The film “Forks over Knives” is a film that urges the public to change from an animal-based diet to a plant-based diet. Throughout the film there are statistics and stories from people showing how people who consume a large amount of animal products have a greater chance of having heart problems and getting diabetes. They have doctors and professors examine the cause and effect of having an animal-based diet and then examine how many diseases can be prevented and even treated by consuming a plant-based diet. I found this film extremely enlightening for many reasons. The statistics of the prevalence of certain diseases in countries that primarily ate animal based food compared to those that did not was the most shocking to me. The fact that about forty-percent of Americans are overweight was something I found to be completely horrifying. The amount of sugar and processed meat that Americans consume continue to rise tremendously as the years go by and if something is not done to cut back on the rising number, more people will be overweight or suffer from cardiovascular diseases. From this film it can be seen that most Americans are not properly educated about the dangers of the food they consume or are not aware that they can get …show more content…
It was also troubling that when one of the women that had switched to a plant-based diet started feeling better and asked her doctor if she should stop taking her medication, had her doctor advise her to not do so. A quote that they used in the film from an Ancient Egyptian Proverb that goes, “One-quarter of what you eat keeps you alive. The other three-quarters keeps your doctor alive”, correctly shows how much of what we eat benefit only doctors and meat and dairy based
The argumentative article “More Pros than Cons in a Meat-Free Life” authored by Marjorie Lee Garretson was published in the student newspaper of the University of Mississippi in April 2010. In Garretson’s article, she said that a vegetarian lifestyle is the healthy life choice and how many people don’t know how the environment is affected by their eating habits. She argues how the animal factory farms mistreat the animals in an inhumane way in order to be sources of food. Although, she did not really achieve the aim she wants it for this article, she did not do a good job in trying to convince most of the readers to become vegetarian because of her writing style and the lack of information of vegetarian
Lundberg describes how the demand for animal protein was incredibly higher than the production. She quoted Marlow’s article stating, “A nonvegetarian diet requires 2.9 times more water, 2.5 times more energy, 13 times more fertilizer, and 1.4 times more pesticide than does a vegetarian diet and the greatest difference comes from beef consumption” (Lundberg 483). She then questions: "Do we really want to wait until it’s too late to change our way of eating?” (Lundberg 485). These two points will make readers subconsciously pause to answer this question themselves, put themselves in the situation imagining the products used and having an immediate reaction to it.
...g statistics about the public’s health and make the future seem bleak, “the lifespan is shortening for new American children” (Pastor) and “ one in three children born after the year 2010 will develop type II diabetes” (Pastor). Pastor says that he is shocked by the impact and wants to break away from the cycle created. In his closing statements he convinces the audience to break away from the cycle away as well, by drawing on the seeds he planted with pathos, ethos, and logos. The film was well made and addressed all the issues of “organic” food and well informed the audience of what is occurring. Next time, an audience member goes to the supermarket to buy food they will probably remember what their children will look like in twenty years if they don’t take a more “organic” approach to their lives.
The American diet is becoming extremely harmful to the health of especially children. The new generation has different trends in regard to health compared to those of perhaps their parents. In the documentary Fed Up, Soechtig uses data and statistics, as well as narratives of emotional events to highlight the long run issues with American’s poor diet and also to criticize the food industry. By doing this, the director hopes to spark a change in diet.
The film enlightened me about many topics concerning the production of food. Although I would prefer not to view many of the graphic animal scenes I believe that they are necessary to present the arguments. I was also surprised to see the connections between so many political figures and the major corporations. I do not think that my eating habits will change, but I do think that I will give more thought to something before I eat it.
As obesity and medical problems due to diet become a larger issue within society, it is imperative to educate humans on the importance of maintaining a healthy diet. This is exactly what Hungry for Change does. One of the key points made in the documentary is that humans no longer eat a natural diet like their ancestors did; when humans first began to inhabit the Earth they lived off a diet of fresh fruits, vegetables, grains, and meats. During these periods famine and disease was rampant, so humans adapted to store nutrition more productively. Now that humans live in a more developed society, they have a (practically) unlimited supply of food. However, much of this food is processed and manipulated to have a better flavour and a longer shelf life, and though this sounds like a positive situation, it has become a huge problem. According to best-selling women’s health author Dr. Christine Northrup, “We’ve lived on Earth for a millennium where there was a food shortage. You’re programmed to put on fat whenever there is food available. Now there’s a lot of food available, but it’s the wrong kind.” (Northrup, as cited in Colquhoun et al., 2012). This is a logical and widely accepted theory as to why humans continue to overindulge on foods despi...
Pollan witnesses “For the medical community too scientific theories about diet nourish as usual. New theories beget new drugs to treat diabetes, high blood pressure, and cholesterol” (422). Essentially, Pollan is informing the readers that the health industry is capitalizing off the theories publicized by producing medicine to make up for the cut down nutrients. Furthermore, Pollan states that the food industry releases a new wave of products to a new line of products to rival with the new theories specialized for the western diet. He remind the reader to do their best to escape the western diet despite how hard because these industries are only out for
When I watched the movie it made me feel a little more willing to have a nutritious diet every once in awhile. It made me feel like I should personally exercise more, and eat healthy everyday. It inspired me because an overweight man a really overweight man lost about 100
American society has grown so accustomed to receiving their food right away and in large quantities. Only in the past few decades has factory farming come into existence that has made consuming food a non guilt-free action. What originally was a hamburger with slaughtered cow meat is now slaughtered cow meat that’s filled with harmful chemicals. Not only that, the corn that that cow was fed with is also filled with chemicals to make them grow at a faster rate to get that hamburger on a dinner plate as quickly as possible. Bryan Walsh, a staff writer for Time Magazine specializing in environmental issues discusses in his article “America’s Food Crisis” how our food is not only bad for us but dangerous as well. The word dangerous could apply to many different things though. Our food is dangerous to the consumer, the workers and farmers, the animals and the environment. Walsh gives examples of each of these in his article that leads back to the main point of how dangerous the food we are consuming every day really is. He goes into detail on each of them but focuses his information on the consumer.
When we think of our national health we wonder why Americans end up obese, heart disease filled, and diabetic. Michael Pollan’s “ Escape from the Western Diet” suggest that everything we eat has been processed some food to the point where most of could not tell what went into what we ate. Pollan thinks that if America thought more about our “Western diets” of constantly modified foods and begin to shift away from it to a more home grown of mostly plant based diet it could create a more pleasing eating culture. He calls for us to “Eat food, Not too much, Mostly plants.” However, Mary Maxfield’s “Food as Thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating”, argues differently she has the point of view that people simply eat in the wrong amounts. She recommends for others to “Trust yourself. Trust your body. Meet your needs.” The skewed perception of eating will cause you all kinds of health issues, while not eating at all and going skinny will mean that you will remain healthy rather than be anorexic. Then, as Maxfield points out, “We hear go out and Cram your face with Twinkies!”(Maxfield 446) when all that was said was eating as much as you need.
The emotional feel or atmosphere created by the documentary was just trying to help. You could tell that they want to help people and make sure they are all healthy and can live the right lifestyle. While watching this film I encountered many things I found questionable. I found three claims to be bias/ controversial in this documentary: it uses correlation as causation, they claim someone having health issues can be solved by cutting meat out of their diet, and lastly they only use one study to prove their method, and it is the one that one of the main people in the movie made.
One example of how the food industry is ruthless is when one of the CEOs of a fast-food chain states they are part of the problem is hired immediately. Though I don’t not find this wrong because if I was a stock-holder with my life savings invested within his company I would without a doubt have him fired for placing my money at risk. That is the harsh reality of economics, you cannot place you company in shock by either a damaging statement or bad executive move. I found most disturbing about the movie was how a case was being made against McDonalds that two obese teens did not know fast-food was unhealthy (Spurlock). Regardless of how they lived word of mouth had to have taught them fast food is not healthy, and if that didn’t health education has been in place for years now teaching us
This book is a life changing book. It was inspirational, informative and gave you insight about the things we do not know about the food we eat. The documentary was graphic and detailed, informing you of the process from the farm or the fields, to the manufactures, to the labeling and packaging companies. It informed me, about the school lunches, how some of the meals at school are made, to the politics behind it. This book is also a collectible.
Vegetarians tend to be healthier than those who consume meat. This is due to the prevalent unnatural chemicals used in the processing of meats, and eating these are unsuitable for the body. Meats already contain harmful amounts of cholesterol, and over-consumption of red meat can lead to early heart disease. Animals that are raised on farms for their meat are not treated well, and this mistreatment can lead to harm in the meat they are producing. Although one life choice cannot change one’s environmental
Meat is a major part of people’s diets all around the globe. According to Jennifer Preyss, award-winning writer for the Victoria Advocate, “About two billion people around the world that eat meat in their diets” (2012).Now, two billion might not seem like a large number due to the world population being about seven billion but, one cannot wholly deny the fact that 2 billion people is still quite a lot of people in world to be consuming meat. Also, in 2015, Roberto Ferdman, a reporter for the Washington who is well known for covering topics regarding food, exclaims that “industrial countries consume about 210 pounds of meat while the countries of the developed world eat about 66 pounds of meat each year”. This is a shocking fact indeed, as it helps to show just how much people in the world are affected by meat-based diets during this modern age . Even in the days of humans hunting and gathering their food, people consumed meat then and they still do now. That being said, people devour meat to survive and thrive. Though, it is apparent to many that time has progressed since prehistoric times, what stays the same is that there are people who still continue to eat meat for the sole purpose of survival and being able to live a healthy lifestyle. Besides the fact that meat has been so widely integrated into society, it also is filled with a