JANA GABRIJEL
A Brisbane dietitian has slammed dietary claims made in a documentary being screened on Netflix.
Lauren James, an Accredited Dietitian for Eat Smart Nutrition said she believes the documentary What the Health should not have compared eating an egg to smoking a cigarette in terms of the damages they may cause to health.
“I have never seen such data that supports the claim that one egg is the same as 5 cigarettes, and I don’t think we can compare smoking with eating an egg with the damage we know smoking can do,” Ms James said.
“We do want to include some source of protein in our diets, and that might come from meat, fish, eggs beans or tofu.
“It just comes down to balance and having a variety of different foods so we all should be eating more than 30 different foods a day.”
The documentary also claims there is Harvard research that states having just one serving of processed meat a day can increase the risk of getting diabetes by 51 per cent.
Ms James said she didn’t agree with using statistics relating to processed meats to talk about red meats.
“Yes, there is evidence showing that processed meats should be avoided, however that doesn’t mean that all meats including red meats need to be avoided as the documentary states,” Ms James said.
“I think it really comes down to the type of meat an individual eats, and there is no evidence that I know of that says fresh lean meat can increase your risk of diabetes.”
What the Health has gathered a huge following, with more than 180,000 likes to its Facebook page, with some contributors claiming to have converted to veganism.