{"id":36080,"date":"2024-02-02T11:39:55","date_gmt":"2024-02-02T10:39:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/export.ralphmoorman.nl\/?p=36080"},"modified":"2026-01-06T10:05:01","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T09:05:01","slug":"review-netflix-documentary-you-are-what-you-eat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/export.ralphmoorman.nl\/eng\/review-netflix-documentary-you-are-what-you-eat\/","title":{"rendered":"Review Netflix documentary 'you are what you eat'"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following the questions I received about my opinion, I wrote a review of the new Netflix documentary 'You are What You Eat'.<\/p>\n

Another attempt<\/h2>\n

I can place the documentary 'You Are What You Eat' in the ranks of 'The Game Changers'<\/strong><\/a><\/em> and 'What the Health'<\/strong><\/a><\/em>. Again, an attempt is made here by staunch vegan food scientist Christopher Gardener (who also gets funding from meat replacement brand Beyond Meat) to convince viewers that vegan food is not only more animal-friendly, but also healthier for you.<\/p>\n

The experiment<\/h2>\n

The documentary follows this Stanford University experiment in which 22 identical twins are followed for eight weeks following a different diet, either vegan or omnivorous (with animal components). The first four weeks the food is delivered and the second four weeks they have to shop, cook and determine the quantity themselves.<\/p>\n

\"discount<\/a><\/p>\n

Political trend<\/h2>\n

Besides following the participants, the documentary mainly shows the atrocities taking place in the meat industry and how harmful it is to the environment and climate.<\/p>\n

As in the other Netflix documentaries of this vein, apparently arguments related to animal friendliness, environment, climate and habitat are not enough for the activist makers, but the health issue must also be 'misused' to make their point. Personally, I find this a bad course of action. The health discussion should be conducted separately from the sustainability discussion.<\/strong> This state of affairs that really worries me. Our Nutrition Centre, for example, is now also not communicating cleanly because of this political trend.<\/p>\n

Blood test results<\/h2>\n

To make the health point, blood test results follow after eight weeks from which it should obviously become clear that the vegan diet scores much better. This perception has also partly succeeded and many viewers have become convinced.<\/p>\n

LDL cholesterol<\/h3>\n

First, among the vegan group was the LDL cholesterol<\/strong><\/a><\/em> lower than in the omnivore group. This of course presents that this would then also be better for the heart, while of course LDL cholesterol alone does not say nearly enough to make this point. There are many other predictive blood values or markers that could say something about the possible risk of cardiovascular problems. One of these, for example, is triglyceride levels, which are higher in the veg group in this experiment, but of course this is not addressed.<\/p>\n

HDL cholesterol<\/h3>\n

HDL cholesterol<\/em><\/a><\/strong> also went down among the vegan group. And yet this claim was made: \"In this randomised clinical trial of the cardiometabolic effects of omnivorous vs vegan diets in identical twins, the healthy vegan diet led to improved cardiometabolic outcomes compared with a healthy omnivorous diet.<\/em> Clinicians can consider this dietary approach as a healthy alternative for their patients.\" This erroneous conclusion makes my whiskers stand up. Nor does the fact that they dare to claim this with a small group of participants and a study of only eight weeks contribute to reliability.<\/p>\n

Another 'benefit' seen in the blood values is that with the vegan diet, sugar and insulin levels<\/em><\/a><\/strong> had gone down and that in itself is positive. Does this also show that this benefit is due to the fact that the diet is vegan? No, absolutely not! The biggest blunder in this experiment is the fact that the subjects with the vegan diet ate on average 200kcal less and had lost more weight. This explanation is much more likely for the difference between the groups in most blood values.<\/p>\n

Conclusion 'you are what you eat'<\/h2>\n

I can't actually wrap my head around it.<\/strong> An experiment with 22 identical twins is already very complicated and expensive to set up and then you forget the most important thing. Of course, you have to monitor the calorie balance tightly so that one group does not lose more weight than the other. This has not been done now, so as far as I am concerned, the results can be thrown in the bin.<\/p>\n

The only conclusion I can work with from the study is that B-12 drops with a vegan diet when you don't supplement it. But of course we knew that all along....<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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