Forks Over Knives

I wouldn't just jump into a vegan diet just because you saw it in a movie. Now, if you are truly interested in veganism, I would do a lot of research and planning to make sure that is what you really want.

I LOVED the film and I really, really enjoyed the McDougall Diet. If you're a big eater and like to see a plate groaning with food, then it's a diet that could really work for you. The diet's definitely vegan, but the recipes are pretty flavourful. The only thing I really missed while on it was plain yoghurt.

http://www.drmcdougall.com/free.html Here's the free McDougall program. I never bothered with the books because I hate following recipes but apparently they're quite good. There's also a forum on the website with plenty of recipes and people willing to answer questions.

engine2diet.com/ Here's the Engine 2 diet. The sort of hot (If i was a decade older!) firefighter is behind this. I like his recipe for black beans, yummy.

Thanks. That's great. I don't know if I can go all out, but I'm going to try. I don't think I can live without fish in my diet, but we'll see where it goes. This is really new to me, so it seems massively overwhelming. I think the inconvenience of available food is going to piss me off a lot. But, I'll try to work with it.

I found the diet impossible to maintain because it's so very, very obvious. Eating out is possible but you make so many adjustments to your order and have such a limited choice to begin with that you quickly become the centre of attention and waiters look at you as if to say "why, why did you have to make my already stressful job 10x more stressful???". You feel like you've kicked a puppy.

But if you can find a way to make the diet work long term you'll feel fantastic and the weight will stay off. The way I lost it... wow, getting teary eyed thinking about it now. The diet basically relies on eating a lot of stuff... but that stuff is ridiculously high in fibre and fills you up so that overeating is quite difficult. Obviously it's possible if you just eat rice and wheat berries, but a little more difficult when you're eating plates of vegetables and beans, you know? I still apply a few McDougall principles to my diet and I think I'm healthier for it so I can't see any harm in eating fish some of the time or following an 80/20 rule or whatever works really. Good luck (:

I loved the film and took away a lot of lessons! I gave up red meat and chicken 5 years ago and never looked back. I admire you if you want to jump into a vegan diet straight after watching it, I don't posxess that level of commitment at the moment, and I think you're awesome for trying it! Keep us updated

Bump

I wouldn't just jump into a vegan diet just because you saw it in a movie. Now, if you are truly interested in veganism, I would do a lot of research and planning to make sure that is what you really want.

Agreed. Humans are omnivores and biologically are not designed to eat this way. Doing so may be healthy for some, but it takes work and planning. Now if you feel that for some reason, you want to make this lifestyle choice, that's fine, we all should eat the way that works for us. I'd just recommend you do it with a clear head and after sufficient research to be sure you know both the pluses and minuses of such a drastic change.

There's a book called "30 day began challenge." I forget who it's by but it's a.good guideline of where to start and provides recipes as well.

Watching FOK was a major turning point for my husband and me. We'd always eaten pretty healthily, but that particular movie really opened our eyes as to how what we were eating was slowly wreaking havoc on our bodies. Both of our families have really high instances of cancer, so we wanted to do everything we could to reduce our combined risk.

We transitioned gradually and didn't throw anything away because it wasn't part of the prescribed diet, but we just didn't replace it. When we're out for dinner (not very often for both health and financial reasons) or are being fed by family or friends, we'll eat meat, dairy, etc. We still get to indulge cravings from time to time, but we're not seeking attention or special treatment. We've spoken with our families about our decision to go plant-strong and encouraged them to watch the film, but haven't really made much of an impact, unfortunately.

I do nearly all the cooking, so rethinking meal planning was definitely a challenge. Like others have mentioned Engine 2 (Rip is a firefighter and former pro triathlete-- my hubby believes in the diet, as he's a firefighter and a marathoner) is really helpful, along with Happy Herbivore, Post-Punk Kitchen, No Meat Athlete (TVP tacos are soooo good!), and many others. We also watched "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" and have started juicing a couple times a week, which is really fun and tasty.

Most of all, don't beat yourself up or hold yourself to an impossible standard! We identify more with "plant-strong" than "vegan" because some people are very sensitive about the labels used. Since we still eat meat on occasion, plant-strong is more meaningful, though we're vegan 80+% of the time. Enjoy it!

I watched FOK in March, and changed my diet to what they recommended. Since March 28th, I have lost 64 pounds. I have recently started walking, but most of the weight literally just dropped off once I made the dietary changes. I am eating a ton of food, and I love it!

Looks like people have given you some good places to start. PCRM has a 21-day vegan kickstart program that lays out a menu for you. It starts periodically so they might not have it going on right now, but I'm pretty sure you can still go there (pcrm.org) and get recipes. I think happyherbivore.com might also have an option that helps you plan a menu, but not sure on that one. I'll try to get back to this later with more resources.

Also, I didn't read each reply so maybe someone already said this, but if you're looking for a descriptive label for this way of eating, it's typically called a "plant-based diet." Obviously meaning that the focus of one's diet is plants and usually means they do it for health or environmental reasons. This does not preclude the inclusion of other foods on occasion. Vegan has ethical connotations centered on the exploitation of animals that don't apply to someone following a plant-based diet for reasons other than animal well-being (though obviously a vegan could be vegan for ethical, health, and environmental concerns, but the term usually has a focus on the ethics of exploiting animals).

I think that's smart. I was pescatarian a solid 9 mos with no intention of progressing to full vegetarian or vegan diet until a couple of months ago. I decided to go full vegan because of a lightbulb moment while I was reading scripture recently (Gen1:29-31). However, I don't think I would have been very successful had I not started with some of those changes last year. It DOES take a lot of thought and adjustments. I eat out daily too and no vegan restuarants around here unfortunately. I eat at mexican restuarants a lot and get either the veggie fajita without sour cream and cheese or a veggie burrito (check to make sure they don't use meat or lard in their beans), or Olive Garden minestrone soup and salad or Subway veggie patty or veggie delite with oil and vinegar. Taco Bell also has a fresco bean burrito that is vegan. I've gotten a lot of my recipes from the Happy Herbivore and www.plantbasedonabudget.com.

My husband and I recently watched this film (and a couple others) and have decided to take the plunge. Our current diet is heavily processed, but we eat very little meat - two meals a month on average. The hardest part for us is going to be transitioning from canned/boxed foods to fresh.

Good luck to you!

haven't seen the movie, but I grew up on a farm and still live here. growing up we raise chickens, geese, ducks, and now we have pigs. I've personally slaughtered a chicken and gutted it and prepared it for lunch. I have no problems with eating animals raise to eat. now, pets are a different thing. NO ONE EATS THE GOOSE!!!!! lol!!! OR DUCKIE!!!! or my son's hen Cotton. they can eat any other duck or goose or chicken on the farm, but we don't eat pets! :P

a good one to watch is Super-size Me! THAT was gross! but I admit, I still indulge my kids once in a while.. :P they eat good otherwise.

I wouldn't just jump into a vegan diet just because you saw it in a movie. Now, if you are truly interested in veganism, I would do a lot of research and planning to make sure that is what you really want.

Agreed. Humans are omnivores and biologically are not designed to eat this way.

I think if you research that a bit, you'll find humans are not "biologically" designed to be omnivores. We don't have the sharp teeth carnivorous animals have, our digestion doesn't work like theirs does etc.

And to the original poster: check out healthyeatingstartshere.com - Heather is a vegan holistic nutritionist and I've found her website and YouTube videos super useful. I've been vegetarian for years and have recently started the transition to a plant based whole foods diet.