I have some words to say about What the Health...

But first, let me introduce myself. I’m Dana, a Registered Dietitian and girlfriend to Mark Serrano, a bullpen pitcher for Los Toros de Tijuana (yup, in Mexico). We live in San Diego, where I work at a hospital in La Jolla and Mark commutes over the boarder every day to Tijuana. We love our life now, but like most of us, it wasn’t easy getting here! Between my schooling (Michigan) and internship (South Dakota) and first job in the middle of nowhere, Illinois, and Mark all over the WORLD (Mobile, Reno, Venezuela, Taiwan, Japan, Mexico) with baseball, we had to put some serious effort into making it work for the first 4 years. So ladies, I’m here to tell you, it’s worth it! He has his dream job, I have my dream job and we live in San Diego with each other! What more could I ask for?!

Anyways, have you all seen What the Health?! Did it make you want to sit in a dark corner and stuff your face with beans, almond milk and kale for the rest of your life? Well, you’re far from alone. In fact, Mark’s entire team has been vegan obsessed since watching the documentary, except for Mark. I’m going to give you all some tips and tricks that I shared with him that I want you to share with your HABS (Husbands and Boyfriends) so we can all keep chugging along without fear of food.

1.     We, as a society, really should eat less meat for various reasons. Does that mean we should all go be vegans because a documentary told us to? No. We all need to do the research and make informed decisions based on scientific data. This especially goes for professional athletes whose careers and performance rely heavily on how they’re fueling their bodies.

2.     The Current 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends we eat around 26 ounce-equivalents of meat, poultry and eggs per week for a typical 2000-calorie diet. I’ll do the math for you, that’s 6.5 four-ounce servings per week, which isn’t a lot! So, if you want to change your eating patterns to improve your health and make this earth a better place by reducing your carbon footprint, try starting here.

3.     26 ounces of meat is what they recommend so that we can get all of our necessary micronutrients we need that are difficult to get from a plant-based diet (B12 & Iron). There’s plenty of vegetarian and vegan options out there to supplement the rest of your and HABS protein requirements, i.e. beans, tofu, tempeh, whole grains, seeds, nuts, etc. etc. Give them a try!

4.     It’s important to fact-check all of the attention-grabbing, fear-mongering information documentaries like What the Health are shoving down our throats. Typically, the “facts” are cherry-picked, manipulated or just straight false. I.e., “Meat causes diabetes,” Drinking milk causes cancer,” “Fish is toxic” and “Eating eggs are as deadly as cigarettes.” Seriously, direct quotes straight from the documentary. These claims were either drawn from just one study or misconstrued from small parts of studies or by interviewing a few medical professionals who are known to be heavily biased. There is no significant body of research to back these claims. I repeat, no significant body of research. Making such claims is incredibly irresponsible and leaves us all as confused as ever.

5.     Nutrition research is notoriously difficult because it is impossible to completely isolate a food and see its effects on the human body. That’s why all of these elimination claims (yeah, I’m lookin’ at you gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, sugar-free, non-GMO, no-carb, low-fat, organic, paleo and juicing diets) are so hard to justify, because they don’t have significant research to back their claims.

6.     Instead of supporting claims made by these wacky documentaries, try out eating patterns that do have significant research backing them. According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015-2020, the Healthy U.S.-Style Eating Pattern, Mediterranean Diet and even a Vegetarian Diet are all supported by huge bodies of valid research. If you want to make a dietary change, start with your research here HERE.

In the end, whether you and your HABS are vegans, omnivores or somewhere in between, what I want you to take away from this is that it is important to find an eating pattern that is balanced, incorporates a variety of plant-based foods and is right for you and your lifestyle. What the Health only offers a very limited approach to a healthy eating style, when we know that there are plenty of other diet styles that have significant backed research also supporting them.

I don’t want you to let these fear-mongering shockumentaries to haunt you anymore. Now you’re informed and you’ll continue to be informed because you’ll research dietary claims based on significant evidence from reliable sources, right?! If you and HABS have done the research for yourself and decide you want to make a big dietary change, say, going from practically carnivore to a vegan, please do some more research and find a doctor and/or Registered Dietitian to supervise your transition and guide you down the right path. It’s important that we get the right micro- and macro-nutrients no matter what diet we are following.

Let’s stay informed and empowered as a community!

Until next time,

Dana Lukens, RDN