Eatin' Your Vegies

After watching the documentary "Forks over Knives", I was thoroughly shocked with the type of research that was done over analyzing our modern day diet. The documentary, primarily focusing on Dr. Essyslten (received his B.A. from Yale University and his M.D. from Western Reserve University) and Dr. Campbell (the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University and Project Director of the acclaimed China-Oxford-Cornell Diet and Health Project), talks about the terrible diet that many of the people across the world, especially Americans, consume on a daily basis. They say that the best and healthiest way to eat is by eating a plant based diet with no animal based products at all. Their research has proven that all of the essential nutrients/vitamins/minerals/whatever can be obtained by eating a variety of whole grains, vegetables, and fruits. There has been much research done by these two doctors that prove that meat products, dairy products, and any other food from animals lead to many health hazards including diabetes (type 2), heart disease, and any other health problem that relates to eating too much processed foods or fats or oils. 

The documentary “Forks over Knives” is quite an interesting insight on how blinded most of the public of not only the US but also the world by how our diet should be. Personally, I was raised where you needed to drink milk every morning and get your protein from meats from beef, chicken, or fish. Yes, eating vegetables was very important too but not as important as stressed in this research. I could not imagine that one could get all essential vitamins and minerals and other important aspects of food solely from plant based foods. The modern day society of the US has become so accustomed to eating meat and dairy products that seeing that this research was done and done a fairly long time ago is quite astounding. I feel as if it is almost too late for this research to be shown because the meat/dairy industry has been so ingrained in our diet that it is almost too radical of a change to ask people to make. I know personally that after watching this video I noticed that I am a cliché example of a person who is the targeted audience for this movie (an avid meat/dairy consumer). It would be nearly impossible for me to cut out all of the meat and dairy I consume because it makes up such a big part of my original diet, however I do agree with the researchers when they say we should at least utilize this study and moderate the amount of animal based foods we consume.

            Now the research is very shocking and new to me, however the more important evidence that I see in this movie is how much our government promotes animal based foods to be consumed. After seeing this research done by Dr. Esselstyn and Dr. Campbell, that the government would stop promoting diary and meat consumption, but it didn’t stop. The lobby men that are funded by the American meat industry or the representatives for the big dairy and meat corporations have seemingly corrupted our government to still push for this unhealthy diet we have adopted. As an American citizen, I am outraged that my own government is not making decisions that will better everyone’s homeostasis. The government has a very simple job in protecting the American people and by hiding this research or not promoting it just proves how poorly run our government currently is. This movie got me thinking about how ludicrous it is that our government still promotes animal based products and it makes me think even more on what else the government could be promoting that is truly not good. I don’t know who to believe in the government and I am almost too disappointed to have faith in our government anymore.