BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — John Whittington III and Jevon Whittington are twin brothers from Buffalo who are used to the spotlight, they make up the R&B/rap group JFW.
"It's a creative release for us," said John.
That's on top of their careers as nurses at ECMC and Roswell, respectively.
Being twins who work in health care and who are comfortable on camera made them a natural fit for a new Netflix docuseries "You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment."
It's currently the third most-watched program on the streamer. It tells the story of a Stanford study looking at the impact of the food we eat.
21 sets of identical twins with different backgrounds were recruited for the study and only four sets made it into the series, including the Whittington brothers.
They spent nearly two months following very strict diets and workout routines.
"One adopts a plant-based diet, and one adopts an omnivorous diet, and over the eight weeks, they looked at our microbiome and our epigenetics," said Jevon.
Filming lasted nearly a year.
"We feel like we really stuck to it and gave them what they were looking for," said John.
In the end, the Stanford study concluded that the twins who followed the vegan diet had "improved cardiometabolic outcomes" — meaning longer life expectancy, less buildup of dangerous fats around their organs, lower risk of heart disease and other health benefits.
"I think that this will inspire people to cut back on meat or animal products in general or just to eat more fruits and vegetables," said Jevon.
The Whittington family got together to watch the series when it debuted on New Year's Day. The series will be seen in more than 100 countries, and produced in more than 30 different languages.
"Definitely a cool like, bucket list moment I didn't expect to have," said Jevon. "'Oh I want to be on Netflix,' I never said that, but OK, we can check that off."
"Being young black men in nursing... I don't see a lot of people that look like me on the floors, I feel like we're representing, especially being from Buffalo," said John.
"It feels really good to be representing our hometown, having this moment in this town," said Jevon.
A town now proud to watch, along with millions of others worldwide.
