'Diet Fiction' -- Why Diets Don't Work (Film Review)

Mar 30, 2020

"When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower."
–Alexander den Heijer

Diet vs. Lifestyle

Diet Fiction is a 2019 film detailing how and why diets fail. Specifically, director Michal Siewierski sets out to prove why dieting never works and that it is only through a healthy plant-based lifestyle that we can see results in weight and health over time. At a cool 84 minutes and available for free through Amazon Prime, I would highly recommend this film for anyone struggling with weight issues or interested in getting healthier. Unlike many of the health-centric plant-based documentaries you may be used to -- What the Health, Forks Over Knives, The Game Changers -- Diet Fiction focuses more on healthy weight loss, the weight loss industry, and our obsession with "quick fix" fad diets.

Muddy the Waters

There is always a frustration about which diets work best: sometimes "they" tell us we should do this, then a month later we should do that, then back to this, and then throw it all out the window with something completely new and radical. Articles cite studies and statistics about how certain foods are miracle-workers when it comes to losing weight fast, and we jump on the bandwagon immediately...until we learn from another article that that food product actually has the opposite effect, leading to easy weight gain. The thing about all -- maybe not all, but many -- of these studies is that they are created and funded by the industry.

Let's look at the cigarette industry. Most of us have seen the old ads for cigarettes endorsed by doctors, athletes, and celebrities with absurd health claims that we know now are false. But did you know that there are still (industry-funded) studies published today that claim certain health benefits of smoking? When it comes to something so taboo, it's hard to believe the industry still exists, let alone is worth billions of dollars and can fund studies to suit their marketing needs. So, it shouldn't be that much of a stretch to imagine the agriculture industry -- the industry humanity depends on the most for survival -- can also formulate their own studies to make us all believe that we should be eating what they're selling.

Addicted to You

But why are we so eager to believe ludicrous claims like the infamous TIME "butter is back" story? Well, let's look at the kinds of foods you crave. For me, it's chocolate, vegan ice cream, and salty chips. For others, it may be hamburgers, tater tots, and milkshakes. So, for the vast majority of the developed world, we're not getting cravings for healthy foods like broccoli, bananas, and plain brown rice. We are addicted to fatty, high-calorie foods because our bodies are designed to want to eat those kinds of things that will sustain us longer (and those are the foods we eat most often). But Big Macs don't grow on trees in nature; the amount of energy we'd have to expend to produce every single ingredient would far outweigh our desire for it. Today, we eat more and move less, leading to the significant weight issues we see in the modern world.

Beware that we're not just addicted to fast food or processed snacks. Even products that masquerade as health foods -- chicken breast, salmon, yogurt, coconut oil, bone broth, fish oil -- are much more dangerous than their packaging shows. Most of these foods are animal-derived, meaning they are naturally high in saturated and trans fats and cholesterol (which is only found in animals -- plants don't produce cholesterol), three of the main contributors to our top killers like heart disease and diabetes, as well as weight issues because of their high fat and calorie content. Additionally, foods like whey powder, bone broth, collagen, and fish oil are only sold because they are byproducts of creating other animal products. Whey, for instance, is the liquid leftover after curdling milk, sold so the dairy industry can make some more cash by packaging it to make consumers think it'll give them big strong muscles. For lack of a better term, it's all snake oil.

Fat vs. Carbs

Carbs have taken the brunt of the stigmatization perpetuated by fad dieting. However, carbohydrates are one of three macronutrients found in all foods, the others being fat and protein. The distinction these "low-carb" diets don't want to make is the main cause of their downfall because not all carbs are created equal. To take an example from Diet Fiction, the carbs found in an apple are complex whereas the carbs in white pasta are not; the process of refining foods strips away some of the nutrients. When you eat white pasta or french fries, you're not getting all the healthy complex carbohydrates from whole wheat or potatoes.

Carbs are a necessary element in a healthy diet because they contain a sugar called glucose; glucose is essentially the fuel that keeps your body running. When you starve yourself or deprive yourself of glucose, you're not allowing your body to function normally. Additionally, when you eat low-carb, that means you're eating more protein and fat. While about two percent of carbs turn to fat, all fat turns to fat in your body. And one gram of fat contains nine calories, whereas one gram of carbs or protein only contains four calories. With that in mind, if you do the math, drinking a tablespoon of oil has more than twice the calories as a spoonful of pure cane sugar -- not that you should ever do either.

So, if you eat an avocado, which is 80 percent fat, that will turn into fat in your body. Though that's not inherently bad -- unlike saturated and trans fats which build up in your arteries -- and fat is an essential nutrient, if you're trying to lose weight, eating a high-fat diet (like the ketogenic diet) will require substantial calorie restriction or starvation. This will usually cause you to "yo-yo" diet, ultimately gaining even more weight through the cycles of starvation followed by overeating.

Oil Rig

Oils are popularized as a health food now, with bizarre claims that they can help you lose weight and clear up health issues and whatever else you want. The thing about oil is that it is not a naturally-occurring food product, so it doesn't conform to macronutrient standards. Oil -- of any kind -- is pure fat, much like table sugar is pure carbohydrates, stripped of all the healthy carbs and protein found in the plant from which it is extracted. In addition, just one tablespoon of olive oil is 120 calories, or about the same as a large banana. But which one do you think will fill you up more? And how many people only use a tablespoon in their cooking? Added oils alone account for a significant portion of calorie intake in our society. Regardless, any kind of "food" that doesn't contain all three macronutrients found in natural foods cannot be considered healthy, especially for weight loss.

Tell Me What I Want

Popular diets like keto, paleo, Mediterranean, South Beach, Atkin's, etc. work because they tell you what you want to hear. We live in a society of instant gratification; we can only see the immediate future, so when these giant weight loss companies say they can help you lose so many pounds in just a month, we latch onto it. This is one of the reasons why there is always a fierce blowback against plant-based documentaries, books, and scientific evidence: it promotes a healthy lifestyle avoiding government-subsidized animal products and diet pills and programs, and it encourages the consumption of mostly unsubsidized whole plant foods. There's not much money to be gained when large chunks of the population are thriving and healthy, and that scares them.

If you think the government isn't invested in keeping us fat and unhappy, then you'd be mistaken. There are so-called "food disparagement" laws forbidding "unfounded comments" against perishable food products. (Basically, don't say anything bad about them and keep your opinions to yourself.) And the USDA is legally required to promote US agriculture, which, of course, is largely animals or crops fed to animals. It seems America is severely lacking in the area of agricultural transparency, as we see more and more developed countries favoring the science against animal foods instead of money.

Final Thoughts

I wish this film received more recognition, but with heavyweights like What the Health and The Game Changers and the countless other health-related documentaries, it seems to have, unfortunately, largely flown under the radar. Despite this, there were many plant-based doctors featured that we know and love -- including Michael Greger, Neal Barnard, Garth Davis, Kim Williams, Michelle McMacken, Pam Popper, Dean Ornish, Cyrus Khambatta, and more! -- as well as famous plant-based advocates like Rich Roll and Rip Esselstyn. I thoroughly enjoyed this fresh perspective on the argument in favor of a plant-based diet for health.

Though veganism in and of itself has nothing to do with health or weight loss, we should all strive to take care of our minds, our bodies, and the only life we have to live. Veganism is about compassion for all animals, including ourselves. Taking care of your health, both physical and mental, is like putting on your oxygen mask first before assisting others. If we want to create a sustainable vegan world, we need to prove that we're capable of something as simple as taking care of ourselves. And the easiest way to do that is to change what's on our plates.