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Food Choices – The Myths, the Truths and the Facts About Our Food Choices

by Jennie Richards · Published July 2, 2018 · Updated April 13, 2019

“Be the change you want to see in the world.”

Food Choices is the fascinating three-year journey that award-winning filmmaker Michal Siewierski undertook to expose the truth and the myths about our food choices. Siewierski traveled across the country interviewing 28 world-renowned experts including the world’s top doctors, nutrition researchers and experts, health experts, and world champion athletes to find out what the healthiest diet is, and why. Siewieski, as a result of learning about the benefits of a plant-based diet, himself adopted it—and lost 50 pounds, got his cholesterol and blood pressure under control, his blood sugar normalized, and regained his health and fitness.

In the film, Siewieski answers the many personal questions he had about adopting a plant-based diet, like – “How was I going to live without animal foods? How can I get enough protein? Are eggs really a good food choice? Is a vegan diet good for children? Dr. Benjamin Spock in the 1990s said, “All children should be raised with zero exposure to meat and dairy. The leading killers of our children, are heart disease, cancer, stroke—that can be addressed and reversed on a plant-based diet.” Plus, the connection between our food choices and the planet Spock could not ignore – world hunger, species extinction, environmental destruction, the burning of rainforests, pollutions in our water supply, oceans and air, biodiversity loss — all are related to the raising of animals on our planet.

The film explores the significant and consequential impact our food and eating habits are having on our health, the planet, our environment and the animals.

“The biggest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance: it is the illusion of knowledge.”

Film Length: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes

Film Release:2016

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Quotes from the Film

Best Diet for the Human Species?

“There really is a best diet for humans—it’s a plant-based diet—fruit, vegetables, grains and legumes. We do know that a diet rich in whole plant-based foods is truly the best way to good health.”

“We’re overwhelmed with the corporate sector trying to sell us food that’s not good for us.”

“These are diseases of nutritional ignorance and diseases of dietary choices.”

“Fear of pesticides should never keep anyone from maximizing their food intake of fruits and vegetables. If half of all Americans ate a Single Serving of fruit and vegetables a day, every day, we would prevent 20,000 cancer deaths every year. That’s how powerful fruits and vegetables are.”

“There was a time when there was no heart disease, no colon cancer, no breast cancer, no inflammatory arthritis, no multiple sclerosis. But these days people in China, Asia, Central and South America have become rich, like some in the West. They have given up much of their starch and replaced it with meat and dairy. Rich people and royalty, like the queens, kings, priests, the people who could afford to eat meat—were always sick, they had obesity, artery disease, heart disease—and often died young—they were sick from eating meat, too much meat, too much cholesterol and animal fat, nothing has really changed.”

“All large, successful populations of people throughout history have gotten the bulk of their calories from starch, rice, corn, potatoes, breads. Particularly around the equator. When you move north and south, you see more animal eating.”

“Our hands were perfectly designed to eat fruits and vegetables – to pick, peel, forage, dig, and feed ourselves fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds and beans.”

“One of the problems has to do with sexism. The people who have provided most of the calories throughout all of civilization, throughout all of history of the human species—are women, who were the gatherers. Not the hunters. Mostly we have been gatherers in history. Although men got all the glory for hunting, the people who are really responsible for our survival and success for surviving—are the women, children and grandparents who were the gatherers.”

“It’s almost impossible to design a nutrient-deficient diet surrounding all plant-based foods.”

“There’s never been a case of protein deficiency on any natural diet.”

“The evidence is very clear, human beings do not have to eat a lot of protein, and when they do, they get all kinds of diseases and health problems as a result. Protein should only be 2-3% of total calories per day, it’s just a tiny amount we need. The promoters of sports drinks, bars, the meat industry, suggest people need more protein, but it’s absolutely not true.”

“The foods that matter are plants.”

“The world is so asleep, that people just follow the system, without questioning. It’s insanity that we must talk today about eating fruits and vegetables. 100 years ago everyone was doing it!”

“Eating a plant-based diet is the only solution for the environment, the animals, our health, and the health of the planet.”

ANIMALS

“When I saw how animals were suffering in slaughterhouses – the pain, suffering, torture of innocent animals that wanted to live—I went 100% plant-based.”

“How can we allow this massive genocide of animals to be killed for us, when eating them are bad for us? How could the government, massive corporations, and the public allow this to happen?”

“We compartmentalize when it comes to animals – some are our pets, others are to eat. We don’t question something, it’s name is carnism, people hide behind this myth, then we are able to ignore something and not address it. But that is a mythology.”

“What about the holocaust we are creating for the animals. Every year we are creating billions and billions of animals. And you want peace on Earth? Peace on Earth is not just for you – it’s for all living beings, not just humans.”

“People just got locked up in Utah for photographing CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation). This industry is just keeping people sick and ignorant—just to make money. If people knewhow their food was produced, they would not eat it!”

“We are so conditioned to eating animals, from a very young age. We are not making the emotional connection. If we did feel the emotional connection – we would stop eating animals.”

“There’s a reason why slaughterhouses are not located in densely populated areas. People would be distressed. There’s a reason why animals are trucked very long distances, so people don’t see their slaughter. It’s all hidden.”

“Eating animals is not necessary, they are completely unnecessary to eat. So that means, it’s only a choice.”

MEAT

“The amount of meat we’re eating is the problem. When you eat too much protein of any type you stress your kidneys and liver. And when it’s meat—you get cancer.”

“Most of the animals we’re eating are vegetarian, there’s the irony. The animals eat plants.”

“Protein elevates blood cholesterol levels. Animal protein starts heart disease. It instigates free radicals that causes cancer. It increases the levels of estrogen and hormones in the body. It’s harmful for us.”

“Meat is all the same, red or white meat, fish, poultry or beef—it doesn’t matter, they are all muscles of animals – they are all the same, they are all high in fat, high in cholesterol, high in protein, have no dietary fiber, are high on the food chain so they are heavily polluted. Fish is the worst – You concentrate all the pollutants in the ocean including mercury into fish. Don’t kid yourself.”

“A lot of people are told to eat fish by cardiologists and to take fish oil to increase HDL cholesterol. But that’s the wrong reason, you need to work on getting ALL your cholesterol low, not just HDL.”

DAIRY

“What about calcium? Can we get enough from plants? Milk is for babies, for baby cows. We’re the only species that drinks the milk of another species. It’s not normal, healthy or natural at all.”

“Why is milk associated with increased prostate cancer? Milk is a cocktail of growth hormones. Because milk is for the rapid growth of a baby cow, it’s full of growth hormones that causes and triggers breast and prostate cancer in humans. All reproductive cancers are triggered by eating dairy. Extra growth hormones is very dangerous for us.”

“Dairy products are just liquid meat, in fact they are worse than meat. High fat, high cholesterol, no fiber. Casein used to combine the cheese is so unhealthy and causes cancer. It’s directly linked to cancer in major research studies. We are not meant to be eating dairy. The dairy industry has spent billions lying to us.”

EGGS

“Eggs are THEmost concentrated source of dietary cholesterol.”

“Commercial chickens are fed drugs to make them very large quickly, they are fed corn and soy with GMOs and Round Up Ready, it’s all bio-accumulative in the body. Eggs are high in Omega-6s not Omega-3s, so they are very inflammatory, and they are full of pesticides, herbicides, and GMOs.”

OMEGA 3s and 6s

“There’s no money in getting people to decrease their Omega-6 intake, but there’s a lot of money in getting people to buy Omega-3 pills. It’s much healthier to reduce your meat intake to reduce your Omega-6 intake that causes inflammation. That’s the healthier choice.”

“Omega-3 supplements cause Type 2 Diabetes. There are numerous meta studies and a preponderance of scientific evidence that eating fish oil – is the same as snake oil. It’s useless.

In fact, it has the contrary effect, just the opposite – it causes disease it doesn’t prevent disease.”

“If men want to be virile, then men should eat a plant-based diet. Erectile dysfunction is directly related to a meat-eating, animal-eating diet. The reason is, when you have coronary heart disease in only one small area of the body around the groin, then you virtually have it everywhere. The tiny blood vessels that lead to the penis are the first to get infected. They are the canary in the coal mine—that’s when it’s time to change your diet before it’s too late.”

OBESITY

“Obesity is linked to 60 chronic diseases. Two-thirds of adults and one-third of children are obese in America.”

“Most diets in the U.S., suggest a low carb, high protein diet to lose weight. All driven by business, not by science. Atkins was first to promote low carbs; South Beach Diet is a copy-cat of Atkins, the Zone Diet is a copy-cat, Paleo Diet and Blood-Type Diet are also copy-cats – good calories and bad calories. These are fakes and fraud diets. They are written by people who have no experience in nutrition research, they are not medical doctors with a scientific/nutrition research background, and don’t study scientific literature. They don’t even have the skills to evaluate scientific research. They are frauds.”

“These diets we just mentioned all increase human mortality. And they make you sick—in time. These diets are dangerous, and people should not be on them. Yes, cut down on simple carbs – simple sugar.”

VEGAN/VEGETARIAN

“90 percent of vegetarians are still consuming dairy. And possibly fish and eggs. So you can’t expect to see any real health benefits. But with a vegan diet it is different. That is the healthiest option of all.”

“Why is there a fat vegan? Not from animal foods. But from the oils, processed foods, bad fats. The fat you eat is the fat you wear. They are empty calories.”

“I can argue the science and scientific benefit that people should eat 95% plant-based, but people with disease should eat 100% plant-based.”

“MBA, NHL, MMA, ultra-marathoners, all kinds of athletes, all are turning to a plant-based diet, and achieving their greatest athletic results.”

“I’m a MPNST survivor, a very rare, fast-infiltrating cancer on the planet, I have had over 220 tumors removed from my body. I had a decision to make. Without a plant-based diet I would not be here today. It kept my cancer at bay. The insane mindset that animal protein is the key to being very healthy—almost killed me. My life is the living proof about the health of a plant-based lifestyle. I beat the odds on a plant-based diet.”

“If you’re going through a health crisis, your odds are very, very, very much greater of surviving, on a plant-based lifestyle.”

“I stripped away all of the processed food, and now am just eating raw fruit and veggies, green blended drinks, and I have started feeling better than I have in so many years. My severe depression went away, my chronic fatigue went away, I decided I didn’t want to put the fear—death—and suffering of another animal into my body ever again. I was healed. I never felt better and it’s been 10 years of plant-based eating.”

“Once your taste buds and body cravings change, it becomes easy. Embrace all the new foods you will be eating.”

“A common misconception is that a whole foods, plant-based diet is expensive. It’s just the opposite. You will cut your grocery bills in half from a typical American diet.”

“It has actually simplified my life.”

SUPPLEMENTS

“I discourage them for most people, most of the time. The whole pitch these supplement producers give you is based on not eating the right diet with the right foods in the first place. It’s also a 40-billion-dollar industry. But all the nutrients you need are in food. Supplements can overload your system. I don’t recommend them to the general population.”

“There’s no magic pill. You can’t undo 20 years of damage by ignoring the very best of nature with fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and beans – with taking vitamins. You need to turn back to nature, to a plant-based diet toward health.”

“B12 comes from microbes, not from animals. All you need is a 125-mg supplement one time a week.”

CLIMATE CHANGE

“Raising livestock, eating fish and dairy – is the largest contributing factor to climate change. We can mitigate climate change, by changing what’s on your plate.”

“Raising free-range livestock, grass-fed and pasture raised – is a complete fabrication by the meat and dairy industries to continue to perpetuate the slaughter of animals. There’s still a huge humane issue. Raising of grass-fed beef is so land intensive, it’s even more impactful on the environment and contributes in greater ways to climate change.”

“Raising animals for food contributes 15% of carbon dioxide emissions to global warming, more than all the transportation sectors combined in the world.”

“Eating fish and seafood – you are eating a target fish that is near completion or extinction. You are also eating by-kill that are killed in the process of trying to get that “target” fish to your plate.”

“The oceans are dying and no one wants to talk about it. Our oceans will be completely devoid of fish by 2048 at the rate we are fishing and eating fish.”

CHILDREN

“Make the preparation of food—and the shopping of food—inclusive with children. Get the kids to help you, and have them own what they are doing. Get them involved, let them have the responsibility of preparing, cooking – and dining together.”

“Don’t have hard and fast rules about eating. It’s about getting your children to think consciously about their own choices. So when they become adults, they will think responsibly about what they put into their own bodies, and the impact their eating will have on the planet.”