Recently, my boyfriend and I watched the much-talked-about 2011 documentary Forks Over Knives. The film re-counts the research and discoveries that three doctors (in three different parts of the world) simultaneously & independently made regarding human health and diet. Dr. John A. McDougall studied how differently multiple generations of families ate in the state of Hawaii. "I noticed that my patients spanned four generations, and observed how members in each one ate differently. The older generations consumed mostly rice & vegetables, just as they had in their native lands. Their children's diets were becoming more Westernized." Dr. McDougall went on to study how these diet differences affected each generation's health. Dr. T. Colin Campbell studied "...why cancer mortality rates, published in 1981 by Chinese medical academies, we so varied in different parts of the country-and assessed what role diet and lifestyle factors might play in these unusual rates of disease." And Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr. studied why, when Germany occupied Norway during WW2 and siezed most of the country's food assets (such as livestock, butter and cheese), local rates of heart disease plummeted. When these products were re-introduced post-war, heart disease levels began to creap back up to pre-war levels. Of course, these examples are the tip of the iceberg for this documentary that pulls the life's work of these three doctors together to make the case for eating a whole-foods, plant-based diet.
My interest was piqued. The studies, the stories, and the dramatic results of everything covered was fascinating and easily made me doubt the quality of my current "I'll eat anything" diet. But I have to be honest, this was not the first time I have questioned the safety of what I'm eating. These days it's not uncommon to hear about little girls beginning their menstural cycles years before my generation experienced it. Little boys are growing boobs! And it seems like the instances of almost every disease and cancer is on the rise. Why? And could food be the answer? Then there are the GMOs. What the hell's a
GMO? I'm still not really sure but I hear there pretty bad for us and also pretty common in the foods we eat. Finally, there are the personal stories.I know someone (we'll call him Duke) who went to their Dr. for a refill on their cholesteral medicine and the doctor told him "No!" He insisted that, until Duke made changes to his diet, there would be no more medicine. He gave him the Forks Over Knives book and told him to do the diet. Four months later, Duke has stuck to the diet, dropped so much weight that clothes hang off him and he doesn't need ANY of the medicines he was regularly taking before. And John (my boyfriend) personally knows of someone who reversed their cancer (currently cancer-free) by strictly following the whole-foods, plant-based diet advocated for in the documentary.
"What should I do?"
What's a girl to do? Well, this lady is gonna give this here diet a try. I've heard enough about how much it reduces you chances of this and increases healthy levels of that...let's see it in action in MY life. I'm gonna give this diet 6 weeks. I will eat tofu (for the first time), I'll try almond milk and agave nectar sweetners and make silly sounding things like "Plant Powered Polenta Pizza." And I'll be watching....and blogging about....everything! This is what I want to know: Do I feel better? Does it cost more? Can an normal working parent maintain this and their other responsibilities? Does my complete blood count improve? What about my weight? Is that gonna go down? And does any of this healthy-eathing stuff taste good? Stay tuned....
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