Forks over Knives movie review

People have been telling me I have to see the movie Forks over Knives so I rented it this past weekend. This documentary explains that we can reduce cancer and many diseases by eliminating animal meat, dairy and oils from our diet. The correlation between meat and heart disease is astounding. I learned that ED is the first indication of heart disease (did you read that, men?) A group of fire fighters stopped eating meat, and lowered their cholesterol and increased their strength. Seeing them do pull-ups with heavy packs almost had me sold.

For those who think we need dairy for its calcium, then why do the folks who eat the most dairy have severe osteoporosis? Just because milk is good for the calf, doesn’t mean it’s good for us. By eating unhealthy and processed foods, the stretch and density receptors in our stomach, which tells the brain to stop eating, gets messed up, so people keep eating, and end up overweight. They termed this the “pleasure trap.” The film goes over various studies, and interviews doctors, and those who have changed their diets, to validate its points.

They explain that eating 5% of animal protein from your diet seems to have no ill effects, but that’s an incredibly small amount. If you eat 2000 calories a day, that’s only 100 calories from animal meat. What this film didn’t discuss was whether wheat products like bread or pasta was a good or poor choice of carbs, but they seem to promote wheat since recipes with wheat flour are on their website. (I rarely eat wheat). They don’t discuss the fact that beans are hard to digest, and if a person doesn’t eat beans, but adheres to this diet, if they will be deficient in nutrients (most likely). (I cannot tolerate beans and don’t eat them). And we don’t learn in this movie if a moderate protein diet from lean animal meats would have the same benefits on a active person with an ideal weight, who eats clean the majority of the time. Regardless, it’s a convincing argument, and I recommend it to everyone, even though the film has such poor sound quality, and seems a bit dated for being only 5 years old.

You can watch my exercise videos on Instagram under @FitGirlUSA

For more information on this film, check out: http://www.forksoverknives.com/

Photo: Grilled chicken can be hard to resist.