Always on Sunday: Forks over Knives

"Parental guidance suggested: Nasty diseases and scary statistics."
    That's the cute but accurate way Lee Fulkerson's 2011 documentary Forks over Knives was rated for audiences by Jeannette Catsoulis in her May 5, 2011 review, "Soul Food, Vegan Style," in the May 5, 2011 The New York Times.
    Yes, watching Forks over Knives does demand some patience with unappetizing images and numbers, whether you're under thirteen or not. But to my way of thinking, it's a must see film for people who think they owe it to themselves, to their health, to their energy level—and likely to their longevity—to at least watch a film that seriously and responsibly examines the correlational/causal relationship between diet and health, and to consider its "persuasive case for banishing meat and dairy from the dinner table," as Ms. Catsoulis summarizes it. (I don't think that she meant to be making exceptions for breakfast, lunch, and snacks by neglecting to mention them.)
    The film also sketches the rise of "fast food" and explains how fast food has been disastrous for public health. A related documentary, the 2008 Food, Inc., more deeply explores the food industry's role in the matter. Think capitalism, profit motive, lobbying Congress. And, regrettably, think us, who have found fast food tasty, convenient, and affordable, however detrimental to our health and the health of our children.
    Despite Ms. Catsoulis's "nasty diseases and scary statistics" rating of the film, it is watchable enough for anyone open to considering its message and seriously looking at what and why they eat. 

Two scientists play prominently in the film's story line: T. Colin Campbell, a biochemist who specializes in nutrition, and Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., a physician whose 2007 book, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, influenced President Clinton's diet (and isn't he looking good these days?). The film effectively portrays the two men's dedication, perseverance, and humanity—and how they finally came to meet one another after decades of their long lives studying the problem separately. Dr. Esselstyn credits Dr. Campbell with showing him that it wasn't just eating meat that was a problem, but also consuming dairy products.
    Being myself already familiar with the film's main conclusions, I nevertheless learned some interesting things in watching Forks over Knives, not the least being the role of Drs. Campbell & Esselstyn, which struck me because I had been looking for scientific underpinnings for vegetarianism and veganism, to supplement the ethical argument against eating animals, as Jonathan Safran Foer aptly puts it in the title and text of his 2009 national bestseller, Eating Animals.
    Another was the huge contribution to the findings made by a China study on diet and disease. It was set up in 1983 by Cornell University, largely under the leadership of Dr. Campbell, the University of Oxford, and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine. It explored the relationship between nutrition and cancer, heart, and metabolic diseases. Jane Brody, in the article "Huge Study of Diet Indicts Fat and Meat," published in The New York Times on May 8, 1990, described the study as "the Grand Prix of epidemiology."
    And, finally—I suppose because it involved the Nazis—I found fascinating the fact that early in World War II, when the Germans occupied Norway, one of the first things they did was confiscate all the livestock and farm animals to provide supplies for their own troops, leaving the Norwegians to eat mainly plant-based foods, with the result shown in the following graph:

    This struck me as quite dramatic when I viewed it, but I believe now that the numbers in the column on the left indicate deaths per 10,000 population, so it's possible that the film exaggerated the effects of first changing to a mainly plant-based diet, then changing back to eating meat and dairy products after the Germans left. Still, the effects seem to be scientifically significant.
    Forks over Knives wasn't made to entertain but to inform and warn people about the effects of eating meat, dairy products, and processed foods on human bodies. The film documents such a diet's contribution to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity, which can be prevented and even sometimes reversed by following a vegan diet and avoiding processed foods.
    Both films are available currently by instant download from Netflix. Forks over Knives, Food, Inc.
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Thanks to Jim Rix for encouraging me to review Forks over Knives. He did so in a comment to his article, "What is the cause of Heart Disease?," on November 20.