Ha, ok so that's an extremely dramatic title, but let me explain. My husband and I have really gotten in to watching documentaries about health and food on Netflix lately. We've watched Hungry for Change; Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead; and then last night we watched Forks Over Knives. I'd heard so much about Forks Over Knives from other bloggers, so I was really excited to watch it. It was, in a word, horrible. Now, since I've gotten in to the Paleo lifestyle, I will be the first to say I am biased. Probably hugely so. I admit that. However, the beef (pun intended) I have with this documentary is twofold.
1. All of the data and the research they presented was old. Like, super old. And I'm sure that certain points still hold up well today, but there wasn't one study or fact that was presented that was less than nearly 40 years old. What? You mean to tell me that nothing new on these topics you're presenting has been researched or reported since the 1970s? Nothing new? Really? It was just weird. And for me, it decreased their credibility and the validity of what they were trying to get across because it made it seem like they were just cherry picking random studies from years and years ago just to support their case, which let's talk about that.
2. So I understand what they were trying to say, and some of it actually resonated with me. For example, in one segment, they were trying to make the point that basically all of the government's dietary recommendations are fueled by the food industry and not at all based on what human beings need for proper nutrition. Yeah, duh. In addition, I agree that a whole foods, plant-based diet is a good thing. But this documentary seemed to pose the idea that it is our over-consumption of meat that is the root of absolutely all dietary evil. Well, that, and dairy. Which, ok, I kinda agree with that one. We don't NEED dairy to be healthy. But meat?? I mean, that's part of the food chain. We have evolved eating meat. (Again, I realize this is where my bias really comes in to play). But here's where it really gets kinda wonky for me. In the documentary they are following three people (surprise, actually in this decade!) as they transition to a whole foods, plant-based diet. And the people do make amazing transformations! But where the documentary kind of goes awry, for me, is that it basically blamed every health problem these people had on the fact that they ate meat. Really?! Because these people were also damn nearly consuming ONLY processed foods. The documentary seemed to think meat was synonymous with fast food. Every time they'd talk about meat, it was with an image of KFC, or Burger King or McDonalds in the background. Well of course if that's their source of meat (which let's be real ... is that really even meat?), as well as the basis of their diet, they're going to have health problems. But I don't see how that translates to quality-sourced, naturally fed, grass-grazing sources of meat. And they didn't present a single shred of research to answer that question. Nothing at all was said about the difference between meat that comes from a shitty, animal abusing, GMO corn-feeding hell hole vs a locally sourced, naturally fed cow or pig or what have you. (Can you tell I'm riling myself up here?! haha) But anyway, it was a completely one-sided argument that left me feeling incredulous that anybody could actually take what they were presenting at face value and use it as a basis for an argument for eating a plant-based diet. Again, I have zero qualms with eating that way if it works for you, but I feel this documentary failed to differentiate between fast food and meat as a real food.
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