All language subtitles for What.The.Health.2017.1080p.WEBRip.x264-STRIFE

Worldwide, we're looking at
approximately 315 million
people with diabetes.

There's no 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 ten 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 correlation
for diet and diabetes?

I'm not gonna get into that.

- Into diet?
- No.

[Latin music playing]

My name's 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 have a family history
of diabetes,

heart disease and cancer.

My dad had his first heart
bypass at 49, his second
at 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's symptoms checker
was essentially

my browser's home page.

Even in my teens
I took Metamucil every day
and a daily aspirin.

I read all the latest
self-diagnosis books,

I ate every multivitamin
I could get my hands on,

and I was obsessed with
bodily functions.

I followed all the large
health organizations'

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...

-[tires screeching]
-The World Health
Organization this morning

has classified processed
meat such as bacon
and sausage as carcinogenic,

directly involved in
causing cancer in humans.

[male anchor] 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
had looked at over

800 studies from
ten different countries,

finding a direct link to
consuming processed meat
and 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 had
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 One carcinogen,

the same group as cigarettes,
asbestos and plutonium,

and classifies red meat
as a Group Two carcinogen.

Was this like I had
essentially been smoking
my entire childhood?

If processed meats are labeled
the same as cigarettes,

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

I thought this
was new information,

but, many of these studies
have 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 this information
was featured on
their home page.

But, even more shocking,
on their Eat Healthy page,

they actually encouraged
eating Group One
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.

[man] Thanks for calling your
American Cancer Society.
My name is Sam,

I'm a cancer information
specialist. How may I
help you today?

Yeah, 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 One carcinogen?

Which is the same class as
tobacco smoking, asbestos
and plutonium.

This would be like
a lung organization

having a How to Roll
Your Own Cigarette section
on their website.

It's kinda the same thing.

[Sam] Well,
let me just place you
on a brief hold because...

[Kip] 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've
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 an 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 into my phone
and it turns out last night,

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

the correlation between
diet and cancer,

she said she could no
longer do the interview.

[Kip] After repeated emails
asking why she was declining

my interview to simply
talk about diet and cancer,

she stopped
responding altogether.

Why would an American Cancer
Society rep not want to
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 trusty 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 ten 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
answers in three words:

It's the food!

It's what
the 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 to do,
you are just like

out of options
and you don't
know what to do.

You're taking medicines.
You listen to this doctor.

And the cardiologist
says take this.

And the endocrinologist
says take that.

And your general practitioner
doctor says...

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

It's a real challenging thing
and it is 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 and diabetes.

I went to speak
with premier physician,
diabetes expert

and researcher,
Dr. Neal Barnard.

[Kip] What role does sugar
play in causing diabetes?

Driving me crazy.

Diabetes is not and never
was caused be 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 that
they're building up
tiny particles of fat

that's 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 have never heard
that meat was associated
with causing diabetes.

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

Renowned weight loss
bariatric surgeon

Dr. Garth Davis,
though, agreed.

Everyone thinks that
you get diabetic
because of carbs.

They did a huge study in that
EPIC study 500,000 people,

carbs consumption
was inversely related
with diabetes.

In other words, the
more carbs someone ate,
the less diabetes they had.

But, meat was
strongly correlated.

Get that aha moment.
The starch is, 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 your fat.

Your body can't turn
those carbs into fat

unless you're really
overdoing the calories.

And obesity,
it's a death sentence.

You're at much higher
risk of getting cancer,

you're almost certainly
gonna get diabetes.

No one wants the 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.

And that's the part that
leads to the diabetes,

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

[Davis] 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.

And so this focus on sugar
has taken all the focus
off meat, dairy,

eggs, pork, turkey, chicken.

People need to understand.
If they're child gets diabetes,

you've just taken 19
years off their lifespan.

We're talking life and death.

[Kip] 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 were making,

so I did some searching
on my own.

Harvard researchers looked
at nine prospective studies

finding that just
one serving of
processed meat per day

increased risk of developing
diabetes by 51 percent.

The link between eating
meat and developing
diabetes became undeniable.

But, when I went
on a 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 their recipes for
healthy living, they had
bacon-wrapped shrimp.

What the health?

All right, sent an email to
American Diabetes Association,

see if they'll 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's Amy Resnic,
and I'm from
Swampscott, Massachusetts,

a 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,

there was a scale
of one to three,

one being low for cardiac event,

three being high
for cardiac event.

And my number was 10.82.

What does that mean?

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.

I take this for pain.

Oxycodone for pain.

And lorazepam for stress.

Cyclobenzaprine for
a 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 use it during 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 still tired.

I can't breathe.

And I know I need to make
a change for my health.

Or, else I'm 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, its contribution to
heart disease is huge,

and it is pervasive.

All this expensive imaging,

procedures, bypasses,
medication.

None of which has one
solitary single thing to do

with the causation
of the illness,

so you dive a completely benign,

food borne illness
that never had
its causation treated.

When we eat these kind of
dead meat bacteria toxins,

within minutes, you get
this burst of inflammation

within your system,
such that you basically
paralyze your arteries,

you get this stiffening of
the arteries, their inability
to relax normally in half.

So, 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 it
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 suffer dementia

due to their
tiny blood vessels
in their brain clogging up

and their nerve cells
being shortchanged of
oxygenated blood.

And guess where that blood
vessel dementia comes from,

those little tiny
arteries are clogging up

from that steady
stream of bad
cholesterol, et cetera.

It's really quite clear.

Both from
the standpoint of cancer

and the standpoint of
cardiovascular disease

that animal protein
plays an enormous role.

[Kip]
Is chicken better?

It's a question of whether
you wanna be shot or, hung.

The flesh food that I would
eliminate from the American
diet would be poultry,

would be turkey and chicken.

A 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 adults is chicken.

It can be labeled all natural
chicken but, be injected
with 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,

but, we found them in every
single chicken sample
that we took.

If somebody brings their
family in, and 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,

increase their risk
of the disease
progressing four times.

The number one dietary
source in America

of cholesterol is chicken
because of the
volume of chicken.

Chicken's become
grilled chicken
and organic chicken.

It's machismo.

But it has nearly as
much cholesterol per gram
as red beef.

So, just on sheer volume,
it's the number one source.

You got eggs being close behind.

[Kip] I never really
thought about eggs much.

I just thought of them
as a standard part
of a 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.

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 bloodstream,
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
the yolk of the egg.

[Kip] But I thought
cholesterol and saturated fat
wasn't an issue anymore.

All these saturated fat
studies that have come out,

trying to vindicate
saturated fat is a campaign
by the dairy industry,

wherein the 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 do 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 funds 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 a 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,

processing chemicals,
this 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.

There's 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 Americans that
smoking was healthy.

They just had
to introduce doubt.
Then they would win.

If there's just
enough controversy,

people kind of throw up
their hands, "I don't know
what to eat."

Confusion is their game.

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
led to diabetes,

I 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
that they've carried on

into their adulthood,
passed onto 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,

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

And what determines
whether it manifests or not

may be 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.

[Kip] I had 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
our 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 One carcinogens
on their site.

Meat loaf, pork loin, steak

on your recipe list,
are you kidding me?

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

On your website, we noticed
Heart-Healthy Recipes

and we were kind of
bewildered by why

there was a bunch of
recipes on, a whole section
on beef, beef recipes.

And there was also
a section on egg recipes

when there's such a strong link
between beef, red meat
and heart disease.

I honestly don't know
'cause I don't do that,
I guess.

That's not what what I do.

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 dedicated mission
to reduce heart disease

and to improve patients' lives.

And if you look
at the incidents
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.

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 have tuna in water

that'll be almost less
than a glass of milk,

to salmon or, tilapia

which is higher
than a pork chop.

[Goldhamer] If you look
objectively at fish,

what you find is
they've 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 getting too much
mercury can kill you.

Fish are eaten by bigger fish
who are eaten by bigger fish,

and these pesticides or,
herbicides bioaccumulate
in the fish flesh

and these big fish, including
the salmon, which people
think is the 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 got to feed them
anti-fungals, antibiotics,

and these substances accumulate
in the fish flesh as well.

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

but I had never thought
about the environmental
pollutants affecting food.

[Ewall] 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.

But, most of your exposure,
93 percent of it,

comes from eating meat
and dairy products

because it climbs up
in the food chain
so effectively.

So, you can
get exposed to them
by living near these

incinerators and breathing it,
but, it will take you 14 years

to breathe in as much
Dioxin as a cow will

ingest by eating
the grass in one day.

And that Dioxin will
accumulate in its fat,

which includes the milk
and the meat and anyone
eating meat or dairy products

is gonna get
that dose of Dioxin.

So, it climbs up
the food chain
in 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 breast milk.

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 go to that infant.

Pregnant women are told,
"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,

develop mental 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 your pregnant?"

Who do you think is
gonna get the chemicals
that are in that?

[Snyder] 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 farm fields

and water bodies, and then
they don't skip over the
organic fields.

And 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
learned about bioaccumulation
made dairy terrifying.

Especially considering
how much cheese
I ate in my life.

[Goldhamer]
Cheese is an amazing product
when you think about it.

It's probably one
of the single best foods
in 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 have a highly processed
food product,

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

but, you put
a lot of salt into it.

There's a strong link
between dairy foods
and autoimmune diseases.

And so that can show
itself up as excessive
production of mucus

and exacerbation
of asthma in kids
who are prone to that

and even adults,
and also, there's an
association between

dairy foods
and multiple sclerosis
and type one diabetes,

which is an autoimmune
disease, and other
rheumatologic problems.

Cow's milk is
baby calf growth fluid.

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.

That's the normal
state of affairs.

Why would your body create
this enzyme, 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
is going to make them ill.

Ultimately,
what that boils down to

is the government
is telling 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.

That's a form of
institutionalized racism.

Yeah, milk is a risky
food for human consumption.

As a pediatrician,
I see 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 think, "Well, no,
I want hormone-free,

not injected with
bovine growth hormone."

But milk is this hormonal fluid,

so it's just 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,
that's an oxymoron.

Organic dairy has just
as much saturated fat

and cholesterol and
galactose, 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.

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 you wouldn't want
too much pus and then
it'd be like pure pus,

people might object.

In fact,
you could think of cheese

as kind of coagulated
cow pus, if you would.

[Kip] But, I was always told
that we need milk
for strong bones.

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

I 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's the grinding of the joints.

My stability is scary.

I hold on to the walls
when 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 who
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

or 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] 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 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 was due to genes,

but, only five to 10% of
cancer is actually genetic.

Any cancer is caused
by 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 one,

it's this cancer-promoting
growth hormone involved
in every stage of cancer cell

growth and spread
and metastases.

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 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?

[woman]
Thanks for calling
Susan G. Komen,

this is Jocelyn,
how may I help you?

Yes, so we're wondering why

you don't have a huge
warning about the dangers

of consuming dairy
on 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%.

I was wondering why it's
not on your website.

[woman] 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.

They didn't want to 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 want to 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 cheese-aholic

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,

and particularly in cheese,
it breaks apart
in the human digestion

to create what are called
casopmorphins.

Casein-derived,
morphine-like compounds
that go to the brain

and they attach to
the very 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,

may play a role in autism.
This is one of the reasons why

we don't want infants
drinking milk from cows.

[Kip] Human breast milk
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 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 the meat,

other antimicrobials
are found in meat.

There has been ractopamine
found in meat, there has been
hormones found in meat,

so right there,
you're talking about
four different drugs

that could be in
the same piece of meat.

The pharmaceutical company
is 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 the impacts

of these drugs are on animals.

When 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 claimed
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
posed to consuming them.

You have this 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,

that 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 have 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 in New York.

If we had some terrorist
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
20,000 people dying a year.

That's seven 9/11s 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!

You know,
the World Health Organization

has said we're nearing
a post-antibiotic era
in medicine.

You'll be at risk
in minor surgeries
o have a fatal infection.

You'll be at risk going to
the dentist if you have
a tooth extracted.

Or, it'll 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

a new flu virus that can
come out into the community.

If you lived near
a swine spray field,

not even the CAFO but
the waste disposal field,

you are three times
more likely to have
a 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 an
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
a hundred million humans.

This is the equivalent of the
entire US Eastern Seaboard

flushing their toilets
into North Carolina.

But, there is
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 into giant waste pits,

which leech into rivers and
streams and is pumped out
unfiltered onto 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,
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 of the bacteria,

and I have a pacemaker,
which is sick sinus syndrome.

But, you know, mostly
everybody in this neighborhood

got asthma or, either 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 lymph nodes.

Now see if you live here
and saw the way they do,

we don't eat no pork.

Well, I don't eat bacon because
I know where it come from.

When they die,
they go into a box,

and they decompose because
they swell from the heat.

A truck come and pick 'em up,

take 'em to the processing
plant in Rose Hill,

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

If I come out this door,

if he's spraying there,
it's gonna come in my face.

It hits you right in the face.

Smell like something that you
have never smelled before.

Smell worse than a dead body.

That's the family graveyard.

And I have
my grandmother out there,
my sisters, my brothers.

When we go to a funeral,
he use the spray.

- During the funeral?
- During the funeral, yes.

During the funeral.
Yeah, they spray.

And when the people come,
everybody be
closing their nose up

saying how it stink.

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

Do you think he does it on
purpose?

I think so.

'Cause he just sprays Sunday.
He always sprays Sunday.

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

it's in a black area
or the Hispanic area.

It's either or.

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

Yes, yes, I do.

Yes, I do.

There have been times
in the past that I have

gotten ready on a Sunday
and gotten ready
to go to church

and come out
and the smell was so strong

that I had to go back
and regroup because

it had got in my clothes,
and I just couldn't
go to church

smelling like hogs, you know,
I just couldn't do it,

so I don't think
the government cares.

They care more about

corporations than they
do peoples, individuals.

They're gonna put
more chickens in this state.

This is the feces and
urine capital of the world

right here in North Carolina,
my state.

Look, there's a
blue-line stream right here

comes right across into my
property almost and the
Contentnea Creek right there.

I've seen that blue-line
stream now filled 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 them,
they'll let the folks starve.

'Cause if you want to feed the
world, you can feed the world
with more corn,

using corn and wheat
and stuff like that
than you can meat.

Meat is a luxury item.

When we are doing things
that hurt other people,
we are wrong.

But, a lot of good people
will sit there and eat bacon

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

[Kip] I woke up
the next morning to find

the Burnt 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 under good conscience

support an industry that
I knew was 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 is a 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 were 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 ADA recommended diet
that included meat and dairy.

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 two diabetes,
it's unclear.

We can't prevent type two
diabetes in everybody.

We were doing 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's
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...

Do 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
that you consider,

that plan compared to
an all plant-based plan.

No one's done that study.

We found, actually,
some studies.

A 74-week study found
that low-fat vegan diet
versus the ADA plan,

in type two diabetes...

I think we're done here.

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

Oh, no, I just wanted
the studies of,

if this is true or,
if it shows that.

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 they eat McDonald's...

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.

Why not?

If that's where you
want to 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 want to
get into, I'm not the person

- you need to be talking to.
- Into diet?

Who do we talk to about diet?

You can talk to
anybody you want.

But, that's
interesting, though,
why not recommend a diet...

Because the data don't
exist to support it.

But, if we see data
that we looked up,

that supports it with
the NIH, in Europe,

the European Association
of... We're done.

We're done. I'm sorry,
I'm not gonna get into
that argument with you.

No, I'm just wondering,
but, I...

I'm not gonna get into
the argument with you.

Why is it in argument?

It's just to talking about
in European study of diabetes

and other places that have
studies, why...

There are lots of studies...

Why is it even
an argument, I guess?

There are lots of
studies in the literature.

Many of which have
never been replicated
or frankly, are wrong.

That's why we do
peer review, okay?

The European Association
of Study of Diabetes

has been peer-reviewed
or, the...

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

and 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 wanted to talk about
was people living longer
with diabetes,

but, once you mention
eliminating diabetes
or, prevention,

oh, now you crossed the line.

Prevention and cure... Whoa.

Let's not go there.

[Kip] Not only did Dr. Ratner,
the chief medical officer

of the American Diabetes
Association not want to
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 one diabetes.

But, then,
I did research and came across

countless studies
referencing the link between

exposure to dairy at a young
age and type one diabetes.

[McDougall] This is a food
made for baby cows.

Cow milk protein gets
into the bloodstream,

and the body says, "Hey, this
isn't supposed to be in
the bloodstream."

It makes antibodies to
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 were
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 Meyer 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,
who 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
to 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 had accepted
$35 million from Yoplait,

when their products can
increase a woman's chance

of dying from breast cancer 49%,

and ask American Cancer
Society if taking money

from KFC and Tyson
was a reason
they promote eating meat.

But, every one 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

that would bring
the entire catastrophe
down upon their heads,

and they would essentially
disappear as organizations.

This one time I got invited
to a charity fundraiser

for the American Diabetes
Association.

I showed up, and they had
a whole buffet, and it was
all just animal products.

I remember like a big
thing of barbecue chicken.

And I was like, I stormed out.
I said like,

serving chicken
at a diabetes event

is like serving alcohol
at an AA meeting.

It doesn't make sense.

[Kip] We had scheduled
to film an interview
with a prominent surgeon.

But, before we could get
inside the building,

the hospital's media
relations manager stopped us.

Actually I understand that
Dr... said 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.

He said that we could, though.

[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 of 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 are 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 millions
of Americans 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. Greger,

the USDA admitted that eggs
cannot legally be called

nutritious, low fat,
part of a 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 have heard

of a checkoff program,
the odds are 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 buzz billboards and
magazines that say things like,

"Milk, it does a body good,"
or "milk life.

Beef, it's what's for dinner.
Pork, be inspired.

The incredible edible egg."

The dairy checkoff
program gave $12 million

to Domino's 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 found,

whose 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?

- Nice!
- Yes!

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

that these are
government programs.

The 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 promoting its 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 their
customers who were 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 every day in
the schools meal items with
processed meats.

[Kip] If the surgeon
general puts warning labels

on tobacco because of
their cancer risk,

why aren't the same
warning labels on meat?

Based on the publicly available
data, we know they spend at
least $557 million

promoting their goods
through checkoff programs.

We know that they spend
at least $138 million
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 terrorists

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 says
a plaintiff cannot recover

against a manufacturer,
distributor or, retailer,

on the theory that the food
made the plaintiff obese

or caused
an obesity related disease.

Cheeseburger laws
are a direct response

to a problem that the
tobacco industry has had.

Big Tobacco has paid
$400 billion to state
Medicaid programs.

Cheeseburger laws
proponents say,

"We don't want to 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 a Commonsense
Consumption Act

is actually ironic because
what they're saying is

you, the consumer, should
have the common sense

to know that
our food is bad for you.

I've often typified 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 it 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 egg
industry were threatened

by egg alternative company
Hampton Creek Foods,

extremely disturbing emails
were uncovered by Ryan
Shapiro and Jeffrey Light.

We uncovered
documents demonstrating
the American Egg Board

considers Hampton Creek, quote
"a crisis and major threat

"to the future of the
American egg industry."

The American Egg Board
considers a successful

egg replacer company
to be such a threat

that they joke on their
government email addresses

about murdering the CEO.

[Kip] In internal government
emails with the heads of
the egg industry,

they suggest having the
CEO of Hampton Creek,
Josh Tetrick, murdered,

including a menacing email
from executive director
of the American Egg Board.

The meat producers
don't have to pay for

the heart disease or
the environmental destruction

or any of the other
externalities, as economists
call them,

that their products cause.

Then there's a whole
pharmaceutical aspect of it

and the fact that
there's a very strong
pharmaceutical industry

and lobby that has
a huge stake in
preserving the status quo.

These chronic diseases,

these are the cash cows of
the pharmaceutical industry.

We have a $5 billion stent
industry. Do they ever want
to see that go away?

We've got a $35 billion
statin drug industry.

Do they ever want
to 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 another medicine
to help take care

of side effects from some
of those medicines.

I'm on high level
anti-depressants.

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 in the morning,
insulin at night, 32-34 units,

of insulin.

Lantus to be exact.

Some of these meds
are for diabetes.

This is for peeing.

I have to use this
for my prostrate.

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.

The doctors are telling me
this is what I gotta do
for my whole life.

And it's frustrating
and very stressful.

And I don't know how long
my liver is gonna last
taking all this stuff.

Under conventional medical
treatment, whether it be for
autoimmune disease

or even conditions like high
blood pressure or, diabetes,

you're told that
you have to take drugs.

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

you're told 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 come in
with that diagnosis,
you get a bunch of pills

that have nothing to do
with the disease causation.

Or you get these 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 a 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 does not reverse disease.
This does not make
plaque smaller.

This is a front
of massive proportions.

[Kip] In the US, treating
chronic disease, such as heart
disease, cancer and diabetes

is a $1.5 trillion 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.

The government's in bed
with anyone that gives
them the most money,

which is the pharmaceutical
industry, which is
the animal ag industries,

they are pumping the
government full of money

and resources, and in return,
the government's giving
them want they want.

Subsidies, imprisoning
activists that go against them,

and I think it's quite
telling that these industries

are working so hard
and spending so much money

to criminalize people for
simply taking a picture,

for simply recording
what's going on
inside 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 collusion

truly is between government
and these industries.

And how dangerous
it could be to expose them.

These concerns intensified
after meeting the USDA
whistle-blowerrrr

who revealed mad cow disease
in the US meat supply.

USDA operates like the military.

So, when I got on TV
and that right away,

USDA sent out memos to
all the veterinarians
and food inspectors,

"If anybody from the media
ever contacts you,
do not talk to them.

Refer 'em to Washington DC,
and we will talk to them."

So, right away,
it shut up everybody.

American public should be
very concerned about this.

What's going on with 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 than that,

but, the government isn't
looking for it.

What you're saying
is that there could be

already mad cow's disease
in humans.

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

With the Alzheimer's
or dementia,

it takes several years
you see the progression,

but, to make it easier, these
doctors just sign off on it

as dementia or, Alzheimer's

without actually taking
a biopsy of the brain

to see if it's that or is it
actually a prion disease

like Creutzfeldt-Jacob
disease or, mad cow disease.

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 line
speed now is going about
220 cows an hour.

That gives you about,
somewheres around four
cows per minute.

So, that's 15 seconds per cow.

These 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 breast sampled

contained animal waste bacteria.

There is nothing clean
about eating this way.

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

You could see there's a bump

or some kind of abscess
underneath the hide.

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

either that will open up the
abscess and the the pus will
come out,

or if it's deep-seated,
when the inspectors
are doing their work

or the company employees,
they might stick their knife

into an abscess, and it
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 were killing were
killing us and the planet.

But, so many people eat meat
and dairy every day of
their lives.

And we are so concerned
about getting enough protein.

[Kip] Do we have to eat meat
to get complete protein?

Oh, my God, oh my God.

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

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 ate 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.

Greens 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 get
less than half the amount
of fiber they need.

But, the conversation tends
to always be about protein,

so in my mind, it's just this
magical marketing campaign

that protein has taken
on over the decades.

The question is not
where to get your protein,

it's where do you
get your fiber?

I have never
in my professional career
seen a protein deficiency.

I have never seen someone
come in eating normal
amounts of calories

and they're 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.

And that's just
like the perfect food
for human babies.

Perfect food,
lowest protein content,

any other mammal,
and so gives a sense of
kinda protein requirements...

- It's lower than...
- Anything, so look...

- Lower protein than even...
- Than rat milk, ape milk.

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

And you hear this a lot
in body builders who are
like, "Well, I need

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 they're 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 that are really
high in 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 what 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 will
consume this flesh-based diet

are contributing
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 the folks who
drop dead at the gym at 39.

Boy, he was lean
and he looked really good,

but, where is that cholesterol
going? It's going into your
artery walls.

So, I believe these Paleo
folks are setting them-self
up for an epidemic

of clogged arteries,
colon cancers,
autoimmune diseases.

This is not a healthy diet.
We are not carnivorous apes.

Humans' closest
living relatives are chimps

who get 97 percent of
their calories from plants

and the remaining three percent
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 putrefy in the gut

unless it is
moved through 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 an envelope.

So, the idea that the mere
presence of the canine

somehow means
that we're supposed
to eat meat is silly.

[Kip] He was right.

I always thought my canines
were for meat,

but, what kind of animal could
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 a blender

and grinding it up,
the thought is
absolutely repulsive.

[Kip] All these diseases
I had 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 it
in my own patients.

People who adopt low
fat plant-based diets

can actually reverse
their heart disease,

and that literally means
watching the plaque

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

My experience with patients is

and the studies show
that when people adopt

a fully plant-based diet,
their cholesterol levels

plummet within a few days.

And if you do blood test
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,

like 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.

'Cause 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,

there's a multitude of diseases.

Even rheumatoid arthritis,
it can be so dramatic

when you see these poor souls

just absolutely crippled
with rheumatoid arthritis

go plant-based, and then they
come off their medication.

I wanted to follow
up with Jane Chapman

who had been suffering
from severe osteoarthritis,

and I could not believe
what I saw

after only a few weeks
of fasting
and changing her diet.

Those are so amazing
to see you like this
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,
the sunshine.

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

and start to
feel the inflammation

just kind of
drain 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,

you know there's one drug
you take for cholesterol,

a different class of drugs you
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 to kinda rule 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 in the USA,

three times the US GDP.

Conditions like
high blood pressure,

you don't have to take the
drugs the 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, put them in
a petri dish,

and you can drip the blood
of those eating vegan,

get about 72% suppression in

human prostate cancer
cell growth in vitro,

they wanted to try this again
with women and breast cancer,

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

After just two weeks,
their bodies cleaned up.

You dropped their blood
on the same carpet

of cancer cells, you can
clear off the whole plate.

This is just after just two
weeks eating healthy, which
raises 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 got 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 I didn't want that.

I just started reading
on how a 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 1940s was
reversing some of our

worst killer diseases
with diet alone.

And the diet he was using
was not only 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 1940s,

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 this.

In fact, there's even a bill
introduced just mandating
physicians get seven hours

nutrition training every
couple of years, just to
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.

It's seven hours.
That's a lot.

Even if it's over
one four-year period.

So, they're not just kinda
neutral, but, they're 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 dietitians

when nutrition is their
entire specialty?

Turns out the
American Nutrition
and Dietetics Association

puts out nutrition fact
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 all those
bullets out of the chamber

and not taking a 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 antidepressants,
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.

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 it only took

two weeks of whole
plant-based diet.

- That's incredible.
- Yeah.

That is incredible.

It really is.

- That's amazing.
- 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, thank God my time is now.

That's pretty cool.

Thanks.

Thanks!

[Kip] As powerful as Amy's
story was, I knew for some,
eating a hundred percent

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.

But, I know people
who have given up meat
and they felt sick.

Yeah, it's unlikely
that anybody's symptoms

are caused by dead
decaying flesh deficiency.

The lack of highly processed
animal food products

in the diet is not gonna be

associated with the causal
factor by why they're sick.

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 does your
doctor tell all his meat eaters
that are hypothyroid?

What's 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 a healthier form
somewhere else.

The only other vitamin
is vitamin B12.

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

made by little microbes
that blanket the Earth.

So, because of the way we
live in our sanitized world,

unless you're eating
bacteria-contaminated foods,

we need to get a source
of B12 from somewhere,

and so the healthiest,
cheapest, safest source

is to get a 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 just like I need
meat because I'm a Capricorn

or 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 no vitamin,
mineral, nutrient

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

Valentine's Day,
I 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.

And so I gave up all
animal product whatsoever,

I've lost 29 pounds,

I've been able to
cut my meds in half,

I've been able
to cut my insulin in half,

and now I'm going
for the moon, I'm going
to go cut it all out.

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

And my ugly face
is going to be around

to see 'em 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.

And so it's in her honor

that I do what I do.

If I could save someone
else's grandmother,

aunt, uncle, father from that.

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 those things
are expensive.

Our meal plan for
our family of four is $25
per person in the family.

20.64 is your total.

[Kip] 20.64? Whoa.

That's for an
entire week of food.

[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 bench pressing 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 bench pressing

465 pounds, this is ridiculous.

And as soon as
I went vegan, tendinitis
started disappearing.

My strength in my right
arm started coming back.

High blood pressure
was going down.

You can't be strong
and be dying on the inside,
that's not strong.

That's weak.
That's really weak.

Because yeah, you look big
and strong on 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, a two-time world
free running champion,

and 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
a good strength to body
weight ratio,

so I was carrying mass
that 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 me
that extra strength.

This is a vibrant way to live.

It can enhance you
as an athlete, for me,

a hundred percent better
athlete than I was before,

it's unlocked a whole new
chapter of my training.

The science is there,
the health is there,

the athletes are there 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 the muscles you see,
I gained as a vegan.

I gained 15 pounds of muscles
on my body, eating all
plant-based and vegan foods.

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

Because I'm not ingesting
so many inflaming 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.

[Blanco] 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
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.

I've kept 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 Epic Five,

which entailed
doing five Ironmans

on five Hawaiian islands
in under a week.

An Ironman is a 2.4 mile swim
followed by a 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
in a little under a week.

Did you almost die?

No. We didn't die.

So, I guess the famous
question, where'd you get
your protein, man?

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 in 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.

Today, you can say,

I'm not gonna
eat that stuff anymore.

It's the 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 and 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're altruistic,

when you make choices for
the greater good of others,

it's comes around
benefits me as well.
It benefits us all.

Studies show that
we can not only survive
but we can thrive.

I just feel this is
a great way to live,
not harming other beings.

When you 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 healthy 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
and optimal wellness.

Not just individually,
but collectively

as a 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.

[Latin music playing]