Forks Over Knives

We are digging ourselves an early grave. Health care costs have skyrocketed leaving the sick and debilitated to fend for themselves. Heart disease, cancer and stroke are the three leading causes of death in America, even though we live among the most advanced medical technology known to man. Two out of three of every people are overweight, and about half of the population relies on atleast one prescription pill to get them through the day.

In short, we are running out of sick days.

Brian Wendel, creator and executive producer of Forks Over Knives - this year’s adventitious follow-up to the Emmy-nominated, Food Inc.- had a gut feeling that the irrefutable rise of a generation's ailments, degenerative diseases and medical bills was pointing to one single problem: Our widespread dependence on meat and processed foods. This wasn’t just a whim. T. Colin Campbell, author of the reveled bestseller, The China Study, and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, a leading surgeon and head of the Breast Cancer Task Force at the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic, had already come across plenty of research suggesting a substantial link between an animal-based diet and the rise of disease. Their conclusion: Degenerative diseases could almost always be prevented - and in many cases, reversed - by adopting a whole foods, plant-based diet.

Brian thought the only way to bring the message to the world would be through a feature film. After all, we do love our buttery popcorn and value-size soda pop.

Without any film cred to his name, Brian put his career on the backburner and recruited an award-winning production team to follow the personal journeys of both Campbell and Esselstyn. Taking him a year to make, Forks Over Knives put the idea of food as medicine to the test, documenting real patients with chronic conditions and featuring interviews with top researchers, nutritionists, doctors and authors to support the theory.

Healthy Bitch Daily caught up with Brian to talk about his upcoming feature film, his findings and why the hell this isn’t common knowledge. To get updates on the Forks Over Knives DVD release, visit www.forksoverknives.com.

Heart disease is the number one killer of women, yet it is not common knowledge. It kills more women than all the cancers combined. How can women protect themselves again heart disease with food?

Clinical research from Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn and others has shown that a whole foods, plant-based diet will prevent heart disease in most cases. This is supported by population studies that show a close association with animal foods and our nation’s number one killer.

The most exciting element of Dr. Esselstyn’s research is the ability of diet to reverse disease. In Forks Over Knives, you’ll see the evidence clearly. All of Dr. Esselstyn’s patients survived the 12-year study, despite being the sickest of the sick. Some of Dr. Esselstyn’s patients were given up for dead by their regular physicians! And all three patients treated during the film’s production greatly improved their cardiac conditions.

While a whole foods, plant-based diet can reverse heart disease after its onset, I recommend everyone transition into this lifestyle before they have symptoms. In more than a quarter of cases, sudden death is the first and only sign that a person had heart disease.

What was the most startling research you found on cancer and our diets?

It was definitely Dr. Campbell’s laboratory work on casein, the main protein in dairy products. Casein promoted cancer in every instance, at levels not far from the levels that people eating a Western diet typically consume. Other substances considered “carcinogenic” do so at levels many times greater. Dr. Campbell’s research was supported by his large population study in China, where cancer rates varied by as much as 400 times from one county to another. In his study, Dr. Campbell and leading scientists from around the world measured over 360 diet and health-related variables. They found cancer rates and animal foods to be closely associated. 

Forks Over Knives - Movie Trailer

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Can you really use food to "reverse" disease?

Yes, in many cases. There is significant scientific evidence that a whole foods diet can reverse heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. There is evidence that other diseases will respond as well. It seems that the Western diet – a diet of animal-based and processed foods – is the primary catalyst for many diseases. So it follows that making this change will yield benefits, and in many cases reverse existing conditions.

This is exactly why the film is called Forks Over Knives: we show that what’s on the end of your fork can prevent you from going under the knife.

 

In T. Colin Campbell's The China Study, he found that the country's wealthier children, who were consuming relatively high amounts of animal-based foods, were much more likely to get liver cancer.

The one tip you would give women ...

I recommend everyone adopt a whole foods, plant-based diet and start realizing the health benefits. At the same time, it supports a sustainable environment and is inherently more compassionate to our fellow beings. In every way, a whole foods, plant-based lifestyle wins out over animal-based and processed food; it’s only that we have been conditioned otherwise from early childhood.  

How can people watch the movie and support your cause?

Look for the film to be released around November 2010, although an official date is not set yet. The DVD release will follow the theatrical run. Please support the film by joining our Facebook fan page, [CH4]sharing a link to the Web site and following us on Twitter.

*article from The Healthy Bitch Daily newsletter