Title: Forks Over Knives

Opens: May 6, 2011

Over 2400 years ago on the island of Kos, Hippocrates, the daddy of all doctors, said “Let food be your medicine.” To an extent the human population did follow his advice. As a result, people may have died from diphtheria and typhoid and a host of other illnesses, but few suffered from cancers and heart disease. Things have changed with “progress,” actually a regression from natural, healthful foods, to fast food, animal protein, and fat in general, which some believe have caused the current burgeoning of bypass surgery, chemotheraphy and radiation-all of which could be greatly diminished if people followed a plant-based diet. Hippocrates would be dancing in his grave if he were able to see Lee Fulkerson’s documentary, “Forks Over Knives,” bearing a message that can be summed up in just a few words: Eat a plant-based diet.

Lee Fulkerson is not an entertainer like Morgan Spurlock, who in 2004 directed and starred in “Super Size Me,” which followed his experiment in eating only in McDonald’s for one month. He gained an enormous amount of weight and felt sick most of the time. Nor does Fulkerson inject the kind of humor that makes Michael Moore the most entertaining of documentarians, whether or not you agree with his methods, politics, or philosophy. But “Forks Over Knives” is the doc that should be seen by everyone, though one might suppose, pessimistically, that few Americans would use the data exposed in interviews, animated graphs, archival films and views of current-day Beijing among other areas.

The title essentially means that we should toss out our knives, which are used primarily for cutting meat, and consider digging into platefuls of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Much of the time is spent watching and listening two professionals, Caldwell Esselstyn Jr. and T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D.-the former. perhaps among the few graduates of medical school who receive more than one day’s coursework in nutrition,expound on the maxim “eat a plant-based diet.” (The film does not mention that Esselstyn is responsible for putting President Bill Clinton on a vegan diet, leading to the latter’s loss of 24 pounds. Clinton, who had heart surgery, feared that he would not live long enough to see and enjoy his grandchildren.)

Simply quoting some of the facts brought out by the doc does not do the film justice. A viewing is essential. But here are some of the details cited:

The U.S. spends five times as much on health care as on defense. Nowadays, the rise in obesity has been caused by the growth of fast-food and convenience foods, many of which are laden with fat. The average American annually consumes 220 pounds of meat and 605 pounds of dairy. Each year Americans undergo 500,000 by-pass operations costing them or, more likely, insurance companies and the government $100,000 each. That’s $50 billion each year. In 1958 Japan found only eighteen cases of prostate cancer from autopsies. In the U.S. with just double the population, the figure was 14,000.

During World War 2 in Norway, when the occupying German army seized the country’s cattle for its soldiers, heart disease among Norwegians plummeted. After the war, up it went. In Hawaii, first generation immigrants were generally slim with virtually no cancer. Second-generation? Way up. It is almost impossible for Americans to be protein deficient because even if potatoes are only 8% protein, that’s all we need-when combined with other vegetables during the day.

A Dr.Matthew Lederman spends most of his time not dispensing medicine but actually shopping with his patients, all of whom have been put on plant-based diets. He explains that 500 calories of plant food make a person feel full. 500 calories of processed foods deceive the brain into thinking that more food is needed. 500 calories of oil trigger virtually no satiety. Osteoporosis and hip fractures are more common in civilizations with high calcium intake. The Amazon forests are being chewed up: now 20% of former forest land is used for cattle. The food given to cattle could feed 8.7 billion human beings. Dr. Esselstyn believes that we could cut health care costs 70%-80% if all of us went on plant-based diets.

Got plants?

Rated PG. 96 minutes. © 2011 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online

Overall: B