Food Matters (2008): The Documentary’s Claims and the Evidence

Originally published 2014-02-23.

Food Matters is a 2008 Australian documentary that argues good nutrition can prevent and even treat serious illness, and that modern medicine and the food industry profit from keeping people sick. It was directed by James Colquhoun and Carlo Ledesma and produced by Colquhoun and Laurentine ten Bosch. The film's central message, that what you eat strongly affects your health, is sound. Some of its bigger claims, and the warnings about the sweetener aspartame that often circulate alongside it, go well beyond the evidence.

This guide summarises what the film says, what it gets right, where it overreaches, and what major food-safety bodies have concluded about aspartame.

What the documentary argues

Through interviews with doctors, naturopaths and nutrition writers, Food Matters makes three main points. First, chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer and depression are closely tied to diet. Second, processed food and nutrient-poor farming leave many people undernourished even when they eat plenty of calories. Third, what the film calls a "sickness industry" focuses on managing symptoms with drugs rather than on prevention.

From there it goes further, suggesting that high-dose vitamins, raw food and detox regimes can sometimes replace conventional treatment, including for cancer. That is where many doctors and dietitians part company with it.

What it gets right, and where it overreaches

A great deal of the film's basic advice matches mainstream guidance. Diets rich in vegetables, fruit, whole grains, pulses and nuts, and low in heavily processed food, sugary drinks and excess salt, are linked to lower rates of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and some cancers. Many people would benefit from cooking more and eating fewer ultra-processed products.

The problems start when "food helps" becomes "food is enough". Good nutrition can support recovery and lower risk, but there is no reliable evidence that diet or vitamin megadoses cure established cancers, and delaying effective treatment can be dangerous. Anyone weighing a diet-based approach against prescribed treatment should talk to a doctor rather than choosing between them alone.

The "you are what you eat" claim

The film's tagline leans on the idea that your skin renews itself every 35 days, built from the food you eat. There is something in this: the outer layer of skin is constantly shed and replaced, roughly over a period of weeks, and the body uses nutrients from food to make new cells. But tissues renew at very different speeds, and some, such as most nerve cells, last a lifetime. Food is the raw material, not a blueprint.

The famous Hippocrates line

The documentary opens with a quotation often attributed to Hippocrates:

"Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food."

It is a misquotation. A 2013 paper in the journal e-SPEN by Diana Cárdenas found that the phrase does not appear in the Hippocratic writings. Hippocratic doctors did see diet as central to health, but they treated food and medicine as related, not identical.

The aspartame claims

Aspartame is a low-calorie sweetener about 200 times sweeter than sugar. It is used in roughly 6,000 foods and drinks worldwide, from diet sodas to chewing gum and tabletop sweeteners. Chemically it is made from two amino acids, aspartic acid and phenylalanine, which are also found in ordinary protein foods, plus a small methyl group that becomes methanol during digestion.

Material shared with the film online described aspartame as a deadly, addictive toxin that causes cancer, weakens immunity and kills brain cells as an "excitotoxin". These claims mostly trace back to a chain email from the late 1990s, circulated under the name "Nancy Markle", which blamed aspartame for conditions including multiple sclerosis, lupus and seizures. Scientific reviews have not supported those claims.

What regulators and researchers have found

• Cancer: In July 2023 the WHO's cancer research agency, IARC, placed aspartame in Group 2B, "possibly carcinogenic to humans", citing limited evidence for liver cancer. That category describes how strong the evidence is, not how big the risk is; it also includes things such as aloe vera extract and pickled vegetables. At the same time the joint WHO and FAO expert committee, JECFA, left its acceptable daily intake unchanged at 0–40 mg for each kilogram a person weighs, and judged intake below that to be safe.
• How much is that? According to the WHO, an adult weighing 70 kg would have to get through roughly 9 to 14 cans of diet soft drink a day, every day, to go over the limit, assuming no other sources.
• Europe: The European Food Safety Authority's 2013 review ruled out a potential risk of aspartame damaging genes or causing cancer at current levels of intake.
• Brain and nerve effects: The "excitotoxin" idea comes from research showing that very high levels of certain amino acids can damage nerve cells in laboratory animals. A US public board of inquiry rejected those concerns about aspartame in 1980. A 2010 double-blind study funded by the UK Food Standards Agency tested people who believed they reacted badly to aspartame and found no difference between aspartame and a placebo.
• Addiction: There is no good evidence that aspartame is addictive or causes withdrawal symptoms in the way the old claims describe.

Who really should avoid it

There is one well-established exception. People with phenylketonuria (PKU), a rare inherited condition, cannot break down phenylalanine properly, so they must avoid aspartame. That is why products containing it carry a "contains a source of phenylalanine" warning.

(The video originally embedded here is no longer available on YouTube.)

(The video originally embedded here is no longer available on YouTube.)

Common myths about sweeteners and "toxins"

• "If it has a chemical name, it's toxic." Everything we eat is made of chemicals. Toxicity depends on the dose: a glass of fruit juice also contains small amounts of methanol.
• "Natural sugar is always better." Too much sugar, from any source, is linked to tooth decay, weight gain and type 2 diabetes. Sweeteners are not health foods either, and the WHO advised in 2023 against relying on them for weight control.
• "One study proves it." Single studies, especially in animals, often point in different directions. Regulators look at the whole body of evidence.

Practical takeaways

The most useful part of Food Matters is simple: build most meals around whole foods and cook at home when you can. You do not need to fear a diet drink, but water, unsweetened tea and coffee are still better everyday choices. If you have a health condition, treat diet as a partner to medical care, not a replacement for it, and talk to a doctor or registered dietitian before making big changes.

The documentary closes with a saying that is often described as an ancient Ayurvedic proverb, although its origin cannot be traced to a specific text:

"When diet is wrong, medicine is of no use. When diet is correct, medicine is of no need."

It makes a good reminder of how much food matters. Taken literally, though, it is not true: even people who eat very well still sometimes need medicine, and that is nothing to be ashamed of.

Sources: Wikipedia: Food Matters; World Health Organization, 14 July 2023: Aspartame hazard and risk assessment results released; Wikipedia: Aspartame; Wikipedia: Aspartame controversy; Cárdenas D. (2013), "Let not thy food be confused with thy medicine: the Hippocratic misquotation", e-SPEN Journal. Film trailer: Food Matters.