All language subtitles for What The Health-SD.scc

(soft music)

- Worldwide, we're
looking at approximately

350 million people
with diabetes.

There's not question
that we're in the midst

of a diabetes epidemic.

Right now, one in
three Medicare dollars

is spent in the care of
people with diabetes.

One in 10 total
health care dollars

is spent on people
with diabetes.

There's no question that
this is a major problem.

- [Kip] What in particular

is the relation of
the diet and diabetes?

- I'm not gonna get into that.

- [Kip] Into diet?

- No.

(uplifting Mexican guitar music)

- [Kip] My name is Kip, I'm a
filmmaker from San Francisco

and I have a confession to make.

I'm a recovering hypochondriac.

Like so many of us, I've a
family history of diabetes,

heart disease, and cancer.

My dad had his
heart bypass at 49,

the second at the age 50.

My grandpa died young from
diabetes complications

and both my other grandpa
and grandma died of cancer.

I was always paranoid
that I would also get

one of these diseases.

Like any good hypochondriac,
WebMD Symptoms Checker

was essentially my
browser's homepage.

Even in my teens, I
took Metamucil everyday

and a daily aspirin.

I read all the latest
self-diagnosis books.

I ate every multivitamin
I can get my hands on

and I was obsessed
with bodily functions.

I followed all the large
health organization's

recommendations for
preventing disease.

I exercise regularly, don't
smoke, don't drink soda,

get enough sleep, reduce stress,

and grew up eating
what I thought

was a healthy diet, until--

- World Health
Organization this morning

has classified processed meats
such as bacon and sausage

as carcinogenic,
directly involved

in causing cancer in humans.

- [Announcer] Processed
meat is clearly linked

to an increase in cancer.

- Hotdogs or bacon could be just

as dangerous as
smoking cigarettes.

- [Kip] The World Health
Organization that looked

over 800 studies from
10 different countries

finding a direct link
to consuming processed
meat in cancer.

Just one serving of deli
meats daily increases

your risks of colorectal
cancer by 18%.

I had no idea that what we
ate affected cancer rates,

but I never felt like I'd
eaten a lot of processed meats

until I realized
that processed meat

includes hotdogs,
bacon, sausage,

salami, ham, pepperoni,
cold cuts, and Deli Slices,

basically, everything
I grew up eating.

The World Health Organization
classifies processed meat

as a Group 1 carcinogen.

The same group as cigarettes,
asbestos, and plutonium.

And classifies red meat
as a Group 2 carcinogen.

Was this like I'd
essentially been smoking

my entire childhood?

If processed meats are labeled
the same as cigarettes,

how is even legal for kids
to be eating this way?

I thought this was
new information

but many of these studies
had been around for 50 years.

I couldn't believe I'd
been eating processed meats

virtually my entire
life and was just now,

finding out how
dangerous they are.

Why hadn't I been
hearing about it

from the American
Cancer Society,

the largest cancer
group in the nation?

When I went on their website,

I was shocked to see that
none of these information

was featured on their homepage.

But even more shocking,
on their Eat Healthy page,

they actually encouraged eating
Group 1 carcinogenic foods

like processed turkey
and canned meats.

This is after the World
Health Organization

reviewed over 800
studies definitively

linking processed
meat to cancer.

- [Sam] Thank you for calling,
American Cancer Society.

My name is Sam, I'm a cancer
information specialist.

How may I help you today?

- Hi, I was calling
because I was wondering why

you all recommend people

to eat processed
meat on your website?

Which the World Health
Organization has classified

as a Group 1 carcinogen?

Which is in the same
class as tobacco smoking,

asbestos, and plutonium?

This would be like a
lung association having a

How to Roll your own Cigarettes
section on their website.

It's kinda the same thing?

- [Sam] Well, let
me just place you

on a brief hold because--

- He wasn't able to
answer my questions

and said someone would
get back with me.

I had always been
concerned about cancer

because both my grandma
and grandpa died of cancer.

I wondered if things
would have been different

had they known the
link between diet

and this terrible disease.

In the US, one out of every
four deaths is from cancer.

Oh sweet, American
Cancer Society rep

confirmed the
interview this week.

So, we just went in
for the interview

with the American
Cancer Society rep

and the security guard said,

"There's no
interview scheduled."

So I went on to my phone
and it turns out last night,

after I'd told her that
the interview's gonna be

about the correlation
between diet and cancer,

she said she can no
longer do the interview.

After repeated emails asking why

she was declining my interviews

to simply talk about
diet and cancer,

she stopped responding
all together.

Why would an American
Cancer Society rep

not wanna talk about this?

I was, however, able to
connect with a growing movement

of doctors who are willing
to talk about the link

between the standard
American diet and disease,

and it goes beyond just cancer.

I took my old trustee
van, Super Blue,

once again out on the road.

- 2/3 of adults are now
overweight or obese,

and we have an epidemic
cascade of debilitating disease

that's overcoming the country.

There's no way we can
sustain the current style

of care with the epidemic
that we're creating

with our diet and
lifestyle choices.

- The diabetes, the
arthritis, the heart disease,

the dementia, the
obesity, the cancers

are affecting about
70% of deaths.

All the data is that those
70% of deaths and morbidity

are largely lifestyle-related
and preventable.

- Most kids by age 10 in the
US already have fatty streaks

in their arteries the first
stage of atherosclerosis

leading to heart
attacks, strokes.

- Here in American medicine,

we operate from
the disease model.

We are in the business
of treating sick people.

We are not in the
business of trying

to prevent people
from becoming sick.

- When you look at
chronic disease risk,

all the things that we
walk around worrying about.

Actually, dietary
choices trump smoking

when it comes to those risks.

- If I could deliver one
message to the researchers

who are looking for
the cause of diabetes

and the cause of
clogged arteries,

and the cause of
high blood pressure,

and the cause of obesity,
I would tell them,

the answer's in three words,
it's the food. (laughs)

It's what Americans are eating.

- [Kip] Today, with 2/3 of
Americans being overweight,

clearly, there's a food issue.

In the next 25 years,

one out of every three
Americans will have diabetes.

- My name's Michael Abdalla.

I'm from Atlanta, Georgia,
and unfortunately,

I was diagnosed about 10
years ago with diabetes,

and eight years ago, I
had two stents put in.

I don't know where to
go, I don't know what do,

you just like add the options
and you don't know what to do.

You take in medicine, you
listen to this doctor,

and the cardiologist
says, "Take this,"

and the endocrinologist
says, "Take that,"

then your general
practitioner doctor says,

"You don't know
what's going on here."

It's a real challenging thing

and it's something that
you don't wanna get.

You just don't wanna get it.

- [Kip] Government and media
almost exclusively blame

lack of exercise and sugary
foods as a cause of diabetes.

But I wanted to talk
with an actual expert

on the role of diet in diabetes.

I went to speak with
premier physician,

diabetes expert, and
researcher, Dr. Neal Barnard.

What role does sugar
play in causing diabetes?

- Drive me crazy.

Diabetes is not and
never was caused

by eating a high
carbohydrate diet

and it's not caused
by eating sugar.

The cause of diabetes is a diet

that builds up the amount
of fat into the blood.

I'm talking about a typical
meat-based, animal-based diet.

You can look into the muscle
cells of the human body

and you find they're building
up tiny particles of fat

which is causing
insulin resistance.

What that means is the sugar

that is naturally from the
foods that you're eating

can't get into the
cells where it belongs.

It builds up in the blood
and that's diabetes.

- [Kip] I had never
heard that meat

was associated with
causing diabetes.

We had always been told that
sugar and obesity caused it.

Renowned weight loss
bariatric surgeon,

Dr. Garth Davis, though agreed.

- Everyone thinks that you
diabetic because of carbs,

did a huge study and that
epic study, 500,000 people.

Carbs consumption was
inversely related to diabetes.

In other words, the more
carbs they wanna to eat,

the less diabetes they had but
meat was strongly correlated.

Get that aha moment.

The starches, the
carbs are good for you.

They're not bad for you.

This idea that carbs make you
fat is utterly ridiculous.

Carbs cannot make you
fat in and of themselves.

We have storage in our muscles

and in our liver for
carbs called glycogen.

So, when we eat carbs, we
either store it or we burn it.

Now, eat fat that goes
straight to you fat.

Your body can't turn
those carbs into fat

unless you're really
overdoing your calories.

Basically, it's
a death sentence.

You're at much higher
risk of getting cancer.

You're almost certainly
gonna get diabetes.

No one wants to fat shame

and we all want everybody to
be comfortable with our bodies

but this movement to be
comfortable with our bodies

has made us comfortable
with being sick

and that's a huge problem.

I go into the hospital
and I look around me,

people on dialysis,
all these sick people

and just about every
disease in there

is because of what
people are eating.

- Here's the thing, if
I eat a sugary cookie,

the sugar lures you in
like the Trojan Horse

but waiting inside that cookie

is a huge load of
butter or shortening

and that's what fattens you up.

That's the part that
leads to the diabetes.

It's the fatty foods, not
really so much the sugar.

- It's not that
sugar's good for you.

There's no nutrients in
it, it's excess calories,

but when you eat sugar,

you don't get
inflammation right away.

When you eat sugar,
you're not getting plaques

forming in your vessels.

When you're eating sugar,
your body's gonna store

most of it as glycogen
or burn it as calories.

So, this focus on sugar
has taken all the focus off

meat, dairy, eggs,
pork, turkey, chicken.

- People need to understand.

If their gets diabetes,

you've just take 19 years
off their life span.

We're talking life and death.

- I realized, there
was so much more

about diet and disease
that I hadn't ever learned.

It felt as if this information

had been practically withheld.

Processed meat causes cancer.

Sugar doesn't cause diabetes.

I had doubt about the claims
these doctors are making

so I did some
searching on my own.

Harvard researchers looked
at nine perspective studies

finding that just one serving
of processed meat per day

increased risk of
developing diabetes by 51%.

The link between eating meat

and developing diabetes
became undeniable.

But when I went on

the leading diabetes
organization's website,

the American
Diabetes Association,

not only did they not
have this information

front and center, they
were featuring recipes

for red and processed
meat and on there,

Recipes for Healthy Living.

They had bacon wrapped shrimp?

What the health?

All right, send an email to
American Diabetes Association,

see if they get back to us.

As destructive as diabetes is,

it pales in comparison
to heart disease.

Over 17 million
people die every year

from cardiovascular disease.

It is the leading cause
of death around the world.

Nearly, one out of
every three people

will die from this disease.

The amount of people who die
from cardiovascular disease

is the equivalent
of four jumbo jets

crashing every single hour

every single day,
every single year.

- My name is Amy Resnic,

and I'm from Swampscott,
Massachusetts,

little bit north of Boston.

And I recently went to
my doctor for asthma

because I had a very
hard time breathing

and while there, she
did some blood work

and one of the tests
was C-reactive protein

and that was a scale
of one to three.

One being low for cardiac event,

three being high
for a cardiac event,

and my number was 10.82.

- What does that means.

- That means I am on the
road for heart attack

and she said, "Probably,
within the next 30 days."

- 30 days?
- 30 days,

if I'm going the
way I was going.

I take this for my
heart arrhythmia,

take this for pain,
oxycodone for pain,

and lorazepam for stress,

cyclobenzaprine
for muscle relaxer.

Also take Topamax and Prozac

and I also use a CPAP
machine to help me breathe,

and my asthma has been
so bad this past year.

I used to turn the day
as well to get some air.

I am tired when I wake up,
I'm tired during the day.

I take a nap, I'm so
tired, I can't breathe,

and I know I need to make
at change for my health,

I also am not gonna
be here for my family.

- When we speak
of heart disease,

I would say the role of
alcohol is pretty small.

The role of sugar
is very small too.

Smoking is big,
but the good news

is that most people have
quit or never did smoke.

The problem with
animal-based diet,

it's contribution to
heart disease is huge,

and it is pervasive.

- All these expensive
imaging, procedures,

bypasses, medication,

none of which has one
solitary single thing to do

with the causation
of the illness

so you die with a
completely benign,

full-blown illness,

that never had its
causation treated.

- When we eat these kind of
dead meat bacteria toxins,

within minutes,
we get this burst

of inflammation
within your system

such that you basically
paralyze your arteries.

So, you get this
stiffening of the arteries,

their inability to
relax normally in half.

It's not like decades down
the road, eating unhealthy,

there'll be some damage, no.

We're talking damage
right then and there

within minutes of
going into our mouth.

- Many people are given the
diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease

when it's not true
Alzheimer's at all.

The vast majority of
people suffered dementia

through that their
tiny blood vessels

in their brain clogging
up and their nerve cells

being short-changed
of oxygenated blood

and guess where their blood
vessel eventually comes from,

those little tiny
arteries are clogging up

from that steady stream of
fat, cholesterol, et cetera.

- It's really quite clear
from the standpoint of cancer

and the standpoint of
cardiovascular disease,

that animal protein
plays an enormous role.

- [Kip] Is chicken better?

- It's question of whether
you be shot or hung.

- The flesh food that
I would eliminate

from the American
diet would be poultry,

would be turkey and chicken.

Their brilliant
advertising campaign

has convinced people that,

"Oh, it's white meat,
it's healthier."

- The leading source of sodium

in the American diet
for adult is chicken.

It can be labeled
all-natural chicken

but they inject it
with a salt water,

I think, up to 800
milligrams of sodium.

- Heterocyclic amines
are clear cut carcinogens

and they can form
in any kind of meat

as it's heated, as it's cooked,

but by far, the biggest
source is chicken.

We sent researchers into fast
food and family restaurants.

Not only were there carcinogens
in every single restaurant.

Well, we found them in
every single chicken sample

that we took.

If somebody brings their family

and then they're buying
a bucket of chicken,

nobody tells them that
there are carcinogens.

If you're selling
carcinogens to people,

you've gotta warn them
that they're in there.

- [Kip] But the American Cancer
Society encourages people

to switch from red and
processed meat to chicken.

Why would the American
Cancer Society tell people

to switch from eating one
carcinogenic food to another

when a Harvard University study

showed that men
with prostate cancer

who eat large amounts of chicken

increased their risk of the
disease progressing four times?

- The number one dietary source
in America of cholesterol

is chicken because
the volume of chicken.

Chickens become grilled
chicken and organic chicken,

if it's machismo,
but it has nearly

as much cholesterol
per gram as red beef

suggests that sheer volume
is the number one source

yet eggs being close by.

- [Kip] I'd never really
thought about eggs much.

I just thought of them

as a standard part
of the healthy diet.

But then, I found
a study suggesting

that eating just one
egg a day can be as bad

as smoking five cigarettes
per day for life expectancy.

- The yolk of a hen's egg is
the most concentrated glom

of saturated fat
and cholesterol.

It is made to run a
baby chicken for 21 days

with no outside energy.

It is pure fat and cholesterol.

And when we put that
into our blood stream,

it coats our red blood cells,

our blood gets thicker
and more viscous.

It changes our hormone levels.

It raises our
cholesterol levels.

There's nothing healthy
about eating yolk of the egg.

- [Kip] But I thought
cholesterol and saturated fat

wasn't an issue anymore?

- You know, these saturated
fat studies that have come out,

trying to vindicate
saturated fat.

That's a campaign by
the dairy industry.

Number one source of saturated
fat is dairy, it's not meat.

2008, the global dairy industry
got together at a meeting

and explicitly read their agenda

was to neutralize the
negative impact of milk fat

by regulators and medical
professionals, unquote.

So, what they do,
they funded studies.

- [Kip] The main
study that started

the whole saturated
fat media craze

was funded by the
National Dairy Council.

The egg industry
similarly fund studies

that confuse consumers
by making claims

that eggs don't negatively
affect heart function.

That is only when
compared to eating

a McDonald's Sausage McMuffin?

So, what they're
really saying is that

eating eggs is just as
bad as eating a McMuffin.

- When you eat foods
like beef or steak

or a processed meat, a hotdog,

you're not just
getting saturated fat,

you're also getting
other additional toxins

that are in that food.

There's heme iron, carcinogens,
and processing chemicals.

This is all a lot
more complicated

than just looking
at saturated fat.

- The strategy is not on making
their products any safer.

The strategy is to just
try to confuse the public

to introduce doubt.

You know, there was a famous
tobacco industry memo.

It's called, Doubt
is our product.

That's all they had to do.

They didn't have to
convince the Americans

that smoking was healthy, right?

They just had to introduce
doubt then they would win.

Well, if there's just
enough controversy,

people kinda throw
up their hands,

"I don't know what to eat."

Confusion is their gain.

I really don't think people
thought what they ate

led to heart disease.

They think. "Oh, it's
genetic, my parents had it."

I don't think
people really think

that what they ate
lead to diabetes.

They think, "Oh, my parents
had it, I was gonna get it."

And certainly, cancer,
they don't think that way.

- People have bad lifestyles
that they've inherited.

Environmentally,
they've been exposed

to a certain way of
eating and living

they've carried on
into their adulthood,

passed on to their children.

That is why they go on to
develop the same diseases

that their parents
and grandparents may
have had before them

but it is not inevitable.

- Even if you have a
genetic predisposition,

it doesn't mean it's going
to necessarily manifest.

What determines whether
it manifests or not,

maybe those
epigenetic variables,

the things that you can control.

The environmental factors,
the dietary factors,

the lifestyle factors.

- So, we can actually change
the expression of genes.

Tumor-suppressing genes,
tumor activating genes

by what we eat, what
we put into our bodies.

So, even if you've been
dealt a bad genetic deck,

you can still
reshuffle it with diet.

- I'd always thought

that I would develop heart
disease at a young age

because both my dad and
grandpa had heart attacks.

I was taught that
they were genetic,

but the heart attacks probably
had less to do with genes

and more to do with
their diets high in meat.

That's why when I went on the
American Heart Association's

Heart-healthy Recipes
page, I could not believe

they had an entire
section on beef recipes?

This was just like the
American Cancer Society

encouraging eating Group 1
carcinogens on their site.

Meat loaf, pork loin,
steak on your recipe list?

Are you kidding me?

It's like this menu's trying
to get people heart attacks.

At your website, we noticed
heart-healthy recipes,

and we're kinda bewildered by
why there's a bunch of recipes

on the whole section
on beef, beef recipes,

and there's also a
section on egg recipes

when there's such a strong link

between beef, red meat,
and heart disease?

- [Man] I honestly don't know
'cause I don't do that ideas.

That's not what I do. (laughs)

- [Kip] Another organization
rep that wasn't able

to answer my questions

but he said that he'd have
someone get in touch shortly.

I was, however, able to
talk to the president

of the American College of
Cardiology, Dr. Kim Williams.

- So, the American
College of Cardiology

is a 47,000-member and
growing organization

with a a dedicated mission
to reduce heart disease

and to improve patients' lives.

And if you look at the
incidence of hypertension

and diabetes and
mortality in men,

they actually get reduced
as you go higher and higher

in terms of how much you
restrict animal products.

- [Kip] What about fish?

- So, fish is a
little different.

You've got the four worries
which is PCBs, mercury,

saturated fat, and cholesterol.

And the cholesterol
is all over the place.

You can eat tuna in water,

that'll be almost less
than a glass of milk

to salmon or tilapia which
is higher than a pork chop.

- If you look
objectively at fish,

what you find is they become
essentially mercury sponges.

And that's why in many
parts of the country,

they warn you, "Don't
have more than so many

"of these fish a week

"because it's getting
too much mercury.

"It can kill you."

- Fish are eaten by bigger fish

who are eaten by a bigger
fish and these pesticides

or herbicides bioaccumulate
in the fish flesh.

And the big fish
including the salmon

which people think
is a healthiest fish.

Truth is the amount of
pesticides and herbicides

in the flesh of these
fish are shocking

and they have estrogenic

and cancer promoting
properties in them.

- They'll say, "Well,
but don't sardines

"have less concentration
of toxic waste products

"than other ones?"

Something being less toxic
doesn't make it healthy.

It just makes it less toxic.

- Farmed fish is by
no means healthier.

All the antibiotics that
these animals have to be fed

similar to chickens and
turkeys kept in confinement.

These fish get infections.

They get fungal infections,
they get bacterial infections,

you've gotta feed them
antifungals, antibiotics,

and these substances accumulate
in the fish flesh as well.

- [Kip] I always knew that
pollution was bad for our health

but I never thought about

the environmental
pollutants affecting food.

- Dioxins being the most
toxic man-made chemicals

known to science cause
all sorts of things.

They cause endometriosis,
they cause cancers,

they cause endocrine
disruption problems.

Most of your exposure, 93%
of it comes from eating meat

and dairy products
because it climbs up

in the food chain
so effectively.

So, you can get exposed
living near these incinerators

and breathing it but
it'll take you 14 years

to breathe in as
much dioxin as a cow

ingest by eating the
grass in one day,

and that dioxin will
accumulate in as fat

which includes the
milk and the meat

and anyone eating
meat or dairy products

is going to get
that dose of dioxin

so it climbs up the
food chain every step.

Men have no way in their
bodies to get rid of dioxins

but women have two ways.

They're both involving
having a baby.

One is that dioxin
crosses the placenta

into the growing infant,

and the other is that it
comes out from the breastmilk.

So, if you have a meat
and dairy consuming mother

breastfeeding that infant,

then the highest impacts
of toxic exposure

like mercury and dioxins
will give that infant.

- Pregnant women are told
of certain types of fish

should be avoided but what about

all these other animal
products which are introducing.

Imagine as the
fetus is developing,

introducing these
very harmful toxins

which create reproductive
abnormalities,

developmental problems
and hormonal issues

right as the child
is developing,

the most critical
stage of development.

- It does make you
worry when people say,

"Don't you wanna have
a little bit of milk

"because you're pregnant?

"Don't you wanna have some
fish 'cause you're pregnant?"

Who do you think is gonna get

the chemicals that are in that?

- All these environmental
toxins and toxins from the feed

that they're being fed
accumulate in their tissues

and are released into the mother

and unfortunately, to the child

when you eat these products
when you're pregnant.

So, this includes
antibiotics, hormones,

steroids in animal feed.

Commercial animals are
largely fed GMO corn and soy

which are very
laden in pesticides.

PCBs have been
banned since the '70s

but they persist in the
environment, dioxins.

All of these compounds can
create hormonal reproductive,

developmental damage as well.

- Eating organic beef,
poultry, pork or fish

will not help you avoid
contaminants like mercury,

like dioxins, like strontium-90

because they fall
out over all sorts

of farms fields
and water bodies,

and they don't skip
over the organic fields.

So, really the
contaminants are coming in

regardless of how these
animals are raised.

- [Kip] I had always
been concerned

about the possible
health impacts of GMOs

but then found out that most
of the world's GMO crops

are actually
consumed by livestock

with dairy cows consuming
the most per animal.

This fact with
everything I'd learned

about bioaccumulation
made dairy terrifying

especially considering how
much cheese I ate in my life.

- Cheese is an amazing product
when you think about it.

It's probably one of
the single desk foods

that compromising health

that you're gonna
actually feed to people.

Think about it.

You've got an animal product,

so you've got all the issues
of biological concentration.

You with have a highly
processed food product

and not only does it have
naturally a lot of saturated fat

but you put a lot
of salt into it.

- There's a strong link
between dairy foods

and autoimmune diseases
so that can show itself up

as excessive production of mucus

and exacerbation of asthma
and kids who are prone to that

and even adults and also,

there's an association
between dairy foods

and multiple sclerosis
and type 1 diabetes,

which is an autoimmune disease

and other
rheumatological problems.

- Cow's milk is baby
calf growth food.

That's what the stuff is.

There's absolutely no
child or human on earth

who actually needs
the milk of a cow

any more than they need the
milk of a giraffe or a mouse.

- Most people in the world
are lactose intolerant.

I mean, that's the
normal state of affairs.

Why would your body
create this enzyme

to like just lactose after
weaning, after infancy?

It doesn't make any sense.

- 73% of African-Americans
are lactose intolerant,

95% of Asians, roughly
70% of Native Americans,

and about 53% of
Hispanic Americans are
lactose intolerant.

Our government is encouraging
Americans of color

to eat foods that it knows
it's going to make them ill.

Ultimately, what that is down to

is the government are selling
me as an African-American

to eat food that's gonna make
me ill for no health benefit

so that it will
benefit dairy farmers

as if the farmers have
institutionalized racism.

- Yeah, milk is a risky
food for human consumption.

As a pediatrician, I
see it on a daily basis,

children suffering
from conditions

that are linked or associated
to dairy consumption

such as eczema,
acne, constipation,

acid reflux,
iron-deficiency anemia.

Cow's milk protein is
the most allergenic food.

- People say, "Well no,
I want a hormone-free,

"not injected with
bovine growth hormone,"

but milk is this hormonal
fluid which is packed

with sex hormones and
natural sex steroid hormones

like estrogen, progesterone.

In fact, doesn't matter
if it's conventional milk,

doesn't matter if
it's organic milk.

Milk without hormones,
this is an oxymoron.

Organic dairy has just
as much saturated fat

and cholesterol and
galactose, and all the things

that you don't want
as conventional dairy.

- Dairy products, in
general, have a lot

of other products
associated with it,

not the least of which is pus.

I mean, they actually have
laws limiting how much pus

you can actually have in
the milk and still sell it.

I believe it's like
750,000 pus cells per CC.

Because, I mean, you
wouldn't want too much pus,

it would be like pure
pus people might object.

In fact, you could
think of cheese

as coagulated cow
pus if you will.

- [Kip] But I was always told

that we need milk
for strong bones.

- I'm Jane Chapman
and not too long ago,

finally got some x-rays
of the hips and back.

Severe bilateral
osteoarthritis of the hips

and actually, I'm scheduled
for two hip replacements.

That's bone on bone, it is
the grinding of the joints.

My stability is scary.

I hold on to the
walls if I'm at home.

I've been told to use a walker.

I'm only 61.

This is not how you're
supposed to live

when you're this old.

I have a really hard
time believing that.

That's all that's left.

- Researchers have studied
bone development in kids

and whether they get stress
fractures and that kind of thing

and the kids drink the most
milk have zero protection.

Milk does not
build strong bones.

Harvard researchers have
looked at a large group

of older women over
an 18-year period.

The milk drinkers had zero
protection from fractures.

So, this old notion
that somehow,

milk is gonna build strong bones

are protect your bones
later in life, it's a myth.

- People that drink milk have
higher rates of hip fractures,

have more cancer, and
live shorter lives.

- [Kip] It turns
out that countries

with the highest
dairy consumption

also have the highest
rates of osteoporosis.

So clearly, drinking more milk
doesn't protect your bones.

Doing more research, I've
found that dairy was linked

to many different types
of cancer as well.

Just like many of us,

I thought that the majority
of cancer's due to genes

but only 5% to 10% of
cancer's actually genetic.

- Any cancer is caused
by a DNA mutation

but that's not enough so that

can cause that first cancer cell

but one cancer cell
never killed anyone.

Two cancer cells
never killed anyone

but a billion cancer cells,
now, we're running into problems

so we need to reduce the
growth factors in our body

like IGF-1, insulin-like
growth factor 1.

It's this cancer
promoting growth hormone

involved in every
stage of cancer cell,

growth and spread
and metastasis.

Any animal protein boosts
the level of IGF-1.

- Dairy products
increases your risk

for various forms of cancer

especially those
related to your hormones

so breast cancer, prostate
cancer, ovarian cancer.

So, this is not a product
even in its most pure state

you wanna be consuming because
it does come with risk.

- [Kip] I've found out
that dairy can increase

a man's chance of getting
prostate cancer by 34%.

And for women who've
had breast cancer,

just one serving of
whole dairy a day

can increase their chance of
dying from the disease, 49%,

and dying from anything, 64%.

Why weren't breast cancer
sites like Susan G. Komen

warning everyone about this?

(phone ringing)

- [Jocelyn] You're
calling Susan G. Komen.

This is Jocelyn,
how may I help you?

- We're wondering why you
don't have a huge warning

about the dangers of consuming
dairy in your website

when there's a direct
link to breast cancer?

There was a study published

in the Journal of the
National Cancer Institute,

that found out women
consuming dairy

who has had breast cancer

increases their risk of
dying of breast cancer 49%.

Just wondering why it's
not on your website?

- [Jocelyn] We cannot answer
these types of questions.

- [Kip] Once again, another
health organization rep

saying someone else would
have to answer my question.

Rather than risk
being stood up again,

I went straight to the
local Susan G. Komen chapter

to see if they would
answer my questions.

(tranquil guitar music)

They didn't wanna answer my
questions in person either

and told us to stop filming,

but promised they
would connect me

to the national office directly.

Susan G. Komen's pink ribbon
campaign had done a lot

to raise awareness
for breast cancer,

although, it was confusing
to see pink ribbons

on dairy yogurt containers.

- Breast cancer can be prevented

with a healthy diet and
lifestyle but we're not,

we're talking about pink ribbons

and putting all the money
into research for the cure.

I, for one, know that I would
want my daughter, my mother,

me, I wanna focus on not
getting to that point

and that's where I would like

to see more energy
and effort put.

- [Kip] I had been a
hardcore cheesaholic

virtually my entire life

despite the risks but
like so many others,

I seem to have been
addicted to it.

- It turns out that
the casein protein,

that's the main protein
in dairy products

particularly in
cheese, it breaks apart

in the human digestion to create

what are called casomorphins,

casein-derived
morphine-like compounds.

They go to the brain
and they attach

to the vary same receptor
that heroin attaches to.

Don't get me wrong, they're
not as strong as that

but they are strong enough
to make you come back

again and again and again

despite the fact that
you're gaining weight,

you're more unhealthy
than you've ever been,

but that cheese just
calls out to people.

- Casomorphin may
play a role in SIDS,

in sudden infant death syndrome,
they play a role in autism.

This is one of the reasons
why don't want infants

drinking milk from cows.

- [Kip] Human breastmilk has
2.7 grams of casein per liter

compared to 26 grams per
liter for cow's milk.

That's practically
10 times more.

No wonder it's so addictive.

This talk about addiction
made me think about

all the drugs animals are fed.

I went to the headquarters

of the Center for
Food and Safety,

the nation's leading FDA
government watchdog group

to see how concerned we need
to be about drugs in our food.

- So, that we know of there are
at least 450 different drugs

that are administered to animals

either alone or in combination.

These drugs are given to animals
for a variety of reasons.

Very, very few of which
are actually beneficial

to consumer health.

- We've got drug companies
that work real hard

to make sure they can
sell lots of drugs

to people raising cows,
pigs, and chickens.

- The pharmaceutical
industry sells 80%

of all the antibiotics that
it makes in the United States

to animal agriculture.

Antibiotic residues
are found in meat.

Other antimicrobials
are found in meat.

There has been a
ractopamine found in meat.

There's been hormones
found in meat.

So, right there, you're talking
about four different drugs.

They could be in the
same piece of meat.

The pharmaceutical
company supposed

to show the safety
of animal drugs.

They're not really
testing to see

what the impacts of these
drugs are on humans,

they're really looking
to see what impacts

that these drugs are on animals.

- We try to get information
on some of the health studies

and the environmental studies
from federal agencies.

We get back page after page
of blacked out information

because the company
claim confidential
business information.

- Consumers have no idea
what is in the products

that they consume.

- So, how sick
something makes me

and how bad it pollutes
the environment

is a secret for a company.

- In the animal
agriculture industry,

as in the tobacco industry,

these companies really
have a vested interest

in making sure that the public
doesn't have information

about their effects
and what risks

are really post
to consuming them.

- Have the system where animals

are living in their own waste,

they're living next to animals
that are sick or even dead

and they're stuck in
cages with these animals.

The bacteria tends to
spread that the pathogens

that are being created in
these filthy conditions

are breeding resistance
to antibiotics

and the public are
becoming exposed to those.

- We already had people
dying from salmonella

and other things that you eat.

We have about 3,000
people die every year

in the United States.

That's more than
the number of people

that were killed in 9/11 in
the Twin Towers of New York.

If we had some
terrorists organization

killing 3,000 people a year,
we would be all over it.

The antibiotic-resistant
bacteria deaths that we have

on top of that, you get a
20,000 people die in a year.

That's seven 9/11's every year.

Can you imagine?

If that many people
were being killed

by some terrorist group in
the United States every year,

we would find them.

- The World Health Organization
had said we're nearing

in a post-antibiotic
era in medicine.

You'll be at risk
in minor surgeries

to have a fatal infection.

You'll be at risk
going to the dentist

if you have a tooth extracted
or be like Civil War medicine.

You get an infection in your
leg and you cut your leg off.

So, you have this very
dangerous situation.

By crowding these animals in,

they become a perfect
engine for generating

usually a virus that can
come out into the community.

If you lived near a
swine spray field,

not even decay field but
the waste disposal field,

you are three times more
likely to have MRSA infection.

You can't see how that impacts
the average person's life

in Duplin County, North Carolina

and not be a little
upset about it.

- From environmental standpoint,

from a community standpoint,

from all other aspects,
North Carolina,

we're in a state of emergency.

We've already had bouts
of swine flu or H1N1

as they prefer to refer to it.

That particular swine flu
incident was originated

on a farm here in
North Carolina.

There's approximately
the same number of hogs

in North Carolina
as there are people.

Between eight to 10
times the amount of feces

is produced by a
hog, an adult hog

as compared to an adult human.

- [Kip] 10 million
pigs in North Carolina

produce the waste equal
to 100 million humans.

This is the equivalent of the
entire US eastern sea board

flushing their toilets
into North Carolina

but there's no waste treatment.

The pigs' waste falls
through slats in the floors

of the sheds they are
forced to live in.

It is then pumped in
the giant waste pits

which leach in the
rivers and streams

and is pumped out
unfiltered on the fields

further polluting
the environment and
neighboring health.

- When you go back
and you look at

where these hog
facilities are located,

there's a disproportionate
number of them

that are located near
communities of color,

low income communities.

It is definitely a
human rights issue.

- My sister, she have
asthma and you know,

her brother, he have asthma.

He's three and we don't
know what she might have.

I have asthma, I have
sinus, I have sarcoidosis,

that's what the bacteria,

and I have a pacemaker which
is sick sinus syndrome.

Mostly everybody in
this neighborhood

got asthma or even cancer.

My neighbor there died from
cancer probably just last year.

My nephew down the
street, he's got cancer.

He's in terminal
cancer stage four,

not a smoker, not a drinker.

And it's not in his lungs,
it's in his lip nose.

'Cause if you live here
and saw the way they do,

you will eat no pork.

We don't eat bacon because
I know it come from.

When they die,
they go into a box

and they decompose
because they swell from,

especially from heat.

A truck come and pick 'em up,

take 'em to the processing
plant in Roseville,

round 'em up into feed, and
feed it back to the hogs.

Come at this door, if
he's spraying there,

it's then come in my face.

It hits you right in that face.

It smells like something that
you had never smelled before,

something rotten and dead body.

It's the family graveyard.

I have my grandmother there,

my sisters, my brothers.

When we go to funeral,
he used to spray.

- [Kip] During the funeral?

- (mumbles) Yes,
during the funeral.

Yeah, they spray,

and when the people come,

everybody be closing their
nose up saying how it stank.

They can wanna with a cookout
on Sunday, he'll spray.

- Do you think he
does that on purpose?

- I think so 'cause he
just spray at Sunday.

He always spray at Sunday.

And most of these area, hog
houses and turkey house,

is in the black area
or the Hispanic area.

It's either or.

- Do you think it's
also civil rights issue?

- Yes, yes, I do, yes, I do.

(truck passing)

- There have been
times in the past

that I have gotten
rid on the Sunday,

gotten rid of going to church

and come out and the
smell was so strong

that I had to go
back and regroup

because it got in my clothes

and I ain't just
gonna go to church

smelling like hogs,
I just can't do it.

I don't think to grow my kids.

They care more about cooperation

than do people's inner visions.

- And they're gonna keep on.

They're gonna put more
chickens in this state.

This is the feces and you're
in captain of the world

right here in North
Carolina, my state.

There's a blue line
stream right here

come into my property almost

and the continue
creek, right here.

I've seen that blue line
stream in that field

with feces and urine
from that hog pen

and they can say, "Well,
we feed the world."

They're not interested
in feeding the world,

they're interested
in making money.

You take the money away from
and let the folks starve

'cause if you want
to feed the world,

you can feed the world with
more corn, using corn and wheat,

instead of that and
your canned meat.

Meat is a luxury item.

When we are doing things
that hurt other people,

we're wrong, but a
lot of good people

will sit there and
eat bacon knowing

that it's causing someone
else to be very unhappy.

- I woke up the next morning

to find the Bern
River had experienced

another massive fish kill

from the pollution
running off hog farms.

Tens of thousands of fish
were washing up on shore.

All this talk about
health, I realized

that I was only focused
on personal health,

but health started to
mean so much more to me.

It was about health of my
family and our communities.

I couldn't honor good,
conscious supporting industry

that I knew is harming others.

Pollution from animal
agriculture isn't just an issue

in North Carolina though.

Raising animals for food
produces more greenhouse gases

than the entire
transportation sector.

It's the leading cause of
rainforest destruction,

species extinction,
ocean dead zones,

and freshwater consumption.

American Diabetes Association
actually finally got back

and they agreed to an interview.

Preparing for the American
Diabetes Association interview,

I took a look at their diabetes

diet meal plan recommendations

and they were loaded with foods

associated with
causing diabetes.

How could they expect
people not to get diabetes

if this was the food
they're recommending?

And then, I saw multiple
peer reviewed studies

published on the National
Institute of Health website

showing that a low-fat
plant-based diet

was more than twice as
powerful at controlling

and even reversing diabetes
than the 88 recommended diet

that included meat and dairy.

- Well, the mission of the
American Diabetes Association

is to identify a prevention
and a cure for diabetes.

But in the meantime,
to improve the lives

of all people who are
affected by diabetes.

- And what's the best
way to prevent this?

- For type II
diabetes, it's unclear.

We can't prevent type II
diabetes in everybody.

- During a research, we
came across a lot of studies

that said that you actually
could potentially cure

or reverse diabetes with
a purely plant-based diet.

- I don't believe there
is sufficient evidence

to demonstrate that.

- How does it compare to the
ADA diet that you recommend?

- We don't recommend
a specific diet.

We recommend healthy eating.

- The one that's on the website?

- We recommend healthy
eating, there is--

- You have a whole list
of exact day-to-day,

the meal plan, the
whole meal plan?

- All they are are selections
of foods to consider.

We do not have a diabetes diet.

- But with that selections,
do you consider that plan

compared to a whole
plant-based plan?

- No one's done that study.

- We've found
actually some studies,

a 74-week study found
that low-fat vegan diet

versus the ADA plan
in type II diabetes--

- I think we're done here.

I'm not gonna get into
an argument about--

- Oh no, I just went
into studies of, the
studies of the...

If this is true or if
it's shows out of--

- Any diet works.

Any diet works if
people follow it.

- But if it's a diet
that's not the proper diet,

like if anyone follows
a diet that the--

- I can't tell you
what a proper diet is.

I can tell you what
an improper diet is.

- So then, we can talk
about the good diets.

I'm not sure why--

- I'm not gonna get into that.

- Into diet?

- No.
- Well, why not?

- If that's where you
wanna go with this,

I'm sorry, I'm not the person
that you should be talking to.

- And why is that though?

- If that's what
you wanna get into,

I'm not the person you
need to be talking to.

- [Kip] Who do we
talk to about diet?

- You can talk to
anybody you want.

- But that's interesting,
then why not recommend a diet?

- Because the data don't
exist to support it.

- But if I've see, we see
data that we looked up,

that supports it
with like the NIH,

in Europe, the European--

- We're done.

We're done, I'm sorry.

I'm not gonna get
into that argument.

- But why is there an argument?

- I'm not gonna get
into that argument.

- But why is there an argument?

It's just the talking about
in European Study of Diabetes

and other places that
have studies why--

- There are lots of studies.

- [Kip] Why is this
even an argument?

- There are lots of
studies in the literature,

many of which have
never been replicated

or frankly, you're wrong.

That's why we do
peer review, okay?

- The European Association
of Study of Diabetes

has been peer reviewed or--

- I don't know what
study you're referring to

and yeah, in the absence of
being able to see that study,

I'm not gonna comment.

- I could show it to you.

- I'm sorry, I don't
have the time for that.

- I just don't understand why

it's an argument though or okay.

That was interesting.

What he wanna talk about

was people living
longer with diabetes

but once he mentioned
eliminating diabetes
or prevention,

oh, whoa, now you
cross the line.

Prevention and cure, whoa,
whoa, let's not go there.

Not only did Dr. Ratner,
the chief medical officer

of the American
Diabetes Association

not wanna talk about
diet but the fact

that he had such an emotional
reaction to my question

made it feel, I was
digging into something

that he didn't want uncovered.

I had always thought
there was no prevention

for type I diabetes but then,

I did research and came
across countless studies

referencing the link
between exposure

to dairy at a young
age in type I diabetes.

- This is a food
made for baby cows.

Cow milk protein get in the
bloodstream and the body says,

"Hey, this is not supposed
to be in bloodstream."

It makes antibodies,
the cow milk protein,

which then attack the pancreas
and destroy the pancreas.

- [Kip] How is this
possible that ADA

wouldn't have this
forefront on their website?

Why wouldn't they be warning
all parents about this

even if there are
only a slight chance?

Why were they
recommending people

to actually eat these
foods linked to diabetes?

It seemed all of the
large health organizations

were encouraging people
to eat the very foods

linked to the diseases,

they're supposed to
be fighting against.

American Heart Association
promoting beef,

American Cancer Society
promoting processed meat,

pink ribbons on dairy products,

and bacon wrapped shrimp on
American Diabetes Association.

And then, it all came together.

What if?

And there it was.

The American
Diabetes Association

was taking money from Dannon,

one of the world's largest
dairy yogurt producers,

Kraft Foods, makers of
Velveeta processed cheese,

Oscar Mayer processed meats,

Lunchables processed
kids' meals,

and Bumble Bee Foods, makers
of processed canned meats.

American Cancer Society was
taking money from Tyson,

one of the world's
largest meat producers

and Yum brand, owner of Pizza
Hut, KFC, and Taco Bell.

Susan G. Komen was supposed
to be fighting breast cancer

was corporate
partnering with KFC,

Dietz & Watson processed
meats, and Yoplait yogurt.

And the American
Heart Association

was probably the most
disturbing of all.

Taking hundreds of
thousands of dollars

from the beef industry,
poultry, and dairy producers,

and millions from fast food

and processed food
manufacturers.

Every single one of
these organizations

was taking money from
meat and dairy companies

that are associated with the
causes of these diseases.

This would be like the
American Lung Association

taking money from
the tobacco industry.

I was sick of not
getting answers

so I went to the headquarters

of these organizations myself.

We have to speak
someone in person.

There's millions of people
dying from the foods

that they are recommending
people to eat.

I wanted to find out
why Susan G. Komen

accepted 35 millions
dollars from Yoplait

when their products can
increase a woman's chance

of dying from breast cancer 49%.

And asked American
Cancer Society

of taking money
from KFC and Tyson

what's the reason they
promote eating meat.

But everyone of
these organizations

declined to be interviewed.

- What's really sad is that
we cannot trust information

from these leading
health organizations

like the American
Heart Association,

the American
Diabetes Association,

because they are taking money
from the very industries

who are causing the problems

that they're supposed to
be helping to prevent.

- So, that makes
the truth something

that you are not gonna be
hearing as far as nutrition goes

from these organizations.

Well, that would be the
end of their funding,

that would be the
end of their jobs,

there would be lawsuits,
they would bring

the entire catastrophe
down upon their heads,

and they would essentially
disappear as organizations.

- So, one time I got invited
to a charity fundraiser

for the American
Diabetes Association.

I showed up and they
had a whole buffet

and there was all
just animal products.

I remember like a big
thing of barbecue chicken,

and I was, like I stormed out.

I said, "Serving chicken
at a diabetes event

"is like serving alcohol
in an AA meeting.

"It just doesn't make sense."

- [Kip] We had scheduled
a filming interview

with a prominent surgeon

but before we could get
inside the building,

the hospital's media
relations manager stopped us.

- [Lady In White Blouse]
Actually, I understand

that Dr. (bleeps) that
you could film here today

but unfortunately, that's
not gonna be able to happen.

I know that he advocates for
patients changing their diets

but the hospital makes
money off these surgeries

and the reality is he does too.

So, we can't do anything
that's gonna negatively

impact the hospital
so unfortunately,

you're not gonna be
able to film here today.

- [Kip] I was sickened
by how open she was

about the hospital
being more interested

in profits than people's health.

But it wasn't just this
hospital or these organizations,

even the US government
is involved too.

Every five years, the US
Department or Agriculture

creates dietary
guidelines for Americans.

The committee who
writes these guidelines

has been made up of individuals

who have received
money from McDonald's,

the National Dairy Council,
the American Meat Institute,

the National Dairy Board,

the National Livestock
and Meat Board,

the American Egg Board, Dannon,
candy and sugar companies,

Coca-Cola, and Anheuser,
just to name a few,

which means we're getting
our dietary recommendations

from the very industries
that are killing us.

- And when they, the
USDA, makes a pyramid

or a power plate every five
years for the American public,

they're gonna guarantee
that on that plate

are gonna be foods
which when consumed,

will result in means of
American's perishing.

- The USDA which is
supposed to be protecting us

has two missions, it's
supposed to protect us

and it's supposed to protect
the producer, and guess what?

When those two
come head to head,

they usually choose
the producer.

- [Kip] In internal documents
uncovered by Dr. Gregor,

the USDA admitted that eggs
cannot legally be called

nutritious, low-fat, part
of the balanced diet,

low calorie, healthful, healthy,

can't say it's good
for you, or even safe,

yet they still
promote these products

to the American people through
federal checkoff programs.

- If you ask somebody
if they've heard

the checkoff program, they'll
answer that they haven't,

although daily, they
are seeing the messaging

that these programs produce.

So, checkoff programs
are responsible

for the messages
that we see on TV,

on the internet, on bus
billboards, and magazines

that say things like, "Milk,
it does the body good"

or "Milk life," "Beef,
it's what's for dinner,"

"Pork, be inspired,"
"Incredible, edible egg."

- The dairy checkoff program,
be it 12 million dollars

to dominoes, to just market
cheese-heavy product.

And this is the USDA,
this is the government.

If you've seen those ads
for the Pizza Hut pizza,

the stuffed crust or
a pound of cheese,

those are all government
advertising schemes

for the industry.

How can we put more
cheese on beef,

how can we put more milk in
a coffee, things like that

to just drive
consumption of these

just unbelievably
unhealthful products.

So, McDonald's, for instance,

has six people staffed full-time

according to records we've found

who's salaries are paid for
by this government program

but funded by the producers
who are regulated by it.

And these six people sit there
at McDonald's headquarters

and just come up with ideas.

- Triple cheese decker McCheese

muffin stuffed
bacon cheese slider?

- With extra cheese?

- [All] Yes.

- You don't think of it
on a day-to-day basis

that these are
government programs.

Wendy's bacon
double cheeseburger,
government program.

The steak fajita at Dunkin'
Donuts, government program.

You would just never think
that this just pure garbage

from a food standpoint is coming

from a federally funded program.

That's one of the things
that makes checkoffs

so incredibly creepy is
that it is our government

telling us, "Eat more
beef, drink more milk,

"eat more cheese,
eat more pork."

One of the very effective
ways that the dairy industry

promotes its products
is to reach children

because kids are impressionable,

they're gonna be consumers
for their entire lives,

and you might as well get
'em while they're young.

So, dairy spends at
least 50 million dollars

promoting it's products
in public schools

throughout the
country with posters

with people with milk mustaches

and messages like, "Milk,
it does the body good,"

or "Milk life".

- Targeting young people
like the tobacco industry

had to keep replacing the
customers who are dying

with new customers.

Meat industry knows they
have to target young people,

that's why we have
these foods in schools

and marketing messages at
a younger and younger age

for kids to get hooked on
all the wrong kinds of foods.

So, there's all
kinds of parallels.

- School districts
where processed meats

are all over the place.

Maybe it's gonna be
bacon on the menu,

sausage, hotdogs,
or pepperoni pizza.

Any of those things
are processed meats

and those are pretty much
the worst of the worst

with a direct link
to colon cancer

and yet you have
everyday in schools,

meal items with processed meats.

- [Kip] If the surgeon
general puts label warnings

on tobacco because
of their cancer risk,

why aren't same
warning labels on meat?

- Based on the publicly
available data,

we know they spend at
least 557 million dollars

promoting their goods
through checkoff programs.

We know that they spend at
least 138 million dollars

lobbying congress.

We expect that they spend
a good deal more than that

in figures that simply
aren't publicly disclosed.

- [Kip] The industry's
lobbying power is so strong

that they can create laws
and push through legislation

that doesn't benefit
Americans in any way

such as Ag-gag laws that
criminalize whistle-blowing

or photographing abuses
by this industry.

Activists in the US can
be charged as terrorist

for disrupting the
profits of any business

that uses animals under the
Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act

to the even more ridiculous
ones like Cheeseburger Laws.

- A Cheeseburger Law
is a law that states

a plaintiff cannot
recover against

a manufacturer,
distributor, retailer

on the theory that the food
made the plaintiff obese

or caused an
obesity-related disease.

- Cheeseburger Law
is a direct response

to a problem that the
tobacco industry has had.

Big tobacco has paid
400 billion dollars

to state medicated programs.

Cheeseburger Law,
it's proponent say,

"We don't wanna see the
same kind of thing happen

"to the meat and
dairy industries."

The fact that these laws are
based on a model template

called the Commonsense
Consumption Act
is actually ironic

because what they're saying is,

you the consumer should
have a commonsense

to know that our
food is bad for you.

- I've often typify the
meat industry to people

who maybe don't understand
its power and reach

as it's got all the money of
big tobacco and big pharma

and has the personality of the
National Rifle Association.

So, any little
thing that comes up,

man, they beat it to death.

- [Kip] Robert Martin
wasn't exaggerating.

When the profits of the ag
industry were threatened

by ag alternative company,
Hampton Creek Foods,

extremely disturbing
emails were uncovered

by Ryan Shapiro
and Jeffrey Light.

- We uncovered documents
demonstrating the
American Ag Port

considers Hampton Creek, quote,
a crisis and a major threat

to the future of the
American ag industry.

The American Ag Board considers

a successful ag replacer
company to be such a threat

that they joke under
government email addresses

about murdering the CEO.

- [Kip] In internal
government emails

with the heads of
the ag industry,

they suggest having the
CEO of Hampton Creek,

Josh Tetric, murdered,

including a menacing email
from executive director

of the American Ag Board.

- The meat producers don't have
to pay for the heart disease

and the environmental
destruction

or any of the other
externalities as
economists call them

that their products cause.

- You know, then
there's the whole

pharmaceutical aspect of it

and the fact that
there's a very strong

pharmaceutical industry in lobby

that has a huge stake at
preserving the status quo.

- These chronic diseases,
these are the cash cows

of the pharmaceutical industry.

- We have a five billion
dollar stent industry.

Do they ever wanna
see that go away?

We've had 35 billion dollar
statin drug industry.

Do they ever wanna
see that go away?

- I'm talking about the
pharmaceutical industry

effectively controls
what doctors are told.

- Most research isn't
put into prevention,

it's put into the medication

that we might use for
that particular disease.

- I'm on two different high
blood pressure medicines,

six asthma-type medicines,
even after four years of shots,

and then another medicine to
help take care of side effects

from some of those medicines.

I'm on high level
antidepressants,

a couple of different pain
meds for my back and hips.

- I'm taking about 16 drugs

not counting the
insulin in the morning.

I take insulin morning,
insulin at night,

like 32 to 34 units of insulin.

Lantus to be exact.

Some of these meds
are for diabetes.

This is for pN, I have to
use this for my prostate,

and then I have to
use this for the heart

and I have to use this
for blood pressure.

And it's just on and
on and on and on.

The doctors are telling
me this is what I gotta do

for my whole life
and it's frustrating,

and it's very stressful.

I don't know how long
my liver is gonna last

taking all these stuff.

- Under conventional
medical treatment,

whether it be for
autoimmune disease,

or even conditions like high
blood pressure or diabetes,

you're told the you
have to take drugs

and not just for a week
or a month or a year,

you're told that you have
to take drugs forever.

You're guaranteed that if you
follow your doctor's advice,

you'll be sick forever,
you'll never get well.

That's the guarantee.

Because the strategies
are all about manipulating

the symptoms, not dealing
with the underlying cause.

- You'll come in
with that diagnosis.

You get a bunch of pills
that have nothing to do

with the disease causation
or you get this procedures

that have nothing to do
with disease causation.

- It's a deception to say,

"This pill will help you
unclog your arteries.

"This one will save
you from stroke."

No, it doesn't.

The people who take
the statins, et cetera,

they still get
their heart attacks,

they still get their strokes,

this is not reversed disease,

this does not make
plaque smaller.

This is a fun of
massive proportions.

- [Kip] In the US,
treating chronic these

such as heart disease,
cancer, and diabetes

is a 1.5 trillion
dollar industry.

That's the GDP equivalent

of the 10th richest
country in the world.

I went back and dug deeper

into the health
organizations funding

and there it was again.

These organizations were
accepting millions of dollars

from pharmaceutical companies

that are making
billions of dollars

from the very same diseases
these health groups

are supposedly trying to end.

It seemed like a major
conflict of interest

unless ending these diseases
isn't really the goal.

The pharmaceutical
industry spends more money

on lobbying than any
other single industry.

Just like animal agriculture,
they are so powerful,

they write their own laws

that have had activists
imprisoned to silence them.

- Government's embed with
anyone that goes in the money.

Just pharmaceutical industry

which is the animal
ag industries.

They are pumping the government
full of money and resources

and in return, the governments
giving them what they want,

subsidies, imprisoning
activists that go against them,

and I think it's quite
telling that these industries

are working so hard in
spending so much money

to criminalize people for
simply taking a picture,

for simply recording
what's going on inside

of these facilities and
making it known to the public.

They're behind walls.

They're underground.

They're in these
secret facilities that
no one knows about

but if they did, they would
be shocked and outraged

and I think people
would not want to think

that their pharmaceuticals,
that their food

are coming from these places

and that's why, I
think, it's such...

The Ag-gag laws
are what they are

is because they are
trying to silence people

into not speaking out and
not showing the truth.

- [Kip] I finally realized
how deep the occlusion

truly is between government
and these industries

and how dangerous it
could be to expose them.

These concerns
intensified after meeting

the USDA whistleblower who
revealed mad cow disease

in the US meat supplier.

- [Mad Cow Disease
Whistleblower] USDA operates

like the military
so when I got on TV,

right away you see set of memos

to all the veterinarians
and food inspectors.

"If anybody from the
media ever contacts you,

"do not talk to them,
refer to Washington, DC

"and we will talk to them."

So, right away
shut up everybody.

The American public are very,
very concerned about this,

what's going on with the USDA.

Here in the United States,

we have at least four
cases of mad cow disease

but I'm almost positive
there's more cases of that

that the government
is looking for.

- [Kip] So, what you're
saying is that there could be

already mad cow
disease in humans?

- Right, and I think a lot
of it was misdiagnosed.

The Alzheimer's or dementia

that takes several years
to see the progression

but to make it easier,

these doctors just sign off on
it as dementia or Alzheimer's

while they should've
taken a biopsy

of the brain to see if it's that

or is it actually
a prion disease

like Creutzfeldt-Jakob
disease or mad cow disease.

- [Kip] Do you think
it's safe to eat meat?

- I personally don't
think it's safe to eat it

because of the fact how the
line speeds are increasing

and also our inspectors are
not well-trained enough.

At the present time,
the ones we know

is going about 220 cows an hour.

That gives you about, somewhere
around four cows per minute

so that's 15 seconds per cow.

- [Kip] This dangerous
slaughter speeds means

that animal waste
ends up everywhere.

Testing shows 88% of pork chops

are contaminated
with fecal bacteria.

90% of ground beef and 95%
of chicken breasts sample

contain animal waste bacteria.

There is nothing clean
about eating this way

but it just isn't waste, it's
also pus-filled infections.

- [Mad Cow Disease
Whistleblower] You can see

there's a bump or some kind
of abcess underneath the hind.

Most of the time, when
the hind's pulled off,

either that will
open up the abcess

and the pus will come out

or if it's deep-seated
when the inspectors

are doing their work
or company employees,

they might stick their
knife into an abcess

and that explodes
all over the place.

- [Kip] I had heard enough.

I was utterly disgusted
by the corruption,

the greed, the disease, and
the abuse I was learning about.

The very animals we are killing

were killing us in the planet

but so many people
are even eating dairy

every day of their lives.

And we are so concerned
about getting enough protein.

Do we have to eat meat
to get complete protein?

- Oh my god, oh my god.

You want me to jump of
this building, don't you?

Well, first of all, all
protein is made by plants.

I'll state that
again for the record.

All protein is initially
made by plants, all of it,

and it is not necessary
to eat animal tissue

in order to get protein.

Only plants have the ability
to actually take nitrogen

from the air, break
those molecules apart,

and incorporate that nitrogen

into amino acids and
then make protein.

Any protein you
get from an animal

is simply recycled
plant protein.

- If you eat a diet that
was calorically adequate

and even things like
brown rice and broccoli

and you got enough of it.

You'd get enough both quantity
and quality of protein.

2,000 calories of
brown rice and broccoli

is gonna be about 80
grams of protein a day

including the
essential amino acids

that you need in order to
maintain optimum health.

- I mean, the grains
are loaded with protein.

Beans are loaded with protein.

Vegetables are
loaded with protein.

- You really want to get
your protein from plants

because plant proteins have
a much more beneficial effect

on our physiology.

- The funny thing about
protein is most Americans

get about twice the
amount they need.

Most Americans are getting less

than half the amount
of fiber they need

but the conversation tends
to always be about protein.

So, my mind, it's just this
magical marketing campaign

that protein has taken
on over are decades.

- The question is not
where to get your protein,

it's really where do
you get your fiber?

- I've never in my
professional career

seen a protein deficiency.

I've never seen someone come in,

eating normal
amounts of calories

and their protein deficient.

You just don't see that.

- So, human milk has the
lowest protein content ever

in any species ever tested.

That's the fluid that's
been designed by evolution

over millions of years.

That's like the perfect food
for human babies, right?

Perfect food, lowest protein
content any other mammal.

So, it gives a sense of
protein requirements for--

(Kip mumbles)

Anything.

- [Kip] Like unit.

- Than rat milk, ape milk--
- Really?

- Donkey milk, any milk
that's ever been tested.

- You hear this a
lot in body builders.

Well, I need a chicken or
I need fish to be strong,

to build muscle tissue.

That is utter nonsense.

The largest, strongest
terrestrial animals
on the planet

are all herbivores.

The biggest, strongest
animals are all herbivores.

- When we bring in people
and they're on meaty diets

and we transition them
to a plant-based diet,

we always track
what their eating.

Their vitamin intake goes up.

Their nutrition overall
goes up dramatically better

and these same people
might worry in advance,

"Will I get the
nutrition that I need

"on a plant-based diet?"

The fact is, you're not getting

the nutrition you need
on a meat-based diet

and you're gonna
get dramatically

better nutrition on
a plant-based diet.

- For an average-sized
guy like myself,

I need about 56 grams of
protein a day, that's optimum.

Probably, I really need
30 to 40 grams a day.

Diets are really
high on these protein

create diabetes, create
heart disease, create cancer,

create the diseases that I'm
treating on a daily basis.

- [Kip] But this is the opposite

of all the high
protein diet fads say.

- The food you eat
determines the bacteria

that live in your gut.

While you eat animal
flesh every day,

you are summoning up
bacteria that eat carnitine

and those bacteria will
turn that carnitine

into a molecule
called trimethylamine.

Your liver then turns that
into trimethylamine oxide.

That's a molecule from hell.

That molecule drives cholesterol
into the artery walls

and the people who are
consuming this flesh-based diet

are tripping to
plaque building up.

They may lose weight on
this diet and that's good

but what's happening inside
your arteries paleo friends?

What's happening is that
plaque is building up

and these are folks who
drop dead at the gym at 39.

Boo, he was lean and
he looked really good

but where is that
cholesterol going?

It's going to your artery walls.

So, I believe in this paleo
folks are setting themselves up

for an epidemic of clogged
arteries, colon cancers,

autoimmune diseases, this
is not a healthy diet.

We are not carnivorous apes.

- [Kip] Humans' closest
living relatives are chimps

who get 97% of their
calories from plants

and the remaining 3%
mostly from insects.

Comparing the anatomy of
true omnivores like bears

who eat both meat and plants
to frugivores like primates

who eat almost
exclusively plants,

the differences
are pretty clear.

Frugivore teeth have flat
molars for chewing plants

where omnivore
teeth are serrated

for stabbing and tearing flesh.

Frugivore jaws can move forward

and back and side to side.

Omnivore jaws cannot.

Omnivores have much
stronger stomach acid

for digesting meat

compared to less acidic
stomach acid of frugivores.

The intestines of frugivores
is nine times their body length

compared to three
times for omnivores.

This is because meat will
putrify in the gut less

as it moved through it quickly.

If humans were indeed true
omnivores, we would need

to change our physiology
and appearance quite a lot

but we fit every
requirement of a frugivore.

We may behave like omnivores

but anatomically,
we're frugivores.

- Human beings, unlike
bears and raccoons

and to some extent dogs,

don't have that mixed
anatomy and physiology

that you see in
the true omnivores

and thus, we are
not true omnivores.

In humans, the canines
have become really small

and rounded and
actually function like
accessory incisors.

They're utterly
useless for ripping

and tearing anything
other than the envelope.

So, the idea that the mere
presence of the canine

somehow means that
we're supposed to
eat meat, it's silly.

- [Kip] He was right.

I always tell my
canines were from me

but what kind of animal
could I actually kill

and eat raw with
these tiny teeth?

The thought alone
was disgusting.

- I mean everybody
loves a smoothie

made with fruit and
even some vegetables

but if you think
about putting a fish

or a piece of beef in the
blender and grinding it up.

The thought is
absolutely repulsive.

- [Kip] All these
diseases I'd learned about

were from eating a diet our
body wasn't designed for.

What would happen if we
started eating a diet

our body actually
was designed for?

- The data is crystal clear

that you can stop and
reverse heart disease

with plant-based diets.

Scientifically shown, I've
seen in my own patients.

- People who adopt
low-fat plant-based diets

can actually reverse
their heart disease

and that literally means
watching the plaques

start to go away, something
they didn't think could happen.

- My experience with patients is

and the studies show
that when people adopt

the fully plant-based diet,
their cholesterol levels

plummet within a few days

and if you do blood tests
in a couple of weeks,

you'll see dramatic
improvements.

- Yes, your numbers
are gonna look great

within a week or two.

Your cholesterol can
come crashing down.

In fact, if you're
on medications,

your doctor may have to pull off

your blood pressure medications

so your blood pressure
don't drop too low

because it can work too good.

The side effect is not
having to take drugs.

- [Kip] In a groundbreaking
study published by Dr. Esselstyn

following patients suffering
from cardiovascular disease,

99.4% were able to avoid
major cardiac events

by going plant-based.

- Because it's not
just heart disease.

It's hypertension, it's
diabetes, it's strokes,

it's heart attacks, it's several
of the autoimmune diseases,

lupus, asthma,
GERD, osteoporosis.

I mean, there's a
multitude of diseases.

Even rheumatoid arthritis.

It's gonna be so dramatic.

When you see these poor souls

who are just absolutely crippled

with rheumatoid
arthritis go plant-based,

then they come off
their medication.

- I wanted to follow
up with Jane Chapman

who had been suffering
if severe osteoarthritis,

and I could not believe what
I saw after only a few weeks

of fasting and
changing her diet.

- So amazing to
see you like this--

- I know. (laughs)
- Only a few weeks later.

- I know, from going
from the walker,

needing wheelchair
assistance at the airport

to strolling down the street,

enjoying the fresh air
and the sunshine...

Two weeks is all it took, two
weeks to get off all the meds

and start to feel
the inflammation

just drained out of the body

where the movement
was much easier,

just a lot of healing
occurred very rapidly

just by doing the right
things for your body.

- When you're treating
diseases with drugs,

there's one drug you
take for cholesterol,

a different class of drugs to
take for high blood pressure,

different class of drugs
you take for diabetes,

but with diet, a
plant-based diet,

affects all these diseases,
one diet rules them all.

- [Kip] The impacts
of eating this way

go far beyond ourselves.

By getting rid of
heart disease alone,

we would save up to 48
trillion dollars in the USA,

three times the US GDP.

- Conditions like
high blood pressure,

you don't have to take the
drugs for rest of your life

and be sick forever.

What you can do is live in
such a way that it gives

the body a chance
to heal itself.

We took 174 consecutive patients
with high blood pressure

and 174 people
were able to lower

their blood pressure enough

to eliminate the
need for medication.

- For inflammatory bowel
disease like Crohn's,

the best remission
rates ever achieved

through plant-based diet,
MS, multiple sclerosis.

The best results ever
achieved compared

to any medical-surgical,
any kind of intervention,

was a plant-based diet.

- You can see that with
every sequential reduction

in animal products,
people live longer,

they have less heart disease,
they have less cancer,

they have less diabetes.

- You can actually
take human cancer cells

and put 'em in a Petri dish,

you can drip the blood
of those eating vegan,

get about 72% suppression

in human prostate cancer
cell growth in vitro.

They want to try this again
with women in breast cancer,

said, "Let's see what a
plant-based diet can do."

After just two weeks,
their bodies cleaned up.

You drip their blood on the
same carpet of cancer cells,

you can clear off
the whole plate.

This is after just two
weeks eating healthy

which raised the question,

what kind of blood do
we want in our bodies?

- My background is in industrial
and systems engineering

and that was my career
path for a long time

until I had thyroid cancer

and everything
changed from there.

I decided that I wanted
to try alternative methods

and treatments rather
than have surgery

and have my thyroid removed

which meant I'd be
on medication forever

and didn't want that.

I just started reading
into how plant-based diet

can heal the body and it has
worked for so many people.

So, I immediately just switched

to a completely whole
food plant-based diet.

After a year, the cancer
was completely gone

and my thyroid had
shrunk to normal size

and I was completely
free of that.

- [Kip] This was
tough to believe.

Couldn't this all just be
from eating healthier though

like no sugar?

Turns out, Dr. Walter
Kempner from Duke University

back in the 1940's
was reversing some

of our worst killer
diseases with diet alone

and the diet he was using

was not always
strictly plant-based

but it was made up of white
rice, fruit, and table sugar.

- And he was reversing diabetes,

he was reversing
malignant hypertension,

reversing heart disease,
the diabetic complications,

reversing diabetic blindness.

So, these people basically
had death sentences,

went to him, and were
given basically sugar.

You know, this horrible diet

but it was strictly plant-based.

- [Kip] If this
information had been around

since the 1940's, why don't
all doctors know this?

- We're not taught
about the power

of food in medical school.

No one is taught that
the changes that we make

with our diet are probably
the single most powerful thing

we can do to
determine our destiny.

It trumps our genetics.

- Why isn't your
doctor telling this?

Odds are your doctor never
learned any of these.

In fact, there is even
a bill introduced,

just mandating physicians

to get seven hours
of nutrition training

every couple of years just
kinda stay on top of it

and who came out against that?

The California
Medical Association.

Even the family
physicians, the surgeons,

all the mainstream medical
groups came out opposed.

- If seven hours, that's a lot.

Even if it's over
one for your period.

- So, they're not just neutral

but they actually actively
opposing nutrition education.

- Ironically, when patients
come to doctors with questions,

they assume that the doctor
knows something about nutrition

and so, it's kind of a
double whammy that doctors

haven't been taught
much about nutrition.

- [Kip] Why don't we hear
about this from dieticians

where nutrition is
their entire specialty?

Turns out, the
American Nutrition and
Dietetics Association

puts out a nutrition
facts sheets

written by the
industries themselves.

The industries pay
$20,000 per fact sheet

and explicitly take
part in writing them.

So, you can learn about
eggs from the egg industry.

You can learn about lamb
from the lamb industry.

This would be like learning
about the benefits of smoking

from the tobacco industry.

- When people are eating meat,

I think of it as a
bit like smoking.

It's sort of Russian Roulette.

You may not get diabetes

but your chances of getting
diabetes, about one in three.

You may not get cancer
but your chances

if you're a man, about one in
two, a woman, one in three.

Your chances of gaining
weight, two out of three.

It's not all diet
but most of it is.

The best thing that
you can do to make sure

that you empty those
bullets out of the chamber

and not taking risk
with your health,

is to get the animal
products out of your diet

and eat healthy foods.

- I came to TrueNorth to
help me with my asthma

and to lose a little
weight and it's amazing,

just in two weeks
of changing my diet,

don't have to take
any asthma medication,

no anti-depressants,
no pain medication,

no heart medication, nothing,
no medications at all.

And it's really,
it's just incredible.

I was taking Oxy
and Advil and...

I was taking 800 milligrams
of Motrin three times a day

just to get through the day

because I was in so much pain.

And now, nothing.

- Wow.
- Nothing at all.

- Two weeks?

- Two weeks, 14 days.

- So, you're taking
all that medication,

you're completely off?

- Completely off everything.

It's just been so
frustrating to me

because I went to so many
different doctors for help

and I tried so many
different medications

to help me with my
asthma and nothing helped

and I was stuck on the couch
for the last 10 months,

unable to breathe, and
now, in two weeks time,

14 days, I'm off my medication.

And I can breathe and I
feel good, and I can walk.

My life has changed
and I took two weeks

of a whole plant-based diet.

- [Kip] That's incredible.

- Yeah.

- That was incredible.

- (laughs) It really is.
- That sounds amazing.

- I know, it really is.

I feel so blessed and so
good and just so happy

to be doing this and I'm hoping

that I can be a role
model for other people

and not be pushy about it

because everyone's gonna
do it in their own time.

But think on my time is now.

- [Kip] That's incredible.

- Thanks, thanks.

- [Kip] As powerful
as Amy's story was,

I knew for some,
eating 100% plant-based

would still seem extreme.

- I think, there's the
sense that everything's okay

in moderation, right?

But we haven't seen
that moderation works.

There really isn't
a study that shows

that by eating meat
and eggs in moderation,

you can actually turn
your heart disease around

and get better.

- [Kip] But I know people
who have given up meat

and they felt sick.

- It's unlikely that
anybody's symptoms

are caused by a dead
decaying flesh deficiency.

The lack of highly processed
animal food products

in the diet is not
gonna be associated

with the causal factor
about why there is that.

There is gonna be a reason
why they're not feeling well

but that's not gonna
be one of them.

- So, I've had people go
vegan and they come back to me

and they're like,
"I'm hypothyroid

"and my doctor says
I'm hypothyroid

"because plant-based diet
makes you hypothyroid."

I'm like, so, what is
your doctor tell all

his meat-eaters that
are hypothyroid?

- [Kip] What was in
animal flesh or dairy

that you can't get
in plant-based?

- Cholesterol, heterocyclic
amines, E-coli.

You know, if you think about it,

there is nothing in
an animal-based diet

that you can't get in the
healthier form somewhere else.

- I think, only other
vitamin is vitamin B12,

it's not made by plants,
not made by animals either,

made by a little microbes
that blanket the earth.

Because the way we live
in unsanitized world,

unless you're eating
bacteria-contaminated foods,

we need to get a source
of B12 from somewhere,

so, the healthiest,
cheapest, safest source

is getting vitamin
B12 fortified food

or vitamin B12 supplement,

not to get it from
meat and dairy.

- [Kip] What about people
who say they have to eat meat

for their blood
type or their genes?

- It's like, "I need meat
because I'm a Capricorn,"

"I need meat 'cause I
have an A plus blood."

It's like, what do you say?

No one has to eat meat.

There's not vitamin,
mineral, nutrient

that you can't get from
non-animal sources.

- Valentine's Day, I've
decided to go vegan

and give up all
meat, which was never

in my thoughts in a
while, million years,

but I've heard so much success
from people that are vegan.

So, I gave up all animal
product whatsoever,

I've lost 29 pounds, I've been
able to cut my med in half.

I've been able to cut
my insulin in half

and now, I'm going for the moon.

I'm gonna go cut it all out.

In the last six weeks, we've
just had three grandchildren

and my ugly face
is gonna be around

to see them graduate from
high school and college.

I'm gonna be here.

- My mission is to
let everybody know

you do not have to suffer
from diabetes and cancer,

and heart disease because
someone in your family had it

or because the doctors
are telling you,

this is what's gonna happen.

You can take charge
of your health

and have a positive
outcome just like I did.

The reason I'm so
committed to this is...

My grandmother had diabetes,

and I didn't know what I know
now about healing the body

and if I did, I feel
like she could've lived

at least a few years longer.

So, it's in her honor

that I do what I do

'cause I can save someone
else's grandmother,

aunt, uncle, father
from that, you know.

So, (sighs)

so, I'm excited about getting
the message out there.

- [Kip] There's a common belief

that eating plant-based
is expensive.

- Not at all.

It can be done in a
very inexpensive way

where you buy foods
that are in season

and you shop in the bulk bins
and that saves a lot of money.

You can eliminate a
lot of your expenses

on your grocery bill by
not buying meat and dairy

because these things
are expensive.

Our meal plan for
a family of four

is $25 per person in the family.

- 20.64 is your total.

- [Kip] 20.64, whoa!

That's her entire week of food.

- [Cashier] Really?

- [Kip] An exploding
movement of elite athletes

are utilizing vegan
diets to heal injuries,

speed recovery times and
enhance their performance.

- Before I was vegan,

I was only benchpressing
315 like five times.

Then, after going vegan,

I was doing 400, 425, 465.

And I was like, oh my
god, this is amazing.

I'm vegan and I'm
benchpressing 465 pounds.

This is ridiculous.

And as soon as I went vegan,

tendonitis started disappearing.

My strength in my right
arm start coming back.

High blood pressure
was going down.

You can't be strong and
be dying on the hindsight,

that's not strong, that's
weak, that's really weak

because you look big and
strong in the outside,

yeah, big man, no, but your
heart's crying for help.

On the inside, you're dying.

- I'm a professional
parkour athlete,

two-time world
freerunning champion.

More recently, I got
into Ninja Warrior

where I'm captain of Team Europe

as we won USA versus the world.

For something like Ninja Warrior
and parkour specifically,

you really need to have good
strength to body weight ratio.

So, I was carrying massive,
I really didn't need

and when I went vegan,
I lost 15, 20 pounds,

I was more agile, I
was more efficient,

and more stamina in my body,

just that extra bit of pop
that I didn't have before,

it just gave that
extra strength.

This is a very
vibrant way to live.

It can enhance
you as an athlete.

For me, 100% better
athlete than I was before.

It unlocks a whole new
chapter of my training.

The science is that,
the health is that

the athletes, they're
proving that you don't need

to eat dead animals to
be strong to be healthy.

- I started working out
when I was 47 years old.

All that muscles you
see, I gained as vegan,

I gained 15 pounds of
muscles on my body.

Eating all plant-based
vegan foods.

All the aches and pains in
my body, it just went away

because I'm not ingesting
so many inflamed foods,

the acidic foods that
animal products are.

Gorillas, rhinos, and elephants,

they all get their muscles and
strength from eating plants.

That's what I do.

- I travel all around
the world for my surfing

and I've always been
able to eat vegan.

I feel like if you
want something,

then you can make it happen.

I just don't make any excuses.

I would never not be vegan now
that I know all the benefits

and now that I know how
it feels to be vegan.

- Every aspect of my
life has been improved

by adopting this lifestyle.

I feel better, I perform
better athletically,

I sleep better, my energy
with my kids is better,

my focus at work is better,
everything is better.

My skin cleared
up, cut myself trim

for nine years now doing this.

All I can tell
you is that I felt

and I continue to feel better
than I ever felt before.

My friend, Jason Lester
and I were the first people

to do this challenge
called EPIC5

which entail doing five ironmans

on five Hawaiian
islands in our group.

An ironman is a 2.4-mile swim

followed by 112-mile bike,

and then running a marathon,
26.2 miles after that.

So, we did five
of those in a row

on five different islands
and in little under a week.

- Yeah, you almost die?

- Yeah, die.

- So, I guess the
famous question,

where did you get your
protein? (mumbles)

- (laughs) From plants.

- [Kip] Like so many people,
I was looking for excuses

not to change my diet
but once I finally did,

I felt liberated.

Within days, I could feel the
blood running through my veins

with a new vitality.

Within weeks, I felt
a transformation

throughout my entire
body and mind.

Not only could I survive on a
purely plant-based vegan diet,

I could thrive, I felt amazing.

I competed my first
marathon in six years

training half the amount

and beat my personal
record by 23 minutes.

Less than a month later, I
did my first full ironman.

Although I could
possibly get away

with eating a little
bit of meat and dairy

without ill effects
to my personal health,

I could no longer willingly
support an industry

I knew was causing so much
suffering to communities,

families, and all
life on the planet.

A whole new world opened
up, I felt whole again,

connected to a greater
sense of what true health is

and where true health
doesn't end with me

but begins with us.

- If people adopted
a plant-based diet,

the changes we would see
in our individual health,

in our national
health situation,

and in this physical
environmental world we live in

would be so profound.

- I mean, today, you can say,

"I'm not gonna eat
that stuff anymore.

"It's one thing that I
can do myself personally

"to make a difference."

- It will give you a
greater sense of well-being

and happiness when
you know that one,

you're not destroying
your health

every time you sit down to eat,

you're not promoting cruelty,

and you're not
damaging the Earth.

- I don't want my gains
to be at the detriment

of the planet of other things

and yet, I'm not
weaker, I'm stronger.

That's the beauty of it.

When you all twist and
when you make choices

for the great good of
others, it comes around,

benefits as well,
benefits us all.

- Studies show that
we cannot only survive

but we can thrive.

- I just feel this is
a great way to live.

Not harm the other beings

when we can be
healthy and happier.

I love it, it's a great life.

- I never thought that I could
feel this good at this age

and I just want everybody
to feel this way.

I feel like a 20-year-old,
I'm almost 50.

- Nothing tastes as good as
health, it feels basically.

- And so, the choices that
we make every single day,

day in and day out
around our food

has the capacity to bring us
true health, optimal wellness,

not just individually
but collectively

as species and for our planet.

- We're not gonna live forever

but while we are alive,
we can live well.

And, for me, as a doctor,
that's what I wanna see.

- Where there's a
will, there is a way,

and I believe that.

(uplifting Mexican guitar music)

(singing in foreign language)