Summary Of What The Health Documentary By Kip Andersen

In the What the Health documentary by Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn, their sole purpose was to inform the viewers about the advantages of eating a plant-based diet. Since Kuhn and Andersen are vegans, so they are biased towards this topic, so it makes sense that they presented information that only backed up their views. They address numerous of issues that could have strengthened their stance if they went into more detail, such as, issues with the meat industry. That being said, a few of the facts mentioned in the film are incorrect, which is an issue of credibility and more importantly, it may mislead others. Therefore, the main issue is the evidence used in the film, which deceives the viewers in order to prove the director's point: eating

a plant-based diet is more beneficial for your health.
Andersen, the main speaker, lacks credibility by arguing with health professionals. And he interviewed mostly vegan doctors and nutritionists that gave the viewers false information about the vegan diet and a few medical studies. Another issue is that they included dishonest pieces of evidence from personal interviews that show a significant amount of healing from only eating plant-based meals. As a result, the evidence in What the Health misinform the viewers that may want to convert to veganism, but their evidence supporting their claims are flawed.
Andersen questions why there are beef and egg recipes on these health organization websites, yet studies has shown that they may cause heart disease.

Which is true, but he ultimately loses his strength in his argument since the first person that answered his call from the American Heart Association (A.H.A) wasn’t able to give him an answer. Although, this man was only an assistant, not a health care professional, and wasn’t qualified to give him an answer. After the call he seems disappointed and says that there was “Another organization rep that wasn’t able to answer [Kip Andersen’s] questions.” This representative told Andersen that someone would get back to him to answer his questions because that’s not his job. He never talks about this instance again and the viewers don’t know if Andersen received a call back from the A.H.A. Instead, he further complains about these health organizations (Susan G. Komen) that didn’t want to engage in an interview with

him.
Until finally Andersen had an interview with an important health professional: Dr.

Robert Ratner, who is a Chief Scientific and Medical Officer of the American Diabetes Association. The interview didn’t go over well, since Andersen was being unprofessional and tried to argue with Dr. Ratner. He didn’t have the time to sit with Andersen and have a debate over what foods can cause diabetes. While Andersen continued to try to persuade him that you can reverse diabetes with a vegan diet. This circumstance resulted in losing the appointment for asking him questions. I agree with Dr. Ratner’s decision by ending the interview because I felt that Andersen should have been more respectful.

Throughout the entire film I questioned on whether or not the information that was factual. He attempts to inform the viewers about the grotesque issues with the meat, dairy, and pharmaceutical industries. But in the process even myself (a vegetarian) felt personally attacked because I consume dairy products.

Another way Andersen loses credibility is by including personal experiences of people with diabetes, asthma, and hip complications in the film. These interviews were not truthful. If people adopt a vegan lifestyle with these specific health conditions, it will take longer than two weeks to see major

improvements.
For instance, Andersen interviewed Amy Resnic who had to take asthma, heart, antidepressants, and pain medication. But only after two weeks, she was off all medications and felt great. Even though, she seemed she was still having difficulties breathing when she was talking with Andersen. She should have known that with antidepressants you have to gradually reduce to dose to limit the amount of withdrawal side effects. Hopefully, she spoke with her doctor about stopping that medication because it could cause a great amount of mental and physical issues. I know from experience from my family and friends, that it’s detrimental to your health if just stop taking medicines like antidepressants.
After watching What the Health, it completely makes sense why vegetarians and vegans didn’t care for this documentary: it provides inaccurate interviews, medical studies, and facts. I felt that this film was biased considering Mr. Andersen was a vegan -- he truly wanted to prove his diet was the only way to be healthy. And it seemed that it didn’t matter whether the evidence to support his claims were factual. He has been overly aggressive about proving that veganism is the solution of all health problems, his attitude and chosen interviews hinders his credibility throughout the documentary.