2024 Show
Louie Psihoyos · United States of America · English
Netflix promotes plant-based diets in this confusing info dump of a documentary
Nutrition is a complex topic that’s affected by so many factors, so it can be hard to navigate this on a personal level. You Are What You Eat depicts one Stanford study examining only one of these factors– whether a vegan versus an omnivore diet would be considered healthier. The mini-series does have an interesting approach, as the show introduces four sets of twins out of the 22 sets in the experiment. These four pairs are funny and full of personality, especially when they react to their new diets and the results they receive, so it’s annoying when the show suddenly drops various scientific findings in between, and takes most of the runtime away from these relatable individuals. And when these findings are presented by scientists and politicians known to promote vegan diets, You Are What You Eat feels more like vegan propaganda masking itself as scientific, rather than the interesting journey real people took in the experiment.
Identical twins change their diets and lifestyles for eight weeks in a unique scientific experiment designed to explore how certain foods impact the body.
For eight weeks, identical twins adopt different but healthy diets – one is assigned to a vegan diet, while the other is assigned an omnivore diet – in an scientific experiment designed to explore how these diets affect the body.
We’re probably not the most qualified people to gauge whether You Are What You Eat’s experiment is scientifically sound, but we’re more interested in how its data is presented through the video medium. While getting to know the participants were lovely, the science presented in the show feels really disorganized. Health and nutrition are already complex, multilayered topics with different agents affecting it, but the show tries to tackle even more topics like climate and waste management that muddle and lose focus of the discussion at hand. And even when the show is discussing health and nutrition, the show keeps presenting certain claims from scientists and politicians who are known to promote vegan diets, without allowing some time to process each idea before moving on to the next one. You Are What You Eat is interesting when it sticks to its participants, but not when it discusses the science behind it.
When most of the runtime isn’t focused on the experiment, what’s the point of mentioning the experiment in the first place?
Isabella Endrinal is a curator at A Good Movie to Watch. She's now free from the corporate night shift. Previous articles have been published in outlets such as NANG Magazine. She's currently catching up on some classic films… if she isn't coping with the fact that the Haikyu anime will end soon.
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