Forks Over Knives Review
TweetFork Over Knives
Directed by: Lee Fulkerson
Fulkerson’s Forks Over Knives is truly a must-see for all Americans or those eating that typical western diet. The truth is two out of three Americans are overweight, half of us are on some sort of prescription drugs, and diabetes is consuming our children at younger ages. We are unhealthy. We spend billions of dollars a year to figure out how to treat the symptoms of our biggest killers in America, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. There is no solution yet, but this movie argues, why not stop them from happening at all. Instead of treating symptoms, lets prevent the cause. Forks Over Knives supposes that a plant-based diet is the cure and that animal based and processed foods are the cause.
Fulkerson introduces us to several people who have a problem (or several) and have had enough of it taking bottles of pills and not getting better. They meet with holistic doctors that advise them go on a plant-based diet and eat whole natural foods. By the end of the documentary we see an overweight woman with diabetes lose about 50 pounds and no longer has to take her medication, we see an overweight man who has many problems such as diabetes, lack of energy and so on, and goes on the diet and also loses weight and looks 10 years younger.
The spine of the movie is the research of Dr. T. Colin Campbell and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn. Both of them grew up on farms, where animal based products where their livelihood, but during their research they both discovered evidence to that strongly suggests that meat and milk are causing a lot of problems for us. Dr. Campbell wrote a book called The China Study that uncovers a 30 years study in China that he conducted where he talks about his experiments in actually turning cancer on and off like a switch by switching lab rats diet from 20% casein (milk protein) to 5%. Dr. Esselstyn was a top surgeon and head of the Breast Cancer Task Force at the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic until he made the same discovery as Dr. Campbell.
The movie uses graphics and illustrations to exemplify their point and make statistics easy to comprehend. A funny shark cartoon is used to illustrate how
food acts as a low-grade drug in our brain. The filmmakers traveled all over the world to gather footage of Dr. Campbell and Dr. Esselstyn in action or giving interviews. And they did a great job following the lives of the patients whose lives are transformed on their new diet. From a production stand-point, much of the interview audio was over modulated and shot composition and lighting was below expectations for a feature film. I found this distracting, but the message over powers the production value and I still left the theater renewed in my decision to go veg nearly a year ago.
Megan and I both thoroughly enjoyed the movie and hope to share it with many more people.
If you get a chance go out and see it now and spread the word!
Find showtimes in your area now!
Official Forks Over Knives site.
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After this comment I’m on my way in Irvine for the 1130AM showing.
Here’s a list where the movie is playing:
http://www.forksoverknives.com/showtimes/
Hopefully it will be opening in more theatres.
Hey, I’m replying to myself.
Just saw the movie. Kudos, kudos, kudos.
The movie is compelling, thoughtful and interesting throughout. Chock full of so much information, there is no way it can be digested in one sitting. Beyond powerful.
One of the things most powerful is this: In the US, if we have an increase of a certain type of cancer in one segment of the country, millions of dollars will be spent on studies, and it will be on 60 minutes. For example, 60 Minutes’ did a piece years ago about the electrical lines overhead causing cancer.
One of the things the movie was able to portray was a study that was done in China. In rural China the peasants rarely leave their own village for their whole lives. What the China Study was able to document was that there was a difference in heart disease and cancer, not 20% greater in different regions, but multiples greater. And it was proven that it’s the diet that’s the cause of these diseases.
Glad your enjoyed it! Agreed, I’m almost done reading China Study myself, fascinating research. It’s true there are so many harmful things, but so much of it won’t go away because some people would loose big money. that is sad.