Forks Over Knives

On Sunday, while others were distracted by Akira Kurosawa's epic masterpiece Seven Samurai, I watched "Forks over Knives" (2011; Trailer #1; Trailer #2),

First, the high points the movie claims during the trailer:

• (Trailer #1) ?: "This could be the first generation of children in the United States that lives less than its parents."
  
  
• Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn: "Heart disease is an absolutely toothless paper tiger that need never ever exist."
  
  
• Dr. John McDougall: "People who were raised in Japan, the Philippines, Korea, China, never had heart disease, prostate cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis...."
  
  
• Dr. T. Colin Campbell: "We learned we could turn on and turn off cancer growth just by adjusting the level of intake of that protein."
  
  
• Dr. John McDougall: "I knew, at that point, what caused most diseases...."
  
  
• Dr. T. Colin Campbell: "Our national authorities are simply excluding this concept...to protect the status quo...."
  
  
• Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn: "With a Western diet, there are gonna be half-a-million people in this country, this year, who will have to have the front half of their body divided, their heart exposed; some people would call that extreme."
  
  
• Dr. T. Colin Campbell: "I know of nothing else in medicine, that can come close to what a plant-based diet can do."
  
  
• Dr. Pam Popper: "If you go through life thinking what happens to you from a health perspective is based on your genes you're a helpless victim."
  
  
• San’Dera Nation (random patient): "I reversed the diabetes. The diabetes is not coming back."
  
  
• Rip Esselstyn (son of Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn): "To me the answer is so simple, it's criminal. It's just, people starting to take responsibility for their health and starting to eat more plant-based foods. It's that simple."
  
  
• (Trailer #2) Katie Couric: "Heart disease is the #1 killer of women in this country...."
  
  
• Tagline: "What if we could cure sickness without medicine?"
  
  
• Tagline: "What if our nation's health crisis could be solved?"
  

• Dr. T. Colin Campbell: "If everyone were to adopt this, I...I really believe we could cut health care costs by 70-80%...."
  
  

• Tagline: "Two men who grew up on farms turned their backs on the past and turned to science to find the answer."
  

• Dr. T. Colin Campbell (speaking about milk): "When I was young, we promoted our product because it was nature's most perfect food; but it took a slightly different twist as time passed. I mean it's the most perfect food--for calves."
  
  
• Dr. T. Colin Campbell: "I mean it's so provocative, this information: we learned we could turn on and turn off cancer growth just by adjusting the level of intake of that protein."
  
  
• Dr. Junshi Chen: "Because they are all Chinese, genetically they are all the same. Why they have so much difference in single cancer mortality."
  
  
• Tagline: "What if there was a single solution to all these problems?"
  
  
• Dr. T. Colin Campbell: "On the one hand, I'm coming from the scientific route, getting some ideas. He's coming from the clinical route. Here's the science, here's the clinical evidence. What they do together's amazing."
  
  
• Tagline: "A solution so overlooked that no one is taking it seriously?"
  
  
• Tagline: "Two men one improbable conclusion"
  
  
• Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn: "The greatest gift that you could possibly give to their family--if you can make them be aware of the incredible power to avoid life's most painful events, you just don't have to have those kinds of events."
  
  
• Tagline: "What if they're right?"
  
  
• Dr. T. Colin Campbell: "I can say this with a great deal of confidence, that our national authorities are excluding this concept of nutrition from the debate and the discussion in order to protect the status quo...."

Some thoughts:

• I went in skeptical, expecting a weak argument--and came out pleasantly surprised at the amount of information and quality of information presented.
  
  
• This movie pulled no punches in casting a negative slant on the practices of the USDA with respect to commodities (namely, both advocating for, and regulating the same industry) and the opinions of former President of the American Dietetic Association, Connie B. Diekman.
  
• The main target of the movie seems to be animal protein, whether by meat, dairy, or other dietary products.
  
  
• They claimed acidosis results from consumption of dairy, which leaches calcium, contributing to osteoporosis.
• The movie claims "Over 50% of our firefighters who die in the line of duty are dying from heart attacks and strokes."
• It talks about the USDA food pyramid (then MyPyramid, now MyPlate) and it's origins and how milk and meat remain(-ed?) a key part of it.
• The movie claims people need Viagra because of cardiovascular dysfunction brought on by high cholesterol diets.
• The movie talked about stretch and fullness sensors on the stomach and how different foods fill the stomach differently (oils: most caloric, barely fill; vegetables: least caloric, completely fill)
• The movie also talked about endothelial cells on the interior walls of blood vessels and how they serve a critical role in preventing heart disease.

CSICOP savages the movie here: http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/a_review_of_forks_over_knives