If you’re ever in need of clinical research that proves that a low fat, whole foods, plant based diet is the way to better health, take a look at one of our favourite documentaries, Forks over Knives. Forks over Knives is a documentary released in 2011, based on the clinical findings of Medical Doctor Caldwell Esselstyn and Nutritional Biochemist T. Colin Campbell. In the film they claim (and prove) that many diseases like cancer, obesity, and cardiovascular diseases can be treated and prevented by simply eating cleaner and eliminating meat, dairy and processed foods.

Leaning heavily on Dr. Campbell’s book The China Study, Forks over Knives explore and establish a casual link between cancer, obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases and the consumption of consuming animal products by citing study after study that prove people who consume animal products are more likely to have these diseases than people who don’t. It also explores the interesting notion that most degenerative diseases can be controlled by avoiding a western diet (a diet of processed food and meat and other animal products) which was proven via clinical trial. 

The film also follows the personal journey of both Doctors who ironically grew up on farms. Dr. Campbell was interested in producing high quality animal protein to bring to the poorer areas of third world countries. While he was in the Philippines, he noticed that wealthier children who consumed high amounts of meat and dairy were more likely to get cancer than children who didn't. Dr. Esselstyn, a cancer surgeon at the time found that many of the diseases he treated often were not common in places where meat and dairy consumption were little to none.

Throughout the film, we meet real patients who have had cancer, cardiovascular disease, or diabetes and learn how switching their diet to a whole-food, plant based diet has helped them. They also talk about how hard it can be. This documentary isn’t funny or entertaining but it’s informative, which is what you want to be when making a decision like this that could change your life. What we love most about this documentary is that it provides fact after fact after fact supporting the notion that a whole foods, plant-based diet is one of the best diets out there and the way they explore food as medicine.

“Let medicine be thy food and let food be thy medicine” - Hippocrates