Nutritional Documentaries on Netflix Will Change the Way You Look at Food

Nutritional Documentaries on Netflix Will Change the Way You Look at Food

Health and nutritional documentaries have been bursting at the seams lately. It’s not just Netflix that’s full of programmes that delve into the depths of the food industry or tell you what to eat to stay healthy and fit for as long as possible. They’re engaging, shocking and make you rethink things. They often resonate to the point that you want to overhaul your diet and your lifestyle to match them.

Have you seen any nutritional documentaries? Maybe you remember the 2004 film Super Size Me. This film depicted the life of a man who lived for one month on nothing but large servings of McDonald’s food. The film wanted to draw attention to the problem of obesity in this way, and it really succeeded in doing so in a way that has been on many people’s minds for a long time. These documentaries often leave you with the intense impression that this time you should really start doing something about it. Change your diet or overhaul your regular shopping basket. Should you believe these documentaries 100% and act on them?

What do we mean by nutritional documentaries?

There is a really wide variety of programmes in this group. Today, however, we are not going to talk about the Once Upon a Time series or similar educational documentaries. What is really churning the waters of the nutrition world at the moment are popular documentaries from well-known streaming platforms. For example, What the Health or The Game Changers have successfully climbed the popularity ladder on Netflix. Among the most recent popular new releases, the 2024 series You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment is one of the most popular.

Most of them are American documentaries set in the United States. Typically, they deal with a burning issue that is the subject of endless battles among nutritionists. A popular area of interest, for example, is the battle between veganism and conventional rational eating. You will also find that these programmes routinely highlight the problems of the world of nutrition and the food industry, often in a way that will keep you awake for some time after the closing credits.

What are nutritional documentaries?

Why are they so popular?

At first glance, it may seem surprising that it is such educational programmes that are smashing the ratings charts. But when you think about it, it makes perfect sense. After all, nutrition is something that affects each and every one of you. After all, you and I all have to deal with what we put on our plates on a daily basis, and these decisions have a strong impact on our health. Naturally, we are so intrigued when someone presents us with the path to health as if on a silver platter in a documentary.

If you’ve seen any of these documentaries, you’ll have noticed that grabbing attention is something they do exceptionally well. After all, whatever programme you’re watching is designed to intrigue you, and glue you to the couch as intensely as possible. The documentaries being discussed today have sophisticated storytelling and often answer burning nutritional questions in a shocking, direct yet understandable way. It’s no exception that you also take away from them a kind of feeling of dismay or disgust, especially when they deal with various controversial topics.

As these are documentaries, of course, they do not lack a considerable stamp of professionalism. They feature experts such as scientists, doctors and various other professionals. Ultimately, the viewer is watching a programme that is engaging, appealing, easy to understand and, what is more, professional.

You might be interested in these products:

Are they credible?

Nutritional documentaries are full of experts, statistics and research. In this way, you are naturally inclined to trust them implicitly. After all, they are the experts and, especially when you are not an expert in the field yourself, there is no reason to have any doubts.

Despite this first impression, however, it’s a good idea to have a warning light in your head when watching these documentaries. After all, you should keep in mind that one goal of filmmakers is to attract and keep viewers. Therefore, in order to engage people, they dispense information in a way that is expected to get you out of your seat. For this reason, it is no exception that sometimes the facts are taken a little out of context, exaggerated or even distorted.

For example, in The Game Changers, which shows a plant-based diet as the best fuel foe everyone, especially athletes, you learn that a peanut butter sandwich has as much protein as 3 eggs or about 80 grams of steak. Which is actually true from a certain point of view, but the creators forgot to mention that to really take in that amount of protein, you would have to eat twice the serving of peanut butter (about 60 g). This has roughly 30 g of fat and 360 kcal, which for someone is easily a fifth of the daily recommended caloric intake. In this example, you can see that while the information is true, it is slightly tailored to the point of view that the programme is trying to sell you.

Nevertheless, nutritional programmes can be a useful educational tool for people who are interested in their diet and eating well. However, they should always be viewed critically and with detachment. It’s a good idea to shut your trust deep in a drawer and instead always have a little doubt and check the information against the facts elsewhere just to be sure.

Are nutritional documentaries truthful?

What are the possible negatives of nutritional documentaries?

Nutritional documentaries are now commonly seen among the top 10 shows on Netflix. Unlike other genres, however, they are unique – they deal with the topic of your health and often give you advice on how to eat. Therefore, it makes sense that when watching them, you should think a little differently than you would when watching your favourite comedy or thriller. So, what exactly should you look out for and which “red flags” should you look out for in nutritional documentaries?

1. Often they are one-sided

Clearly, all would agree that when you want to make the right decision about something, you need to know all the pros and cons, the risks and benefits, in short, the overall picture. For example, when you’re looking at trail running shoes in a shop, it’s not enough to know that they’re suitable for off-road running and have a waterproof membrane. In order to choose the perfect ones for you, you also need to know what length of trail they’re suitable for, or whether they’re adapted to a wide or narrow foot.

A similar principle applies when you want to choose the best way to eat and live your lifestyle. You need to know all the pros and cons in order to form your own full and informed opinion. The problem with nutritional documentaries, however, is that they often present a one-sided view. These programmes commonly advocate one particular dietary direction. They talk about the positives, but do not mention the risks and do not allow any room for other views.

An example is the pro-vegan documentary You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment, which presents veganism as the best possible path. Of course, there is nothing wrong with a film trying to sell an idea, such as the benefits of veganism. It is more problematic when you don’t hear counter-arguments. Thus, the documentary does not offer the whole picture and it leaves a less-than-ideal situation for you to form your own perspective. There may be several reasons why this is the case, but in the case of the documentary in question, for example, there is also a conflict of interest. In fact, the study that formed the basis for the documentary is partly sponsored by the Vogt Foundation, a company that promotes plant-based diets and animal welfare. [1]

Thus, nutritional documentaries are not always the ideal source of nutritional information, particularly on Netflix. That’s why whenever you watch them, it’s good to pause for a moment. Later, you will thank yourself when you ask yourself if there isn’t another side of the coin to this topic. If you are truly interested in the subject, it is also worth listening to the opinions of other experts, reading a book or looking around for other interesting sources.

2. They do not give room to experts with different opinions

If you have seen a documentary, you know that it is usually interspersed with the statements of experts who sit and talk in front of the camera. On the screen, under their name, their job title, their titles or the institution they represent resonate. It is also this very format that gives the documentaries a stamp of expertise, and it is one of the reasons why one is naturally drawn to trust them implicitly.

However, you must be aware that not every expert sells you the right information. And to follow on from the previous point raised, not every expert is impartial. Therefore, when you’re watching a nutritional documentary, it’s worth finding out who it’s actually about. Who is and where does the expert featured in the programme work? For example, the lead expert, Dr Gardner from the twins experiment, has long been a well-known supporter of a purely plant-based diet. At the same time, the organisation he founded has received a multi-year grant from Beyond Meat, a company that produces highly industrialised plant-based meat and meat product substitutes. It is therefore naturally in his best interest to make sure that the documentary highlights as much as possible the benefits of a vegan diet.[1]

Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean that his views or the data he is pushing to viewers are misleading or incorrect. But it may be that they are taken out of context or otherwise adapted to the overall narrative of the documentary. At the same time, when the perspective of someone with an opposing viewpoint is missing, it is easy for viewers to believe that the documentary has just revealed the best path to health, even though it may not be true. That’s why it’s worth paying attention to what views are given a platform in the documentary. Imagine someone in a documentary telling you that you should limit carbohydrates because they cause obesity and diabetes. Then it’s worth thinking about whether there’s also anyone else who mentions the disadvantages and risks of this way of eating.

The negatives of nutritional documentaries

3. They are questioned by scientific organisations

Similarly, as in the field of technology, for example, in nutrition, there are a few institutions that the expert world considers to be the holy grail of the most trustworthy information. The most famous ones are, for example, the following:

  • World Health Organization (WHO)
  • US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
  • European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)
  • Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

All these institutions issue various recommendations and guidelines on how the population should eat. However, this is not just a handful of fiction that someone dropped on a piece of paper out of the blue. Rather, it is the output of hundreds of different studies and research that have produced the highest quality and most comprehensive dietary recommendations.

However, in some nutritional documentaries, one can see the filmmakers questioning these guidelines. If this is what you encounter, you should beware. For example, in the twins experiment, the widely known recommendation that saturated fatty acids should make up 10% of your total daily energy intake is highlighted. In the documentary, however, you will hear that this approach is not correct and that instead you should simply avoid meat. However, this recommendation does not take into account, for example, the many other sources of fat in the diet or, conversely, the benefits that eating meat in moderation can bring about. In this case, it is mainly the content of nutrients such as vitamin B12 or heme iron (in red meat).

In the world of nutrition, unfortunately, most of the time, nothing is black or white. If someone offers you one of those simple solutions that will supposedly take care of your good health, you better stop for a moment. This is the moment where you’d better verify this information.

4. They try to appeal to people’s emotions

What can we say, you wouldn’t enjoy and watch any programme to the end if it didn’t play on your emotions a little bit. So naturally, the filmmakers have to hook us in and keep us, the viewers, engaged with something interesting. Only in this way will you enthusiastically watch their creation to the end and ideally recommend it to others. Documentaries are no exception. Most of the time people stick like flies to a flycatcher when something scares us, shocks us, surprises us or otherwise resonates with us. Various sensational claims, shocking photos or video footage work very well on all of us.

Unfortunately for filmmakers, not all nutrition or food information is so action-packed and rivetingly unpredictable. Therefore, they may have to undergo a slight change in appearance in order to make the right impression. So you often see some data taken out of context, exaggerated or even altered to fit the story. For example, in You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment, one learns that livestock production supposedly produces more emissions than the entire transportation sector. However, if you take the trouble to look up this statistic, you will find that according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), transportation accounts for 28% of emissions and agriculture accounts for 10%. However, the information in the film, which may have come from a less credible source, has honestly done its job – it has shocked many people who are concerned about the environment into rethinking their diets. [2]

The negatives of nutritional documentaries

5. At times they encourage extreme changes in diet

If you’ve seen any nutritional documentaries, you may have already turned off Netflix with the thought that it would be best to overhaul your entire diet from the ground up. After all, the conclusion you often take away from many of these programs is that the way of eating they highlight is the best one for all.

It probably won’t surprise you to hear that throwing yourself into the merry-go-round of change immediately after turning off Netflix is not a good idea. For the simple fact that each of the programs may be telling you something different. One says you should go vegan, another stands firmly behind the paleo diet, and low carb advocates hold true the benefits of limiting carbs to high heaven. However, the path to the best diet for each of you is usually somewhere in the middle. So take Netflix as inspiration and an incentive to find out more information from other sources.

What are their positive aspects?

Nutritional documentaries have many shortcomings, but they cannot be denied their positives either. After all, they highlight important topics and successfully spread the message further among people.

1. They raise an interest in nutrition

It’s not unusual for a person who isn’t normally interested in nutrition to reach for a nutritional documentary on Netflix. They are filmed in such a way as to catch the eye and yet be understandable to all. Often this can be the first step someone takes on their journey to a healthier lifestyle.

It’s certainly not a good idea to watch only one documentary, accept it as the bible, and base your worldview on it. However, they can be a great gateway into the colourful world of nutrition. They can help spark a fire of interest and encourage you to gradually find out more about eating right, or perhaps even to try to do so.

2. They can kick-start positive dietary changes

You certainly can’t deny that nutritional documentaries can plant some fruitful seeds of interest in your head. In fact, they can easily kick-start you into thinking about your diet. So it may only be a matter of time before the seeds planted start to sprout motivation and a desire to eat better or to choose foods based on their impact on the planet. Some may be spurred on to eat more vegetables, others may increase their overall intake of plant-based foods, or reduce their use of food in plastic packaging, for example.

3. They discuss important topics

The truth is that if there is one thing documentaries about nutrition can really do, it is the art of capturing and attracting attention. It is thus a great way of drawing attention to topics that should be talked about at greater length. It is not just about the significant impact of nutrition on health, but also, for example, the impact of diet on the environment. They often also routinely highlight various environmental issues and do not leave any stone unturned when it comes to the shortcomings of the food industry.

If taken with a grain of salt, they will effectively broaden your horizons. They can serve as a beacon that draws attention to currently neglected issues.

The positives of nutritional documentaries

Should one be guided by nutritional documentaries?

Given the scarcity of nutritional documentaries, it’s safe to say that lining up your life according to one of them isn’t exactly the best idea. However, if you put them in a jar called “for inspiration”, they can come in handy as a basis for a positive change in your diet. However, you should always make sure that what you’re doing is right for your health. That’s why it’s worth delving into the subject a little longer and deeper than what watching a two-hour film allows you to.

Has a documentary inspired you, for example, to do away with animal products in your diet and eat a purely plant-based diet? Great! It can be the basis of a very beneficial change in your life. But before you jump in headfirst, you’d do best to stop and review all the pros and cons. Give room for information from other sources and never step beside the line when consulting a nutritional therapist or counsellor. This will answer the question of whether a 100% plant-based diet is really right for you, what the risks are, or how to put together a diet that is varied and balanced. You may find that you significantly reduce highly processed foods, including animal foods, and that you can enjoy good quality meat occasionally, which is fine with you. Maybe, on the other hand, the journey will take you in a different direction.

As already mentioned, nutritional documentaries can be very harsh in their presentation of certain topics and encourage radical change. This can be seen, for example, in the twins experiment, where by the end you take away the impression that a purely plant-based diet is the best way to go. In this case, this is confirmed by the research participants, who were still happy and fit after a few weeks. However, it is important to remember that these people had experts available at the beginning to advise them on how to do it right. Someone with knowledge of a balanced plant-based diet ensured that these people were not at risk of any nutritional deficiencies. Of course, you can also ensure this for yourself by seeing an expert. However, if you do not do this, you should take into account that this change in diet may not have the same positive impact on your health.

Nutritional documentaries are a great inspiration and trigger for change. But they are not sufficient enough to make you comply with them.

How to be guided by nutritional documentaries?

What to look out for when watching nutritional documentaries?

Modern nutritional documentaries can teach you a thing or two and even trigger some dietary and lifestyle changes. However, to get the best out of them, you should be careful when watching them. What are some good questions to ask yourself when you watch a nutritional documentary?

  • Is the documentary impartial or does it only present one point of view?
  • Who is behind the documentary and who is financing it?
  • Who are the experts featured in the documentary?
  • Are there any experts in the documentary with an opposing view?
  • Is it trying to instill fear in you?
  • Is the documentary claiming to tell you that what it’s showing is the only correct way?
  • Do you want me to change everything and ideally immediately in the area you are talking about?

You only need to ask yourself a few of these questions to gain perspective when watching your favourite nutritional documentaries. With this critical perspective, you’ll be able to avoid their potential negative effects, but at the same time, you’ll benefit all the more from the benefits that these documentaries have to offer.

What is the lesson?

Nutritional documentaries effectively combine shocking and appealing information, clarity, action-packed filmmaking, and a subject that concerns each and every one of us. They are therefore programmes that will appeal to a wide audience and can easily inspire a change in diet and lifestyle. However, it is important to be cautious, because most of the time these are often one-sided and only show one-sided views. Therefore, they do not provide a comprehensive picture. However, if you pay attention to their shortcomings, they can be useful as a source of interesting information from the world of nutrition.

Will you be viewing nutritional documentaries in a somewhat different light from now on? If you found this article useful, we’d love it if you didn’t just keep it to yourself and shared it with your friends and family.

Sources:

[1] LANDRY, M.J. et al. Cardiometabolic Effects of Omnivorous vs Vegan Diets in Identical Twins: A Randomized Clinical Trial. – https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2812392

[2] US EPA, O. Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions. – https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions

Add a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *