Forks Over Knives Essay

Forks Over Knives In a 2011 film directed by Lee Fulkerson, Forks Over Knives, demonstrated how Americans should switch to eating plant-based diets. Researchers say that by eliminating meat and dairy in our menus, several diseases could be decreased or eradicated. Although the purpose of the film was to persuade that a plant-based diet is best, it was only effective to a certain point. It sounded credible with personal stories and statistics but it didn't have enough information from the opposing side. Ethical appeals were used throughout the film to help show their credibility. T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D and Caldwell Esselstyn, M.D were the main researchers who had similar backgrounds in dairy and/or beef cattle farms. Through research and

San’Dera Nation with diabetes, Evelyn Oswick who had a heart attack and Rip Esselstyn with high cholesterol, all insisted to have had their health improve after eating the diet. The structure of the film was valuable because they showed the people gradually becoming more and more healthy as they ate the plant-based diet. In addition, people who moved from Japan to Hawaii firsthand tended to be a more healthy generation than the next. The children who were more likely to be overweight and sick were shown at Burger King and McDonalds, not eating any healthy meat from butcher shops. Likewise, before Anthony Yen came to the United States, he ate a small piece of meat with a large quantity of vegetables as a meal. When he moved to the United States, he became unhealthy and relied on quick-serve meals. This story could have been an introduction to an opposing argument on proportioning foods but they never went further than saying his health deteriorated. Even further, emotional appeals use language to persuade the audience. In the film, they are very careful with their word choices. For example, they never say the word “vegan” but rather call it a plant-based diet. Also, when Dr. Esselstyn had doubts about his medicine he called his patients “victims”. He said, "Some people think the ‘plant based whole food diet’ is extreme. Half a million a year will have their chests

In an experiment, when they injected either 5% or 20% Casin into rats, they found that with more Casin injected, they had higher rates of cancer than the other rats. When they went back and altered their intake, the researcher explained how “we could turn on and off cancer growth”. This gives important imagery to people who are still doubting the effects of the diet. On the other hand, when graphing the mortality of circulatory disease in Norway from 1927-1948, only citizens who ate the plant-based diet were mentioned, not the soldiers who ate the meat during that time. It would have been interesting to see the comparison between the two