What The Health: what the food industry doesn’t want you to know

"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food"

 – A principle rooted in Hippocratic thought

 

The 2017 Netflix documentary "What The Health" addresses a disturbing truth: what we eat every day, what we consider "normal," "balanced," and "healthy," could well be at the root of devastating major chronic diseases. Even worse: the major public health organizations that are supposed to protect us are allegedly influenced and manipulated by the financial interests of the food and pharmaceutical industries, manipulating us in turn.

 

1) The impact of diet on health

a) The causes of diabetes: a lie

Contrary to popular belief, it is not sugar that is responsible for type 2 diabetes: it is animal-based fats, specifically saturated fats (meat, cheese, eggs, dairy products).

These fats clog cells and prevent insulin from acting correctly, leading to insulin resistance.

Sugar itself is neither beneficial nor destructive—but it is not the primary cause of the disease.

Yet, the ADA (American Diabetes Association) still recommends meals rich in industrial meat, in total contradiction with scientific studies showing that a low-fat plant-based diet is twice as effective at controlling and even reversing diabetes.

b) Cardiovascular diseases

Every year, more than 17 million people die from cardiovascular diseases.

These diseases do not develop "over time": their effects are immediate from the very first bite.

Striking examples:

• Chicken, often presented as a "healthy" alternative, is actually the number one source of cholesterol in the US, ahead of beef.
• Eating one egg a day is said to have the same impact as smoking 5 cigarettes a day in terms of cardiovascular disease.

c) Genetics or lifestyle?

Although some people are genetically predisposed to chronic diseases, genetics does not determine their fate. It is our diet, our lifestyle, and our daily habits that play a much more significant role.

But here again, organizations like the American Heart Association continue to promote entire recipes for red meat-based dishes (even though the WHO classifies red meat as a Group 1 carcinogen) and remain silent about true preventative factors.

d) And fish: healthy or not?

Even fish, often considered healthy, pose problems:

• Contamination by mercury, persistent organic pollutants (PCBs), saturated fats, and cholesterol.
• Even the least toxic fish, like sardines, are not necessarily good for your health; they are simply less harmful.
• For pregnant women, the consumption of meat and fish can have serious consequences for the fetus's health.

e) The risks of milk

Dairy products are responsible for numerous health disorders:

• Lactose intolerance: affects 73% of Americans, 95% of Asians, and 70% of Native Americans. Yet, the government encourages these populations to consume dairy products, despite no real nutritional benefit, but with significant economic benefits for the dairy industry.
• Organic or conventional milk? Little difference: the same content of saturated fat, cholesterol, and galactose.
• Milk is inevitably associated with several cancers, including:

·         +34% risk of prostate cancer

·         +49% risk of death from breast cancer among women who consume dairy products once a day

·         +64% risk of all-cause mortality

Milk also contains 10 times more casein than human breast milk: a protein that may be addictive and promote the development of tumors.

 

2) The influence of the food and pharmaceutical industries

a) The pharmaceutical industry

The medical system does not seek to treat causes, but to maintain symptoms through lifelong treatments. Every disease is a commercial opportunity:

• The treatment of chronic diseases represents 1.5 trillion dollars.
• Pharmaceutical companies provide massive funding to disease-fighting associations while profiting from the drugs sold to "treat" them.
• Doctors are trained to prescribe, not to prevent.

b) The dangers of industrial farming

• 450 different drugs are administered to animals, including antibiotics, hormones, and antimicrobials... which we then find on our plates.
• The animal industry buys 80% of the antibiotics produced in the US.
• In North Carolina, the waste from 10 million pigs is equivalent to the excrement of 100 million humans.
• This waste is dumped near poor and marginalized communities, causing serious health problems: a flagrant case of environmental racism.

c) What The Health exposes: corrupt institutions

The US Department of Agriculture, which is supposed to protect the population, works hand-in-hand with lobbyists:

• It publishes dietary recommendations written by the meat and dairy industries.
• State-funded campaigns encourage the consumption of more cheese, more meat, and more milk, even in schools.
• Laws protect companies, not citizens: bans on filming in slaughterhouses, "cheeseburger laws" that prevent suing a food company for obesity.

 

3) Plant-based diet: the solution proposed by What The Health

All essential amino acids come from plants, not animals. Animals only recycle plant-based proteins.

a) Adopting a low-fat plant-based diet

• Can reverse cardiovascular diseases
• Can reduce or eliminate treatments for diabetes, hypertension, and cholesterol
• Can transform health in just 2 weeks

The most powerful animals in the world are herbivores; no need for meat to be strong!

b) Plant-based athletes, higher performance

High-level athletes testify: a plant-based diet increases endurance, recovery, and performance.

"You can't be strong while dying on the inside, that's not what being strong is [...] You look big and strong on the outside but your heart is crying for help, inside you are dying" - David Carter, former NFL defensive lineman

c) An urgent awareness

The documentary What The Health raises a central question: can we still trust major health institutions when they are funded by the industries responsible for the diseases they claim to fight?

Changing your diet means taking back control of your health and refusing to be a lifelong client of the food or pharmaceutical industries. It is also a political, ethical, and environmental act.