Last night over 500 people descended on the Sunrise Theater in New York City to see the NY Premier of Forks Over Knives, the new movie that is inspiring audiences all over the US and abroad to consider, if not make the switch to a whole foods, plant based, nutrient rich diet. At the Premier, we all mingled for a few hours around some incredible plant based nutrient roods at the Whole Foods in the Bowery section of NYC and most everyone in the room was inspired to learn how to start eating healthy.
No one was disappointed!
FORKS OVER KNIVES examines the profound claim that most, if not all, of the so-called “diseases of affluence” that afflict us can be controlled, or even reversed, by rejecting our present menu of animal-based and processed (refined) foods. The major storyline in the film traces the personal journeys of a pair of pioneering yet under-appreciated researchers, Dr. T. Colin Campbell and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn. Read More…
I should emphasize the under-appreciation for these two research and medical professionals and down right fine people. The reason is simple; what they are saying is true but just not good for the "HUGE inter-connected, money-driven “Med-Pharma-USDA-Academia-Food-Insurance-Media system” which my new friend and associate Jim Hicks, talks about in his new book Healthy Eating, Healthy World. His research indicates that 70 to 80% of our health care dollars ($2 trillion of them) are driven by what we eat — our toxic western diet. (You can read about all of the above in Chapter 8 of his book.)
Personally, I have a great deal of experience with both Dr's having assembled The Top 12 Findings of The China Study with the Campbells (Father and Son) who wrote this hugely successful book revealing the relationship between diet (lifestyle) weight loss and long term health, and having learned from and promoted Dr. Esselstyn's work for years. He is the author of Preventing and Reversing Heart Disease and a long time senior medical officer at The Cleveland Clinic.
These gentleman are major players in the plant based food movement now in the later half of their careers, both of which ironically began promoting or serving the effects of animal based diets. They were major players in their fields even before the switch to plant based nutrient rich foods began and made the switch themselves when they realized that animal based diets also rich in refined and process foods, causes disease.
These days, T Colin Campbell PhD and Caldwell Esselstyn MD have become "very" well known as President Clinton recently mentioned their names in a viral CNN interview with Wolf Blitzer, as he explained his own transition to a plant based diet to finally resolve his own heart disease.
The mass movement to whole foods, plant based, nutrient rich diets, is driven by one simple reality,'calorie rich / nutrient poor foods cause "lifestyle induced" diseases like heart disease and shorten your life plan. That is the main reason why the switch to a diet based predominantly on nutrient rich foods is on for so many people.
While at the event, I met up with Rip Esselstyn, son of Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, who is now becoming quite well known as the author of the Engine 2 Diet, a plant based, or should I say "plant strong" diet, that he put together while working in an Austin, TX fire department that helped his fellow firefighters lose weight, lower their cholesterol, and prevent disease. A former professional IronMan athlete, Rip has been eating a plant based diet for over 25 years now (even while training as an athlete) and had some amazing information to share.
He said "I switched to plant based diet so that I could get an performance edge".
Don't believe the hype when people tell you, you should be running your body on nutrient poor animal protein and saturated fat with a side dish of nutrient rich vegetables anymore, when a true nutrient rich diet is the way to go.
I also caught up with with Dr Pam Popper of The Wellness Forum, in Columbus Ohio; she and Rip Esselstyn were conducting a plant strong Education Immersion at Whole Foods. We talked about having never seen the switch to plant based nutrient rich foods be so strong, and how the movement is happening in an accelerated fashion now in part because of movies like Forks Over Knives. A movie like this is all the more powerful now having decades of amazing data and insights, like those from Dr's Esselstyn and Campbell's work, to convey in the cinema. Gone are the days of passion and principle alone; today, plant based diets are proven with sound science.
Look for a location near you and watch this movie!
Forks Over Knives is rich in incredible insights about healthy eating and it will inspire you when you see how everyday people right off the street are making incredible transformations in their health, weight and outlook because they are no longer eating foods that cause disease and are learning how to make the switch to eating nutrient rich healthy foods.
You too will be shocked and awed by how incredibly tasty nutrient rich foods really are, and wonder why you haven't been eating plant based nutrient Rich, your entire life!