Forks Over Knives

If you’ve been meditating in a cave in the Himalayas and haven’t heard about the new doc “Forks Over Knives” now playing in theatres across North America, it’s safe to come out. The plant-strong message has hit the mainstream, and pretty soon, those friends and family members who call you the Crazy Hippy will be asking for your recipe for those veggie burgers you brought to the family bbq last summer.

Forks Over Knives examines the claim that we can reverse degenerative diseases like diabetes, heart disease and cancer simply by eating a whole foods plant-based diet — and it makes a powerful case for animal protein being the cause of most cancers and cardiovascular diseases.

Full disclosure, Feel Good Guru’s Food appears ever-so-briefly-but-beautifully in Forks Over Knives – here are the recipes! – and the producers are friends, but after four viewings, I’m convinced this film is a game changer that will make the masses think more deeply about the correlation between what we eat and how we feel. Unlike some of the more graphic animal rights movies aimed at changing peoples’ diets, Forks Over Knives is much more palatable to a mainstream audience, approaching the topic solely from a health standpoint. It takes “Food, Inc.” to the next obvious level, and challenges big agra/pharma a la “Inconvenient Truth.”

For those of us in the choir, Forks Over Knives is a strong reminder that food is the best medicine, and some of us will walk away vowing to eat even healthier, armed with scientific proof that we can actually rebuild epithelial cells with whole plant foods. (I want my teenaged 4 tennis courts’ worth back!) For those not yet convinced, it may just be the catalyst needed to ignite a radical lifestyle change.

Producer, Brian Wendel has been working on the film since October 2008 after reading The China Study and deciding the world needed this life-saving information in a broader format. “I love how much feedback we’re getting of people going home to clean out the fridge!” he says. “That’s what it’s all about!”

The film follows several inspiring transformations from over-caffeinated, overweight, diabetic and unhealthy heart-attacks-waiting-to-happen to happy, healthy -buff, even – remarkably, alive (!) former patients after weeks, months or years on a plant-based diet supervised by doctors who prescribe food over pharmaceuticals.

Esteemed Drs. T. Colin Campbell and Caldwell Esselstyn both grew up on farms promoting animal foods as the healthiest diet for human consumption. Through scientific research and clinical studies over decades, each separately and simultaneously came to the same conclusion – that the diet they’d worked hard to promote was actually killing people. The statistics are staggering, the graphs are convincing, the evidence is compelling, and the numbers don’t lie.

There will always be people caught in the pleasure trap who don’t want to hear that their grilled pork belly sandwich is the cause of their hypertension. Some of us have sick relatives who don’t want to believe their arthritis or diabetes can be cured with leafy greens. But this doc serves as a wide opening for people to have a considered conversation. I suggest that one of the most loving things you can do for them (yourself?) would be to make a fabulous plant-powered meal – make it delish! – then take them to see the film. It may be the remedy that allows them to accept that forks over knives, salad over surgery is the key to a longer, healthier, happier and more fulfilling life.