by Skye Dean (’27) | February 2, 2024
One of our very own Saint Francis educators has made her mark on the scientific community. Ms. Rosalyn Moorhouse is a religious studies teacher and the co-moderator of the Filipino-American Student Union at Saint Francis. Recently, she was featured on the Netflix docuseries, You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment. The series highlights a Stanford study aiming to understand the effects of diet on overall health. Since its release, the show has amassed over twelve million views, and in early January, it reached third on Netflix’s weekly top ten most watched TV and films. What’s more important, however, is the show’s message: it encourages its viewers to become more conscious about how they fuel their bodies. I had the opportunity to speak with Ms. Moorhouse about her experience on the documentary and what we can take away from the series.
Before we can explore the study’s content, it is important to understand its structure. The study included four sets of identical twins, including Ms. Moorhouse and her twin sister, Carolyn. Ms. Moorhouse explained, “Twins are very desirable for research because [they] are monozygotic.” Using twins in a study reduces the amount of outside variables which may influence the result because their DNA is identical. In this case, Stanford researchers aimed to minimize genetic differences that could affect an individual’s health, like a predisposition to certain conditions. In the experiment, the twins were placed on different diets as a team of researchers evaluated changes in their well-being.
Ms. Moorhouse explained the purpose of the experiment: “This study was going to have one twin randomized into a vegan diet and another twin randomized into an omnivorous diet. Both diets were to be supported by Stanford researchers, and they were supposed to be healthy. But the question that they asked was, which diet might be better? And can we see results in eight weeks?”
The short answer: yes! The study found that the twins placed on the vegan diet experienced an overall improvement in health, an increased life expectancy, a decrease in their risk of heart disease, and more. However, the study did not outright refute the alternative omnivorous diet. Ms. Moorhouse, who followed the omnivorous diet, shared, “The Stanford study wasn’t aimed to make people vegan. The Stanford study was aimed to see what little changes can be made for people to be healthier, right? To increase your longevity, to increase your quality of life.” While she now leans more toward plant-based meals, participating in the study helped her realize that she was already “eating fairly healthy.”
For Ms. Moorhouse, her most important takeaway from the study was how it altered her perspective on food. She says, “Being involved in the study [made] me even more mindful, and more aware of how important eating a healthy diet is.” If we all work to become more familiar with what we put into our bodies, we can better our own health and lives. Meeting Ms. Moorhouse and hearing about her experience was truly inspiring. Hopefully, her words provide some food for thought!