Forks over Knives, (The China Study) discussion response.
When looking at different social and cultural factors that impact what foods we consume and when, a lot of things come to mind based off personal experience, but there are a lot of other factors that some people, including myself, don’t usually consider. After watching the Fork Over Knives documentary, I learned a lot about what different cultures tend to eat, different portion sizes based off where you may reside, and how often different people from different geographic places may eat on a regular basis. It is interesting to know that our ‘normal’ may be so drastically different then someone else and with each meal comes different viewpoints, lifestyles, and nutrients.
Just from personal experience, I know that my family loves to eat meat with most of our meals. Growing up, I was never someone who enjoyed meat and got stuck with mostly eating chicken and other plant-based proteins. Just form watching the documentary, I realized that many other cultures are vegetarian but there are also some who heavily rely on meat as a source of protein. One side of my family is religious and will not eat meat on Fridays, due to this. Based off their beliefs, it is wrong to eat meat on Fridays, where in other cultures, this is sometimes their only source of protein and is a necessity in their everyday diet. Another factor effecting our meat consumption is one’s socioeconomic status. Meat can be very expensive when processed and depending on where you live, your income, or family status, meat consumption may be very difficult.
Overall, this documentary talked a lot about meat consumption and how it can relate back to many different illnesses and diseases. I read a survey that asked a group of randomized people why they ate meat and almost every response was “I need the protein.” We have drifted so far away from our own beliefs and other external factors and focused so much on why our bodies need meat that we have become blinded to other sources of protein that may be better for our bodies long term. We are the unhealthiest we have every been and this documentary dives into the ‘why’. Their research separately and independently led them to the same startling conclusion: degenerative diseases like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and even several forms of cancer, could almost always be prevented-and in many cases reversed-by adopting a whole food, plant-based diet. Despite the profound implications of their findings, their work has remained relatively unknown to the public.
