MovieChat Forums > Food Choices (2016) Discussion > Some good points, but overall a mediocre...

Some good points, but overall a mediocre movie + beware of the synopsis

posted 8 years ago by Lin301
6 replies | jump to latest

From the official website:

Join award-winning filmmaker Michal Siewierski on his three-year journey to expose the truth about our food choices. This ground-breaking documentary explores the impact that food choices have on people’s health, the health of our planet and on the lives of other living species. And also discusses several misconceptions about food and diet, offering a unique new perspective on these issues. Featuring interviews with 28 world-renowned experts, including Dr. T Colin Campbell, Joe Cross, Dr. John McDougall, Capitan Paul Watson, Dr. Pam Popper, Dr. Michael Greger, Rich Roll, Dr. Richard Oppenlander, Dr. Toni Bark and several others. This film will certainly change the way you look at the food on your plate.

It claims to explore the 3 major reasons to go plant-based; health, planet and animals, but beware that the movie dedicates around an hour on health and then basically crams Cowspiracy (planet) and Earthlings (animals) into the last 20 minutes (around 10 minutes each).

It also becomes quickly apparent that Siewierski wrote down every myth surrounding food choices (in particular plant-based diets) and then set out to debunk them. A noble cause (coming from a vegan), but it ultimately results in an endless series of expert interviews bombarding you with facts. Most of these you already know (especially the last 20 minutes of blatanly rehashing Cowspiracy and Earthlings, but also in the first hour if you've seen Forks over Knives), which is a shame because some of the points that are actually original and insightful get lost in the shuffle as a consequence. Take for example the issue of raising a child vegan, which could have been an actually ground-breaking documentary but is now only briefly brought up.

Furthermore, the perspectives presented are very one-sided; all the experts are already advocating a plant-based diet and there is no confrontation with those who advocate the myths that are debunked in this film. For example; authors of books promoting low-carb high-fat/protein diets such as paleo get slammed, but get no chance to defend themselves and are not confronted. Instead, the viewers just have to assume the plant-based experts are right (and although they make good points, again; it would have been more powerful and less boring if other perspectives were included as well). It's basically vegans preaching to vegans what they already know.

[–] jenx42 8 years ago

Thanks for the post! I'm curious, when they "slam" the Paleo diet do they talk at all about clean meat. Of course not an idea original to Paleo which simply packaged ideas of others into one book/diet/concept. I've never once heard a vegan provide a take on this from purely a health and not an ethical perspective. I'm not on a side here. I'm just very interested in the Vegan perspective on this.

[–] Lin301 8 years ago

You mean clean meat as in the grass-fed, no hormones, 'humanely killed'...etc. animals? I don't remember the movie talking about it, certaintly not from a health perspective. I am a vegan myself but primarily for the ethics, so I don't really know that much about the health stuff (except that I am generally more healthy now). My best guess is that, from a purely health perspective, clean meat in moderation is not that big of a deal (emphasis on the moderation though, which is pretty much gone today).

[–] defcon79 8 years ago

'Clean meat' is a euphemism really - in reality the number of people who have access to truly humanely 'killed' (another laughable contradiction) and raised animals is tiny, due to price, low demand etc.

And then you have to consider the advantages of meat are highly overrated, e.g conventional wisdom about the amount of protein needed is utter nonsense and highly inflated.

There is general consensus among most actual experts and doctors that a primarily plant based diet is the best. If you want to eat meat, limit to 1-3 servings/week. But of course the paleo lobby which is pure propaganda would have you believe you need meat + butter at every serving.

[–] taufikdirwanto 8 years ago

Sure it has good points, but the thing that bugged in my head is the experts claims in this documentary about pesticides. They encourage audience to not think about it. The experts don't even explain GMO and the dangers about it.

This documentary leads me to a conspiracy about GMO plants industries are behind this video. They bash meat real good and support eating plants and tell us not to worry about anything else. They just want to convert billions money from meat industries to GMO plant industries.

FYI I am Indonesian, we are poor countries, so don't even think that we are meat lover, because we eat that occasionally. Sorry for my English.

[–] robgarcia07 7 years ago

They said pesticides are present in veggies, but still would not cause near as much harm as the stuff that is in meat.

For me it just comes down to one thing: Try it, maybe is for you, maybe not. For me If I start noticing the changes they said you would have, I'd probably give up meat for good. All the other stuff like helping the planet and compasion for animals is the added bonus.

[–] pepspotbib 7 years ago

I was already a vegetarian, for ethical reasons, but the film made me look at my choices again and I gave up dairy. (It was hard! I love cheese) After a couple months I have lost weight, my cholesterol is now good, and I really do feel better. It's also nice to know I am helping the planet...