuse to eat meat from factory farms. Voting with your dollars is the way to affect change. Interestingly, it’ been said that since vegetarians/vegans want an abstinence only model they fight only for this and not for quality of life for the farmed animals. The movement towards free range and ethical farming has comes from omnivores instead of the vegetarians.
Per Johannessen
What are you talking about? no succesfull population. What about lets see like every major population in the world has been succesfull because of starch, potatoes, rice, corn etc. Do you really think that these populations have been out slaughtering animals in the amounts that we do today?? of course not. It’s all fine that you do a lot of research but you are missing the most important ingredient and that is common sense and logic.
Sarah
Ummmm … every successful population ate animal foods (most as meat) and many ate dairy as well. Some ate ONLY meat and animal fat (Eskimos) and others only meat and dairy (Masai). The HEALTHIEST ate BOTH meats and plants (mixed omnivore diet) such as the Dinkas in Africa. Do your research friend.
NONE (as in ZERO) ate only plant foods. Capish?
Jeff Adams
Amazing, every vegan adult and child I have ever met that’s on a Whole-Food Plant Based (WFPB) diet, every single one of them has been extremely fit, trim, and appears more vibrant, energetic than every single meat eat I know. Most meat/dairy eaters end up fat and sick. Not those on a WFPB, not at all! The children especially on a tradition westernized diet are sick and fat. The WFPB children run circles around them. There’s a reason world champions weightlifters, a Mr. Universe, even Mike Tyson, and tons of celebrities and body builders are vegan. The build more muscle faster and recoup faster. Vegans on a WFPB are significantly less likely to get the leading causes of death meat/dairy eaters get, and you want to feed that inflammatory, acidic, oxidation death to your children? Mind blowing, just mind blowing what we know now. Look at Dr. Esselstyn, Dr. T Colin Campbell, Dr. Michael Greger, Dr. Neal Bernard, the list goes on, even NutritionFacts.org with thousands of studies on the benefits of WFPB and the toxic effects of all meat and dairy. There’s a reason the UN, WHO, CDC, and even Kaiser Permanente say meat is a group one carcinogen and that WFPB is the best prescription for the leading causes of death in our world right now.
Sarah
LOL. You’re certainly not seeing what I am seeing. I can tell a vegan almost always just by looking at him/her. Shaking their hand confirms it. Washed out and frail looking and very commonly painfully thin and a frigid handshake every single time.
There’s a reason ONLY 1% of the US population is vegan in the United States (per Vegetarian Resource Group). And, the vast majority of that paltry 1% fail and go back to animal foods within a few years. The most common reason? Physical weakness. Belief does not equal reality my friend. Humans are omnivores, not cows.
Chanelle
She keeps saying vegans are frail and weak, what about the Olympic athletes, the football players, who are vegan? The strongest man in the world, to carry the most weight ever recorded is vegan. This woman is clearly very biased and close minded.
Sarah Pope MGA
Name some. I don’t know of any who have been vegan for very long. I know plenty that have stopped being vegan though. The vast majority of people who go vegan go back to eating meat within a few years and the number one reason is declining health. Documented study by Psychology Today.
Lisa
Thank you so much for this article, I am one who watched that movie and was floored and just sick to my stomach for a few days with “I’m drinking cow pus? ” freaking out, I needed to read this and do more studying before believing a movie! I have seen photos of people who are vegan looking gaunt and hollow eyed and then the girl who ate dairy and meat and looking so healthy.
Bianca
I agree with Sara’s observation of vegans. My granddaughters who are vegan are very sickly, painfully thin and malnourished I feel extremely blessed by my Italian heritage and wisdom. Am so happy these ancient cultures are
pointed out for their robust health !
Sonny
We can “glean” from everyone. What I got out of the documentary is don’t eat commercial meats. Eat organic, non gmo fed animals along with the best fruits and vegetables possible. Everyone has to do their own homework.
Yami
Such a biased article, just as biased as the movie. The reality is, eating a plant based diet is the healthiest for our species and having a little meat won’t hurt… HOWEVER meat is not a healthy food nor is it health promoting. Ignoring/not reporting the negative effects meat has on our bodies (especially gut bacteria) is insincere and biased. Most importantly, we DON’T need meat to be healthy so why even bother??
The only thing vegans need to supplement is B12 and vitamin D. Neither of which come naturally from animals. B12 comes from bacteria in the soil and vitamin D from the sun. We can get every other nutrient from plants which is a better source anyways. Do I want to get my iron from lentils/beans (health promoting) or beef (class 2 carcinogen)? How about my omega 3s? Do I want to eat fish (rich in mercury and arsenic) or flax seeds? Hmmm such hard decisions….
Harry Hill
Yami, you are simply regurgitating the same old vegan mantras which this article has presented a factual and informative counter to, including many many references as supporting evidence.