Forks Over Knives - Documentary

Another Saturday, another documentary... Decided to watch Forks Over Knives, which by coincidence compliments my previous post about portion size. It took a while to get into the film, probably because some of the stuff is old news -- to me. But what eventually got me into it was their studies about the effects of a the Western diet compared to a whole-foods plant-based diet.

It's hard to summarize the film into one cohesive summary, so instead, I typed up some of the facts from the film:

• We spend more on health care in America than on our federal defense budget
• Lipitor is the number one prescribed medication in the world
• (used "...to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke and to decrease the chance that heart surgery will be needed in people who have heart disease or who are at risk of developing heart disease. Atorvastatin is also used to decrease the amount of cholesterol (a fat-like substance) and other fatty substances in the blood.")

• 1-2% of cancers are attributed to our genes... the rest are caused from how we treat and feed our bodies.
• Protein from animals promoted cancer growth, while protein from plants decreased cancer growth.
• A plant-based diet can reverse cancer!
• Even physically fit people are at risk because of their diets. I know I sometimes fall back on the notion, "hey, I'm thin and eat right most of the time." But even the fittest athletes can be at the same risk of cancer because of the amount of animal protein they consume.
• According to the United Nations, the cattle industry contributes to global warming more than the entire transportation industry.
• Heart disease is the number one killer in the U.S. Not smoking, drugs, alcohol, or even cancer.
• Below is how much we have increased our animal proteins and refined sugar over the past 100 years.

                                                    Then.............Now
                     Meat                      120lbs..........222lbs
                     Refined sugar          40lbs..........147lbs
                     Diary products       294lbs.........605lbs