I've been vegan for 6 years.

During that time, I've seen a lot of documentaries promoting plant-based lifestyles. Some focus on health while others focus on animal rights, labor issues, climate change, or environmental justice. Some of them are great. Others are...not.

After hearing mixed reviews of Netflix's new limited series You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment, I decided to check it out.

The series follows participants of a Stanford study that put 22 sets of identical twins on two different diets for 8 weeks: a healthy omnivore diet and a vegan diet.

Although the study itself has some fascinating findings, there are a few aspects of the Netflix show that render it rather suspect:

1. The push for a vegan diet precedes the reveal of the study results.

While this likely has more to do with the framing of the documentary than with the Stanford study, the fact that the show starts promoting a vegan diet before any of the study's findings are shown is...off-putting to say the least, making it seem less like a search for the truth and more like a justification for a vegan diet.

2. The focus is frequently diverted away from dietary health.

Although the show claims to be about the Stanford study, it frequently leaves concerns of nutrition behind to discuss environmental, animal, and human rights issues related to industrial animal agriculture. These issues, while interesting and important, are largely irrelevant to a study on nutrition.

3. Perhaps most glaringly, the show mixes science with business.

Instead of keeping the emphasis on brand-free plant foods, the show goes out of its way to feature specific brands of plant-based meat and dairy alternatives, making the information seem less about facts and more about advertising vegan products.

As a vegan, it's disappointing to see this kind of lazy science in a documentary meant to promote plant-based diets—especially since the study's findings largely support a plant-based lifestyle. If the show had stayed true to its premise and merely presented the study's findings without additional bias, it could have been groundbreaking.

As it is, I'd recommend skipping the show and just reading the study for yourself.

Have you seen the series? If so, let me know what you think!