Analysis Of The Film Forks Over Knives

Shifts in the “Food Marketplace” have greatly affected our food choices and habits in the last 40-50 years. As one woman stated in the film The Weight of the Nation, “It’s so hard to combat with what the tv is telling you to feed your kids”. Advertising has come to a whole new level in our generation; you can’t turn on the television without seeing an advertisement for fast food or something equally as unhealthy. As another woman put it, “you are taught that you can eat anywhere, anytime of day, and that eating is a glorious thing”. Another shift that has occurred is an economic one. If you go into a poor neighborhood corner store like they did in the film, you would see chips, sugar, sweets, etc. All of these unhealthy foods are cheap, incredibly cheaper than fresh fruits and vegetables. Obesity rates in these poor areas are much higher than in areas with a higher average income. Culturally, our country is changing to one that is always moving; we don’t have time to prepare a meal for the whole family. It’s much quicker to buy unhealthy fast food that you know your family will enjoy than to prepare a healthy meal that they will grudgingly consume. The film mentioned that our bodies were originally built for scarcity. We are wired to react to things that are sweet and contain a lot of fat because when an animal was killed we had to be able to eat as much of it as possible. The signals telling us to stop eating had to be overridden. Now, we consume so much fat and sugar not

The traditional American diet was simple, it was homemade, it was composed primarily of minimally refined ingredients, it was low in added sugars and fats, with the fats coming primarily from animal sources, and required effort to produce, by comparison, the contemporary American diet is much more diverse it's composed a lot of “palatable” sometimes artificial materials, its commercially engineered and sold, it's composed of refined ingredients, it's high in added sugars and fats with the fat coming primarily from seed oils, and requires minimal effort to procure(Pillsbury). At the same time as modern medicine is conquered the leading killers of the 19 century such as infectious diseases modern culture has created a whole new set of epidemics that we must now cure.

Profit-oriented leaders of new diet fads surely would be infuriated while reading the words of Michael Pollan in his work, Unhappy Meals—not necessarily because of his aim to disprove diet fallacies but, rather, the possible ramifications of Pollan’s words on their bank accounts. Explained in the article, the world’s understanding of diets and their effects on the human body has improved steadily—if not exponentially—throughout recent history. Here, the advocates of new diets claim the changing world and its understanding of health requires changes in diet; the human body will adapt to the new times. To counter, Pollan argues that is definitely true, but we have to be open to the idea of the death that occurs during the process.

In Michael Pollan’s essay “Escape from the Western Diet,” he informs Americans about the western diet and believes they need to escape from it. The reason Americans should escape the western diet is to avoid the harmful effects associated with it such as “western diseases” (Pollan, 434). To support his view on the issue, Pollan describes factors of the western diet that dictate what Americans believe they should eat. These factors include scientists with their theories of nutritionism, the food industry supporting the theories by making products, and the health industry making medication to support those same theories. Overall, Pollan feels that in order to escape this diet, people need to get the idea of it out of their heads. In turn he

As a culture and as individuals, we no longer seem to know what we should and should not eat. When the old guides of culture and national cuisine and our mothers’ advice no longer seem to operate, the omnivore’s dilemma returns and you find yourself where we do today—utterly bewildered and conflicted about one of the most basic questions of human life: What should I eat? We’re buffeted by contradictory dietary advice: cut down on fats one decade, cut down on carbs the next. Every day’s newspaper brings news of another ideal diet, wonder-nutrient, or poison in the food chain. Hydrogenated vegetable oils go from being the modern alternatives to butter to a public health threat, just like that. Food marketers bombard us with messages that this or that food is “heart healthy” or is “part of a nutritious meal”. Without a stable culture of food to guide us, the omnivore’s dilemma has returned with a vengeance. We listen to scientists, to government guidelines, to package labels—to anything but our common sense and traditions. The most pleasurable of activities—eating—has become heavy with anxiety. The irony is, the more we worry about what we eat, the less healthy and fatter we seem to become.

Healthy, unhealthy, good food, bad food, fat, skinny, diet, weight: all these words have been used to define what society views as the key to a balanced or unbalanced life. In the essay, Food for Thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating, Mary Maxfield takes a look into the stigma of eating habits, health, and dieting in western society. Maxfield supports her claims by analyzing and refuting Michael Pollan’s essay, Escape from the Western Diet. Although it is common knowledge that many people struggle to understand what is essentially “healthy” and “unhealthy”, there are many experts in the field of nutrition that claim to have the key to a perfect diet. Maxfield ultimately disclaims these ideas by bringing to light information that

Long ago, the ancestors of humans lived in unpredictable times in which meals were not guaranteed. Now in the 21st century, data suggests, as mentioned in Fed Up, that there will be more deaths caused directly or indirectly by obesity than by starvation. The documentary Fed Up focuses on the terrifying issue that plagues the United States and the world: obesity. It delves into the components that contribute to this menacing epidemic that only continues to get worse. The documentary builds on the stories of four young American children from all over the country that are severely obese. One of the kids, at 14 years of age, weighs over 400 pounds. Fed Up tries to answer one simple question with a complex and scary answer. How did the world get here? There are several different issues the documentary tried to address to answer this question. In the documentary, several misconceptions about food were dissected. In addition to debunking myths about food, the documentary discussed how it is possible to eat healthy for less money than eating unhealthy. Those were a few of the aspects that can have an impact on individuals, but the documentary did not stop there. It also attacked the huge food industry for their misleading advertisements and selling techniques, as well as condemning their focus of selling to younger people. Furthermore, the documentary explained how the food industry is so rich and powerful in the country’s capital that it has thwarted the many attempts in trying

In Michael Pollan’s essay, “The American Paradox”, Pollan argues that American’s hold falsified ideas if one is more focused on nutrition. Americans have too much going on in their head with trying to be healthy, that they do not actually become healthy. The notion that “a notably unhealthy population preoccupied with nutrition and the idea of eating healthy” (Pollan 268) is what Pollan defines as the “American paradox”. The amount of time spent focusing on healthy eating habits decreases the joy one contains. Pollan identifies many issues that contribute to what is wrong with the way Americans think about eating today. For instance, we spend too much time and money trying to be healthy, we have strayed away from the past as new inventions occurred and last being we listen to “flawed science”. Despite the fact that many may say they see positive results from focusing on nutrition and health, Americans actually receive negative outcomes from nutrition and health.

Pollan believes that Western diet is the primary cause of many of the different ailments that are impacting contemporary society. A few of the most notable include: heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. This is because there is no vested interest in supporting primary care and preventive medicine. As the health care industry wants to create drugs that can treat these conditions. Yet, they do not deal with the root causes of the problem. Instead, they allow the individual to engage in a pattern of destructive lifestyle choices. This increases the profit margins for everyone inside the health care industry by taking this approach. (Pollan)

The movie, “In Defense of Food” is written and created by Michael Pollan. In this movie Pollin addresses the question of the correct way to eat. Additionally, he explains how the food industry gains from the confusion over what is nutritionally correct, an idea created by scientists called nutritionism. Pollan discusses how control over what families ate shifted from cultural factors, such as mothers and traditions, to marketing and the food industry. He concludes that

In the Introduction to “Food as Thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating”, Mary Maxfield argues that food and the way we consume it is not something that should define the obesity epidemic in America. A controversial issue discussed has been whether we should have theories or ideas where diet works best to increase weight loss or whether we should have any diets to begin with. On one hand, Maxfield argues against the Health Professor Michael Pollan, who proposes a diet idea to reduce the problem of unhealthy eating in America. While also reprimanding scientists and health doctors who suggests their own different diets. On the other hand, she introduces that food is just food and does not need to be differentiated since one may seem

The article ‘ Escape from the Western Diet” by Michael Pollan found in the textbook “The say I say” claims that Americans must escape from the western Diet. The western diet is the cause of chronic diseases. Michael Pollan touch the point that the different nutritional theories are behind those diseases. He goes on to argue that the industries used, their nutritional theorie to release new products . Michael Pollan also accused the health industries in fact that their theories are to develop new prescriptions and treatment methode. Denis Burkit suggests that to avoid the disease, we have

“Forks Over Knives”The documentary “Forks Over Knives” discussed the work of two researchers thatexamined the connection between a plant-based diet and a significant improvement in overallhealth. More specifically, the researchers put food to the test and not just any foods but a Wholefood, plant-based diet instead of animal-based foods. Campbell and Esselstyn served as pioneersfor their research on the claim that most ailments that afflict us today such as Cardiovascularissues, diabetes, cancer can be reversed or controlled by the way we eat. Dr. T. Colin Campbellis a Nutrition scientist and brought up an interesting observation which was that wealthierchildren who consumed higher amounts of animal-based foods were more prone to becoming illor diagnosed with liver cancer. In addition, Dr. Esselstyn, a Top surgeon and elite healthcareprovider, stated that most of the diseases that he treats are not as common in other parts of theworld where the diet is different.

Forks Over Knives is a documentary dedicated to spreading knowledge of the effectiveness of a whole-foods, plant-based diet. It was directed by Lee Fulkerson, produced by John Corry, and distributed by Virgil Films and Entertainment. The documentary was released May 6, 2011, a time ridden with diabetes and heart disease. America in 2010 had seen over 20 million cases of diabetes. Over 600,000 people died of heart disease. America was in crisis mode – desperate for a solution to keep residents healthy and alive. Fulkerson believed he had found that solution – a diet that cut out animal products and heavily processed foods. He wrote this film with the intention of spreading that diet. Forks Over Knives is targeted towards people who have

Globally, it is quite common that most human beings consume some sort of animal or its by-product with little to no fruits or vegetables unless there is frying involved. In the past few years, inhabiting a healthier lifestyle has become the new desirable trend. Incorporating these changes into a standard American diet may come with some challenges including self-discipline and motivation but overall; eating more of a plant-based diet comes with multiple benefits which go beyond physical changes. In addition to how we should try our best to eat and exercise, people often get manipulated along the way of their individual fitness journeys with fad diets and “miracle” weight loss pill. These horrible starvation tactics have all been proven some way or another to be mentally and internally damaging. Let alone that these methods are relevant because of how much obesity rates have gone up in the last thirty years. Consequently, with the increase of food consumption; the increase of food waste as also exponentially grown from having too much produce production. Each of these health cautious attempts has resulted in a greater extent of negative based loop-holes and soon to be environmental epidemics.