Hello, this is Monica Reinagal, and this is the Nutrition Diva

podcast. Thanks for tuning in. A number of you have asked me to respond to a

pretty new documentary called What the Health?

And you can find that on Netflix or Vimio if you haven't seen it yet.

This is the latest in a growing number of documentary films that focus on how what we eat affects

our health and environment and how business, industry and public policy affect what we eat.

Other films in this general category that you might have seen include

forks over knives,

cowspiracy, farmland, food ink, king corn and Fast Food Nation.

I'll start with just a couple of reactions to this specific film, but I also want to share some

thoughts about this type of documentary in general.

What the health argues that meat and dairy products are the primary cause of cancer, diabetes,

obesity, and heart disease.

At one point, one expert even testifies that consuming sugar plays no role in the development

of diabetes. I'm sure that was very much appreciated by the corn and the cane growers, not to mention

the American Beverage Association.

I don't really have time in this brief podcast to go through the movie

Point by Point. Suffice it to say that the film includes a lot of facts but also a lot of opinion,

anecdote, unsubstantiated claims, misleading statements, and a few outright

falsehoods.

Just because someone has an MD or PhD after their name does not guarantee that everything

that comes out of their mouth is reliable.

...