If you have Netflix–or friends who do–you’ve probably heard of one of their most popular in house-produced films, What the Health? It has become quite the phenomenon. And it has a lot of people questioning their dietary choices–particularly when it comes to eating meat.

There is a lot to like about this film. It heavily criticizes the medical community’s inability to meaningfully address the major chronic illnesses of our time. It rightfully hammers in the point that our health is inextricably linked to our diet. And most interestingly, it catches disease industry representatives with their pants down. It’s truly shocking how avoidant diabetes and cancer association spokespeople are when it comes to talking about the link between diet and these diseases.

But as you watch the film, it becomes increasingly clear that they are sending a message. In fact, after about 15 minutes, the screen might as well just flash a giant, blinking, neon sign that says “Don’t Eat Meat!!!” And that’s where we have to take issue.

Meatheaded fallacies

The most obvious problem with the film’s arguments against meat are what amount to a false equivalency. They base the majority of their claims on studies specifically geared toward processed meats. (Studies 1, 2 and 3)

Yes, absolutely. Processed meats are not good for your health. They are loaded with preservatives, toxins and generally produced using factory farmed meat that has been raised on a steady diet of GM grains, hormones and antibiotics.

But is it fair to condemn all meat because processed meat is a problem? Of course not.

How about the claim that meat is causing cardiovascular disease?

We’ve been hearing this for some time. And this is a result of cherry-picking your data. Their source for a link between cardiovascular disease and red meat is a series of questionnaires asking people with heart disease about their diets–and they found that these folks ate red meat. However, this in no way implies a causal link between red meat and cardiovascular disease. In fact, actual studies find that there is a very small causal link between (again) processed meat and cardiovascular disease, but no link whatsoever between meat and general and heart disease. For references, here’s a 2017 review of several studies from the International Journal of Preventative Medicine where the conclusion is that there is no significant link.

But the most absurd and dangerous claims this film makes are its downplaying of the role of sugar in our health–and diabetes in particular.

The experts in the film (who are all plant-based diet advocates) claim that sugar plays no role in inflammation or diabetes but that it is, in fact, meat that’s causing the epidemic. Nothing could be further from the truth!

Listen, if you don’t want to eat meat, fine. But this sort of misinformation is just plain dangerous!

Here’s a Nutritional Metabolism study on how sugar causes inflammation.

Here’s a Stanford School of Medicine study finding a direct link between sugar and diabetes.

Here’s an Obesity Review study on the link between sugar, insulin resistance and diabetes.

Honestly, there are too many studies to make my point. Here’s a Google Scholar search result of “the link between sugar and diabetes” with 260,000 results.

But the most damning and relevant study I’ve got for you actually compared outcomes between diabetics by having some of them eat low-sugar diets and others eating low-fat diets. Guess which group had significantly better health outcomes? That’s right, the ones who didn’t eat sugar.

This is simply a case of skewing data, cherry-picking evidence and finding doctors with an agenda to push an anti-meat viewpoint. And the popularity of this film combined with its misinformation regarding sugar in particular has me truly concerned for our society’s health. We can’t afford to defend sugar or processed foods. People are dying.

In closing

If vegans want to push their agenda, that’s absolutely fine. We live in a society where we welcome all viewpoints–and always have. But the vegan argument doesn’t hold water if approached only from a health perspective–unless you skew the facts that is. Vegans would be better off making their case from a moral perspective. And I would even join them, to some degree, because it might help take some wind out of the factory farming industry’s sails–which is most certainly having a negative effect on our health.

Considering that Joaquin Phoenix is the film’s executive producer, my hope is that–much like his 2010 film, I’m Still Here—he will eventually announce that it was an elaborate hoax perpetrated to illustrate just how easy it is to influence the American public with misinformation. However, considering Phoenix’ animal rights activism and the fact that he’s been a vegan since the age of 3, that seems unlikely.