Forks Over Knives

Despite the most advanced medical technology in the world, Americans are sicker than ever by nearly every measure. Forks Over Knives examines the profound claim that most, if not all, of the increasingly common ‘diseases of affluence’ (including type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, and obesity) can be controlled, or even reversed, by rejecting a menu of animal-based and processed foods. In doing so, it traces the personal journeys of a pair of pioneering yet under-appreciated researchers, Dr. T. Colin Campbell and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn.

Dr. Campbell, a nutritional scientist at Cornell University, made a life-changing discovery while doing research in the Philippines in the 1960s: the country’s wealthier children, who were consuming relatively high amounts of animal-based foods, were much more likely to get liver cancer. Working separately, Dr. Esselstyn, a surgeon and head of the Breast Cancer Task Force at the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic, found that many diseases he was treating were virtually unknown in parts of the world where animal-based foods were rarely consumed.

These discoveries inspired Campbell and Esselstyn to conduct several groundbreaking studies, including the most comprehensive health-related investigations ever undertaken, ‘The China Study’. Their research led them to a startling conclusion: degenerative diseases like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and even several forms of cancer, could almost always be prevented – and in many cases reversed – by adopting a whole foods, plant-based diet. Despite the profound implications of their findings, their work has remained relatively unknown.

The idea of food as medicine is put to the test. Throughout the film, cameras follow patients who have chronic conditions from heart disease to diabetes. Doctors teach these patients how to adopt a whole foods plant-based diet as the primary approach to treat their ailments – while the challenges and triumphs of their journeys are revealed.

– Monica Beach Media