In an age where dietary decisions are under the microscope for their effects on both personal health and the planet, Netflix’s new docuseries “You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment” provides a riveting investigation into the substantial impacts of our food choices. This four-part series, rooted in a pioneering study by Stanford Medicine, tracks the lives of 22 pairs of identical twins over eight weeks—one twin adhering to a vegan diet while the other maintains an omnivorous diet. By focusing on twins, the series aims to eliminate genetic and lifestyle variables, offering a clearer picture of how diet alone influences health outcomes.
Viewers are introduced to four pairs of twins from the study, revealing notable health improvements linked to a vegan diet, such as enhanced cardiovascular health and decreased visceral fat. But the series goes beyond individual health benefits, shedding light on the wider repercussions of our dietary habits, including environmental degradation and animal welfare issues. From the harrowing conditions in factory farms to the environmental devastation caused by animal agriculture, “You Are What You Eat” constructs a comprehensive case for plant-based eating.
The series also addresses social issues like environmental racism, particularly in areas with high densities of animal feeding operations. Featuring appearances from influential figures like New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who discusses his personal health transformation through a plant-based diet, the series adds a layer of real-world advocacy and change.
As “You Are What You Eat” climbs the ranks of Netflix’s most-watched shows across multiple countries, it invites viewers to rethink their dietary habits and the extensive consequences of their food choices. Whether you’re a dedicated meat-eater or simply curious, this series is bound to leave a lasting impression on how you perceive food and its impact on our world.
In an era where our dietary choices are increasingly scrutinized for their impact on health and the environment, Netflix’s new four-part series, “You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment,” offers a compelling exploration into the profound effects of what we consume. Based on a groundbreaking study by Stanford Medicine, this docuseries delves into the lives of 22 pairs of identical twins, with one twin adopting a vegan diet and the other maintaining an omnivorous diet over eight weeks. The series, featuring insights from Stanford’s nutrition scientist Christopher Gardner, aims to control for genetic and lifestyle variables by focusing on twins.
Throughout the series, viewers are introduced to four pairs of twins from the study, uncovering significant health benefits associated with a vegan diet, including improved cardiovascular health and reduced visceral fat. Beyond personal health, the series also highlights the broader implications of our food choices, such as environmental degradation and animal welfare concerns. From the heart-wrenching conditions in factory farms to the environmental toll of animal agriculture, “You Are What You Eat” presents a multifaceted argument for plant-based eating.
The series doesn’t just stop at health and environmental impacts; it also touches on social issues like environmental racism, particularly in regions with high concentrations of animal feeding operations. With appearances from notable figures like New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who shares his personal health transformation through a plant-based diet, the series adds a layer of real-world advocacy and change.
As “You Are What You Eat” climbs the ranks of Netflix’s most-watched shows in multiple countries, it challenges viewers to reconsider their dietary habits and the far-reaching consequences of their food choices. Whether you’re a staunch omnivore or a curious observer, this series promises to leave a lasting impression on how you view food and its impact on our world.
If you aren’t vegan yet, you might be after watching the new four-part Netflix Series ‘You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment’. It’s based on the groundbreaking study by Stanford Medicine published last November about 22 pairs of identical twins and examines the impact of food choices – one twin eats vegan food for eight weeks while the other follows an omnivore diet. Stanford’s nutrition scientist, Christopher Gardner, chose to work with twins to control for genetics and similar lifestyle choices.
The docuseries features four of the twins from the study and reveals multiple health benefits of eating vegan, including proof that in as little as eight weeks, a vegan diet improves cardiovascular health. However, the series is also about the environmental destruction of our earth from animal agriculture and the immense suffering farmed animals endure. It’s these issues, in addition to the health benefits of eating plant-based, that make it a must-watch series.
1. Eating Plants Is Healthier Than Eating Animals
Viewers are introduced to the charming and often funny identical twins as they undergo medical evaluations. For the first four weeks, participants receive prepared meals and for the last four, they shop and prepare food themselves while sticking to their assigned diet. Twins are monitored extensively for changes in their health and metrics. By the end of eight weeks twins on the vegan diet lost an average of 4.2 more pounds than the omnivores and had significantly lower cholesterol.
The vegans showed a 20% drop in fasting insulin, this is crucial because higher insulin levels are a risk factor for developing diabetes. The vegan twin’s microbiome was in better health than their omnivore sibling and harmful fat surrounding their organs, visceral fat, had significantly reduced, unlike the omnivore twin. Overall findings suggest a healthy plant-based diet has “significant protective cardiometabolic advantage compared with a healthy omnivorous diet.”
The Mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, makes several appearances in the series and is living proof that eating plants is healthier than eating animals. Switching to a plant-based diet put Adam’s Type 2 diabetes into remission, restored his eyesight, and helped save his life. Adams is the force behind Vegan Fridays and has“made plant-based meals the default option for all inpatients in their network of 11 public hospitals”, outlined in the Plant Based Treaty’s Safe and Just report.
2. Human Disease And Environmental Racism
The number of pigs in North Carolina far exceeds the number of people with many concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO’s) in the region, some with up to 60,000 animals each. Human suffering is directly related to animal agriculture here, one of the biggest producers of “pork” in the world. Factory farmed pigs struggle to survive crammed together in horrific conditions.
Image credit: Mercy for Animals / Getty
Pig farms produce massive amounts of waste and huge open-air cesspools are packed with feces and urine. These lagoons contaminate local water sources, harm aquatic ecosystems, and cause health complications for people. Pig waste is literally sprayed into the air by sprinklers very close to family homes, the majority of which are minorities located in low-income neighbourhoods.
The Guardian explains, “Families living near hog CAFOs saw higher rates of infant mortality and deaths from anaemia, kidney disease, and tuberculosis.” They continue, “These issues ‘disproportionately affect’ people of colour: African Americans, Native Americans, and Latinos are far more likely to live near CAFOs.”
3. Animals Suffering On Factory Farms
Viewers are taken on a journey inside factory farms crammed with animals that are sick, dead, injured, and living in their own waste. Through interviews with a former chicken farmer, we learn how these beautiful, gentle birds are bred “just to suffer” and forced into dirty tiny spaces where they don’t see sunlight and cannot spread their wings. Chickens today are genetically bred to have oversized breasts and their organs and entire skeletal system cannot support them.
Millions of fish confined to salmon farms cause pollution and are pushing wild fish to extinction. These massive farms keep over a million fish captive and span four football fields. Farmed salmon are crowded into colossal pools so packed that it becomes a health and environmental disaster due to clouds of waste, excrement, and pathogens. Videos of sick, diseased, and dying fish on aqua farms are haunting – more than 50% of fish sold in supermarkets today are globally farmed.
Salmon are crowded in cramped and diseased conditions. Image: Off the Table
4. Greenhouse Gases And Climate Change
96% of cows raised for their meat in the United States come from industrial feedlots. Cows cannot move freely and stand there day after day, eating extremely high caloric foods like corn and soy to be fattened up quickly. Image of cow’s meat in cellophane wrappers on grocery store shelves helps viewers make the connection that these products came from living breathing creatures. Images of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest and aerial views of feedlots are shocking.
Cows in a feedlot. Image: Sentient Media
George Monbiot, journalist and supporter of the Plant Based Treaty, explains the meat industry produces “vast amounts of pollution.” Cows burp methane, a greenhouse gas much worse than carbon dioxide. Monbiot explains the agricultural industry is one of the greatest sources of greenhouse gasses on earth – the main driver of climate change. “The livestock sector produces more greenhouse gasses than the entire global transportation sector.”
5. Longer Life Expectancy For Vegans
Biological age is how old your cells are, as opposed to your chronological age which is the number you celebrate on your birthday. On day one of the study, participant’s telomeres were measured at the same length. (Telomeres are “the specific DNA-protein structures found at both ends of each chromosome.”) By the end of study, all the twins on the vegan diet had longer telomeres and were now biologically younger than their sibling on the omnivore diet, whose telomeres didn’t change. This sign of reversed aging proves you can change your biology in a profound way just by changing your dietary pattern over a fairly short period of time.
After cameras stopped rolling, the four sets of twins are either eating more plant-based meals, eating half as much meat as before, have mostly cut out red meat, or are now vegetarian. ‘You Are What You Eat’ is currently trending in the top 10 most-watched shows in 71 countries, including Canada, The United States, and United Kingdom.
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Notice: This content was initially published on Animal Save Movement and may not necessarily reflect the views of the Humane Foundation.
