''Forks Over Knives'' is a 2011 American
documentary film
A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
which argues that avoiding
animal products and
ultra-processed foods, and instead eating a
whole-food,
plant-based diet
A plant-based diet is a diet consisting mostly or entirely of plant-based foods. It encompasses a wide range of dietary patterns that contain low amounts of animal products and high amounts of fiber-rich plant products such as vegetables ...
(
whole grain
A whole grain is a grain of any cereal and pseudocereal that contains the endosperm, germ, and bran, in contrast to refined grains, which retain only the endosperm.
As part of a general healthy diet, consumption of whole grains is associated ...
s,
legume
Legumes are plants in the pea family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seeds of such plants. When used as a dry grain for human consumption, the seeds are also called pulses. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consum ...
s,
tuber
Tubers are a type of enlarged structure that plants use as storage organs for nutrients, derived from stems or roots. Tubers help plants perennate (survive winter or dry months), provide energy and nutrients, and are a means of asexual reproduc ...
s,
vegetable
Vegetables are edible parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. This original meaning is still commonly used, and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including edible flower, flo ...
s, and
fruit
In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering.
Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...
s), may serve as a form of
chronic illness intervention.
Summary
Through an examination of the careers of American physician
Caldwell Esselstyn and professor of nutritional biochemistry
T. Colin Campbell, ''Forks Over Knives'' claims that many diseases, including obesity, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer, can be prevented and treated by eating a whole-food, plant-based diet, avoiding processed food and food from animals.
The film includes an overview of the 20-year
China–Cornell–Oxford Project that led to Professor Campbell's findings, outlined in his book ''
The China Study'' (2005), in which he suggests that
coronary artery disease
Coronary artery disease (CAD), also called coronary heart disease (CHD), or ischemic heart disease (IHD), is a type of cardiovascular disease, heart disease involving Ischemia, the reduction of blood flow to the cardiac muscle due to a build-up ...
,
diabetes
Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...
,
obesity
Obesity is a medical condition, considered by multiple organizations to be a disease, in which excess Adipose tissue, body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it can potentially have negative effects on health. People are classifi ...
, and
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...
can be linked to the Western diet of processed and animal-based foods (including
dairy product
Dairy products or milk products are food products made from (or containing) milk. The most common dairy animals are cow, water buffalo, goat, nanny goat, and Sheep, ewe. Dairy products include common grocery store food around the world such as y ...
s).
The premise of the film was to create the "reverse" of the 2004 documentary ''
Super Size Me
''Super Size Me'' is a 2004 American documentary film directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock, an American independent filmmaker. Spurlock's film follows a 30-day period from February 1 to March 2, 2003, during which he claimed to consume o ...
'', where the film's director "goes on this diet and gets better, instead of getting fatter and sicker."
Reception
The film premiere took place on May 2, 2011 at the SilverScreen Theater at the
Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood. Actor
Angela Bassett attended the premiere.
On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
the film has an approval rating of 59% based on reviews from 37 critics and 79% audience rating. On
Metacritic
Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, the film had an average score of 57 out of 100, based on 18 reviews, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...
of the ''
Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...
'' gave the film three out of four stars and wrote: "here is a film that could save your life." He commented that "''Forks Over Knives'' is not subtle. It plays as if it had been made for doctors to see in medical school." Loren King of ''
The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...
'' gave it three out of four stars and remarked that "what ''
An Inconvenient Truth'' did for global warming, Lee Fulkerson's persuasive documentary does for a
vegan
Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products and the consumption of animal source foods, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A person who practices veganism is known as a ve ...
diet".
[ Carrie Rickey of '']The Philadelphia Inquirer
''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', often referred to simply as ''The Inquirer'', is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded on June 1, 1829, ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is the third-longest continuously operating da ...
'' gave the film three out of four stars and described it as "an earnest and fact-filled work of food evangelism." Jeannette Catsoulis of the ''New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' described it as making "a pedantic yet persuasive case for banishing meat and dairy from the dinner table," while also being a "trudge through statistics, graphs and grainy film of cholesterol bubbles and arterial plaque."
Sean O'Connell of ''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' gave the film two out of four stars and argued that it is "an interesting and informative health lecture that's sandwiched into a dry, repetitive documentary" and said that "it's desperately in need of charisma, humor or personality to balance the steady stream of scientific facts we're asked to absorb". Rex Reed of ''The New York Observer
''The New York Observer'' was a weekly newspaper established in 1987. In 2016, it ceased print publication and became the online-only newspaper ''Observer''. The media site focuses on culture, real estate, media, politics and the entertainment ...
'' gave the film 2/4, criticizing its "funereal" tone and writing, "the movie says nothing we don't already know, and 96 minutes is too long to tell us how sick we are." Corey Hall of the ''Metro Times
The ''Detroit Metro Times'' is a progressive alternative weekly newspaper located in Detroit, Michigan. It is the largest circulating weekly newspaper in the metro Detroit area.
The ''Metro Times'' was an official sponsor of the now-defunct De ...
'' gave the film a "C" and stated that "while it's impossible to dispute the basic premise that eating more vegetables is good for you, Forks adopts a staunch anti-meat and -dairy stance that leaves the door open for criticism."
Producer Brian Wendel told journalist Avery Yale Kamila of the '' Portland Press Herald'' that "it's been very hard to get publicity. It's happened several times at very large publications who said, 'We're sorry, we can't (run a story about the film) because of our advertisers." Kamila reported that "Despite the trouble the filmmakers encountered with some mainstream media outlets, the film has generated significant buzz in the social media sphere."
The film was awarded the Documentary/Special Interest Title of the Year in 2012 by the Entertainment Merchants Association.
VegNews listed it as one of "The 18 Best Vegan Documentaries to Start Streaming Now" in 2024.
Books
* Alona Pulde M.D., Matthew Lederman M.D. '' The Forks Over Knives Plan: How to Transition to the Life-Saving, Whole-Food, Plant-Based Diet'', 2014.
* Sroufe, Del. ''Forks Over Knives—The Cookbook'', 2012.
* Stone, Gene. ''Forks Over Knives: The Plant Based Way to Health'', 2011.
See also
* List of vegan and plant-based media
References
External links
*
*
*
{{Portal bar, Film, United States, Food
2011 films
2011 documentary films
2010s English-language films
American documentary films
Documentary films about environmental issues
Documentary films about animal rights
Films about the food industry
2010s American films
Documentary films about plant-food diets
Documentary films about veganism
English-language documentary films