You Are What You Eat, And You Are What You Eat?

“You are what you eat.” Just about anyone you ask would agree that there is at least some degree of truth to this statement, whether it be taken literally or not. However, we don’t fully grasp the concept of this idea because it is so much more than a phrase that encourages us to eat what we would consider “healthy”. What we put into our bodies becomes the building blocks of our physical being, and is the fuel that keeps us going. Not only that, but our food and where it comes from impacts the world around us. Today’s children may be the first generation in history to live less than their parents. Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes are the norm and the top two leading causes of death for American adults are heart disease and cancer. The documentary …show more content…
Dr. Collin Campbell states that “you cannot be protein deficient without be calorie deficient on a whole foods plant based diet” and that even eating enough calories of potatoes would give you enough protein to thrive. After checking potato nutrition information on the National Nutrient Database, I found this fact to be true (Foods List). The only issue with this is that vegans do need to eat more to get their calories than the average western diet. The documentary even suggests that a particular belief we have held about a certain food for decades may actually have a reverse effect. Milk, we’ve all seen the posters and TV commercials telling us that we need to drink more milk for strong bones. However, Campbell brings up data that shows a direct correlation between countries with high calcium consumption and high number of hip fractures. At first this seems to be a very compelling argument. However, the data shows calcium consumption, not dairy, and it shows number of hip fractures, not cases of osteoporosis. This leaves room for other possible contributors to this data, it cannot be guaranteed by this data that consuming more calcium will give you osteoporosis. Perhaps the reason certain countries were eating high amounts of calcium was because they were over eating in general. Then, because they are more likely to be overweight, they are more likely to have a sedentary lifestyle as well, leaving their body weak and more vulnerable to accidents. Another consideration could be lifespan, if you live in a culture with more elderly people, there will be more hip fractures per capita. The documentary explained their data with a condition called metabolic acidosis. They claimed that this condition is caused by animal protein and releases acid into the body, in order to combat the acid, the body releases calcium from bones as a buffer and leaves the bones weak,