Forks over Knives: A Groundbreaking Mainstream Documentary on the Merits of Becoming Vegan

The trailer of Forks over Knives raises the most startling questions: What if we can cure sickness without medicine? What if our nations’ health crises could be solved? It then provides what it calls a “solution so overlooked that no one is taking it seriously”—becoming vegan. Almost a month after its release, the video has received more than 20,000 views and hundreds of comments from different websites.

That’s not a big surprise at all. In the recent past several documentaries have flagged the dangers of the foods humans are consuming on a regular basis. That includes fast foods in the movie Supersize Me and environmentally healthy and industrially processed foods in Food, Inc. While these documentaries raised social awareness about the hazards of the food we’re eating, they don’t provide many answers about what we should be eating instead. Forks over Knives is the missing link providing that message.

The movie documents the investigations of Dr. Campbell and Dr. Esselstyn as they prove how adopting a whole-foods, vegan diet can prevent the “diseases of affluence”—diseases that are present in societies or families whose members consume heavy proportions of meat and processed food. These are the same kinds of diseases that are virtually unknown in countries where meat is not as heavily consumed.

The claims of Dr. Campbell and Dr. Esselstyn—that becoming vegan can prevent cases of diabetes, heart diseases, cancer, and other degenerative diseases—will without a doubt draw the attention of an entire country reeling from the effects of unhealthy eating habits, and obsessed with the issue of healthcare. After all, the movie explores the biggest “what-if”: What if people don’t have to have the health problems they are trying to make the government accountable for?

For long-time vegans, the ideas this documentary puts forward aren’t exactly groundbreaking news – primarily that eating a balanced, vegan diet is the healthiest way a human can eat. However, for millions of people who have yet to understand what veganism is all about, this movie will prove groundbreaking.