Review of Forks Over Knives (2011) by Annick D — 26 Sep 2011

I think this movie is a bit overrated and to me it leaves more questions than answers which makes me want to question the entire theory behind the story.

Although I do think that the author brings up a lot of interesting points worth looking into, but the entire film does a poor job explaining and cross-relating the details.

There has been a lot of research in the last couple of decades done around various types of diets and the main conclusion was that all of the diseases mentioned in this film were linked not to just some particular diet in question, but to obesity in general.

Then the author keeps talking about "high-protein" diet among different nations, but says nothing about the fat and carbohydrates content in those diets. He even calls McDonald's and other fast food's as high protein diets.... SINCE WHEN McDonald's food is a high-protein food? It has always been considered high fat and high carbohydrates type diet and a relatively LOW protein food.

A good protein-based study was done about the Atkins diet, which Atkins himself mistakenly thought of as a low-carb / high-fat diet, but lately was proven to be a low-carb / high-protein diet instead. It turns out that one of the main functions of proteins (especially animal proteins) is to SUPRESS our appetite and by doing so it lowers our urge to consume more calories. There is a nice 5-part video on YouTube about this, originally made by BBC called "BBC - Story about Low Carb Dieting" - just make sure to watch all 5 parts, especially the last one.

Sometimes I wish this was a forum where people could discuss about the subject of a movie, not simply leaving a review.

The author of this movie keeps talking about eating plant-based food, and shows people eating beans, potatoes, grains, etc - all of which are high in carbohydrates, not so high in proteins, especially once cooked. He fails to cross-reference his theory with other theories that have been proven to work over the years and have actually produced great results on a mass-scale, not just a few examples. He says close to nothing about things like glycemic-index, blood-sugar, etc.

He talks about food-based cholesterol, but doesn't even mention that most of our cholesterol, good and bad, doesn't actually come from food, but is produced by our very own liver based on our body 'needs', which tend to be higher if you are obese.

High-carbs foods like potatoes, sugar, bread, etc tend to give you a lot of "empty" calories with very low nutrition content, fast-digestion, very-fast rise of blood sugar, which throws our whole system out of balance, and also fast rate of fat-cells deposits. In addition it will make you hungry again in no-time, so you will just keep eating, and eating, and... getting fatter and more unhealthy.

Most carbs can be separated into three groups: sugars, starches and fibers, and the first 2 (sugars and starches) are the worst ones. Most cooked vegetables contain a good amount of "starches" and just about everything contains sugars, even fruits (fructose and glucose). So it's better to focus on fresh vegetables than fruits, but fruits also contain a lot of other good nutrients so it's a good idea to have them after-meal in smaller quantities or as an occasional snack.

Then, some cancers have been linked to "cooked" foods in general, even vegeies and meats. Apparently when you burn anything (not just oil) above a certain temperature, lots of fats and proteins actually convert into toxic chemicals that are quite bad for our health. The other thing that happens when you cook food is a lot of good nutrients are being lost and/or converted into some bad nutrients. This goes especially for various vitamins and antioxidants. Did you know that they have to add Vitamin C into most juices, even orange juice, after it was pasteurized (cooked) for mere few seconds??? In theory, if if wasn't for bacteria, viruses and parasites, it would be much healthier for us to eat even uncooked meats for the same reason due to a huge loss of many good nutrients during cooking.

I personally have found a great result in the HIGH-protein / HIGH "FRESH" veggie-fruit / HIGH-antioxidants / LOW-carbs / LOW-saturated fats life-style - IT REALLY WORKS!!! Ever since I started eating more fresh veggies, less fat more protein I stopped feeling a need to take my daily dosage of vitamins that I was almost dying for in the past. I don't feel sleepy during the day time anymore, I lost weight and I my arthritis symptoms are nearly gone too - I even ran a marathon couple of months ago, which would otherwise make my bones feel full of pain.

One other conclusion I have come up to that our society depends too much on eating foods either cooked or pre-cooked by someone else and this is were our problems begin, because we completely loose control of what goes into those foods and how they are being prepared. So my advice would be to change a lifestyle and start cooking/preparing your own foods, even if you don't know how to - take time to learn. It will not only make you wanna eat healthier, but will potentially save a couple of bucks over time, but more importantly it will increase your interest in life, reduce depression and make you happier overall.

I could definitely agree with the author about eating more fruits and vegetables, but I would make a strong accent of eating ONLY fresh veggies and make it at least 70% of your diet, but I remain extremely skeptical about his view on a role of animal protein.

Most meat and dairy products, especially in other countries, contain a large amount of saturated fats, which to me seems to be a more likely culprit of those countries disease ratings. We definitely need to do more research on this subject.

It also seems to me that a lot of, so-called diets, are more of a fashion-based than actual fact-based and were developed with the only reason to counter-attack other leading diets on the market, so they can perhaps gain more public attention from the otherwise bored consumers. Tome this explains a HUGE amount of theories behind just about every food components you can think off and various diets based on those components, this low-protein theory could be one of them. But in the end we should all be using our heads and our desire to stay healthy to come up with not just a diet, but more of a symphony-like balance "lifestyle" which would incorporate all of the good ingridients, including good fats, good carbs and also, but not least, good proteins and never forget about the king of all - MODERATION! :).