Review of Forks Over Knives (2011) by T R B — 22 May 2011

This is a disappointingly mediocre film. Much of it is, "duh!" This data has been available for decades. Simply buy Fit or Fat by Covert Bailey - published in 1978. There are no new revelations here. It comes off as an infomercial in its advocacy and complete absence of balance.

I love bashing corporations, Western medicine and government as much as the next guy. But these folks (makers and featured speakers) are obviously Libertarians* and Republicans. When they attack "big" government, they should be attacking "poor" government. The people they vote for are the whores subservient to large corporations. Incongruently, they revere a study authorized by an authoritarian Chinese leader from the BIGGEST government on earth.

The beginning of the film is a whir of unsubstantiated statistics with no significance as presented. They cite the cost of food-related health problems costing the U.S. many times more than the yearly military budget. Nonsense. They provide no solution as to how to employ all of the insurance workers and other peripheral employees who benefit from disease. While they correctly state that whole foods are healthier than processed foods, they make no mention of the cancer risks in consuming Monsanto's Frankenfood (GMOs). While they correctly relate the vast amount of grains required to feed livestock and aver that it could be used to feed all the starving billions of humanoids, they make no mention of the gross human overpopulation and the need to shrink it. Humans are a more prolific cancer on the planet than cancer is on human population.

However, the biggest reach, both stated and implied within the movie is that non-whole foods are the sole cause of the vast majority of heart-related disease, cancer, and worse. That, by switching to whole foods, no matter how late in life, one can reverse those physical dilemmas - in a few weeks! Reality doesn't confirm their conjectures. And neither do their bogus studies and stats, all of which contain partial truths, leaving the main explanations conspicuous in their absence.

Look at the provocative graphic where they demonstrate the positive effects of the Nazi takeover of Norway during WWII. They proffer that the Nazis confiscated most of the country's livestock for their own needs, leaving the Norwegians with only whole foods. They show an IMMEDIATE decrease in health problems, most of which require a lifetime to proliferate. Preposterous inference from suspect stats. And, so it goes.

We are shown one athlete who beats on people for a living without the macho benefit of eating dead animal flesh. No mention of Lance Armstrong, who contracted testicular cancer in his early twenties while a world-class athlete who ate only whole foods. As a matter of fact, he lived healthy (by their definition) since early childhood and became an elite competitor in the triathlon as a 17-year-old. Western medicine was required to cure his cancer.

I was an endurance cyclist in my mid-forties, riding in many centuries (with climbs of over 10,000'). I began symptoms of atrial fibrillation while in the midst of a double century with 6,000 feet of climb in temperatures sometimes reaching 115 degrees. I ate only whole foods for years. The doctors had no idea of what caused my heart problem. They threw drugs at it with no success, consistent with the theme of the film. But my metabolism changed and health declined even after going back to healthy eating.

While they showed athletic activity, they didn't stress the importance verbally, stating that most benefits are derived from food. B.S. Most benefits are derived from exercise. Food is fuel. When it is consumed and burned, it doesn't have much time to clog anything.

I am all for better government, moving away from animal-based food, less use of Western Medicine and pharmacological solutions. But, I would prefer to see it presented in a far more honest, balanced, hard-hitting way by non-advocates. The fireman says, "It's simple." Whenever someone draws that conclusion from a set of complex contingencies, something is way wrong. This film is a wasted opportunity and it is squandering valuable space within the scarcity of indie screens.

* Note: The term "whole foods' is used incessantly and they even shoot inside a Whole Foods store. The CEO, John Mackey is a teabagging Libertarian who took a stand against universal health care (which would include all of the beneficial, preventative approaches mentioned in the film). Ironically, he sells to New Age Yuppie Liberals.