Before you ask: No,
I am not becoming a vegan.
My Healthy in 2012 group at work just finished watching Forks Over Knives, a documentary
examining the claim that the most effective way to prevent and reverse disease
is with a whole foods, plant-based diet (a fancy way to say vegan). I was
skeptical, but like any good documentary it made me think.
The experts in
Forks Over Knives advocate a whole-food plant-based diet. The program is based
on whole or minimally processed plants, primarily fruits, vegetables, whole grains,
tubers, and legumes. It excludes or minimizes animal-based foods such as meat
(including poultry and fish), dairy, and eggs, as well as refined foods like
bleached flour, refined sugar, and oil. - www.forksoverknives.com.
I’ve always been an omnivore. I view the world as a
complex ecosystem where plants and animals feed off of each other in different
ways in order to thrive individually and as a whole. I don’t have ethical
concerns about the consumption of animals in general (their treatment in the
modern production process is a whole other subject I’m not going to touch at
the moment). The documentary discusses the health effects of eating
animal-based foods, which is what got me questioning my family’s eating habits.
I eat most things in moderation, but I’ve never really
examined my consumption of chicken, fish, eggs, milk, and other dairy products.
Delicious and nutritious, right? They provide protein and calcium which are
essential to our diet. We neeeeeed them.
The documentarians attempt to demonstrate that animal protein
can do more harm than good. You can get all of the protein and calcium you need
from plant-based foods and avoid the negative effects of animal protein. The
vignettes, research studies, and clinical trials presented in the documentary
make this seem clear cut and possible to achieve. For example:
·
Nutritionists Dr. T. Colin Campbell conducted
the awesome China-Oxford-Cornell study, which followed millions of Chinese over
decades and found that increases in their incidence of cancer and heart disease
directly paralleled their adoption of a Western diet.
·
When Nazis commandeered all the food animals in
Norway and rationing forced Brits away from meat, disease rates plummeted.
After the war, they moved up again.
·
In the traditional Japanese diet, breast and
prostate cancers are all but unknown.
·
The filmmaker follows three sick people: one
with breast cancer, one given less than a year to live because of heart
problems, one with murderously high cholesterol. All are well again after the
vegetarian diet and no other medicinal intervention.
The idea of a plant-based diet still seems a little
daunting to me. The expense, the time for preparation needed, and the meat-based
culture we live in would make the switch quite challenging. Plant-centered vs. meat-centered feels easier to start with.
I do think that it is appropriate and necessary to look
for and begin incorporating alternative protein sources into our diet. We
certainly do not need meat with every meal. We do not need milk for breakfast
every morning. We can limit our eggs. It definitely will not hurt us to further
limit our consumption of fast food and processed foods. We need to eat more
vegetables.
Michael and I are making slow, manageable changes:
·
Making at least two meat-free meals a week.
·
Substituting rice and pasta for more vegetables,
whole-grains, and legumes.
·
Having vegetables with 95% of lunches/dinners
(We like our Chick-fil-A).
·
Fast food once a week or less (Again, I’m not
ready to give up my #5 8-pack).
·
I’m also going to buy a carton of almond milk to
try out.
I definitely recommend checking out the documentary and
looking into the research on your own. I’m going to continue to poke around as
we start making changes. I’ll update on our recipes and progress towards a more
plant-centered diet.
If anyone is reading this, I would love to hear/read your perspective and experience!
