Several readers have asked me to share my thoughts on the recent Netflix film "What the Health".
It's been reviewed well for the most part here, by Julia Belluz, and comprehensively here by Robb Wolf. Robb Wolf is widely respected in the Ancestral Health community. If you read Robb's review to the end, you'll see that Kip Andersen (What the Health producer) and Dr. Garth Davis (featured in movie), have reached out to Robb to set up a conference to debate this complex issue. So I'll leave it at that, other than to suggest, as Robb did, that you also consider watching another upcoming film called The Magic Pill.
But today I will share a few thoughts on veganism, or eating exclusively plant based foods.
Be weary when food becomes religion. I can find research studies to support any food ideology. There is no one-size-fits-all best diet. One person's food can be another person's poison. While we are not eating nearly enough vegetables, especially leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables, and a plant based diet can be a great antidote to the Standard American Diet, one need not avoid all animal products to be "healthy". In fact at times, animal products may be necessary to regain health. Plant based proteins (as in wheat, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, beans etc.) can be (or become) highly allergenic to some overtime, especially with excessive consumption. Plants are living things that, like other living things, want to ensure survival of their species. Because they cannot runaway from their prey they must produce chemicals to deter or poison them.
Contrary to what's depicted on What the Health, humans are omnivores. We are well equipped to digest both animal or plant based foods. In his book Catching Fire - How Cooking Made us Human, Harvard evolutionary biologist Richard Wrangham, effectively depicts how cooking (especially nutrient dense animals products) made eating easier and faster facilitating shrinking the gut and growing the brain. Animals who chew the cud all day have very large guts. Herbivores have the ability to digest plants, including grasses (humans can't). They also host massive amounts of bacteria in their foregut that help them convert the grasses to the building blocks of the body and become "mini steaks" when they die off.
Of course modern appliances like blenders do make it easier for us to consume raw plant foods rapidly. And we can supplement the hard to obtain vitamins and minerals from plant based foods (omega 3, vitamin B12, iron, zinc). Current research on the human microbiome also suggests that the right mix of microbes we host within can facilitate thriving on more of a plant based diet. Sadly, the overconsumption of antibiotics, pesticides, chlorinated water, medication has devastated our ecology within. But fibrous plants, resistant starches and fermented foods can reinoculate us.
My preferred eating approach is flexitarian. I eat mostly plants garnished with small amounts of naturally and sustainably raised animal products. Ninety percent of the time I cook my own food from whole ingredients. When being hosted I eat what's served with sincere gratitude.
Originally published July 28, 2017
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