Mini Film Review: What the Health

'What the Health' is an American based documentary made by the creators of 'Cowspiracy' and follows filmmaker Kip Anderson as he looks at how diet, specifically a vegan diet, can have a positive affect on chronic diseases that many American's face today.  In the film they talk to medical doctors, researchers, and consumer advocates about this.  It also investigates the possible role pharmaceutical companies, agribusiness, and processed meat companies might be having on American health non-profit organizations and the fact they do not only advocate a vegan diet, on the results funding might have on the outcome of research done into the impact of meat and dairy on the health issues we face in the Western world, and the decisions the US Government make when forming policies.  This all leads to large costs in people's health care, as well as keeping them sick.

What I liked about this documentary was it pointing out the possible bias issue that can come about when research is funded by specific organizations.  It is not necessarily the case that if a researcher is funded by the meat industry that they are going to find that meat is great, that's far to simplistic, but it does mean that the results and data do need to be checked and confirmed before we can be certain that the results have not been led.  It is also true that a personal bias can also play a role, such as already believing you can only get calcium from milk means you unconsciously find the results that you can only get calcium from milk.  However, and to be clear, this can also happen the other way.  If someone believes that being vegan is the only way or are funding by a vegan based organization they can also show bias in their results.  In both cases, we must be very aware of these possible biases when we are looking at research and data.

What I didn't like about 'What the Health' is that I got the feeling that they were cherry picking the research that they were showing in the documentary to fit the result they wanted it to show (basically what I warned about in the previous paragraph).  I know that there is research out there that shows different results to what they were talking about and I think it would be refreshing to have a documentary that gave a more rounded look at the issues of diet and health.  When watching any documentary it's always important to remember that the makers have a specific message they are wanting to put across and it's always worth doing more research yourself.

I also a little uncomfortable with the premise that if you changed your diet to a vegan your health issues would all disappear.......very quickly.  Again, this is a little too simplistic and not always the case.  It is true that a healthy plant-based diet can help reduce your chances of getting diseases like cholesterol, diabetes and cancer, and, with cholesterol and diabetes at least, changing to a plant-based diet has been shown to reverse these diseases in a number of people, but not all.  Whilst I do believe, from what I've researched myself, that a healthy, plant-based diet is your best chance of staying healthy it will not stop everything and there are those out there who will still get cancer and heart disease.  It is one of the sad truths of life.

I should probably say now that I am not against a vegan diet or documentaries that show the benefit of a plant base diet can have on the health.  It's what I'm aiming for myself once I have worked out exactly what I'm allergic to (that's a long story and I'm keeping my fingers crossed it's not nuts).  I'm also not against documentaries that question the possible bias of organizations based on the funding they receive, we should all do it.  But I don't think demonising health organisations that seem to be genuinely trying to help people and understand that complete changes in people's diet are rarely stuck to, or cherry picking your studies are a particularly good way to go.  To me the vegan diet is important because it has large environmental benefits, will help us combat global warming, has been shown to have a large number of health benefits for most people (but as with everything, one size doesn't fit all and it would be irresponsible to say it will work for everyone), and that other living creatures are not put through appalling treatment to provide us with a food source we don't necessarily need.  To me those are good enough reasons and we don't need to skew the data to get the point across.

If you would like to watch the movie you can online here.  If you also want to watch someone questioning the movie a little bit more succinctly then I do then it's worth watching Unnatural Vegan's video on it.  

So what do you think of the film?  Did you have questions about what they were saying or did you really like it? Let me know below?

Fighting Climate Change: the Drawdown Project

I was watching a few TED talks over the weekend and came across one I found particularly interesting about 100 solutions that would reverse global warming.  After watching the talk (my favourite bit is when he describes Regenerative Agriculture as a win, win, win, win, win solution) I decided to have a look at this organization.

Drawdown Project is a non-profit organization and coalition of scholars, scientists, entrepreneurs and advocates from across the globe with a mission to present the best available information on solutions against climate change.  For each solution they describe the impact they will have financially, socially, and environmentally over the next thirty years.  The goal of the organization is produce the outcome of drawdown, which they describe as being the 'point in time when the concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases begins to decline on a year-to-year basis'. 

80 of the solutions they show are not new solutions that would need to be set up, but solutions that are already being carried out by people around the world.  They look at what results these solutions could produce if they were scaled up over the next thirty years and it's pretty interesting reading.  You can find the already existing solutions published on their website and I can guarantee that the order of the solutions will not be what you were expecting.  The top ten are:

1. Refrigerant Management - this looks at the HFCs that have replaced the CFCs and HCFCs in refrigerators and air conditioners to protect the ozone, but which have a 1000 to 9000 times capacity to warm the atmosphere then carbon dioxide.  These are in the process of being phased out.
2. Wind Turbines (onshore) - this is pretty self-explanatory, but the drop in prices of wind farm construction makes this a very viable and clean option, though the constant changing in region wind sources means this definitely needs to be part of an integrated system.
3. Reduced Food Waste - this is also self-explanatory and, at the moment, contributes to around 8% of the worlds carbon emissions.  The solutions differs for low income communities, where it's about improving infrastructure, and high incomes communities, where it's about reducing waste at the retailers and consumers side.  Here the solution would not only reduce carbon emissions but help meet future food demands.
4. Plant-Rich Diet - this is a subject that has gained momentum in the last few years based on the fact that the Western meat-based diet is responsible for a fifth of global emissions.  There would also be a reduce in cost due to a reduction in health issues and the stopping of government subsidies, which also distort the true price of meat.
5. Tropical Forests - tropical forest restoration is gaining momentum at the moment and could not only capture carbon but also support the water cycle, conserve the soil, supply of source of food and medicine, give people a home, and protect ecosystems. 
6. Educating Girls - the impact of educating girls is very large.  Not only will it help curb populations growth, but it also helps improve the health of those children who are born.  It also contributes to economic growth, reduces the chance of mortality for both mother and baby, reduced the number of child brides, lowers incidence of HIV/AIDS and malaria, increases agriculture productivity, and increases resilience to the impacts of climate change.
7. Family Planning - this not only empowers women across the global but also increases the health and life expectancy of both the woman and the child.  The added benefit is to the planet, with a reduced population leading to a reduction in the amount of greenhouse gases being emitted. 
8. Solar Farms - these operate like conventional power plants with the amount of electricity they produce, but with much lower emissions production and a price that never changes.  With initial costs dropping and a better infrastructure, this is practically unlimited and clean energy source.
9. Silvopasture - I have to admit I had never heard of this before but it is a ancient farming technique where trees and pasture are integrated into a single way of raising livestock.  Silvopasture is a very effective way of storing carbon with pastures with trees sequestering five to ten times more carbon then treeless pastures.  There is also the long financial benefit with the land and animals being healthier, and the additional production of nuts, fruits, and mushrooms.
10. Rooftop Solar - this is also pretty self explanatory, but with costs dropping and improvements in technology making them much more light weight and durable the number of rooftop solar installations is increasing.  It could also play a key role in the elimination of poverty in rural parts of low income countries.

Refrigerant Management was definitely a revelation to me, but the most surprising thing was that there were two solutions from the Women and Girls sector (6 and 7) so high up on the table as these are normally ignored when people talk about global warming solutions.  I also think it's good that family planning is there as this is normally the 'elephant in the room' when you discuss climate change with people.  It's made out to be such a sacred thing and no one likes to talk about the number of children people should be aiming for.

None of these solutions are meant to be done on their own, but instead used to help inform the decisions made as to which combination of solutions can be used in a given area.  In fact all really need to be implemented as all play their part and have more then just environmental benefits.  They also challenge social inequality, loss of biodiversity, and food insecurity.  

It might also look like this is just something to be used by businesses and governments, but I think that this could easily be used by individuals like you and me when making decisions about where to put our efforts and money when fighting global warming.  The information provided here shows that the best things we could do individually is reduce our food waste, have a more plant based diet, support those in the agricultural industry whose activities support the climate, and change our electricity providers to one that supports the wind and solar industries (in fact a look at the whole 80 shows that the decisions we make about the food we eat has the biggest impact overall).  If you have the money (and own your own property with a roof - not me at the moment unfortunately) then it would make sense to invest in rooftop solar before buying an electric car (though both is obviously better).  And finally, when looking at which charities to support, it's worth also looking at those which support educating girls and family planning as these will actually have a significant impact on climate change - an interesting factor I will definitely take into account when next looking at who I should next give money to.

Perhaps the most interesting thing is the little sting it puts into the reason we are usually given as to why we can't make changes that will be more environmentally friendly in the long run, and that is that it would have a long-term cost to our economy.  But Drawdown Project have shown that whilst it will cost a large $29,609.30 trillion to scale up these solutions we will make a savings of $74,362.37 trillion.  A savings of around $44,754 trillion!  Incentives all round really.

Project Pan 2019

This will be my third year of actively working through the products that I own and I'm going to go back to calling it panning as it is mainly make-up products this time around.  In fact, this year is going to be the year of lip products and once they are gone that will be all the lip products (in my makeup) I actually own gone.  All the items on this project are long lasting products so this year is going to be a bit of a stretch, but it'll be worth it.

To start with I'm rolling over three products from last year that still have a bit of work to get rid of and that is the NYX Dark Circle Concealer Corrector in Light / Pale (15 g), the Living Nature eye liner in Midnight (7.1 cm), and the Argan Oil hair treatment (that I'm now using as a moisturiser) (3.4 cm).  

I'm also adding in The Body Shop black liquid eyeliner (10 g) I got in a Christmas advent calendar to this as I'm trying to reduce the amount of liquid products I have in my make up bag.

Now for all the lip products.  They are the Urban Decay lip liner in Ozone (2.3 cm), the Barry M lip liner in Red or 3 (6.2 cm), The Body Shop lip liner in Hot Date (10.7 cm), Urban Decay x Gwen Stefani lipstick in 714 (I can't wait to wear this, I love the colour) (2.9 cm), and lastly The Body Shop Matte lip liquid in Tahiti Hibiscus (15 g).

The two face products I have in here are the NYX Powder Blush in Taupe (20 g) that I use as a contour product and The Balm highlighter in Mary-Lou Manizer (55 g).  I'm not intending to pan these completely as that would be impossible, but I would like ti hit pan on them.  I haven't touched the highlighter at all so this should be a good way of seeing how it looks on me.

Lastly it the Buxom eye shadow palette in Dolly's Wild Side (120g).  This was given to me as a gift many years ago and I just haven't given it the use it deserves, so whilst I will still dip into the other palettes I own as well, this will be the one I concentrate on.  The colours are beautiful so it should be pretty easy.

I've updated my 'Getting rid of stuff' page so I can see where I still need to do some work, but it's looking much better this I started all this.  The one category that hasn't changed much is the body moisturiser category and that's because when I was asked what I wanted for Christmas I said moisturiser as I will always need some.  That supply should last me for most of the year when I will probably ask for it again to stock up for next.

Are you doing a project pan this year?  If so what are you panning?

Goals for 2019

Last year I posted my goals for 2018 to act as an extra incentive to achieving them.  It was a mixed batch when it came to success, but even though I didn't achieve all of them it has been a good way of seeing where my weaknesses are and what I need to do to actually be successful in the future.  I've decided to publish my goals again this year and hopefully I'll do a little better job of actually achieving them.

Healthy Eating

The first is the one I failed at last year, but is the one that would have the most positive impact for me.  I don't know what it is about food, but like many people I really do struggle to be as healthy as I should be.  Don't get me wrong my diet is probably seen as being healthier than most, but with my PCOS and the work that I do it is extra important that I take care of what's going into my body.  My main nemesis is sugar, mainly in the form of a sweet, dark, fizzy, caffeinated drink I will not name, and as sugar is an addictive substance the connection to it is hard to break.  However, I have noticed a huge difference in how I feel when I'm eating a diet low or without it and a diet that has sugar in it.  Without I feel more awake and, ironically, have more energy.  I can actually concentrate on things and am so much more productive.  With it I'm slow and lethargic, and emotionally I just feel blah.  It's time to give processed sugar the shove.

I also want to keep on moving towards a vegan diet.  As I said in my last goal update for 2018 I'm vegetarian already and, due to the PCOS, am basically dairy free without really eating any animal products at all when I'm at home.  Whilst I don't want to force other people to make the meals we eat together vegan (as they are already making vegetarian, gluten free meals for me) and do want to make sure that no animal products come home with me.

Waste Free

I've decided to add this goal as it actually coincides with my healthy eating goal.  That probably sounds a bit strange but I noticed last year that practically all the waste I produced last year came from the food I was getting.  I already have re-usable bags, water bottles, and coffee mugs I take with me everywhere.  I have metal straws instead of plastic and use bamboo toothbrushes which I dip into a tooth powder kept in an recyclable glass jar.  I've managed to use pretty much all the packaging that my orders have come in over the year.  However, when I look in my recycling bin and my rubbish bin they mostly contain packaging from food.  I've also noticed that most of the products I buy full of sugar are the products that contain the most packaging and, by eliminating those, I should automatically reduce how much waste I'm bringing into my home.  But I also need to be more smart about the fruit and vegetables I buy, picking those without any packaging especially as these seem to come in that plastic which is very difficult to recycle.  

I just need to be more aware of my behaviour, especially when I'm food shopping, and hopefully the deterrent of waste will be an extra incentive to buy or bring with me something healthy.

Learning New Skills

This goal is sort of a two stage goal as I want to learn new skills both for work and for my personal life.

Lets start with Work.  I love the job I do and I hope to be able to do it for many years to come.  However, it's not the most stable of jobs and there can be times when there is no work available, so it makes sense to have a few extra skills in your belt to ensure you are always able to earn money.  I want the skills to be in a job that is still outdoors and related to my work as a path worker, such as dry-stone walling or hedge laying, but these can be difficult skills to learn (or even find out where to learn).  However, as my work allows me to have extended periods of time off it should be do-able.  January is going to be spent researching what and where I can learn these skills and the rest of the year will be spent learning and perfecting them.  Who knows, I may have a whole set of useful expertise by the time 2020 comes around.

And at Home.  I want to learn something that will challenge my brain a little when I'm at home.  I had thought about learning a new language, but I've always really struggled with that in the past (probably not helped by my dyslexia) and I don't know if I would just get down-heartened.  I also wanted a skill that would be useful to someone else as well and it occurred to me that I could learn a language that would fulfil that criteria as well as being based on actions (and therefore in my head pictures) instead of words.  That is, of course, learning sign language and there are quite a few places where I can start the learning online - making it perfect for the way my life is now.  I'm actually quite excited about this goal as it will be quite a challenge.

So, those are my goals for next year.  There aren't too many of them as I don't want to feel overwhelmed and just give up straight away, but they will to be the challenge you want them to be.  I will, of course, bore you with updates on how I'm doing throughout the year.  Do you have any goals for 2019?  I you do let me know and we can go through the trials together. 😀