Review of "What The Health" Documentary (review post)

 

Link to the documentary here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1QDkpUPiI8 

Greeting & welcome back to all my healthy Nature's Nook subscribers! For today's blog post I will be reviewing one of the most impactful food documentaries called "What The Health." This documentary has inspired millions all over the world to go vegan and is one of the factors that convinced me to go vegan. The 2017 documentary was produced by one of our very own, Joaquin Phoenix! I did a profile post on Phoenix a few days ago so make sure to check that out after this post. 

I want to first give a quick and concise summarized overview of the claims and topics that are covered in this movie before getting into my thoughts and opinion. What The Health is about the current health situation in America, it follows the brave filmmaker Kip Andersen as he uncovers the secret to preventing and even reversing common chronic diseases. The film bridges the gap between how the food we consume [meat, eggs, and dairy] impacts our health, environment, and animals. They include several interviews with various real-life medical doctors, environmental experts, and journalist. The first half of the film is focused on the food we consume and how it impacts our health and why a vegan diet can help reverse many chronic illnesses. The second half of the doc gets more political. It analyzes why big corporations feed us unhealthy food, the false advertising, and marketing that has convinced society to believe that these certain foods are healthy for us. What The Health purpose is to answer the questions that multiple studies have found, that diet plays a huge role in one’s health and development of disease are not just genetic predisposition.

One thing I really thought the producers did well with this documentary was they illustrate scientifically proven facts by making weird life comparisons. For example, they compare the number of people who die from heart disease/diabetes in the US like thinking about having four airplane crashes of every hour of every day for a year. In my opinion, I do think the film was a little biased because all the experts who were interviewed are those who are vegans and advocate for a vegan lifestyle. I thought the most shocking piece of information that played a big factor in influencing my decision to go vegan was "exposing" the big American nonprofit organizations. They explain how these big organizations that try to educate and give information about chronic illnesses, are all sponsored by the beef/egg/dairy industries as well as many big fast food corporations. These health organization then try to feed us information and tips on foods to eat to be healthy or how to prevent/cure diabetes. An real life example of this is the American Diabetes Association, who has big corporate sponsors like Dannon, Tyson, Kraft, and at one point McDonalds. After learning this, I developed a whole new perspective on the food industry. 

Overall, I really liked this documentary and thought it gave a lot of insight into the American food industry and organizations. My favorite part of the film that I thought was interesting as well was the three people that are followed throughout the film. These three people are extremely ill with different types of illnesses who are prescribed a variety of pharmaceutical pills for "aiding" their diseases. They show the vulnerable side of these individuals with their loss and hope that they will ever get and feel better. By changing to a plant-based diet and removing the drugs from their consumption, you see the health transformation in their whole outlook on life. I think the director, Kip, did quality job of his friendly approach to all these problems. He portrays himself as being naive to all these facts but doesn't come off as the hardcore activist vegan stereotype. Again I do think this documentary is very one-sided argument because he only interviews with people who agree with his argument.  I highly recommend for all of you to give this documentary a watch.