more than a few people have asked me to review the
documentary motion picture What the Health, and it was available via my Netflix
payment, so I watched it and took notes. Its thesis is that meat and dairy are
killing us and that all the major diseases can be prohibited and cured by
adopting a plants-only diet (claims we have seen before). It features poignant
testimonials and selected scientific studies; and it suggests that major health
organizations and government agencies have been “bought” by Big Food and Big
Pharma and are conspiring to hide the truth on or after the public.
It starts with Hippocrates’ aphorism “Let food be your
medicine and tablets your food.” Hippocrates died in 370 B.C., before there was
much in the way of efficient medicine and before science had learned much about
food (like the existence of vitamins). So Hippocrates is hardly a credible right;
and even if he were, the appeal to authority is a logical fallacy. The film
tries to convince viewers that food is medicine, and indeed is all the tablets
we need to prevent and cure obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and a
host of other chronic diseases. It failed to encourage me.
The filmmaker, Kip Andersen, describes himself as a former
hypochondriac who one time assumed that he was destined by his genetics to
develop heart disease, cancer, and diabetes like others in his family. At some
point in his life, he was uncovered to the belief that healthy intake could
prevent and cure those diseases. This was a complete revelation, and he felt
betrayed. He says, “it felt like this information had been nearly withheld.” He
proceeded to interview doctors and others who subscribed to that belief, and to
find supporting information on Google. Confirmation bias worked well, as it
always does. He failed to obey my SkepDoc’s Rule: before you accept a claim,
try to find out who disagrees with it and why. Most of us don’t believe all
those diseases can be prohibited and cured by diet, since the evidence just
isn’t there.
Processed meat
He cites a synopsis of epidemiologic studies showing that
eating a single serving of processed meat a day increase colon cancer risk by
18%. In the first place, epidemiologic studies can only show connection, not
causation. In the second place, that 18% increase is in relative risk, not
absolute risk. In the third place, it doesn’t take the baseline rate of colon
cancer into account. By one estimate, your risk of increasing colon cancer by
age 65 is 2.9% if you eat no process meat, and 3.4% if you eat one serving a
day. So out of 100 people who avoid processed meat, 2.9 will develop colon
cancer, and out of 100 people who eat one serving a day, 3.4 will develop colon
cancer: the differentiation in absolute risk is one more case of cancer out of
every 200 people, which sounds much less alarming than the 18% figure. And
there could be many perplexing factors that would pressure a person’s actual
risk like heredity, salt spending (processed meats like bacon have a high salt
content), smoking, other lifestyle factors that might happen to be more widespread
in people who eat a lot of process meats, etc.
He makes a big deal of the IARC classification of process
meat as a Group 1 carcinogen, the identical group as cigarettes, asbestos, and
plutonium. The film interprets this to mean that hot dogs and bacon could be as
dangerous as cigarettes, but that is simply not true. Cigarettes raise the risk
of lung cancer by 1,900%! The WHO in sequence page clearly states that organization
in Group 1 is based on the strength of evidence that it causes cancer, not on
the level of risk. It does NOT mean that everything in that group is equally hazardous.
They concluded that process meats cause cancer, and that there was inconclusive
evidence of an association with tummy cancer.
But they did NOT counsel people stop eating meat. They
explain, “Eating meat has known health benefits. Many national health recommendation
advise people to limit intake of process meat and red meat, which are linked to
augmented risks of death from heart sickness, diabetes, and other illnesses.”
Red meat
The IARC confidential red meat as a Group 2 carcinogen, but
that only means that there is limited evidence for an relationship with
colorectal melanoma and possibly pancreatic and prostate cancers. They explain:
Limited substantiation means that a positive association has
been observed between exposure to the agent and cancer but that other explanation
for the remarks (technically termed chance, bias, or confounding) can not be
ruled out.
Reality check: the movie present an alarmist version of in
sequence that has been widely accepted for decades and is built-in into
nutritional guidelines. The accord is that processed meat should be limited;
but the data on untreated red meat is unclear. Only vegans advise total
elimination of meat.
Preventable deaths
It claims that food is the cause of most disease, and 70% of
deaths are needless with lifestyle changes. They call obesity a “death
sentence” that will positively lead to diabetes and normally to cancer. A
recent study looked at the relationship between dietary factors and mortality
from cardiovascular disease and diabetes. As a whole, ten dietary factors
accounted for 45.4% of deaths. Only 0.4% of these deaths were related with a
high drinking of unprocessed red meat, and 8.2% with a high intake of processed
meats. Low intake of fruits and vegetables were associated with 7.5% and 7.6%
of deaths respectively. According to the CDC, somewhere between 20% and 40% of
the top five causes of death could be prevented by lifestyle changes, but not immediately
nutritional changes. Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death, not
improper diet; other important lifestyle factors are alcohol use, lack of
exercise, sun exposure, and malfunction to use seatbelts and motorbike helmets.
The 70% estimate is an exaggeration; the true proportion of
lifestyle-preventable deaths is probably less than 50%. And diet has a
relatively small impact when compare to other lifestyle factor. The movie tells
us dietary factors trump smoking, but that is demonstrably not true. It tells
us plant-based diets will stop and reverse heart disease, and breast cancer can
be disallowed by diet; I wish!
Diabetes
We are in the midst of a (type II/adult-onset) diabetes endemic.
The movie tells us diabetes is not caused by sugar: meat and fat cause
diabetes. It says carbs can’t make you fat; only fat can. It says the body
can’t turn carbs into fat (yes, it can!). They cite a Harvard study showing
that one serving of process meats a day raises the risk of diabetes by 51%, but
this 2017 systematic review says it raises the risk by 19%. And remember, this
is relative risk, not complete risk.
They say the risk of Type 1 diabetes is increased by
exposure to dairy at a juvenile age, but this study says just the opposite.
Early introduction is not a risk factor, and it may actually decrease the risk.
These are just two of many examples of how the movie cherry-picks study that
support its beliefs and ignores contradictory in sequence.
Chicken
Is chicken better than meat? They say, “It’s a question of
whether you’d rather be shot or hung.” They say chicken is the numeral one
source of cholesterol in the American diet and it’s the leading source of
sodium because chicken is injected with salt water. They tell us the risk of
prostate cancer is four times greater with chicken. (Not true: this
meta-analysis found no association.) A comedian walked out of an ADA event
where they served chicken, saying it was like serving alcohol at an AA meaning.
They say chicken is carcinogenic and fast food restaurants should be requisite
to post that warning. But guess what? Fruits and vegetables contain carcinogens
too! And they don’t recommend warning vegans about the carcinogens they are
getting from plants. An obvious double average.
Eggs
They tell us egg yolks are clean fat and cholesterol (not
true; they contain half the egg’s protein along with vitamins, essential fatty
acids, and other nutrients). One “expert” tells us egg yolk coats our red blood
cells (!?), makes our blood thicker, and alters hormone levels. They claim that
eating one egg decrease longevity as a large amount as smoking 5 cigarettes. I uncertainty
that.
Cheese
They tell us cheese is one of the worst foods; they portray
it as “coagulated cow pus.” It is addictive, metabolizing to a compound that
attaches to heroin receptors in the brain. It may cause SIDS and autism. 450
drugs are given to animals, and companies hide in sequence about what is in
their products.
Fish
They claim that diet strategy are wrong to suggest replace
meat with fish. Fish is full of mercury, PCBs, cholesterol, pesticides,
herbicides, and hormone disruptors. farm fish contains antibiotics and
antifungals.
Milk
They claim that cow’s milk is “terrifying.” It’s full of bad
things like saturated fat, cholesterol, and pus. A pediatrician tells us it
gives brood eczema, acne, constipation, acid reflux, and iron deficiency
anemia. He calls it the most allergenic food. Dairy is linked to numerous types
of cancer, as well as asthma, MS, type I diabetes, mucous, and autoimmune and
rheumatologic diseases. get the most out of doesn’t build strong bones: people
who drink milk have more fractures and don’t live as long. We are not supposed
to drink milk: lactose intolerance is the model for adults. African Americans
have a high pervasiveness of lactose intolerance. The direction encourages them
to drink milk knowing it will make them sick; this amounts to
“institutionalized racism.” They also mention racism in conjunction with runoff
and spraying on pig farms, claiming the pollution is superior where there are
African American community.
Miscellaneous other doubtful claims
Eating “dead meat bacteria toxins” causes an instantaneous
burst of swelling, causing immediate damage within minutes, stiffening our artery
and reducing their skill to relax by half (?!). Meat eating causes brain harm
that is misdiagnosed as Alzheimer’s. Mad cow disease is killing people and the
government won’t admit it. Many studies are fund by the dairy, egg, and meat industry
in order to deliberately produce doubt as the tobacco commerce did when it said
“doubt is our product.” management diet recommendation come from a panel
stacked with industry representatives. The government imprisons people who go
against them, and even criminalizes nation for simply taking a picture or
recording what goes on in the animal industry. Whistleblowers are silenced by
“ag-gag” laws. Apparently, the regime is in collusion with Big Pharma, Big
Food, and organization approximating the ADA and the ACA; they’re all motivated
by manufacture money, not by keeping people healthy. We are anatomically
frugivores (fruit eaters), not omnivores: you can tell because we don’t have
the kind of teeth obligatory for a carnivore to rip, tear, and bite its prey to
death. (They forget that we have brains and tools that equip us to hunt, kill,
and cook meat without any need for fangs or claws.) Further proof that we are
frugivores is that we find fruit smoothies more palatable than blenderized
meat!
Doctor-bashing
They are very critical of square medicine. They bring up the
same lame doctor-bashing tropes we have debunked so many times. Doctors aren’t
interested in prevention (nonsense! They invented prevention). Doctors don’t
consider the original causes of disease (they always do, whenever there is
evidence for an underlying cause). Doctors condemn patients to lifelong
medication; if you take their advice, you’ll never get well (if you take their
advice, you may not be cured from an incurable disease, but you’ll live
longer). People who take statins still get heart attacks (true, but they get less
of them). Doctors don’t learn about nutrition (nonsense, they understand the
principles but they leave individual diet guidance to the dietitians). Big
Pharma and doctors have a vested concentration in keeping people sick (but even
if they didn’t care about their patients, surely they would have a vested
interest in staying healthy themselves and maintenance their loved ones
healthy).
Phoning the American Cancer civilization and others
In the first of several phone call vignettes, the filmmaker,
Kip Andersen, calls the American Cancer Society to ask why they don’t warn
about the dangers of meat on their home page. He is put on hold, but is
eventually arranged an interview. The conference is cancelled and the ACA stops
responding when they realize he only wants to argue with them about watch your
weight and cancer. I’m not surprised. Their recommendations are based on expert
evaluation of all the published evidence and they are not likely to change their
minds because a single nonscientist with an program walks in off the street to
argue with them.
The touchtone phone call gimmick is repeated for the
American Diabetes relationship. He wants to know why they don’t clearly state
on their home page that meat causes diabetes, and how dare they include a guidelines
for bacon-wrapped shrimp! He ultimately is able to interview an ADA spokesman
who very reasonably tells him there is deficient evidence that diet can cure
diabetes, and says “We recommend a healthy diet.” He acknowledge that there are
studies, but point out that many of them have never been imitation or are
wrong; that’s why we do peer review. Andersen keeps bringing up individual
studies until the lecturer loses patience and stops the interview, saying he doesn’t
want to get into an quarrel. Andersen interprets this to stand for that the ADA
is not interested in deterrence or cure.
Then he calls the American Heart Association to ask why they
include beef and egg recipe. He gets a similar response. He interpret these
failed phone call inquiries as stonewalling and an organized effort to conceal
the truth. He discovers that the ACA, ADA, AHA and other conventional
organizations are funded in part by food manufacturers like Dannon, Kraft,
Tyson, and fast food restaurant chains like KFC. He says we can’t trust them since
they’re taking money from the company that are causing the very diseases they
are irritating to put off.
As an analogy, I couldn’t help wondering how the American
Academy of Pediatrics would respond to a random phone call demanding that their
home page warn that vaccines may cause autism and complaining that consulting
room can’t be trusted because they are paid by the Big Pharma companies that
sell vaccines. I wouldn’t blame them for execution up.
Benefits of a vegan diet
The American nutritional organization issued a statement on
vegetarian/vegan diets, listing a number of health benefits, but point out the
variability of dietary practices and the need to on your own assess nutritional
adequacy.
The movie claims that patients crippled with rheumatoid
arthritis can go off their meds, but this systematic review completed that the
effects of dietetic interventions for RA were uncertain
Many of the point of view for veganism are not
health-related but moral. Animals suffer from being confined, conditions are
unsanitary, they produce greenhouse gas and are bad for the environment.
Testimonials
They conference people who have gone vegan and whose
testimonials I find simply amazing. An obese woman saw her doctor for asthma;
after a CRP test (not indicated!) her doctor supposedly told her she was “on
the verge of a mind attack in 30 days.” I find it hard to consider any doctor
would make that prediction. She allegedly experienced complete relief of her
asthma and chronic pain after only two weeks on a plant-based diet; she was
able to go off all her meds for asthma, pain, heart disease, and gloominess.
Elite athlete who go vegan report improved remedial of
injuries and “100% better” performance. A patient claims a plant-based diet
cured her thyroid cancer in a year. A patient scheduled for bilateral hip
replacement says she was able to walk pain-free and bring to an end all her
meds after just two weeks. I am doubtful.
The filmmaker provides his own shrine that “within a few
days I could feel my blood running though my veins with a new vitality.” (I
can’t feel the blood running through my veins; can you?) He refuses to eat even
a little animal food, not for physical condition reasons but because he “can’t
support an industry that is causing so much suffering to community, families,
and all life on the planet.” He rejects the “everything in moderation” argument
because the evidence doesn’t show that eating small amounts of animal-based
foods is healthy (but the evidence doesn’t show that it’s unhealthful either!).
termination: Spectacle, not science
There are acknowledged health advantages to a plant-based
diet, but the facts is insufficient to suggest that everyone adopt a vegan
diet. The What the wellbeing movie is not a balanced documentary, but an
alarmist, biased polemic. It cherry-picks scientific studies, exaggerates,
makes claims that are untrue, relies on testimonials and interviews with disputed
“experts,” and fails to put the evidence into perspective. It presents no evidence
to prop up the claim that a vegan diet can avoid and cure all the major
diseases. It is basically not a reliable source of health in turn.
how to make a #good movie trailer,gives your presentation an in-the-moment #feeling not possible with static digital slides.,movies with political agendas,powerpoint #presentation on #community development,community powerpoint #presentation,how to make a movie trailer for school,community presentation topics,elements of a good movie trailer.
No comments:
Post a Comment