Great movies to check out on food and nutrition

Forks Over Knives is a great one. Also, Food, Inc.

Are there really that many people who think "forks over knives" is a legitimately good and trustworthy source of information on proper nutrition???

Are there really that many people who think "forks over knives" is a legitimately good and trustworthy source of information on proper nutrition???

I eat a diet very similar to the one that they suggest. (low fat, plant-based) I've lost 97 lbs in 5 1/2 months. It isn't just weight loss, either, my overall health has improved dramatically. The chest pains I was having disappeared months ago. My blood pressure is normal again. I haven't just lost weight, I am thriving.

So yes, I do think it is a legitimately good and trustworthy source of nutrition information.

There are other ways to lose weight, sure. There's also more to lifelong health than maintaining a healthy weight. Many who suffer heart attacks have "normal" cholesterol, and many who die from diseases of affluence are not obese.

Most people can get those same results eating a whole foods diet that also includes animal products.

I thought that even with the dramatic lifestyle change that I have made, it would take twice as long to get where I am at today. Many obese people would love to lose 100 lbs in an entire year, let alone half that. I don't think that "most people", even most highly obese people, experience those kinds of results with the myriad of weight loss programs, diets and etc available. People will pay great sums of money, even undergo surgery to lose weight. They wont give up meat and cheese, though.

It would likely be necessary to reduce food portions or some other additional control in order to achieve the same weight loss that I have experienced. In general, animal products are more calorie dense and also contain cholesterol and more saturated and trans fats. I have no self control when it comes to food, I eat until I am full, so it is important for me to eat foods that are not calorie dense. I used to eat meals that were 1200 calories and up before adopting a plant-based diet. It would be much more difficult to eat that many calories in one sitting now. I can't even think about how it would be done without heavily relying on added oils, perhaps with a gigantic soda on the side.

This ignores any other benefits of a plant-based diet, such as lowered risk of diabetes and heart disease. These are very important benefits that are often overlooked in favor of weight loss goals.

The American diet simply contains far too much meat, eggs and dairy. Diets like the Mediterranean diet are promoted on the basis that certain populations have a long history of good long-term health on diets that include fewer processed foods and animal products with more fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes. I believe that the extent to which you adopt such a diet is the extent to which you will reap health rewards.

Forks over knives is just claiming a vegan lifestyle is the perfect diet for humans which I don't agree with.

This isn't true, Forks Over Knives isn't claiming a vegan lifestyle is the perfect diet for humans. For one, there is scarcely a mention of veganism, because that is often an ethical choice and it is entirely possible to eat an unhealthy vegan diet. A whole foods plant-based diet is more specific than that. Even so, no one here is claiming to offer the perfect lifestyle for humans and any such claims should be eyed with extreme skepticism, no matter the source.

I do not believe that animal products are necessary or healthy for us, but I am not denying that they can be part of a healthy diet, in careful moderation. The animals should be fed their natural foods, not genetically modified grains and worse foods that they would not consume in the wild.