“What the Health” claims to be “the health film that health organizations don’t want you to see.” My opinion: it’s a movie that isn’t worth the time it takes to see it, and I’d rate it at half a star. The movie is directed by Kip Anderson, the narrator and star of the movie, and Keeghan Kune; it’s supposed to be about Andersen’s journey to health. It’s more like a movie to nowhere due to a lack of skill in directing and research.

The obvious thing a movie is supposed to do is to tell a story; this one doesn’t. We don’t really get to understand why Andersen begins his quest. He wasn’t sick. He wasn’t overweight. He was already exercising. Why did he want to begin this journey? What we see are his questions about a healthy diet and the answers he gets from experts that explain why a vegan diet is the only healthy diet.

Those health organizations he’s talking about are the American Diabetes Association, the American Cancer Society, and just about every other national health association. He reviews their websites, sees that they recommend diets that are other than vegan, and thus he deems them unhealthy. Then he tries to interview dietary experts from the organization about why the organizations advocate these unhealthy diets. Alas, no one wanted to talk with him. The theme of the movie is that every organization takes money from meat, dairy, and refined food producers; therefore the organizations are corrupt because they don’t advocate a vegan diet.

The direction and writing are poor, but the real problem is the science that the film’s experts try to sell us. I’ll cover two primary issues in the next two Memos, but I don’t have the space to give a complete evaluation of all the claims made in this film. If you want to know more, I’m recording a Straight Talk on Health for Members and Insiders that will be posted later this week.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

Reference: What the Health. Directed by K. Andersen and K. Kune. 2017.