WHAT THE HEALTH! An insight and lifestyle eating conundrum

This documentary film has had a profound effect on me since watching it 2 weeks ago.  This post is not intended to review the film, the link to the website is provided.  

I will explain the effect and possible affect that the content has had and may have on myself and family.  Many celebrities and famous personalities have been affected in a similar way, such as Ne-Yo, Lewis Hamilton.

what the health

A Quick Summary

Filmmaker Kip Anderson investigates the health industry in regard to chronic diseases such as Diabetes, Cancer, Heart Disease, Obesity, Dementia and other related diseases.  The film focuses on how meat and dairy products can be blamed for the serious health problems mentioned above.  It further conspires that the main health industry players and pharmaceutical companies actually promote the consumption of these food types to the extent of covering up the causes thus enabling the companies to continue producing medicines and medical treatments.  One of my main points to take away from the film was that their is HUGE amounts of money in treatments and less to be made if a cure was found.  It is quite a simple conclusion to state that if a CURE was found for these diseases, then a lot of companies would be out of business.  Some very profound case studies are given in the film, an example being that a lady switched to a plant-based diet and after only 2 weeks found that she no longer needed her medicines for many of her symptoms such as diabetes, Asthma, depression, among others.

There are many internet articles investigating the facts documented in the film, some of these facts appear to be alike to 'scare-mongering', and are 'de-bunked' in a number of articles. See Stacey Mattinson and Vox.com

My Thoughts

After watching the film, I signed up to Forks over Knives Meal Planning service and followed their Week 1 Plant based diet for 5 days.  The food was delicious, although I was brought up as a child eating a lot of salad type dishes - with meat and eggs.  The ingredients were a lot cheaper than our normal weekly shopping, a big plus.  Soy Milk, which I tried for the first time in my life, is quite delicious!

I did not try to make my family (wife and two children age 10 and 12) follow the diet.  My wife, @thewildwife, did, however, try a few of the meals and also enjoyed them.  My children are avid eaters of dairy, meat and lots of processed foods.  McDonalds, KFC, Pizza-hut are all regulars.

Fruit Porridge instead of Eggs Benedict?  Yummy...

A friend of mine was visiting, here in Dubai, from the UK.  He also tried a couple of the dishes that I prepared and particularly enjoyed the peanut noodle and vegetable stir-fry.   I have since made this meal a couple of times, although I did add some beef strips into one meal.   I must say that the beef strips did not make a huge difference in taste and it did give any other value.  In fact, the meal without beef strips is much better, as you do not have to purchase the extra ingredient, at a marked up price in the local Dubai supermarkets. 

I have not followed the diet since the first 5 days.  This is not because I did not enjoy it, but I think it is because of the lifestyle change that would have to occur which affects my family in a big way too.  Maybe I am just being lazy.

When I explained the film to my father-in-law - We receive a lot of visitors to Dubai!  He summed it up succinctly as follows.  'Well I am 66 years old and have eaten meat and dairy all my life, I have no particular health problems and do not see why I would change'.  I agreed with him, as at 46 yrs old, am very healthy also.   

So, to change or not to change to a plant based diet - I would like to.  I would not tag myself as a Vegan though, my cultural upbringing defines Vegans as people who do not like animals being slaughtered for food.  I have no issue with this, although details would be subject to another post.  I would simply look to change to a plant based diet, allowing myself to eat meat and dairy products, as per my convenience.

I think the film does give a 'terrifying' view of the possibility that meat and dairy products are the cause of many diseases, and it is quite believable.  The conspiracy in regard to the pharmaceutical companies and the cancer and diabetes charities is believable, based on the information in the film.  I am quite alarmed about this aspect, based on the fact that I do not like the idea of my life being covertly directed by marketing strategies etc.

I am fortunate to work on a rotational cycle of 28 days working away from home and 28 days at home, not working except for my new hobby here on Steemit.   During my 28 days working away, I am fed very well at a choice of 2 canteens serving everything any hardened Vegan expects, so, to this end I am strategically changing to a plant based diet whilst working away and will be following, where convenient, a plant based diet at home.  My wife and children are more than welcome to join in on the meals at home, let's see how that holds up - No McDonald's!

Thanks for taking the time and I hope my first article on Steem is well received.

STATS - 1 day thinking about it, 3 hours research and writing it.

"A conspiracy theory about the food industry" is a great article by John Atkinson on Medium.com provides similar information to What the Health.