Forks Over Knives: The Cause Of Chronic Disease

Cases of obesity and diabetes are exploding, especially amongst our younger generation. Cancer, heart disease and stroke are the county’s three leading causes of death, yet billions of money are spent to cure these diseases. One in three of us suffer from chronic diseases. Could there be a solution to this epidemic? Forks over Knives takes us through a health-related research about chronic diseases by two researchers, Dr. T. Colin Campbell, a nutritional scientist from Cornell university, and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyne, a former surgeon at the world renowned Cleveland clinic. On May 6, 2011 Forks over Knives was released. The director of the film is lee Fulkerson. The film follows up on the china study, which is believed to be the most comprehensive
This is clearly demonstrated in the scene where the rats were exposed to a carcinogen called aflatoxin and later on feeding on a diet of casein, the main protein found in milk. Half of the rats were fed 20% casein while the rest were fed 5% casein. After few weeks of experiments, the rats fed 20% casein had a greatly enhanced level of early liver cancer or tumor growth while the rats fed 5% casein had no evidence of cancer whatsoever. The significance of this experiment was to show the effects of animal protein in our body. Another significant moment is when lee Fulkerson goes on and talks about how the fast food industry was exploding and more overscheduled Americans were using it as a convenient way to feed themselves and their families (Forks over Knives). Fulkerson affirms that, “As fast foods was sweeping the nation, the rate of cancer deaths was continuing to rise [and] as a result, in 1971, the president Nixon initiated a program that was dubbed “The war on cancer” (Forks over Knives). .” The significance of this quote was that the rise of fast food companies increased the rate of the cancer in
This is clearly demonstrated in the scene where the China study took place by Dr. Campbell. It took part in 367 diet and health related variables making it one of the most ambitious nutritional studies ever undertaken. Sixty five counties across china were carefully surveyed their diet and lifestyle of 6500 people. Urine and blood samples were also taken. After nearly a decade of intense study, the study identified no less than 94,000 correlations between diet and diseases. One of Dr. Campbell’s colleague’s clearly states that, “the main message we got from thee correlations analysis is one of the message: the plant-based diet mainly cereal, vegetables and fruit was always associated with lower mortality rate and that whole-foods are beneficial to human health while animal foods were not.” The purpose of this study was to show the relationship between diet and risk or developing