The 5 Best Food Documentaries on Netflix Right Now

Netflix and grill: That’s one way you might enjoy spending an evening, especially given the food-related viewing we are about to queue up. I mean, who doesn’t want to get busy cooking—ideally with a grandmother by your side—after watching bestselling food writer Samin Nosrat dive into world cuisines in her four-part series Salt Fat Acid Heat? That’s as comforting as comfort food gets! (And if you want some comfort TV afterwards, you can always fire up Schitt’s Creek again.) True, some of these docs examine some of the dark sides of food—factory farming, manipulative distribution practices, toxic additives. (More like Netflix and swill, right?) But these serious stories are important, too, including surprising facts about sugar in our food supply to lessons on how sustainable food production is linked to both health and environmental issues. Whether you’re curling up at home on the couch or you’ve got time to kill during holiday travel, you can’t go wrong with one of these top food documentaries. 5 Food Docs to Netflix and Grill With Salt Fat Acid Heat (Image: Salt Fat Acid Heat) Named after the four pillars of successful cooking, Samin Nosrat’s Salt Fat Acid Heat is a kitchen primer, comic book and cookbook, all rolled into one. A publishing phenomenon in 2017, it became a Netflix miniseries one year later, with each of the episodes focused on one of the four key factors. We lucky viewers join Nosrat as she travels around the world, consulting local experts—which frequently means grandmothers—about their approaches to cooking. (As Nosrat told the Washington Post, “The bulk of all cooking has been done by women. And yet, in popular culture and in media, it’s very rarely that women are given credit for that.”) So come along for the journey, learning about salt in Japan, fat in Italy, and acid in Mexico. Will it make you hungry? Probably, but the show will teach some great recipes and trusty tips to improve your own home cooking. RELATED: The Inflammatory Foods You Should Really Avoid Rotten (Image: Rotten) This investigative docuseries explores the complexities of the food chain, crop by crop and coop by coop. Season 1 tackles honey, peanuts, garlic, chicken, milk and cod; season 2 looks into the issues at play with foods including avocado, chocolate and cannabis edibles. Reception to the show has generally been great: The first season scored 86% from critics, according to Rotten Tomatoes, while the second season was nominated for a News & Documentary Emmy Award and won the 2020 James Beard Media Award for Visual Reporting. The C Word (Image: The C Word) Narrated by Morgan Freeman (need we say more?), this 2016 documentary follows the personal journey of director Meghan LaFrance O’Hara, who survived stage-3 breast cancer. In the process, it dives into the “anticancer” philosophies of another survivor, French physician David Servan-Schreiber, who developed a four-pronged strategy for wellness against cancer: nutrition, exercise, stress management and the avoidance of toxins. A review in Variety praised The C Word for taking aim at “big-business entities abetting the toxic unhealthiness of the American lifestyle with chemically unregulated products and addictive foodstuffs crammed with sugar and additives.” What The Health (Image: What The Health) OK, this one’s a little bit dicey, we admit. It’s biased in favor of a vegan diet (of course, there’s nothing wrong with a documentary wearing its heart, and its biases, on its sleeve)—but it also has a lot of flaws in its reporting, as this Vox article explains. Still, it’s worth checking out to get a sense of some of the issues behind making vegan choices. (While you’re at it, check out Forks Over Knives, another doc about plant-based eating; it’s no longer on Netflix, but you can stream it directly on its own website.) RELATED: What You Need to Know to Be a Healthy Vegan Cooked (Image: Cooked) Back to the joy of cooking and the glories of exploring other cultures, with an expert as our guide. This time, instead of Samin Nosrat, our host is Michael Pollan, another bestselling author. The four episodes of this miniseries are each themed around one of the ancient elements: fire, air, water and earth. The audience gets to visit Australia, India and Morocco as Pollan dives into a wide range of foods, from barbecue to bread making. In its review, the New York Times applauded the documentary’s “long-view history lesson in how innovations that we take for granted transformed the human species.” (Image: Shutterstock)

Dr. Jordan Metzl’s High-Intensity, Fitness-Focused Nutritious Life

Dr. Jordan Metzl’s mom had a motto that clearly stuck with him: “Rest means rust!” The esteemed sports medicine physician, popular fitness instructor, athlete, and best-selling author almost never stops moving, and his new book reflects that ethos. Dr. Jordan Metzl’s Workout Prescription: 10, 20 & 30-minute high intensity interval training workouts for every fitness level brings the science of high-intensity exercise to the busy masses, with workouts you can do quickly, wherever you are, no equipment required. To celebrate the launch, we asked Dr. Metzl to share how he lives his own most Nutritious Life daily, and he dished out the details on how he swims, bikes, and runs all over the town, the foods he eats for fuel, and more fun facts. How Does Dr. Jordan Metzl Live a Nutritious Life? If you had to name your healthy diet, what would you call it? “Dr. Metzl’s A Little Bit of Everything Diet.” I’ve done 14 Ironman triathlons and 35 marathons, and food is fuel to me. I love all different kinds of food, and the more efficient I make my body, the more foods I can enjoy. What’s the one food you always have in your fridge? Greek Yogurt. It’s simple, fast, and packed with protein. The one food you’d never buy? Peanut butter. I hate it! What do you eat before and after a workout? I like doing the “naked workout” once or twice a week—as in working out on an empty stomach. If I do eat before a workout, it’s usually some type of complex carbs like whole wheat bread with honey and coffee. Afterwards, if it’s been a serious training session, I usually go for the first thing I can get my hands on. Your favorite food indulgence? Ice cream. Other than water, what do you sip regularly? Coffee. How often do you exercise, and what’s your workout of choice? Every day. I try to never miss a day. I vary my workouts regularly. I run, swim, bike, and I’m obviously a huge fan of HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) that focuses on strength. My latest book is all about that. Which workout would you NEVER do? There isn’t a workout I wouldn’t try at least once. How do you stay active outside the gym? I’m hardly ever in the gym! I get around New York City on my bike. If I have a meeting or an event downtown, I’ll put clothes in my backpack and run to the closest Equinox. I keep it moving all the time. My mother always says, “rest means rust!” What’s your go-to tool for managing stress? Exercise, 100 percent. How do you express and spread love? I try and do it as much as I can. I smile and high-five every single patient I see and every person I interact with. I try to build that same idea within my IronStrength fitness community, too. We do a lot of partner workouts and supporting and cheering each other on. Which healthy habit do you wish you had more time for? Sleep! Lighting Round Meditation or massage? Massage. A hot shower or a soothing bath? Shower. Almond butter or peanut butter? Neither! Coffee or tea? Coffee. A long run outside or a dark spin class? Run. “How Do You Live a Nutritious Life?” is a recurring column. Featured guests complete a questionnaire and select answers are then chosen and edited to share, here. Are you a wellness pro interested in sharing how you live a Nutritious Life? Email lisa@nutritiouslife.com to be considered.