The Best Health Documentaries To Change Your Life

These best health documentaries of all time could seriously improve – your life!

By Jody McCutcheon

With all of the sitting and passive viewing, consumption of yummy junk food and slurping of soft drinks, movie watching isn’t always the healthiest experience for you. So the least you could do is watch a film with a health-conscious message.

While the term “health” is wide-ranging, here we will focus on the main players involved in contemporary human well-being, specifically: food, lifestyle and medicine.

For us, these health documentaries are powerful. They’ll change your perspective on  food, healing, and your own body.

We believe so strongly  that they all deserve to be watched and their content at least considered in the context of human health and welfare, that we’ve even provided free links to each.

To your health!

10 Excellent Health Documentaries

1. Forks Over Knives

Basically the idea here is “let food be your medicine.” The main point being how processed food and too much protein are forcing North Americans to turn to medicine and surgery for survival. Which is exactly what Big Pharma wants.

But according to the two different doctors whose careers are followed in the film–as well as the patients they saved–almost all modern illnesses (e.g., type two diabetes, heart problems, even cancer) can be avoided and even cured by eating properly.

One of the best health documentaries because: It enlightens viewers on the links between food and illness – and health.

2. Burzynski: Cancer is Serious Business

What would you do if you knew some forms of cancer could be cured, but the FDA, National Cancer Institute and other powers that be in America and beyond were conspiring to prevent the public from knowing this? So begins the story of Dr Burzynski, a Texan based medic whose non-toxic antineoplastons have been found to give those with the worst kinds of cancer a better shot at living than any other possible treatment.

However, as news of his success grew, so did the state’s animosity towards him. You’ll be amazed at the levels of corruption within the medical community. And you’ll be inspired by the tireless doctor fighting to save lives.

One of the best health documentaries because: It raises the veil on how cancer is a huge, multi-billion dollar industry, and how alternative cures are suppressed.

3. Dying to Have Known

Through testimonials from patients, scientists, physicians and nutritionists, this is another of the best health documentaries focusing on cancer.

It presents the story of Gerson Therapy. This is a controversial–yet surprisingly effective–cancer treatment.

Many believe Gerson Therapy to be a wonder cure of kinds for cancer and other degenerative diseases. Many more dismiss it as bunk. The question left for the viewer to answer is: why was this therapy swept under the proverbial rug over 75 ago? And also: who poisoned the firmly anti-cancer establishment Dr Gerson, and why?

One of the best health documentaries because: It will make you question the entire medical establishment.

4. The Beautiful Truth

This film has a slightly irritating, incoherent narrative by a father whose boy goes on a journey to discover what makes people sick, which consumed toxins are the most dangerous yet least questioned in that regard, and how the medical establishment cures people of diseases caused by these toxins. The boy learns about the controversial Gerson Therapy, the dangers of dental treatments and processed foods, and the absurdity of medical cancer treatments. And it’s quite an awakening.

One of the best health documentaries because: It will wake many up to the corruption in our medical system.

5. Fast Food Nation

Based on the 2001 book of the same name, and directed by indie-movie king Richard Linklater, the 2006 Palme D’Or-nominate takes a dramatic rather than documentary approach.

Boasting a trademark-Linklater ensemble cast and multiple intersecting storylines, this is a health film firmly aimed at Generation X. Among other (dramatic) purposes, the film critiques the American fast-food industry. For example, how potentially unhealthy fast food can be, not only for the consumer, but for the factory worker as well.

One of the best health documentaries because: It considers the entire supply chain of food, and how that affects humans and animals.

6. Pink Ribbons, Inc.

Interviews with Pink-Ribbon campaign critics, researchers and cancer patients outline the insidious art of “pinkwashing.” Not sure what that is? It’s basically a company’s practice of promoting their public image (as well as sales) by exploiting breast cancer awareness.

The film shows how in reality, often only a tiny fraction of the sales gets donated. And quite often, that goes to a large, multinational pharmaceutical company that hardly needs the ‘charity’.

But perhaps worst of all is the revelation that many companies that contribute to ‘Pink Ribbon’ month sell or manufacture products (e.g., cosmetics, fast-food) associated with actually causing breast cancer.

One of the best health documentaries because: This film exposes the corruption between toxic corporations and the for-profit medical establishment.

7. Food, Inc.

This earnest expose of US agribusiness and corporate farming suggests that current practices are unhealthy for the environment, consumers, animals and employees. From the inhumane nature of the industrial production of meat, grains and veggies to near-ubiquitous US Government subsidies for corn, from the proliferation of GMO foods to the oligopoly-like economic and legal domination of three or four large food corporations (with Monsanto being Enemy Number One), the film studies the forces that shape American dietary habits.

One of the best health documentaries because: You’ll realise governments and corporations don’t care a bit about your health at all. On the contrary!

8. The World According to Monsanto

Monsanto is the company that brought us Agent Orange, highly cancerous polychlorinated bisphenols (PCB’s) and genetically modified seeds. This film is the result of director Marie-Monique Robin‘s three-year investigation into the US food company’s dodgy corporate practices. She interviews US FDA and EPA reps, politicians, lawyers and victims of Monsanto’s practices.

Robin exposes Monsanto’s plays for global agricultural domination through collusion with governments around the world, pressure tactics and suppression and manipulation of scientific data. All of this helps the corporate giant fool the public into thinking their products are beneficial to humanity. But in fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

One of the best health documentaries because: You’ll realise how governments allow poison in our food chain. And you’ll learn how to avoid it.

9. Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead

This rather amusing award-winning film lies somewhere on the spectrum between an infomercial and a documentary. But its main thrust is legitimised as a feel-good story about how an obese individual can wage a successful struggle to regain health from the imperious ravages of the food and pharmaceutical industries. An empowering film for anyone who’s thinking of turning their life around in terms of health and diet.

One of the best health documentaries because: It will inspire you to change your eating habits.

10. Statin Nation

This frank report on statin drugs asks some heavy questions. Statins lower cholesterol levels by blocking the liver enzyme responsible for creating cholesterol, in hopes of reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Widely prescribed, they’re Big Pharma’s number-one seller. But are they really a good solution to the problem of CVD?

They’ve been shown to produce adverse effects ranging from muscle pain to diabetes to increased cancer risks. Furthermore, does cholesterol really deserve so much blame for CVD and other cardiac problems? Note: the title link allows for a preview of the film for free. To see it in its entirety, click here.

One of the best health films because: It will make you think twice about how you perceive heart health.