Review of film: “FORKS OVER KNIVES” ( a documentary promoting PLANT-based diets )

2010, 05-10:

Review of film:  “FORKS OVER KNIVES”  

  Could your “ANIMAL” instincts (& propaganda) be “KILLING” you?!...

This documentary in many ways goes “WITH” the “grain”, in that it tends to promote the idea that most of us would be far better-off health-wise if we’d switch to eating more PLANT-based food...

...  In this movie ( forksoverknives.com ), the filmmakers (via writer-director LEE FULKERSON)  concentrate on the opinions of people such as vegan-diet promoter GENE BAUR...

...  At length, we learn information about the lives and opinions of two main senior citizens who’d been influential in the world of diet and health matters:  CALDWELL ESSELSTYN JR. M.D., and DAVID KLURFELD (holder of a Ph.D.) who’s worked for the U.S. Dept of Agriculture...

...  The men involved (and other people we meet) speak of how they have learned a great deal thru the years on how a lot of the American public has been MISLED by statements and in-effect “propaganda” by various industries which have encouraged us to eat more and more MEAT (supposedly to give us “needed” protein),  DAIRY products (to provide “needed” calcium), EGGS and other such items...

  

...  Dr. Esselstyn has written books on preventing and reversing HEART disease, and he cites statistics showing that much of the protein from meat HURTS rather than helps people because it’s too excessive re what we take in... 

...  We are told how America has maybe 40% of its people who are obese, with the “average” person carrying an “extra” 23 pounds on their bodies...

...  Statistics are given about how there’s been a huge increase in DIABETES in the world, in large part due to things such as “processed” foods (sugars, etc.) we eat nowadays... 

...  We hear from NEAL BARNARD (M.D.), & it’s estimated that, if diets don’t change, 1 in 3 people in the U.S. might develop some form of diabetes... JOEY AUCOIN feels diabetes can be in part REVERSED by utilizing a plant-based diet...  

...  Information is given on a huge study (comprising more than 600,000+ people in China) giving massive details on CANCER problems, & how people who eat PLANT-based foods rather than meat-based ones are in far better health than the others (namely, not being obese, etc.)...

...  We’re introduced to DR. MATTHEW LEDDERMAN and his doctor wife.  They help treat medical problems of very overweight SAN’DERA BRANTLEY-NATION.  They show bad cholesterol and other troubles she’s developed, put her on a PLANT-based diet, and we’re shown huge IMPROVEMENTS in her health...

...  Information is given on how we can get healthful protein from plants which don’t have the harmful “side-effects” given by MEAT-based types...   

...  JOHN McDOUGALL (M.D.) feels that it’s been “unnatural” for humans to keep consuming milk from COWS and other animals.  He feels the public has been badly misinformed by decades of ads from the Dairy industry trying to increase the intake of their products...

...  He points out studies done that allegedly show that dairy products tend to make our health WORSE rather than better (& how the calcium from such products ends up hurting our overall health rather than helping it, by supposedly CAUSING rather than helping osteoporosis)...  It’s felt we’d be far better-off using LOW-fat products... 

...  Martial arts expert MAC DANZIG is interviewed, and he talks about how much stronger & healthier he’s been since switching to a PLANT-based diet & by having cut-out eating dairy products since he was 18...

...  Information is given on the harmful effects re weight and health caused by high-fructose corn syrup and similar items...

...  We’re given a quote of an old Egyptian proverb which says in-effect that, only around ¼ of what we’re told to do by doctors helps the PATIENTS--  while the other 3/4ths mainly just helps the DOCTORS...

...  As I recall it properly, it’s stated that the economic industries “pushed” the growing of corn and other grains mainly to feed CATTLE to provide us with more “protein”...

...  But, supposedly we’re WASTING the grains, in that it’s being used to provide enough cattle for like “8 billion” people, whereas we’d be better off health-wise using the grain to instead directly feed the 6 people PEOPLE on the planet with HEALTHY (plant) products to keep them alive...

...  The film is (by choice) quite “ONE-sided” overall...  There’s only like a single person in the movie (a lady) who is “PRO” having people eat plenty of MEAT & DAIRY & EGG products, & she in-effect “parrots” the positions of the various ASSOCIATIONS set-up to promote those industries...

...  I feel this film provides some HELPFUL ideas (by people who seem very sincere and well-meaning), and a lot of things that are worth “THINKING” about... 

...  Certainly, we can do far BETTER in providing more HEALTHY diets that could improve the lives of a lot of people (by reducing the excess use of certain sugars and salt and processed foods, cholesterol-building products, etc.)...

...  But, while there are a lot of valuable “points” made during the film, it tends to seem a bit “OVERdone” when it borders on the “ONE-answer-fits-ALL” type of solutions to what are clearly a wide range of ever-present and growing problems (among different groups of people in a variety of “circumstances”)...

...  I would’ve liked to see MORE time spent on dealing with just WHICH PLANT-based items are supposedly “BEST” for us to consume (rather than mainly just dealing with the animal-based items that are purportedly BAD for us to ingest)... 

    

...  Accordingly, I’m rating the film at 7.75 out of 10 stars for what it DOES strive to do...

  

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