The Perfect Human Diet

2012 "An unprecedented global exploration for a solution to America's #1 killer."
6.3| 1h30m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 22 May 2012 Released
Producted By: Gravitas Ventures
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Budget: 0
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Official Website: http://www.perfecthumandiet.us
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"The Perfect Human Diet" is an unprecedented global exploration to find a solution to our epidemic of overweight obesity and diet-related disease - the #1 killer in America. The film bypasses current dietary group-think by exploring modern dietary science, previous historical findings, ancestral native diets and the emerging field of human dietary evolution; revealing for the first time, the authentic human diet. Film audiences finally have the opportunity to see what our species really needs for optimal health and are introduced to a practical template based on these breakthrough scientific facts.

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Director

C.J. Hunt

Production Companies

Gravitas Ventures

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The Perfect Human Diet Videos and Images
  • Top Credited Cast
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  • Crew
Gary Taubes as Self / Science Journalist / Author, Good Calories Bad Calories

The Perfect Human Diet Audience Reviews

Grimerlana Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike
Actuakers One of my all time favorites.
Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
jbradfordinc Watched this documentary yesterday. It was very interesting from the perspective of evolutionary origins of the human diet, and somewhat accurate from that respect I believe as well. However, it's clear anti-vegetarian/anti-vegan bias made it less than desirable as a movie to recommend. It makes several poor assumptions about what it means for us in a modern society based on our ancestors' diets. And it glosses over a many of the modern arguments for vegetarianism and veganism that are very powerful.This documentary also continues to harp on the idea that the consumption of meat is responsible for our ancestors developing large brains. While this may have been a factor, it completely ignores the fact that most evolutionary biologists believe that it was the advent of cooking that is largely responsible for our increased brain capacity, not the consumption of meat. (No other carnivore/omnivore developed large brains, only us.) It is much more likely that our bodies incorporated certain animal-based nutrients, like vitamin B12, as our brains enlarged, rather than being the cause of our enlarged brains.But, it should be noted that veganism and vegetarianism are not diets for optimal human health in and of themselves. You can absolutely be a fat, unhealthy vegan if you want to. Veganism is largely based in the ethical and environmental arguments, taking into account the almost irreparable damage that our modern agricultural industry is doing to the planet. To be vegan AND healthy, you must also consider what our ancestors consumed and make sure you are getting adequate plant protein from diverse sources, nutrients, etc.Both "Food Choices," which I highly recommend, and this documentary overlap in certain areas, which are that the consumption of highly refined, processed food products (like HFCS) are bad for human health in general. They both agree that humans are the most healthy when we consume whole food products with fewer additives. They also agree that milk products in general are not good for human health beyond a very young age.
ogasior I used to be a junk food eater in high school including tons of fast food Mcdonalds, Wendy's and weighed about 180lb. In college I added tons of variety and became a serious fitness addict and studied nutrition, adding tons of greens and ideas to my diet. I went to 165lb in sophomore year, and went back up in weight with muscle gains back to 180lb. During my senior year I shifted back to a protein diet because of weight lifting, but I kept up with fruits and low vegetables and high carbs. My diet mostly consisted of very lean meat, ground chicken/ turkey or beef at least 95% lean, tons of fruit smoothies, and subs with vegetables and either roast beef or tuna. After that year at 21 I saw myself and visually felt and looked older. That year I'd already given up drinking alcohol and I never smoked cigarettes. I just looked like my teen years had left behind and I was definitely an adult. Around that time I got injured from weight-lifting and decided very spur of the moment that I'd be a vegetarian around that time for health purposes because of all the information I had been taking in on health and nutrition/ nutritional labels. I spent a lot of time online looking up data on nutritional labels, fats, mono+poly, carbs simple-complex, proteins and their sources. So I had a workout injury prompting me to stop working out for 6 months and lose 3 years of hard workouts and was only eating about 1-2 small meals a day dropping to 155lb. I was eating tuna/ almost no meat about once every 10-14 days vs the traditional cycle of 3.5 oz meat/ day and this was 2010. This only lasted about 4-5 months before I started really turning the corner and getting a lot of grains in my diet and homemmade apple pies and homemmade bread with tons of seeds and variety's of grains. Pizza was my personal favorite, and usually home-made utilizing pizza flour purpose powder and adding water, cheese, tomato sauce. From 2010-summer 2011 I got back up to 200lb and tons of exercise/ working out while only eating approximately 4-5 oz of meat every 10-14 days rather than daily. I regained a lot of my strength gains even as a mostly vegetarian. From that point forward I decided to take an unexpected next step forward towards full vegetarianism. In summer 2012 I took out all meats completely.. and since then (2014) have had 2 cans of tuna worth of meat in 2 years and no land meat. I'm into fitness and feel that it lends no disadvantage to me knowing the proper staple of foods I need to eat and not processed junk.. but just organic, and only lends a long term advantage to avoid long term health risks. It also helps with focus and allows me to stay up at a maintained moderate high energy throughout the day where-as when I was higher on a meat diet, I would NEED to take a nap after I did a workout with no exception. I find meat-substitutes at Whole Foods for Ex. quite good soy-based (not engineered). My diet is heavy on dairy, grains like whole breads, or multi-grain pizza dough, recently more and more vegetables, quesedilla's with guacamole/ salsa/ cheese, sometimes vegan cheese, vegetable soup with added peanuts, yogurt parfait with nuts/ fruits, smoothies, home-brewed tea's, soy- milk, oat grain milk etc. I weigh about 190 lb currently at 25 years old. I believe the most critical line that came from this documentary is "food perspective is like religion," and that was the critical point and defining spectrum on what this documentary was about. I felt the best resource to really take out is a variety is important. The documentary itself tries to promote a Low carb (low grains), High protein (high meats), low dairy, balanced with nuts, vegetables and fruits based on ancestral history. The most interesting point in the documentary for me was when they scaled out ancestral history on the football field, but I felt this contradicted, and didn't support the meat based argument. It showed how much of our history had been hunter- gatherer, but the greatest evolutionary leap was after the agricultural/ industrial revolutions in all intellectual and physical scale. In my perspective I think vegetarianism is a strong choice but the video attempts to de-signify this movement, and information about eating meat linked to heart disease was left out of the video. As humans evolve and have more physical and intellectual resources available to them and live out the fulfillment of an herbavorian, physical complexion it is proved that humans CAN choose to be vegans/ vegetarian's and survive. Whether this is the better option is up for debate but it is possible to be healthy that way, in my belief it is healthier. I believe the biggest issue is facts get filtered through personal feelings/ quests/ wants. The facts are there but what facts are focused on and interpreted and sought for is determined by a personal quest of findings. Take for example Darwinism and creationist theory. During his era he was greatly disputed Darwin, for his beliefs and even physical archaeology and scientific research was used to back up creationist theory in the essence of the "perfection" in innate physiology of for instance fish bone structure that allows for the species to swim and live in harmony in only a way a creator or God could make, that evolution was too random. Well to that point that's why evolution took so many millions of years and time to advance, because of a search of harmony and trial-error and adaptive selection process to physically fulfill a more operable set of tools to handle the environment and life. So, Darwin was heavily opposed, but now mostly seeming to be correct by consensus, and the point is that facts can be interpretable.
adamwyson I've watched a lot of documentaries on health and eating habits and can I just say what a relief it is to finally have one with actual scientists and doctors. I have always been a heavy meat eater and I personally know many vegetarians with much worse health than I. My doctors are always amazed at how healthy I am with little exercise and a diet which includes meat in every meal. I have always avoided sugars my whole life. It was never a personal decision, I just have never enjoyed deserts and candy. My wife thought I was so odd when she met me and found I don't enjoy desert after dinner. My friends wonder why I'm not a thousand pounds and attribute it to genes. Carnivore for life.
Sophia Aragon Sadly, because this documentary is only of average quality which, of course, speaks to how bad documentary making has become in terms of objective reporting. Nonetheless, the production of this (as most other) documentaries is quite good. There is nothing amateurish about the effort. It has plenty of eye-candy and moves along well.Content-wise, it is unnecessarily reactionary. This, in my opinion, is the biggest flaw of the documentary. Framing the narrative around a rejection of vegetarian principles only serves to elicit responses like that of the other commenter, responses that misconstrue the message and get lost in delusional, inane diatribes around fantasy subjects like "everything meat" and "meat versus vegetable". If your brain is plugged in while watching, you will find that traditional diets are, by necessity, far more balanced and rational. An interesting topic on its own.For those that don't consider nutrition to be a religious issue, it is a good introduction to evolutionary diets. If interested, read more on the subject (e.g. Weston Price is a good lead).