Food Choices (2016) Poster

(2016)

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8/10
Excellent. Food for thought.
matthijsalexander18 November 2016
Warning: Spoilers
I am not somebody who likes to be told what to eat. I absolutely hate belittling fingers of vegans. I hate people telling me I can't have steak. I hate people telling me what I really really do not want to hear.

My own believes are these: Moderation is key.

The documentary is convincing because it uses intellectuals excessively. The scientific approach however is always up for debate. We know Einstein was proved wrong, so will these scientists be. But what about plain logic? Never mind the scientists and the individuals.

It makes a lot of sense to me that fish shouldn't be a replacement for red meat, the document argues this reasonably. It makes a lot of sense to me that milk is not what scientists make it out to be, no adult animal drinks milk, only humans. The documentary argues this reasonably. It makes a lot of sense to me that humans should reduce their intake of meat and therewith end the horrific conditions in which animals are mass produced. This should be our main reason to turn our backs on McDonald and Burger King. The ethical stance trumps the scientific, surely.

It makes a lot of sense to me that plant based food are healthier than meat. God didn't make Omega-Pills, God did not intend for humans to swallow pills, supplements and certainly God did not design obese humans. From Atheist perspective, mother nature did not intend us to be fat. Animals eat instinctively. Ever seen a fat Lion? Ever seen a fat cougar? A fat bird or fat horse? I didn't. At least none that were relying on nature. Nature did not intend to spray pesticides over tomatoes, nature did not intend to feed our stock anything else than what nature provides. Eggs with growth hormones, disgusting. Cows, Pigs, chickens that are being restricted in movement, fed horrible products with growth hormones. God, Buddha, Jehova, Allah, the great spaghetti monster and Nature did not intend for any of this. And this is the only message I understood.

Reviewers here trash this documentary because of these intellectuals but I think that they have an IQ similar to the rating they gave as what this documentary sells is truly basic logic and ethics.

It even concludes, don't go plant-based radically. Try moderately. It advises moderation. This documentary tries to combine science with real life experience, it doesn't really point a finger at anybody or anything. And, of course, food will always be up for debate. Nobody will ever have a perfect answer.

To me, a true eye-opener. Not so much the science, but the logic.

I will never go vegan, nor will my diet ever be plant-based. But what this documentary did do was make me think. A good documentary does that.
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8/10
This is a food documentary about a man named Michal Siewierski on a journey to see what foods really play a role on our health and what we can do in the future.
kristagamache14 November 2016
Warning: Spoilers
I would very much recommend this movie to anyone. The goal of this movie is to show a healthy and sustainable diet for everyone. It shows how nutrition today confuses most people. Everyone is reading papers and trying new diets, but little do they know most information is conflicting and wrong. Protein deficiency? Americans always think they're not getting enough protein, but this is how health problems increase. The documentary started out slow,but in 10 minutes it started to grab my attention. Not only did it include great facts, but they had many people talk in this such as; PhD. Pamela Popper. There were so many things I never knew or would've guessed to be true. I would show this to anyone interested in today's food. This video is educating, motivating, and eventful.
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8/10
Bad things happen when good people do nothing!
singchinh-339-4826258 August 2017
Though I agree that this documentary has some biased information about nutrition, we shouldn't ignore the fact that humans consumption (including food) has a negative impact on our planet. Be open-minded and watch this documentary without prejudice against veganism. I don't think promoting veganism is the main message in this film. You don't need to cut out meat and dairy completely if you're a perfectly healthy human being. But you should consider consuming less of those food. Even if you don't care about our mother earth and animals' life, please think about your children and grandchildren. Don't just live for yourself!
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9/10
A Refreshingly Different Documentary on Veganism
withabuttonnose14 December 2016
Food Choices is a medium length documentary on the plant based diet in today's 21st century world. This documentary was refreshing in many different ways. The film was very credible. All the information in this documentary was cited on the screen. The many different interviews throughout the film were with credible sources in many different industries. I appreciated how athletes were included in this documentary. Many men and athletes use the excuse that a vegan diet would not be beneficial to them, so I feel that is film did a great job covering all the bases. This film would benefit many different people including the average Joe, athletes, parents, and young adults. There are many different perspectives given throughout. The director is a parent and talks about a plant based diet for children. If you have seen a lot of other documentaries about plant based diets, you will appreciate how Food Choices covers some of the most common excuses people use as to why they cannot go plant based. This film also has great use of music and sound effects throughout. I appreciated the use of visual graphics with charts and diagrams to visual see what point is being made. Another credible addition to the film was that they added numerous different scientific research papers to support the arguments being made. If you have seen most of the other plant based diet documentaries, I would still highly encourage you to watch Food Choices as it covers different topics not yet argued by other directors.
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10/10
One Truly Great Film!
bookings-710-59796115 October 2016
This is amongst my favourite films of all times. It talks about three major areas, health, environment, and animal ethics and the leading cause which is animal agriculture and the solution which is to eat plant-based vegan - no animal products at all. It features many prominent people in the movement, doctors, activists, athletes, chefs, musicians and more. The narrator/filmmaker, Michal Siewierski talks about his own journey to plant-based eating and how it connected him not only to his own health, but to the health of the planet, and to other living beings. The cinematography, music, and editing is extremely professional and assembled very nicely. I highly recommend everyone watches this beautiful work of art. - Michael Lanfield, Author of The Interconnectedness of Life, The Journey, and The Lost Love
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9/10
Not about veganism, but strongly urging having a whole food, plant based diet
looploop14 May 2018
This is not about being vegan or vegetarian. At one point in the film it pokes fun at how unhealthy vegans/vegetarians can be...eating potato chips and drinking coke can be vegan. This was about a lifestyle choice to eat more plant based foods and more likely avert the many chronic metabolic syndromes that have become far too common. It's tough to make the change, but I've recently tried it, eat all I want, and have lost ~30 lbs so far. After 15 yrs my total cholesterol is finally under 200 as well as most other numbers greatly improving, and this has happened after only a couple months of eating this way. Simple choice is to eat better and feel better, or to one day have a great chance of being forced into taking an assortment of pharmaceuticals with all their costs and lovely side effects. This lifestyle may not make you live longer, but your quality of life will be much better.
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1/10
Pseudoscience bunk presented as fact
wwarby16 November 2016
Food Choices is a relentlessly biased opinion piece about the benefits of veganism, presented with all the appearance of a well researched and scientifically valid exploration of the facts whilst actually comprising almost entirely of cherry picked research presented by a parade of disingenuous quacks.

Pay close attention to the credentials of the speakers as they are presented on screen and Google them. Note the total absence of professional scientific researchers and the abundance of "nutrition experts", "wellness advocates" and "alternative" therapy practitioners. You will find the speakers are a whose-who of self-serving peddlers of anti-science nonsense who promote their harmful ideas in faddy diet books.

Using techniques that are intellectually indistinguishable from those of climate change deniers and 9/11 truthers, the filmmakers present a counter- narrative to conventional wisdom on diet and seamlessly weave together unsubstantiated theory with real but cherry picked scientific research. The effect is compelling, especially if the pre-determined conclusion of the study is already appealing to the viewer.

Veganism may indeed be a perfectly valid and healthy lifestyle choice and some of the information presented in this film may well be true - I don't know and I don't believe there is anywhere near the level of scientific consensus on the matter as there is on climate change for example. My point is not that the conclusions of the filmmakers are necessarily wrong, it is that they weren't seeking to discover the truth in the first place but rather to provide a rationalisation for a pre-established point of view. This is documentary filmmaking at it's worst.
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9/10
A documentary everyone must see
evelyne_baetens1 November 2018
Some may say this is a documentary about veganism, but it is not. It is a film on choices and every consumer does what he or she wants. You can't ignore the effects meat and dairy have on our health, environment and lifestyle. The meat industry is a literal and figurative killer and it's sad that some reviewers do not want to see that.
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1/10
Terrible one sided diatribe
mayertj113 November 2016
Saw this movie on Netflix just yesterday, and was shocked at the lack of compelling evidence to support their preordained conclusion. At the very least they could have presented some evidence to counter the selective professionals that support the "vegan" dogma. Dr. Greger is one of the least respected professionals IMHO, and is well known for cherry picking studies to support his cause. So instead of providing us with all the information, and allowing us to decide for ourselves, they chose to stack more and more evidence, from multiple fronts, in a very one-sided argument that is only compelling to the "vegan" choir. A rating of terrible is too high for this piece of fiction.
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10/10
Good Big Picture View!
cpoling-866-9932664 April 2020
Gives a great overview of the problem with the standard American diet and what we can do instead. Highly recommend for yo-yo dieters like I used to be. I had an a1c of over 11, now my daily blood sugar readings have dropped over 150 points. All thanks to many of the experts in this documentary.
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10/10
TRUTH + AWARENESS
garvit-nagpal74 April 2021
This movie so nicely and precisely reveals the hidden truths about Meat and Dairy,, answers all the general concerns and debunks all the myths revolving around the Whole Food Plant Based Lifestyle.

A must watch.
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9/10
Don't believe the bad reviews.
willfafale4 March 2017
This is a great documentary that everybody should watch! But I must admit that some meat in the diet is essential.

This documentary will make you rethink and make wise choices in the food that you eat.The statistics have proved that a plant based diet with some meat included will ensure longevity in your health. This documentary actually gets to the point and does not beat around the bush.

So do not believe those bad reviews! This movie will save your life.
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2/10
Vegan movie.
galeanoadrianfernando3 March 2017
Vegan movie, for vegan audience. Like in politics, all they say is "I'm right, you're wrong". Fear fear a and more fear, that's their motto, eat meat and you will get cancer, eat egg and you will have erectile dysfunction, etc. A TRUE waste of time. I am not a meat eater, I believe that one must have a BALANCED diet, and that includes all the "demons" this so called movie tries to make you keep out of your life. This is the first review I have ever done, I never got this level of disgust for a film.
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10/10
An eye opening Documentary
abhishekshr10 June 2018
Nicely done and very informative documentary. For healthy society and healthy and better planet earth plant based diet seems to be the answer.
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1/10
Vegan Propaganda
peercox29 October 2018
I was excited to see another documentary about food on Netflix because the subject interests me. With an interesting trailer and introduction boasting about finding ''the truth'' about our food and finding the one and only, most healthy diet... I did not expect to have to turn this off after 15 minutes. I simply could not watch another subjective documentary about food (already sat through ''what the health''). After minutes it is already clear, for people like me who take interest in healthy food, that this movie is not about finding any truth but just making propaganda for the plant-based diet. Although I appreciate the idea behind the vegan diet, I hate this kind of movies presenting pseudo-scientific mis-information as ''the truth''. They only show one side of the coin, leading to the conclusion that probably the whole movie is a lie. I will have to be waiting for Netflix to present a more neutral, informative documentary about this topic.
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10/10
Must-watch!
mafaldasofiamartins30 August 2017
A must-watch documentary for everybody! It exposes the truth of what industry and large companies wants the consumers to believe. This documentary makes you think about the choices you make with scientific proofs of what is told. It covers all the aspects of going vegan and why to do so - from healthy issues to the way animal are killed in food industry. Everybody should see it, even if you aren't thinking about going vegan - at least you get educated on this topic and can make more conscious choices.
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Excellent
andrewolsen-0442726 March 2017
I found it to be the most comprehensive and objectively presented approach to understanding food and health. More importantly it approached the subject like the average person would who is trying to sift through all the unqualified information out there that is NOT scientifically backed by research and data. It has profoundly affected me and my attitude about animal based food products and long term health. Just watch it and make your own decisions. But watch it.
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9/10
Very important documentary
DarknessVisible2025 April 2024
Very good documentary. Not perfect - I don't agree with portraying carbohydrates as harmless; carbos, especially simple carbos, if consumed in excess, can fuel obesity and other diseases.

That being said, the documentary was otherwise quite good, explaining the benefits of a plant-based diet for health, the environment, and most importantly, animals, who suffer terribly due to humans' insatiable appetite for animal flesh. I hope this documentary will be some food for thought for those who still consume animals, and encourage them to consider a better, healthier, and less selfish lifestyle. Peace.
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1/10
Dogmatic one-sided
billbasdras3 September 2018
The most biased documentary I have ever seen in my life. The black and white dogmatic biased way of researching and presenting the facts losing any kind of credibility for the few points that could make sense. Definetely in the top three worst documentaries I have seen and a complete waste of time.
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2/10
Eurocentric, chauvinist, false science
jdkrones-585-94498529 November 2016
This movie might make you think, but it is certainly not the whole story. Instead of actually talking with nutritionists who *don't* have personal financial agendas and striving to get the whole, holistic story, the author/narrator obviously went into this project with a clear directive of promoting a vegan diet. There's nothing in this film to balance the argument, let alone provide 'food for thought' to lead a balanced life.

The biggest problem with the film is the complete lack of holistic research performed: much like Cowspiracy and other pro-vegan propaganda produced in recent years, it is based in large part on a report produced by the UNFAO attributing the meat industry of producing global greenhouse gases in excess of 18%. That report was found to be heavily biased, completely false, and was eventually retracted from the scientific world.

This movie took three years to make, and the producer was ignorant that the data he was using was false? Or, he wasn't on an actual 'personal journey' and instead had a very clear goal.

Another note (for a longer discussion) is that meat is just one of about 115 different products that come out of a single beef cow - the amount of water, energy, and time that goes into producing a burger also produced medicine, tools, clothing, and a plethora of other valuable resources for the growing world.

This movie was also heavily Eurocentric and chauvinist: a whole five minutes spent on discussing erectile dysfunction? Using data that correlates the high rates of cancer and other illnesses to countries that have a propensity for 'meat heavy diets?' Only the two at the 'top' of the chart (that is, with low rates of cancer) are lesser-developed countries, and both are in SE Asia which have a high rate of indigenous vegetarian diets. Nothing about any country in Africa or South America, both of which have high rates of indigenous omnivorous diets.

No one can live forever, and eating a 'plant-based diet' won't save you from your own mortality - not eating meat might decrease one type of cancer, but for every 'solution' we make for ourselves, Nature devises another way to kill us. Thinking that just eating fruits and vegetables will grant you immortality is naive, and pretending that your elongated life span is better for the world than eating local is ignorant of the huge negative impacts of overpopulation and the rising costs of geriatric healthcare.

If you want to better understand your diet, talk to a nutritionist. Meet your local farmers. Grow your own food. Sustainability is holistic: ecological, economic, and social.
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4/10
Important message that is missing the purpose, it is just giving vegan what they want to hear.
j_co8 August 2018
I'm very pro the message of this movie, and the information provided is important, but the problem is that this movie doesn't say anything new, it doesn't tackle any of the hard questions, it is just another movie for people wanting confirmation they are doing the right thing (Confirmation Bias), that they are healthy and compassionate and all of those wonderful words.

This movie won't inform or convince anyone that isn't already vegan or close to it, it is a good movie for a vegans wanting to feel better about themselves.

The movie is also not compelling, it doesn't tell a story or provokes any emotion, it just feels like a conversion movie, not a documentary.
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3/10
This documentary is blown out of proportion
tylerhall-7765428 July 2017
I believe that they make some good points in this documentary about certain meats such as red meat causing diseases and cancer. When they say that white meat has the same amount of fat and cholesterol as red meat that is just not true. Chicken does indeed have fat however most of these fats are polyunsaturated fats and monounsaturated fats. These are healthy for your body and in moderation and can actually lower your cholesterol (opposite of what they say it will do in the documentary) and reduce risk of heart disease. This is the same concept with fish, other than mercury fish is a great source of lean protein with healthy fats. They blow all of their information out of proportion to make you scared and switch to a vegan diet. A vegan diet has good benefits, however so does consuming the right amount of meat for your lifestyle.
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3/10
at last someone mentions the danger of fish but forget to mention...
stefankarlssoncom4 February 2017
at last someone pointed out the danger with fish (mercury) but there is other plastics going in to the fish nowadays as well.

i am shocked however that everyone says fruit and vegetables are so good for you. some are so fast produced that they don't even have the vitamins in them at all. i live in Sweden and our data comes from 1970 when fruit and vegetables had its course and was healthy and filled with vitamins.

another matter is the pesticides used in and around fruit and vegetables. a friend of mine threw away a green apple in the compost. after 6 months it hadn't changed appearance.

the government in Sweden is still using the same data sheet from 1970 even though todays produce is nowhere near the same.
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1/10
Advertisement for 'Veganism"
astha-1765131 March 2018
This movie poses as being an unbiased opinion, but only promotes "vegan". Isn't vegan in itself a fad which this movie is trying to promote.
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1/10
It is one sided Veganism propaganda.
ftom-2441310 April 2020
Everything is totally out of proportion. It is unscientific completely biased.
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