- Our planet
faces a lot of problems.
But in some parts of the world,
people live in a time
of over-consumption,
abundance of food, and an
eagerness to be fit and healthy.
The supermarket is
overflowing with options.
But despite that, we are
poorly advised in nutrition,
and easily vulnerable
to misinformation,
and unreliable slogans,
inaccurate health promises,
and colorful tempting packages
are cluttering our
relationship with food,
and risking our well-being.
We are bombarded by
conflicting information
about food, diets
and supplements.
So how can we know
what's best for us?
Which foods improve
health, and which ones
can potentially promote disease.
I have struggled with these
questions for a long time.
And it has been a
challenge to find a diet
that would help me
achieve my health goals.
After trying several new
diets over the years,
I decided to change
my lifestyle,
by simply incorporating
lots of plant-based
foods into my diet.
So far, it has worked for me.
I lost 50 pounds, brought
my blood pressure,
blood sugar and
cholesterol under control,
and overall, felt really good.
But it was a work in progress,
and I still had many
questions and concerns
about nutrition and living
this plant-based lifestyle
for the long run,
especially now with a recent
addition to our family, i
felt that I really needed
to find answers.
So I decided to go on a journey,
to search for the
truth, and to uncover
many of the myths
surrounding food.
For three years, I traveled
across the country,
and interviewed the
world's top authorities
on the subject, as well as
people that had experienced
amazing, life changing benefits
through healthy eating.
All to explore the idea
of what is the healthiest
and most sustainable
diet for ourselves,
future generations,
and our planet.
So join me on this journey
of shocking discoveries,
and buckle up, because
what you're about to learn
might forever change the
way you look at the food
on your plate.
- Well, there's a lot
of difference of opinion
about it, and there's
a faction of people
who insist that there
are different diets
for different people.
But I think that the
evidence is fairly clear that
that's not true,
and there really is
an appropriate diet for humans,
just like there's a best
diet for cats, dogs,
elephants, and any other mammal.
And the best diet for humans
is one that is plant-based,
almost all calories
coming from four principle
food groups, fruit,
vegetables, whole grains
and legumes.
It's low in fat, high in fiber.
Not very much processed
food, none is great,
but in today's world, I don't
know how realistic that is.
- What we have seen in
nutrition for many, many years,
I must say, is a
lot of confusion.
You go and survey
people, you know,
outside of the science,
and ask them what do
they think that nutrition is,
and you can hear all
kinds of comments.
I eat this, and I eat that,
and this is good,
and this is not good.
There's also confusion
in the professions.
You know, medical
doctors are not trained
in this field.
And there's confusion
in my own field.
You know, about
medical research.
We don't get an opportunity,
to tell, you know,
the real science I think,
the way it should be told.
Because we're overwhelmed,
with the corporate sector
trying to sell stuff.
- We are living
in extreme times.
Where we have 27% of people
dying of heart disease,
25% of cancer, 10% of stroke,
four or five percent
from diabetes,
the same number for Alzheimer's.
I mean, these are,
in many, many cases,
diseases of
nutritional ignorance,
and diseases that are all
based on our lifestyle choices.
- There are a lot of
different dietary theories
out there, but I think one
fact is kind of indisputable.
Having a diet that is rich
in whole plant-based foods,
is truly a great way to
get you to good health.
- Everywhere I go
around the world,
there's not a single person
I've met that doesn't
know that fruits and
vegetables are good for them.
We all know it.
It's not about the knowing,
it's about the doing.
- There was a time when
there was no heart disease.
No colon cancer, no breast
cancer, no multiple sclerosis,
no inflammatory arthritis.
Of course these days, in
Asia, the middle east,
in central America,
and around the world,
people have become rich.
They have given up
much of their starch,
and they replaced it
with meat and dairy.
Throughout history, rich
people, the royalty,
the pharaohs, the
queens and the kings,
the priests, the
priestesses, the people
that could afford
to eat the meat.
They had artery disease,
they had obesity,
they were sick.
Nothing's changed
except for the number
of kings and queens
living in the world.
- A question
kept coming to my mind.
If plant foods are
so good for us,
and the consumption
of animal products
in excess appears to do us harm,
how about the ancient
populations of people
that survived on
diets based off mostly
meat, eggs and dairy,
and appeared to be healthy?
After all, aren't we known
for being hunter-gatherers?
- All large, successful
populations of people
have gotten the bulk
of their calories
from starch, rice,
corn, potatoes,
and other starches,
breads and so on.
Particularly when you
live near the equator,
as you move north and
south in latitude,
then you end up eating
more animal foods.
And if you get far
north, like for example,
the inuit eskimos, they
are largely carnivores,
because that's what's available.
But that's a small
population of people
that exists on the extremes
of the environment.
That's the exception,
not the rule.
- We have become
the most successful
species on this planet.
No one comes close to us.
We share it with animals,
and insects, and microbes,
and plants, but
we're number one.
And the way we got to number one
was all about survival.
We see in color, i
believe, because fruits
and vegetables are colorful.
Our hand is perfectly
designed to pick,
forge, grab and dig,
peel, and feed ourselves
fruits and vegetables,
nuts, beans and seeds,
plant food, food made
by mother nature.
- This idea that we're
hunter-gatherers,
is true, we're hunter-gatherers.
But mostly, we've
been gatherers.
One of the problems
has to do with sexism.
It has to do with the
fact that the gatherers
were grandparents,
women, and children.
The hunters were men,
and they got the glory.
The people who really
provided the bulk
of the calories, for most
of the civilizations,
through all verifiable
human history,
have been the women,
children and grandparents.
- Even when i
began considering the idea
of eating mostly a
plant-based diet,
I was still hounded
with many questions.
How was I going
to be able to live
without animal foods?
I didn't want to become
nutrient deficient.
And how about things
like protein, calcium,
and omega 3's?
In my head, I always
associated these nutrients
with animal foods.
I needed to find out
if those were valid
concerns, or simply myths.
- It's almost
impossible to design
a protein deficient diet
surrounding, you know, a variety
of whole plant foods.
- What people need to know
is there's never been a
case of protein deficiency
ever described in
the world literature,
on any natural diet,
that met the sufficient
amount of calories.
- You know, back to
1839 when protein
was discovered, it had
this incredible reverence
associated with it, and
it just gained traction.
But the evidence is
very clear that humans
do not need to eat
a lot of protein,
and when they do, they get
a lot of health problems
as a result.
I mean human protein needs
are just a tiny percentage
of calories, maybe two
and a half, three percent
of calories.
And if you were to
eat the lowest protein
foods, in the plant world,
which would be foods like rice,
you're at eight or
nine percent protein.
So you're not going to
become protein deficient.
But, the promoters of
the low-carb diets,
the promoters of
the sports drinks,
and the food bars, and
all these kinds of things,
insist and market to
the public that they
absolutely must
have more protein.
It's just not true.
In practical sense,
and in reality,
the way we humans operate,
we get ideal loads of
protein if we just get it
from plants.
When we consume animal foods,
to get that protein,
if you will,
what we're actually
doing, we're displacing,
the consumption of
those foods that matter.
And foods that
matter are plants.
- The amount of
animal protein we eat
is the problem.
You know, in rural China,
and Japanese populations,
and healthier
places in the world,
people eat a little
bit of animal protein,
but for economic reasons,
it's very, very, very tiny.
They use one little
piece of meat,
they slice it up,
and it seasons a dish
for eight people.
Here in this country,
we have one gargantuan
piece of meat, we
put it on a plate,
with a tiny little
bit of vegetables,
we call that a meal.
The problem is that when
you eat too much protein,
of any type, you
stress your kidneys,
you stress your liver, and
when it's animal protein,
you increase your
risk of cancer.
And we see cancer is
geographically distributed.
The more animal food
consumed in a society,
the more cancer, more
heart disease, you get.
- And it's amazing all
the animals that we choose
in this country to eat
for protein and calcium,
are vegetarian animals.
Where's the logic in that?
And I always like
to remind you, also,
when you're eating your garbage,
you never ask , "where
am I getting my protein,
"and my calcium."
It's only when you come
into the healthy world
that all of a sudden
you're concerned
with where it's coming from.
- We're in the midst of
this amazing protein push.
Everywhere you look,
the message is clear.
Protein, protein, protein.
This idea that you
need massive amounts
of protein, to
simply breathe air
in and out of your lungs,
you know, and to be healthy,
or to perform as an athlete.
- Prior to making
this dietary change,
like my main nutritional
strategy in a day
was to see how many
grams of protein
I could get in, like about that,
the only calculations
i ever really did,
I didn't count calories,
i didn't count anything,
was just like trying to
get in exorbitant amounts
of grams of protein in my day.
Just because there
are grams of protein
on the nutritional
content of something,
doesn't mean that
your body can actually
process all of those grams.
- Protein does
some other things.
It elevates blood
cholesterol levels,
which most people
have not heard of.
But that's about 100
years old, that idea.
And then repeated several times,
but always ignored.
Animal protein
starts heart disease.
It increases things
like the production
of so called free radicals,
which are those highly
reactive molecules
that actually stimulate aging,
and encourages cancer formation.
It also stimulates the
production of the wrong
kind of hormones.
It tends to increase
the level of estrogens,
for example, and
one, which in turn,
is associated with
breast cancer.
It changes the microflora
in our intestine
when we're consuming
too much protein.
I mean, it does
all these things.
- There's lots of things
we have to worry about
in the American diet.
Fiber, 97% of Americans
don't reach the daily
minimum intake of fiber,
98% of Americans don't
reach the daily minimum
intake of potassium,
for example.
The nutrients of concern
for most Americans
are the ones that are
found in plant foods.
Mostly fruits and vegetables,
and the ones that we're
getting too much of,
in excess, whether
it's calorie, sodium,
cholesterol, saturated
fat, are found
in processed foods and
animal foods in general.
- Many people
decide they want to improve
their health, by staying
away from red meat.
And instead, they begin
consuming more white meats,
like chicken, Turkey, and fish.
I always wondered if
certain types of meats
were really better than others.
- People think that
they're going to be healthy
by giving up red meat,
and instead, eating
poulty and fish.
Stop and think about
this for a minute.
What are meat, poultry and fish?
They're muscles of animals.
In one case, they
have to move a limb,
another case, they flap a wing,
in another case,
they wiggle a tail.
They're the same.
High fat, high protein,
high cholesterol,
no dietary fiber,
high in the food chain,
so heavily polluted.
- From the standpoint of
the effect of the protein
and fat in those foods,
and their effect on health,
it really doesn't matter.
It's dose dependent,
not type dependent.
So fish is not
healthier, in many cases,
it has more fat, than
chicken and pork.
But you have other
issues with fish, too.
In the ocean, you have
this whole hierarchy
of things eating things, that
eat things, that eat things.
And so you concentrate all
the pollutants in the ocean
including Mercury,
in fish like tuna,
that are some of the
favorite that we like to eat.
So fish is really not healthier.
Don't kid yourself in
thinking that if you're eating
fish and chicken you
can eat more of it.
Because one thing
in common with these
healthy populations
around the world that
do eat a little
bit of animal food,
whatever type they're choosing,
it's really a tiny,
tiny percentage
of what they're
eating in their diet.
So fish doesn't get a free pass.
A lot of people are
being told to eat fish,
by cardiologists,
or to take fish oil.
That's the other thing.
By cardiologists who
say that if you do that,
you'll increase your
hdl cholesterol,
and here's the
problem with that.
It's true, by the way.
It just doesn't
make any difference.
Studies are pretty clear
that in populations with very
low incidence of heart
disease, total cholesterol,
ldl cholesterol,
and hdl cholesterol
are very, very low.
So that's the wrong
reason to eat fish,
or take fish oil capsules,
is to increase your
hdl cholesterol.
Work on getting all
your cholesterol low.
- Since I was a
kid, I always heard that milk
was a very important food.
And I consumed a lot of it.
I also loved all kinds
of dairy products,
cheeses, butters,
ice creams, yogurts,
you name it, I had it all.
It took me many years
to begin realizing
that perhaps that was
not such a great idea.
But I still wondered.
How about calcium?
Would I be able to get
enough of it from plants?
- Well, we have a lot
of calcium in dairy.
But it's never been a
problem to have too low
calcium in a diet.
- An orange has a 110
milligrams of calcium.
Alright, so if you're trying
to take in 1500 milligrams
a day, that doesn't
sound like so much,
but when you're only
trying to get 500,
it sounds pretty
good as a percentage
of your daily intake.
- Milk is healthy food,
for calves.
For baby cows.
I mean, milk is for
babies, literally.
I mean, we're the only
species that drinks milk
of another species, and then
the only species that drinks
milk after weaning
into adulthood.
Why is milk associated
with increased prostate
cancer risk, for example.
Well, what is milk?
Milk is a cocktail
of growth hormones
to get a little bovine animal,
who's you know, who's
susceptible to predation
out on the African Savannah,
to, you know, put on
a few hundred pounds
in a few months, right,
because they don't
want to get eaten by a lion.
And so it's engineered
as this growth food
for rapid growth, which is
great if you're a little
baby cow, but if
you're an adult person,
that extra growth hormones
is not a good thing.
You know, one of the
hardest things for people
to give up is dairy,
and they're sometimes
really resistant to it, so
one of the things I tell
people is, "well, why don't
you look at the evidence
"and then decide."
Because I've always said
taking control of your health,
is not doing what I say
instead of what other
people say, taking
control of your health is
looking at the information
and making a conscious
choice, about what
you want to do.
- Dairy products i
describe as liquid meat.
They're basically
just like red meat.
High fat, high
cholesterol, no fiber,
in fact, they may
be worse than meat.
- The casein that they
use to bind the cheese
is so full of chemicals.
The chemicals are as
addictive as heroin,
that we don't have four
stomachs like a baby
calf, and unfortunately,
it is in everything.
They put cow secretions, i
know you have other names
for it, dairy, butter,
ice cream, cheese.
But it's really breast
milk from a cow.
- The only reason
people think we need
extra calcium is
because two decades ago
scientists, they raised
the bar on how much
calcium we needed.
That in turn was influenced
by the dairy industry.
What they're really saying
is, "we're not drinking
"enough milk."
Because that's what the dairy
industry wants us to say.
When in reality, if you
look at the relationship
between how much calcium
that people consume,
in different societies,
as it relates to,
let's say, osteoporosis,
the bone disease,
the higher the calcium intake,
the higher the risk
of osteoporosis.
No one wants to hear that.
But that's what the datas show.
- What goes on
inside an egg during incubation?
Well, after a week, the
eye shows up clearly
in the embryo, as the first
external organ to develop.
Gestation is much further
advanced at ten days.
The chick's outline
is more pronounced
as other organs begin to form.
At 14 days, you can see
the shape of the chick.
The contents of the
egg provide nourishment
during the incubation period.
- Most people
can't imagine starting
their day without eggs.
It's the favorite breakfast
option around the world.
And eggs make their
way everywhere,
in breads, cakes,
candies, dressings,
and even drinks.
Eggs have played an important
role in our foraging
ancestors creation and survival.
Overall, eggs are regarded
as a healthy food,
rich in protein,
minerals and fats.
But in today's world, are eggs
really a good food choice?
I was shocked to discover
the mounting amount
of scientific evidence
showing that eggs
and especially commercial
eggs might not be
the healthy food that we
all once thought it to be.
- Eggs are the most
concentrated source
of dietary cholesterol,
in the average person's diet.
And dietary cholesterol
can lead to an increase
in blood cholesterol
levels, which is the leading
risk factor for our
number one killer
of men and women, heart disease.
- Eggs have kind of
the same issue as dairy
in some ways, because
commercial eggs
are from chickens that
are commercially raised,
so, if you ever knew
how they were raised,
it's horrible, you would
never go near it once.
So, it's disgusting, but aside
from the disgustingness
of it, commercial
chickens are fed
antibiotics, to keep them
bigger, it makes them
bigger, cephalosporin,
to be specific.
They are fed feed that's
usually corn and soy,
genetically modified,
so bt toxin, corn,
roundup ready corn,
roundup ready soy.
So those are effecting
again the bacteria
and the microbiome
of the chicken,
and then, of you, because
you're ingesting it,
it's bio-accumulative.
A commercial chicken
leg is mostly omega 6,
it's not omega 3, so it's
a horrible polyetceteric
profile, and that's you know,
the least of the problems.
Because, like I said,
you've got the residue
from glyphosate and bt
toxin, and pesticides.
- The next
nutrients on my list were
omega 3 fatty acids.
Who hasn't heard about
fish oil capsules?
And their supposedly
great health benefits.
There seems to be a
lot of controversy
on this topic.
I was curious to find out
how much of these fats
we needed to stay healthy.
And how would someone get them,
if they didn't eat fish.
- A lot of these silly dietary
fads become an industry.
There's a lot of money to
be made, making products
that cater to them,
and that sort of thing,
and I'm convinced that's
the omega 3 thing.
Okay, so here's the deal.
There are two
essential fatty acids.
Omega 3's and 6's.
All the rest of them,
your body synthesizes,
essential means
must come from food.
Alright, so we find
omega 3 fatty acids
in foods like seafood,
walnuts, flax seeds,
some soy, alright.
And then we find
omega 6 fatty acids
in land animals, chicken, pork,
beef, and polyunsaturated
vegetable oils.
And so you can see
what our problem is,
we eat a lot of
omega 6 fatty acids.
And in fact the ratio
of omega 3 to omega 6
fatty acids used to
be between one to one,
and one to four.
You know what it is today?
Between one to twenty
five, and one to thirty.
So this has led a
lot of people to say,
"my gosh, this is
so out of whack.
"Omega 6 is up here, and
omega 3 is down here.
"Maybe what we
ought to do is take
"omega 3 fatty acid
pills, fish oil pills,
"and encourage fish
eating to get that
"omega 3 back up to
that ratio that we have
"been accustomed to
as a population."
Okay, there's no
evidence that it works,
in fact a large
meta-analysis that looked
at 89 studies showed that it
didn't make any difference
in health outcomes,
but besides that,
wouldn't it be better
to lower the omega 6
fatty acid in the diet,
stop eating all those
land animals, stop
consuming all that
plant oil, and the ratio
goes back to normal.
So let's not supplement
with omega 3,
let's ratchet down
omega 6, and we end up
where we need to be.
There's no money in
the decreasing omega 6.
There's a lot of money in
selling people omega 3 pills.
And getting them to eat fish.
- In fact, when you take
a supplement omega 3's,
we've got some really
good evidence now.
Summarizing a lot of studies.
The higher the use of omeg
3's, the higher is the risk
for type ii diabetes.
And even there's evidence
that cancer goes up, too.
It does exactly the opposite
of what people think it does.
It's disgusting.
It's one of those
ridiculous things.
- Early on, there
was data suggesting
that it might be
beneficial, but now,
the preponderance
of evidence is that
fish oil is useless, so
there's this billion dollar
industry that's
basically selling people
fish oil as snake oil.
- For many guys,
eating a diet rich in meat
is seen as a reflection
of their manhood,
and associated with
being strong and manly.
I felt the same way
for most of my life.
So I was really surprised
to come across studies
that showed that such
a diet might actually
have the contrary
effect in the long run.
- Here they are eating
the meat that's going
to make them macho, right?
It has the opposite effect.
That's not being very macho
to have erectile dysfunction.
- It's all about blood
flow, they even say it
in the Cialis, and
Viagra commercials.
So, if your arteries
are clogged,
with cheese and dairy and meat,
and bacon and all this bullshit,
what's the main vein?
Come on, it's
simple science, man.
- It's unquestionable that
men think that they have
to eat a lot of
protein and that eating
a plant-based diet may
not be really masculine.
But I'll tell you what's
really not masculine,
is erectile dysfunction.
If you want to be virile,
if you want to have
a great masculine life,
eat a plant-based diet.
There is a great deal of
evidence that erectile
dysfunction is caused by
diet in many instances.
And the reason is, that if
you have coronary artery
disease, in one
area of the body,
you have it everywhere.
So those very tiny blood vessels
that lead to the penis,
are some of the first
to get effected, and
so erectile dysfunction
has been referred
to as the canary
in the coal mine.
It's the sign that
something is terribly wrong,
and you need to fix
it, and at that stage,
it's much more fixable
than if you've already
had the heart attack,
or the stroke,
or something really
serious happen.
- Obesity
is linked to more
than 60 chronic diseases,
and it is common knowledge
that there is an epidemic
of obesity around the world.
Today, two thirds of
adults, and nearly one third
of children in America
struggle with it.
It seems like in
the last 30 years,
human waist lines
have simply grown
out of proportion.
And if obesity rates
stay consistent,
by 2030, 51% of the
American population
could potentially be obese.
- As far as dieting,
or losing weight,
people take two
approaches that don't work
for the long term.
And so of course they
say diets don't work.
One approach is they try
and starve themselves,
and be hungry all the time.
These are portion controlled
diets, typical diets
that people follow.
They don't work because
you're hungry all the time,
you can't tolerate
that kind of pain.
The alternative is the
make yourself sick diets.
And those are the high
protein, high fat,
low carbohydrate diets.
- Over
the last few decades,
there has been an explosion
of commercial diets
in the U.S.
Most of them revolving
around the idea
that eating few carbs,
and lots of animal protein
helps with weight loss,
all orchestrated by
multi-million dollar,
ingenious advertising campaigns
and celebrity endorsements.
As a result, nowadays,
most people associate
carbs with weight gain.
For many years, I worked
really hard to cut my carbs,
without any long term
results, and without fully
understanding why
i was doing it.
I wanted to find out
what the latest science
had to say about
these low carb diets.
- Rob atkins, some
years ago, in 1973,
published his first book,
in which he argued that
it's not the problem
with the fat, it's not the
problem with the protein,
but mostly fat, he said
that's not the problem,
the problem is we consume
too much carbohydrate.
And he made that point,
we should be consuming
low carb diet, he said.
And then many other people
wrote the same thing.
The south beach diet,
is only a copycat,
for the most part,
of the atkins diet.
The zone diet is basically
a copycat, different name.
The blood type diet in many
regards is also a copycat.
Good calories bad calories,
dairy 12, same thing.
Even Marco paleo, and I have
to say, omnivore's dilemma.
And the paleo diet
in this day and time
is a copycat.
They may give it
different names,
they may try to throw out
you know, different types
of arguments for
why that's right,
they're all wrong.
- Everybody wants
to hear good news
about their bad habits.
So when you tell
people you can eat all
the lobster you want,
you can have steak,
and eggs, and you know,
some include dairy,
some don't include dairy,
but that's sounds good
to people, because it
sounds less restrictive.
- This is written by
people, I should tell you,
who don't have
experience in this field
of nutrition research, period.
Most of them have
never even published
a single paper into
scientific literature.
- Some of the people
who are talking
about low carb diets
are little better than
news reporters, and that's
not to take anything away
from their skill at
investigating things,
but they cannot
don't have the skills to
evaluate scientific information.
- Low carb diets,
they make you sick.
And as a result, your
whole body gets sick,
with artery disease,
and kidney damage,
liver damage and so on.
They increase mortality,
that's been shown
over and over again
in major studies.
But they also make
you sick in a way
that you lose your appetite.
The dieter goes, "oh,
I've finally found it."
And then you go into
ketosis, you lost your
appetite, as a result,
you're able to sustain
yourself without thinking
about food all the time.
Because you're sick.
These diets are dangerous,
and people should
not be on them.
- Well, you know, the
biggest lies in the world
are the ones that
have a little truth.
We all know that.
It's a great tactic.
It's true, I happen to agree,
that we should cut down
on simple carbohydrates.
You see, that's out of
context to the whole.
You know, sugar, white flour.
That makes sense.
So in that sense,
there's a little truth.
But they don't always
point that out.
They just say, low carb,
low carb, low carb.
- Listen, forget about
what you like and dislike,
think about what
your objective is.
Alright, let's just
acknowledge we all like eating
junk food.
If you put chocolate in front
of me today, I'll have some,
right, but that
doesn't lead to health.
- I personally
knew several people
who experienced amazing
healing and health
benefits after
adopting some kind
some kind of a plant-based
diet, including myself.
But at the same time,
i had also met others
who are still experiencing
health issues,
or were struggling
with their weight,
after adopting this lifestyle,
some for many years.
So it made me wonder.
Was there a flaw in this diet?
- First vegetarian
that I knew well
about 40 years ago,
was actually a vegan
he was a very strict vegetarian,
he lived on Coca cola
and potato chips.
He was fat, greasy,
and unhealthy.
So being a vegetarian
means really nothing to me.
- 90% of the vegetarians
are still consuming dairy.
90%.
And they also consume
sometimes some fish,
and sometimes some chicken,
and eggs, and so forth.
The nutrient composition
of the vegetarian diet
is not very different
from the non-vegetarian.
So, as a result, if you compare
the health of vegetarians,
with non-vegetarians, you
can't expect to see very much.
- But somebody's decided
they're going to be vegan,
in other words eat no
animal foods, they've made
a declaration as to
their physical and mental
strength, and their interest,
and their willingness
to work hard.
After all, if you become vegan,
you have to stand up
to your mother-in-law,
and your doctor or your
dietitian, you have to,
quote, risk protein
and calcium deficiency,
even though that's not true.
But the problem is
that too many vegans
they don't look good.
They're overweight,
they're unhealthy looking.
- I don't really like
to use the words vegan
and vegetarian because,
that's not describing
the kind of science
I'm talking about.
- I would call myself a
fat vegan when I first
started out, that's
exactly what I was, and I
was trying to tell
everyone how great this
lifestyle is, and it
saved me, and it reversed
my heart disease.
But yet, I was still walking
around, about 75 pounds
to a hundred pounds overweight.
- Now why is
somebody a fat vegan?
Not because they give
up the animal foods.
That's a good thing, you need
to give up the animal foods.
But what they haven't
given up is the oil.
The olive oil, the
other vegetable oils,
the fat you eat is the
fat you wear, whether
it comes from a
plant, or an animal.
- So, I made the change.
I removed the foods
in my diet that were
empty calories, the
oils and the fats,
the sugars, the processed foods,
the food additives
that kept me coming
back for more, those
companies add those
things purposely to
get us to not eat
just one potato chip.
We need the whole bag.
There's millions of overweight
people in this country,
and they're all struggling,
trying this diet,
or that diet, and they
try this diet for a week,
or that diet for a week,
and they're spending
a lot of money on all these
different diet programs,
and pills, and supplements,
and adding things
to their diet to lose
weight, or to get healthy,
and that's where we need to
realize that a whole foods
plant-based diet is
free, there's no shakes,
there's no bars,
there's no powders,
there's no counting
calories, we eat until
we're full and
satisfied, and stop.
And that's it.
- As much as
i liked the idea of eating
exclusively a plant-based diet,
especially since it
had worked for me,
I wanted this film
to be very accurate
with the latest science on food.
So I wondered, if realistically,
from a scientific perspective,
could every person
in this day and age
eat a plant-based
diet 100% of the time?
- I can't say, and I don't
thing science can say,
that everybody has to be 100%.
You know, all the time.
I can argue the case, i
think, for the vast majority
of people, we ought
to be at least 90,
probably 95%, we've got
good science for that.
And in many cases, if
people already have
a disease, it's a good idea
they should be
100% all the time.
So that's my
scientific argument.
I have another practical
argument, though
on this question, concerning
how far do you go.
And that is that if
we're going to adopt
this dietary lifestyle,
it's really important that
we become accustomed to it.
And we should go
probably 100% if we can.
And stay there.
And don't tease ourselves
with the other things.
Because what happens, we
never become accustomed
to this, where our taste
preferences change.
- If you do it right,
there are no health issues.
In fact, the side effects are
you're going to lose weight,
you're going to look
better, you're going to have
more energy, you're going
to avoid most of the common
degenerative conditions,
most of the time,
you're going to have a
longer life, and a healthier,
and a better life.
You know, that's
about what happens
when you do this.
So there isn't a downside.
- We often hear
that the key to good health
is moderation, and
it makes sense.
But why then does
it not seem to work
for most people?
- You know for some people,
that's a really
easy thing to do.
But unfortunately for most,
finding moderation is
like finding a needle
in a haystack.
And, because others can do it,
they feel lost, and they
feel like an absolute
failure because they can't.
And the truth be
told, most people
can't find moderation,
so they're actually
in the majority and
not the minority.
But this minority few
that are on television,
that have never, ever been fat,
never, ever been sick,
have genetics very
much on their way,
they're out there saying,
"it's all about this,
"and all about that."
I mean, how are
they going to relate
to that poor person
sitting at home,
that's 350 pounds,
that feels like their
world is over?
Now, I know what they feel like.
I was 310 pounds.
I was loaded up on
medication for eight years.
I understand, I can relate.
I won't tell anybody
that moderation's easy.
Moderation's damn hard.
Really hard.
I still haven't mastered it.
I'm a work in progress when
it comes to moderation.
But what I'm finding
is that I'm away
from an extreme now,
of 93% of my energy
coming from this processed
and fun part of
town, animal fat,
I've now got this moderation up,
I've now moved it
up, and it's working.
- So how are
people supposed to get
all this information?
Since everyday we're
bombarded with TV ads,
infomercials, news talking
about the new food trends.
How can we know who's
telling the truth,
and has honest and
unbiased science
behind their products?
- The media always approaches
things with the idea
that if we're going
to interview somebody
about diet, we have to let
somebody with a different
opinion give their opinion.
Alright, so here's what happens.
Someone like Colin Campbell,
at Cornell university
writes this book,
the China study.
It has hundreds and
hundreds and hundreds
of references, it
represents decades of very
meticulous research,
work that he did, right?
And so they're going to
interview him, well then
they go find somebody that's
promoting a paleo diet,
or a low carb diet
because we have to have
the contrary opinion.
That person may have
written a terrible book,
that's a little more
than a storybook,
it's not referenced,
it has no credibility,
but in the eyes of the
public, now those two
are equal, Colin has an opinion,
and this other person
has an opinion.
So it confuses people, and
it gains traction that way.
- We tend to look
at the fast food industry
as the big villain,
responsible for all the havoc
surrounding food choices.
But these same companies
that are contributing
to the problem may
also hold the key
to the solution.
It is a supply and demand issue,
so if enough people
begin demanding healthy,
plant-based options, perhaps
that could be a good approach.
After all, it is us the
consumers who should dictate
what the market has to offer.
And not the other way around.
- You can make better,
cleaner, healthier products
by incorporating more
plant-based foods
into your products, and
not to shy away from that.
So, I don't take a
negative approach like down
with these fast foods.
We need to make them understand
that they can still
make money, and they
can still have a
sustainable business,
because there are
people out there
that want this food.
We just have to make
it available to them.
- Most people
rely on their doctors
for information about
diet and nutrition.
But several medical
school programs
show that doctors get very
little training on nutrition.
Sometimes, none at all.
- As I went through
medical school,
and I went through
residency, and I started
after that, working on
my own as a physician,
after awhile, I became kind
of a little bit frustrated
with my inability to
really, really help people.
Because what i
thought was happening,
was that, I was just
basically seeing patients,
asked to see them very quickly,
and was really left
with limited options
as far as what I could do.
I really felt what i
needed to do with the time
that I had, was left to
do, was just basically
treat symptoms, instead of
trying to get to the root cause
of the problem, or the root
cause of their disease.
So, it left me basically
practicing I think the kind
of medicine that the
majority of people are
practicing in the U.S.,
which is pharmaceutical based
medicine, and I don't have
a problem with medication.
I think medications are
wonderful, medications
are great, they're necessary
for a lot of people,
they are really the only option.
For many people
they're a good option.
But I think what we're
missing is that there's
something else that's out there.
- I was outsourcing my
health, to somebody else.
I was coming along saying,
"here's some money,
"will you fix me,
I'm busy over here."
And when are you
going to come up
with a drug that's
going to like, cure me?
- By using more
chemicals to correct
the imbalance, we're
actually causing
the imbalances to
be even stronger.
I found that people
who've been on medications
for a long time, are developing
a lot of side effects
from those medications,
where then are causing
other organs in their
bodies to become diseased,
their functioning is
weakening, their overall health
is weakening, their
immune system is getting
deficient, if
something is destroying
you really need to infuse
that with something
that's going help rebuild it.
- So, if somebody
comes along and says,
"you know, doctor, I can take
this patient, and by doing
"these simple things, you
know changing their diet,
"getting them to eat a
little bit differently,
"more plant-based,
getting them to exercise
"a little more, do you
realize that I could make
"this diabetes
essentially, if you were
"to test them again,
virtually go away?"
And a lot of doctors
in this country,
some may be familiar
with the idea,
but a lot of them,
even to this day,
would still say, "no,
you know, I don't think
"that would be possible."
- The cause of most of
our diseases and the cure
is within anybody's reach
who gets the knowledge.
The problem is, is they
have to make some change.
That's a small problem.
The real problem is
there is no money
in doing the right thing.
There's money in
selling you statins,
and blood pressure pills,
and powerful arthritis drugs,
and laxatives, and antacids,
that's where the money is.
So that's where
the education goes.
- We have to shift the dollars,
from expensive procedures,
and shift it more
towards education,
teaching people, showing
them about their disease,
and why it's there, and
teaching them the things
that they can do
day in and day out
that would positively
impact that disease,
and possibly even get
it certainly improved,
and maybe even
reversed in some cases.
- You can expect artery disease,
to stabilize and reverse,
and the symptoms to go away,
you can expect the type ii
diabetes, if it's really
type ii diabetes, to be
cured 100% of the time
with diet change and
associated weight loss.
You can expect the
arthritis' to improve,
and go away and be
cured, many times,
with your inflammatory
arthritis'.
The bowel problems, all
the way from indigestion,
to constipation, to
colitus, you can expect
to cure when you direct
your attention to the cause
of the problem and you fix it.
- On the
supplement aisle is where
things get really crazy.
It seems like every product
can improve our health,
in one way or another.
Some support each of
our different organs,
others give us energy,
stimulate our immune system,
prevent colds, reduce appetite,
or promote weight loss.
It makes me really confused.
If they're all so good for
us, should we even have
to worry about eating healthy?
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- There's some products
out there that could
be beneficial to our health,
and there's nothing
wrong with them,
but I think the problem
comes when people
overdo or overuse
that one product,
and look at is as you
know, the silver bullet,
the thing that's going
to cure all my ills.
When people go to that extreme,
I don't think there's a
product out there like that.
- I discourage supplements,
most of the time.
For most people.
And part of the problem
with supplements
is that supplements,
drugs, procedures,
they all have application
for specific populations.
So, the whole pitch,
if you will, is based
on the idea that you can't
get enough nutrients,
from food, you don't
eat the right diet,
so you can somehow,
make up for it,
by taking these
dietary supplements.
So it's become a 40
billion dollar industry.
The sales pitches worked,
people are doing it.
They're buying this stuff.
And the people who sell
it, they're hanging
on for dear life, and
they're not about to give
into the scientific truth.
But the reality is that
all of the nutrients
that you need are in
food, and they're in food
- in very specific and
complex combinations
that we don't really
even understand
all of yet.
And so when you extract
a single nutrient
and purify it, and
put it in a pill,
you're overloading your
system with something
that it's never seen
before, and is really not
adapted to deal with.
Much better to eat
smaller amounts of it,
in the food, and again,
I'll Grant that there
are exceptions,
and in my office,
I recommend
supplements sometimes,
but not to the
general population.
And that's the problem
in medicine, too,
we want to take
everything, and sell it
to everybody, because
that's how you make money.
- A lot of people have
done a lot of disservice
to many, many people,
trying to offer them a
magic pill, or a magic this,
or a solution in five days,
that's going to
change your life.
And the simple reality
is, is that you can't do
20 years of damage, by
ignoring mother nature's best,
the fruits, the vegetables,
the nuts, the beans,
the seeds.
You can't spend 20
years saying no to that,
and then expect
people in white coats
to come up with
something that's going
to solve that, in five days.
So what we have to
do is we have to see
the error of our ways,
which was turning our back
on mother nature,
and we have to turn
towards her, for a solution.
- Vitamin supplements
for example,
we've got a lot of data
that, when you take them
out of context, like that,
and use them that way,
in the short run, yeah, it
looks sort of interesting,
maybe they're looking
good for a little while,
especially in people
that may be really low
on them, but in
the long run, no.
You know, they don't work
and yet we're spending
32 billion dollars a year
on nutrient supplements.
- The most important
supplement for those
eating plant-based diets, is
a vitamin b12, a
regular reliable source
of vitamin b12, it doesn't
have to be supplements,
but they have b12
fortified foods.
This is very important,
it's critical
for everyone eating
a plant-based diet
to get a regular reliable
source of vitamin b12.
There's only two vitamins
not created by plants.
One is vitamin d,
created by animals,
such as yourself when you
walk out into the sun,
and the other is vitamin
b12, not made by plants,
not made by animals either,
it's made by little microbes
that blanket the
earth, so, you know,
it might've gotten enough
from drinking out of a
mountain stream, or well water,
but now we chlorinate
the water supply to kill
off any bacteria, so we
don't get a lot of you know,
b12 in our water anymore,
don't get alot of cholera
either, that's a good thing.
But because of the way we live
you know, in our, you know
sanitized, modern world,
got to get b12 from somewhere.
Our fellow great apes get
it from you know, bugs
during feces, but I prefer
a more sanitary route,
which is one 2500 microamps
of it once a week,
cost less than
five bucks a year,
or vitamin b12 fortified
foods everyday.
- We spend
more money on healthcare
than any other
country in the world.
Yet we have some of
the highest rates
of chronic disease
on the planet.
Fortunately, it seems
that some health insurance
providers including
medicare, are beginning
to embrace the concept
of disease prevention
through diet.
Instead of spending
millions of dollars
trying to simply
manage the problem,
when it might
already be too late.
- So medicare now
accepts for reimbursement
both the Dean ornish program,
for reversing heart disease
as well as the pritikin program.
And this is out of a
recognition that it's not only
safer, it's not only
cheaper, but actually
more effective than
kind of the traditional
approach, which is
very costly surgery,
and a lifetime of drugs.
And so,
I mean this is
great, from a whole,
I mean, the most
important things,
is reducing suffering
and saving lives,
but from kind of a
fiscal responsibility,
I mean, it's so much,
cheaper, so much more
cost effective, that, and
who's footing the bill?
Well, if it's medicare,
it's taxpayer,
so they're saving money by
making people healthier.
- For most
people, it is hard to imagine
that anybody could perform
well as an athlete,
without consuming
any animal products.
Not to mention being
a world class athlete,
or even a world champion.
- I am a professional
triathelete,
specializing in the
iron man distance.
I'm also the ultraman
world champion.
I have been racing for
triathlon professionally
for 10 years, I've
finished 66 iron man races,
and I love to train,
and race all the time.
- I'm an ultra-endurance
athelete,
most people have
heard of an iron man,
if you haven't, an iron man
is a very long triathlon,
during which, over the
course of a one day period,
you swim 2.4 miles, you
ride your bike 112 miles,
and then you run a marathon.
While ultra man is essentially
double that distance,
and in 2009, I was
the fastest American
and 6th place
overall in this race.
- I do believe that last season,
on a plant-based diet
was my strongest.
Than I've ever been.
I did a couple of
iron man races,
that were among the top five,
best performances in my career,
and I was able to win the
ultra man world championship.
- What you're also
seeing are atheltes like
mma fighters, they're
realizing performance gains
they're recovering more quickly
in between their workouts,
you see nba players, NFL
players, NHL players,
olympic athletes, all
kinds of athletes who are
starting to experiment
and explore this way
of eating, and
getting good results.
I've been doing this
for over eight years
right now, I've never
had a problem building
lean muscle mass, i
continue to get stronger,
fitter and faster,
and it's fine.
- For me now, the proof
is in the pudding.
I know that I am like
stronger than I've ever been,
without animal products, and so
I proved it really, like,
to myself and I've hopefully
proved to other people
that it can be done.
- I'm a neurofibromatosis
patient,
I'm an ambassador for a couple
of organizations, that
do philanthropic work
for sick children.
I'm an npst cancer survivor.
Npst is a rare sarcoma,
it's one of the most
aggressive and fast,
infiltrating cancers that
there is on the planet.
I've had over 325 tumors
removed from my body.
I've lived a very, very
rigorous and painful last
three and a half years,
battling for my life,
and I had a decision to make.
I'm either going to
let this take me,
or I'm going to fight.
Like giving up wasn't an option,
I don't know what's
going to happen,
but I'm not going
to die sitting down,
or laying down, I'm going
to keep my hands up,
my head tucked, and
I'm not going to stop
swinging until it's over.
And without a plant-based diet,
I would not be here today.
It kind of kept
my cancer at bay,
and it's allowed me
to thrive in ways
I didn't know was possible.
The insane mindset that
animal protein is the key
to being very healthy,
you know, almost killed me.
I'm not saying plant-based diets
cure, or they're
the end-all, be-all,
but what I am saying
is that if you're
going through some
type of health crisis,
your odds are very,
very much greater
when you embrace a
plant-based lifestyle.
Those are just the facts.
And my life is the living proof.
- In 2006, I attempted suicide,
while I was on 250
milligrams of Zoloft,
for what the doctors
diagnosed as major
depressive disorder.
And I was told I'd
be most likely on it
for the rest of my life.
A week after that i
went into a personal
development course,
and changed my beliefs.
From there, I started
to look at what I was
putting into my body.
And I started to
look at nutrition,
and nutritional healing,
and what I could do.
And it led me to going within,
and back to nature.
I stripped away all
of the processed food,
I went back to just
eating raw fruits
and vegetables, and juicing,
and green smoothies,
and I started to have
a sense of a natural,
natural happy high started
to come into my body,
and I was feeling better
than I'd felt in many years.
The symptoms of depression
started to drop away,
the heavy, sluggish,
tired feelings
that I couldn't cope,
the chronic fatigue,
the aches, you know,
everything started to shift.
And I started to
feel my cells were
transforming on some level.
I'd made the decision
that I didn't want to put
ever again, the fear
of death and suffering
of another life, and eating
animals into my body.
And that translated to
a shift for me, I cured
my own depression.
And I've never looked back.
- Eating tasty
food is one of the biggest
pleasures in life.
So many people might
argue that even though
eating an unhealthy diet
is not good for them,
they don't want to jeopardize
the fun aspect of it.
And therefore, they continue
eating unhealthy things.
But one thing that
i came to discover
is that when you
transition into a healthier
eating lifestyle, you do
not have to compromise
on taste.
Yes, you will go through
a transition period,
but once your taste buds,
and your body's chemistry
begins to change, you
will start to crave
and really enjoy these foods.
It is important to
find food you like,
and once you realize
that almost every dish
can be made plant-based,
you will see that
it is not that hard at all.
- There's such a stigma
with the word vegan,
I guess that people
just get automatically
turned off and just assume
that it's going to suck.
But it's like it doesn't.
If anything, to me, and
i mean, that was another
big thing, why I do it,
because it's better.
To me, I think food's
just way better this way.
I would say just try it.
You know, you'll
surprise yourself.
- When you're
becoming vegetarian,
and you've given up
the meat and the dairy
and the eggs, the only
thing you know for food,
you think you're going
to starve to death.
You have to understand that
marinara sauce, and
pasta, and lasagna,
and bean burritos, and oatmeal,
and hash-brown potatoes,
and so on, things you
love, that's where you get
your calories and your
protein and your vitamins
and your minerals.
- There are so many
beautiful, wonderful
amazing, delicious
plant-based foods out there.
In fact, when I started
to do this a whole world
opened up to me, and
when you begin to eat
these nutrient dense
foods that are actually
fuelling you, that are
actually nourishing you,
with all of these
amazing vital nutrients
and micronutrients,
you start to feel good,
your cravings change, and
your taste buds change.
You know, that cheeseburger,
that you couldn't
get out of your mind, suddenly,
you're not thinking
about that anymore,
and you're actually
craving that Kale smoothie.
And that's something
that happened to me
that I would have never
thought would have happened.
- People think that vegan
food just tastes like crap.
And that's not true.
I think that people
think that being vegan
might potentially be strange,
that people are weird, that
you have to be a hippie,
or you have to embrace
wearing hemp clothes,
or something.
- You want to have a burger,
you can have a burger.
You want to have
spaghetti and meatballs,
you can have spaghetti
and wheatballs.
You want to have fries,
you want to have chocolate
mousse, you want to
have pumpkin pie,
you want to have stuffing,
you want to have,
you know, even hotdogs.
- And so when you're looking at
the idea of taking the leap,
into this way of
eating and living,
don't look at what
you're going to be
not eating, embrace
and be excited
about the adventure
of all these new foods
you're going to be
bringing into your life.
- Eating
healthy will not do you
much good if you
can't afford it.
Or if it leaves a big
hole in your pocket.
So my next question
was is it possible
to eat healthy on
a tight budget?
- A common misconception
is that a whole
foods plant-based diet
is very expensive.
I routinely post pictures
of my grocery receipt,
and I take my whole
bounty that I bought
at the produce market, and
put it out on the table
so people can see, how
much I end up with,
and they're shocked.
Whole grains that
we buy in bulk,
are very inexpensive.
You're going to cut your
grocery bills in half,
from a typical
standard American diet,
in the beginning, it might
seem like a lot of effort,
but in the long run, you're
saving all this money
for all the new clothes
you're going to have to buy
for the new slim
you that is produced
from eating this whole
foods plant-based diet.
- It's easy to go into
those markets and say,
"there's no way
that I can do this."
But the truth of
the matter is that
it doesn't have to be expensive,
it doesn't have to
be inconvenient,
it doesn't have to be
difficult, it doesn't have
to be time consuming.
And my experience is
that it has actually
simplified my life,
and it's been cheaper
than eating the
other way around.
- At this
point of my journey,
I already had seen
enough evidence
about the benefits and
safety of a plant based diet
for adults, but was this
lifestyle also ideal
and safe for children?
- Not only can
children grow healthy
on a plant-based
diet, they'll grow
healthiest on a
plant-based diet.
I mean, we have an
epidemic of childhood
obesity, and children
raised plant-based,
actually grow taller
by about an inch,
they grow about an inch
taller than meat eating
incumbents, and
most importantly,
they grow less in a
horizontal direction, right?
They don't have
the same problems
with childhood obesity,
so Dr. Benjamin Spock,
the most esteemed
pediatrician of all time,
wrote one of the
bestselling books
in human history,
recommended in his final
edition, the 7th edition
of his book before he died
in his 90's, that all
children should be raised
with zero exposure
to meat and dairy.
And he did this
because he saw what
you know, the older
generations were dying
from, and wanted to get
them off on a good start.
I mean the leading
killers of our children
will eventually be, same thing.
Heart disease,
cancer, strokes, copd,
diabetes, hypertension.
These are diseases
that can be prevented
in many cases arrested,
or even reversed
with a healthy enough
plant-based diet.
- As a new
father, I wondered,
how could I get my
daughter to eat healthy?
Since getting her to
eat anything at all
can sometimes be a problem.
There's so much
junk being marketed
to kids out there, and
it is often difficult
for parents to
transition their children
to healthier food options.
- I would not be
surprised at all
that if in 15,
20, 25 years time,
people will look back at
the last 10 to 20 years,
and they'll say, "how did
those people give that food
"to their children?"
- A big question that
we get all the time
is, "how can I get my
kids to eat better?"
I think every parent
wants their kids to eat
healthy, and it's
difficult, especially when
everywhere you look, there's
a fast food restaurant,
or a processed food snack
that is being marketed
towards children.
And the first thing
that I always say is,
"you have to lead by example."
As a parent, you can't
be eating lousy foods,
and expect your
children to eat healthy,
because you tell them to.
So you have to walk your
walk, that's number one.
The second thing is, i
encourage all parents
to make the preparation
of meals and the shopping
of food inclusive
with their children.
The more you can bring
your kids into the fold,
the more they're going
to develop an emotional
attachment to where
their food comes from,
how it's prepared,
and the impact that
it's having on their health.
- Really get inside their heads,
and sort of think
how they would think.
Keep telling them what
is good, what is bad,
won't probably work, you
have to interact with them,
you have to show
them what's possible.
Get your hands dirty,
get the kids to help you,
and let them own
what they're doing.
If you always put
something in front of them
in a silver platter,
and let them consume
that information,
you know, it'll only
work for so long.
What you've got to do,
you've got to get them
involved, let them have
the responsibility.
The way I approach it
is that I try to make it
as fun as possible, use
colors, use flavors,
teach a little thing that
they never knew about,
use gadgets that,
normal people won't see,
but I want them to go
away with a feeling
of accomplishment,
and something that
they're eager to share
to their friends.
Hopefully their parents.
I think that's the best part.
It's like holding a bird.
You don't want to
hold it too tight,
you're going to hurt the bird.
You don't want to
hold it too loosely,
or it's going to fly away.
That's something that
each individual parent
has a specific
knowledge of their kid.
- I get the questions
all the time.
"What do I do, how do I start,
"how do I tell my kids,
oh, they're going to be
"so disappointed that
they're not having
"meat on their plates, that
they're not having dairy."
Try a vegan burger, it's
basically the same thing,
you just leave the meat out.
That's great for
kids, because why?
You're going to put
that burger on that bun,
you're going to put all
the fixings on that,
whatever your kids like, you
make it exactly the same,
that's a great way
to get started.
- When I think with
the younger generation,
what's so exciting is,
is that they get to start
young, I mean, I'm not
going to have any regrets,
but it sort of bums me
out a little bit that I'm
just now discovering
this in my 30's because
I wish I would have done
this when I was younger,
because just the thoughts
of like the energy,
that I would've had in college.
- I think the other
thing is to not have
hard and fast rules,
with your children,
you can't eat that, and you
know, you have to eat this.
And instead, respect them as
independent sentient beings,
who have you know,
the wherewithal
to make conscious
decisions for themselves.
So, at our home, we
serve plant based foods,
all the time, we don't
have any animal products
here, but when my 10
year old daughter goes
to a birthday party, she's
surrounded by you know,
chicken McNuggets, and
birthday cake and all of that,
and we don't say to her,
"you can't eat those foods."
We say, "have a great time
at the birthday party,
"and make the right
choice for you."
And that doesn't mean
that she always makes
the right choice, that
way you are empowering
them, this is a lifetime
we're talking about.
This is a long road ahead,
so it's about getting
your children to think
consciously about their
own choices, so that
when they reach the age
of maturity, they are
informed and educated
and prepared to be responsible
stewards of the planet,
and responsible stewards
of their own bodies.
- I could not
make a film about food choices
and not explore the
topic of organic,
versus non-organic.
It seems that
everybody's obssessed
with those words, and
it's becoming increasingly
adverse to foods that don't
carry an organic label.
Others fear that consuming
more plant based food
might be damaging
to their health,
due to the increase of
pesticides in those foods.
But should this really
be our biggest concern?
- Fear of pesticides
should never keep anyone
from maximizing their
fruit and vegetable intake.
There, you know, so there's
been like chemic computer
modeling studies that
suggest that, so for example,
if half of Americans ate
a single more serving
of fruits and vegetables
a day, we'd prevent
20,000 cancer deaths every year.
If just half the people,
just one more serving,
20,000 people would not
have died from cancer,
would normally have died
if they hadn't done that.
So that's how powerful
fruits and vegetables are.
But, because these
were conventional,
pesticide laden
fruits and vegetables,
they estimated that it
would, that the extra
pesticide burden from
all those extra fruits
and vegetables would cause 10
extra cancer deaths.
So in all it would only
prevent 19, 990 cancer deaths.
But that's what we're
looking at a year,
this tremendous benefit.
Then a tiny bump in risk.
So, okay, great, choose
organic whenever you can,
why accept any risk,
why not get all benefit?
Sure, but we should never
let concern about pesticides
in any way dissuade us
from stuffing our face
with as many healthy fruits
and vegetables as possible.
- If you're eating meat,
and you're eating commercial
meat, and you're worried
about switching to plant-based
diet, and worried about the
pesticides in the produce,
you're being ridiculous,
because you're getting
a fraction of the pesticides
by eating the vegetable,
that you can mostly wash it off.
Remember, you can
wash, you can soak your
vegetables and use a
wash to get pesticide
residue off.
You cannot wash the pesticide
off of the hamburger
meat you're about to prepare.
- I encourage people
just to go ahead and buy
whatever produce
they can afford,
whatever produce
looks the freshest
that week in the grocery store,
and whatever's on sale,
so that's where they're
going to save money,
is not worrying about,
"i have to buy
organic bell peppers,
"and they cost me
four dollars each."
That's not a
sustainable lifestyle.
- Besides
the health aspect related
to our food choices, I also
realized during the production
of this film, that there
was another very important
factor, that is
often overlooked,
ignored, or misunderstood.
The connection
between food choices,
and the environment.
I was really shocked after
reading the united nations
report on global warming.
After all, it is hard
to grasp the idea
that the burger, or
steak on our plates
might be contributing
to things such as
global warming, water scarcity,
species extinction,
the destruction of
the Amazon forest,
the depletion of our oceans,
and even world hunger.
I had a hard time
understanding it at first,
but once I began
digging a little deeper,
the connection became clear.
- Now, it's seven
billion people,
what we eat, determines
how the whole planet
is used, and what's
happening now
is that, as we run out of land,
to grow these
animals and the food
for the animals, we
burn down rain forests,
to aquire more land.
And the number one
cause of all of that
is our food choices.
- It's expected to have a
40% shortage in fresh water
supplies by the year 2030.
We have again, irreversible
loss of biodiversity,
ecosystems, and extinction
of species faster than
we've ever seen before, for
the past 65 million years.
We have a world hunger
issue with a little less
that a billion people on
earth suffering from hunger,
with about 350 children
dying from hunger each hour.
- You might
be asking yourself,
how is all that possible?
And I had the same questions,
because in fact,
many of these issues
are not only related
to our food choices.
Many are very complex problems,
with several social,
political, economic,
and cultural variables.
But here are some
intriguing facts.
70% of our arable land
is used to grow crops
for animals and not humans.
It takes on average
2400 gallons of water
and 12 pounds of grain to
make one pound of beef.
Five million acres of
rainforest are destroyed
every year, so companies
can graze animals
and grow food for these animals.
The excrements of 80
billion land animals
killed every year for
food are not treated.
And go back into
our water basins,
and our oceans, creating
a lot of pollution.
And these are just
a few examples.
So when you consider
these facts,
it all begins to
fall into place.
- We need to focus
more, and understand
more what the footprint
is, the complete
life cycle analysis, ecological
environmental depleting
footprint is of that
item is versus just how
close it is to you.
Or whether it's
even organic or not.
It's much less of a
footprint to eat something
that was grown 1500 miles away,
if it was plant-based,
than it is to eat
a food item that
was slaughtered,
that was an animal product,
by your next door neighbor.
And our largest footprint is,
you know, across all sectors,
our food choice
specifically as it relates
to eating animals.
- No matter
how green, or eco-friendly
we try to be, the truth
is that by nature,
we are a very
destructive species.
Almost everything
we do has a negative
impact on the environment.
So many people often try to
minimize their footprint,
by doing things like
switching to more effective
light bulbs, taking
short showers,
bicycling to work,
using solar energy,
or even buying an electric car.
And those are all great things.
But the question is,
are these actions
in fact the easiest
and most effective when
it comes to helping
protect our planet
and its' resources?
- You look at the
four major problems.
We've got overpopulation,
and we're adding about
a million people every
four days, net.
Then you get to the way we live,
and the way we consume stuff,
all that stuff is coming
from finite resources
which we are steadily depleting.
So those first two factors
the overpopulation,
and the way we live, are
driving the third one,
which is our dependence
on fossil fuels.
Look at the numbers.
Since 1950, the
line for consumption
of fossil fuels have
gone steadily up,
every year, and there's
no end in sight.
The fourth big driver,
of all of these
environmental issues,
particularly global warming,
is the way we eat,
is our consumption
of the meat, dairy,
eggs and fish,
and that keeps going up.
It requires, per calorie,
over 10 times as much
land, 10 times as much water,
and 10 times as much energy.
And it ranges.
But the average is
well over 10 times,
and that's a big number.
Now the good news
is, we can change
what we eat, any
individual over night.
People say, "wow, what
would happen if everybody
"changed at once?"
Well, that's not
going to happen.
The bad news is, those
first three items,
overpopulation,
over consumption,
and dependence on fossil
fuels, each one of those would
take decades, if not
centuries to fix.
- With more
and more people embracing
the idea of reducing their
intake of animal products,
or adopting some kind
of a plant-based diet,
it seems that things are
moving in the right direction.
But are they, really?
- You know, I hear people
saying, "things are
"are getting better.
"You know, we see
people putting solar
"panels up, and more
people are eating
"plant-based, and
there's vegan restaurants
"going in down the street,
things are getting better."
Well, not really.
And not even close.
For every individual,
that's moving in the direction
of a plant-based diet,
there's a hundred people moving
in the other direction.
We've got to double
our food production
in the next 40 years,
to feed the nine billion
that we'll have by 2050.
- When it
comes to global warming,
the production of
animals for food
currently contributes to
about 14.5% of the total
global warming effect.
A contribution larger
than the entire
global transportation
sector combined.
Livestock amounts to 53%
of nitrous oxide emissions,
44% of methane gas,
and 5% of the total
carbon dioxide
released in our atmosphere.
- Raising livestock
and eating fish,
and also producing dairy
is one of the largest
contributing factors
to climate change.
And the public
needs to know this,
and policies need to
be enacted to help
eliminate that.
It's one of the easiest
ways that we have
to not just adapt to, but
to mitigate climate change.
And it can be done as
easy as just changing
out what you have on your plate.
- Organic
grass fed beef
seems to be the new trend.
And the idea sounds
really appealing.
Cows that live off grass
don't take any antibiotics,
and therefore supposedly
provide a healthier
food source for us,
when compared to factory
farmed animals.
But is there a catch?
- It's a very large
movement today,
and I think what's
happening is that
there's been a shift
because of more and more
people being concerned
about the humane
raising of animals, and
moving away from factory
farms, they're moving
toward grass fed operations,
or pasture fed operations.
It's a complete fabrication
by the meat and dairy
industries to
continue perpetuating
the slaughtering of
animals, because even though
some animal might
be humane raised,
they're still not humane killed,
and all of the animals
that are still placed
on your plate have
to be slaughtered
in some manner, and
so there's still
a humane issue there,
but from an environmental
standpoint, in many aspects,
raising grass fed beef
is less sustainable than
factory fed animals,
and the reason is, because
it's so land intensive.
It may require eight
pounds of feed to produce
one pound of an animal
product, if it were beef,
but in a grass fed situation,
sometimes, it's 10 times
that much, it may be 70,
80 times from a grass fed
to a grain fed beef.
Additionally, from a
climate change standpoint,
grass fed cattle
produce 40 to 60%
more greenhouse gas
emissions, meaning methane,
carbon dioxide,
land use changes,
than a grain fed cow would.
- Another thing
often taken for granted
is the depletion of our oceans.
We often think of
fish as a never ending
self replenishing food source,
but the truth seems
to be quite different.
- Over 90% of all the
big fish in the oceans
are already gone.
80% of commercial fisheries
are over exploited,
or depleted.
The fishing fleets are
chasing the last of the fish.
And have to travel
further and further away
from the land and deeper
and deeper into the ocean
to catch them.
I've seen illegal
fishing in Antarctica,
and that's as far away
from land as you can get.
- When someone sits
down at a table,
to eat fish or seafood
on their plate,
what they're really
doing is they're eating
a target fish that's becoming
depleted to the point
of near extinction,
but they're also eating
baggage comes with it,
and typically it requires
about five to twenty
times more other seafood,
as by-kill, and
by-kill is the term
that relates to all
those other sea life,
living in the ocean that
are killed in the process
of trying to get that
target fish to your plate,
whether it's with purse
seine type of fishing method,
or long line or bottom
trawling, or middle trawling,
our oceans are expected
to be completely
devoid of all fish
that we recognize
commercially today
by the year 2048.
- The oceans are
dying, and nobody wants
to know about it.
And if the oceans die, we die.
It's as simple as that.
And if you start
destroying them,
you're basically
killing out the crew,
and the life support
systems going to collapse,
and there won't be
any air to breathe,
and there won't be
any food to eat,
and the climate'll
be out of control,
and, not a good thing.
But we have to humble
ourselves and recognize
that we need this diversity,
we need these creatures,
we need this interdependence,
and if we don't see that,
then our chances of
survival are quite slim.
My big concern is not
that we're going to wipe
ourselves out, out of
sheer ecological stupidity,
but that we're going to
take so much with us.
- So much confusion,
and so much debate.
That it just boggles
my mind that we can't
think like third graders,
and say, "why not
"just address the
number one cause here."
You know, we got ten
holes in the boat,
the boat's sinking, which
hole do we fill first?
Go to the big hole.
Fill that big hole first.
- I mean, so often we're
looking at just what
we would like to eat,
because it satisfies
our taste preferences.
Well, we're at a point in time,
in order to save
humanity essentially,
save our species, which
is not an overstatement
at all, we need to start
looking outside of self,
and start looking at how
our choices are fully
effecting those around
us, those species
that we share this planet with,
and especially
future generations.
- A couple
years back, I saw
a documentary
called, earthlings,
that exposed the
conditions in which
farm animals are slaughtered.
It made a big impact on me.
I knew that animals
got killed for food,
but seeing how it
actually happened,
and seeing the suffering,
pain and terror
that these animals go through,
put things into a new
perspective for me.
I was already eating
mostly plant-based foods
at the time, but after
seeing those images,
I decided I could not
contribute to the killing
of innocent animals any longer.
So I became a 100% plant eater.
I was not in a position
to judge anybody,
after all, I ate animals for
over 30 years of my life.
But I wanted to understand,
how come in this day and age,
such a massive
genocide was allowed.
And how come us, the
general population,
government and
corporations allowed
for this to happen?
- We love some
animals, and eat others
because we have been
born into a invisible
belief system that conditions us
to compartmentalize when
it comes to animals.
It conditions us to
think of certain animals
as edible, and other
animals as inedible.
And the invisible belief
system that conditions
us to eat certain animals,
is what I call carnism.
One way carnism
remains invisible, is
by remaining unnamed.
If we don't name it, we
can't even think about it,
so we can't question it.
When we don't see
something, obviously,
it becomes much
easier to maintain
this mythology that
there is no problem,
there is no atrocity.
- This is not
just something to eat.
This is beautiful love,
joy, work, action.
This is life.
- You're think
they're just animals?
They have intelligence.
They have language signal.
They have love.
So when they are
about to face deaths,
in a death chamber,
they fear, and they
sad, and they anger.
- You know, everybody
talks about the holocaust,
what about the holocaust we're
creating for the animals?
Every year, we're killing
billions and billions
of animals, and you
want peace on earth?
Peace on earth is for
all living entities,
not just humans.
People just got
locked up in Utah
for photographing a
cafo, a concentrated
animal feeding operation.
These people keeping
the people ignorant,
and it's sick, to make money.
And if the truth gets
out, if people know
where their food came from,
or how their food was produced,
they wouldn't eat that shit.
- When you start to
threaten the dominant
paradigm of society,
you're going to become
a force to be reckoned
with, and they'll do
everything they
can to destroy you.
And that's exactly,
that's happening now.
- There are still
people who'll see that,
and they'll be resistant,
i mean, I was one
of those people, you
know, I grew up in Texas,
eating beef all the time,
and I loved animals,
I always loved the
companion animals
I grew up with, and
you know, I never
really thought much, i
thought I was eating healthy.
So I think a lot of the
resistance that people feel is
because we're so conditioned
to eat these things
all the time, we've
been conditioned from
a very young age.
- And even if we make the
intellectual connection,
even if we say, "yes,
I'm eating a cow."
We still don't make the
emotional connection,
because if we did, we
would feel the empathy
that would cause us
to feel disgusted
rather than appetized.
- I couldn't pretend anymore
that was, eating that
chunk of chicken breast
was the same as the
broccoli next to it,
it just didn't, I couldn't,
i couldn't fake it
to myself anymore.
- And there's a
reason why, you know,
slaughter houses,
and feed lots are not
located in densely
populated areas.
It's not for lack of
space, it's because people
don't want us to see it.
Then those animals
go on a long journey
to the slaughter house,
at night, usually.
So we don't see a lot of
that, and that's by design.
- Who's to say which
animals are to be tortured,
and killed?
We've decided in America,
in our part of the world,
cows and pigs, and
lambs are to be eaten,
but in some parts of
the world, they eat dogs
and cats, and in some
parts of the world
they eat snakes and monkeys.
- Yes, it's true that
people have eaten animals
for thousands of
years, but today,
for many people in the world,
there's absolutely no
need to eat animals.
You know, we are
causing, as human beings,
massive suffering, to
other sentient beings,
suffering that is
completely unnecessary.
When eating animals is
no longer a necessity
for survival, then
it becomes a choice.
And choices always
stem from beliefs.
- There is a
popular myth that perpetuates
the idea that fish
don't feel any pain.
That makes it easier for
people to consume it,
since it seems to
be more humane.
But, is it really true?
- Fish have proprioception,
they have feelings.
And so there are a
number of researchers
that would tell you very
clearly that it's a very
uncompassionate way to
eat, you're slaughtering
between one and three
trillion fish per year,
and all of those fish
have sensory reception,
they all have feelings.
- The industries
depend on keeping these
facts out of our consciousness.
So for example,
we learn to resist
taking in information
from those who
may help us begin
to question carnism.
If you shoot the
messenger, you don't have
to take seriously the
implications of their message.
- So we need to
educate our children
the true meaning of
what these animals
really are, by showing,
and by awareness about life
of the pig or chicken is
very much same as life
of cat and dog.
- Our time on
this planet is very short.
And change can
sometimes be difficult.
And slow.
But by taking the right steps,
we can point ourselves
into a better direction.
As for myself, this was
the most exciting journey
I ever took.
And I look forward
to continue living
a healthy, plant-based
lifestyle with my family.
And to keep empowering others
with this information.
- It's so important for us
to take care of ourselves.
For our own human
health standpoint,
but it really won't
matter how healthy we are
if our planet isn't healthy.
- You know what's
unique about us?
We are the only species
out of the millions
that does not live in
Harmony with nature.
- At least it's good
to educate yourself
and be aware, and
then you can make
the decision from there,
because ultimately,
it's your choice
to make, you know.
It's not like, "hey, you
know, you're the worse
"person if you don't do this."
No, it's not like that, but
at least educate yourself,
find out, you know, so
at least you just know.
I mean, you can make
the choices on your own.
- I don't believe there's
an evil cabal of doctors
and government people,
I believe there's
a system in place,
and the world is so asleep,
and they've
forgotten, intuitively
that people just
follow the system
without thinking,
without questioning,
and it's because they're asleep.
It's not because
they're stupid, it's not
because they're not motivated.
- I mean, it's really insanity
when you think about it.
That we are sitting
here, in the modern day,
and we've got to talk
about eating fruits
and vegetables.
You know, you go back
in any time in history,
past, say the last 100, 200
years, and it was just like
everyone was doing it.
- If you want to be a
responsible steward of our
precious planet, and
its' dwindling resources,
eating a plant-based
diet really is
the only solution.
And by voting with your dollar,
and eating a plant-based diet,
you are saying no to
animal agriculture,
and all the devastation,
all the havoc
that it's wreaking
on our planet.
- I think that every human being
wants to do good.
I think that every human being,
in their core, wants
to do what's right.
And I think that
if we look at it,
and we say, "you know what?
"What is it that I can do today,
"to make the environment better,
"to make my health better,
"and to have
compassion for animals,
"for our fellow creatures.
"What is it that I can do today?
"I can start on the path
to a plant-based diet."