Forks Over Knives

Lee Fulkerson's illuminating documentary serves as a natural successor to books like Michael Pollan's An Omnivore's Dilemma and films such as Food, Inc., taking a critical look at the consequences of Western dietary habits. While some might view the lower-budget Forks Over Knives as a long-form commercial for veganism, Fulkerson's evidence supporting the benefits of a plant-based diet is too compelling to dismiss. The filmmaker builds his case around the work of two doctors who grew up on farms with families who considered cow's milk “nature's perfect food,” as Dr. T. Colin Campbell puts it. The pair went into different fields of medicine, but their research led them to the same conclusion. For 20 years, Cornell University nutritional biochemist Campbell focused on China, where degenerative disease rates skyrocketed after an increase in consumption of meat and dairy products. By contrast, Japan and Kenya, where the fare is leaner, have experienced far fewer incidences of such illnesses. Cleveland Clinic surgeon Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, an Olympic gold medalist in rowing, also witnessed the results of dependence on animal-based and processed foods: heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and some forms of cancer. When his patients—several of whom also appear onscreen—eliminated these items from their diet, they experienced significant improvement. Other interviewees include Dr. Neal Barnard, Junshi Chen (Campbell's The China Study collaborator), and mixed martial artist Mac Danzig, who adds a little fizz to the statistics-based proceedings. Recommended. (K. Fennessy)