See it: ‘What the Health’ is on Netflix

The documentary ‘What the Health’ was released on Netflix today. Directed by ‘Cowspiracy’ director Kip Anderson, ‘What the Health’ probes even deeper into the reality of food choices and how they sicken us, or prevent and heal disease. But where this film really shines is in its exposé of the corruption of U.S. health organizations.

Anderson knocks on the doors of and cold calls representatives the American Cancer Society, the Susan G. Komen Foundation, the U.S. Pharmaceutical Corporation, and others with honest questions about their motives, their public relations campaigns, and the shifty ways that their generously funded (by the meat and dairy industries) ‘scientific’ studies somehow always manage to reach the conclusion that the products that the meat and dairy industries are promoting are just great for our health.

When Time Magazine and the Harvard Public Health Magazine published their reports on the 2016 Tufts University study that concluded that saturated animal fats like butter are in no way connected to the American epidemic of heart disease, cancer, dementia, and diabetes, they announced that “Butter is Back!”. But surprise - the Tufts study was handsomely funded by the American Dairy Association. How’s that for a magic trick? And the ADA’s spin doctors were there every step of the way.

Documentary filmmaking has never been as important as it is now. Films like these are life changing. The only way in which they fail to be life changing is if we don’t bother to watch them, so check out the great recent documentaries like What the Health, Cowspiracy, Earthlings, Sustainable, In Defense of Food, Food Inc., Fat Sick & Nearly Dead, Food Choices, Hungry for Change, More Than Honey, Plant Pure Nation, Sugar Coated, GMO OMG, Consumed, Foodmatters, Zeitgeist, Forks Over Knives, Live and Let Live, and Vegucated.

Instead of binge-watching Game of Thrones this weekend, just give a few of these films a look. For the most impact in the least amount of couch time, I commend to you my top picks: Earthlings, Forks Over Knives, Cowspiracy, and What the Health. It’s going to rain this weekend anyway, so let’s all stay inside and evolve.

In other news, yesterday I registered for the annual Summer Mindfulness Retreat at the Buddhist Faith Fellowship at Wesleyan’s College of East Asian Studies. The gathering will be held at the beautiful Sangha at Wesleyan and the adjacent Zen gardens. I’m beyond psyched. It’s in July, and I can hardly wait, but there’s no way I’m wishing away summer. So, I’ll practice patience for now.

Live in peace.