I love food documentaries, especially as motivation to eat a healthy diet. I had expected this one to really delve into the nutritional benefits of veganism and to give information on how to transition from an omnivore to vegan and maintain nutritional balance. What I got was a lot of the ethics of veganism and questionable nutritional recommendations.
There is a lot of footage of slaughterhouses and factory farms, and some interesting info on how they have changed and impact the environment. The footage is graphic and gross. However, there is no balance the other way, to also show how plant farming has changed in the last fifty years and the impact large scale farming has on the environment, other than how it relates to animal feed.
The participants were also given very little information on how to go vegan in a healthy way, and neither is the audience. The doc preaches about the health benefits of veganism. However, the participants are encouraged to simply replace their animal products with highly-processed vegan versions, and implies that processed foods that are vegan are better for you. This includes: Oreos, Teddy Graham's, Duncan Hines frosting, fake meat, and partially hydrogenated oil spreads. And they take this to heart...at the six week checkpoint, they couldn't be prouder of their highly processed vegan foods in their refrigerators. They were also expected to go vegan with little support outside of each other and select vegan advocates. As someone who eats a whole foods diet (though not a vegan one), this really threw me off the whole documentary. NO health documentary should be advocating for consumption of highly processed food, particularly when there is so much documentation that links them to just as many health issues as the host says the meat and dairy industry cause.
There is a lot of footage of slaughterhouses and factory farms, and some interesting info on how they have changed and impact the environment. The footage is graphic and gross. However, there is no balance the other way, to also show how plant farming has changed in the last fifty years and the impact large scale farming has on the environment, other than how it relates to animal feed.
The participants were also given very little information on how to go vegan in a healthy way, and neither is the audience. The doc preaches about the health benefits of veganism. However, the participants are encouraged to simply replace their animal products with highly-processed vegan versions, and implies that processed foods that are vegan are better for you. This includes: Oreos, Teddy Graham's, Duncan Hines frosting, fake meat, and partially hydrogenated oil spreads. And they take this to heart...at the six week checkpoint, they couldn't be prouder of their highly processed vegan foods in their refrigerators. They were also expected to go vegan with little support outside of each other and select vegan advocates. As someone who eats a whole foods diet (though not a vegan one), this really threw me off the whole documentary. NO health documentary should be advocating for consumption of highly processed food, particularly when there is so much documentation that links them to just as many health issues as the host says the meat and dairy industry cause.