Forks over Knives documentary free essay sample

Obesity in the United States is taking its peak and the US government spends 2. 2 trillion dollars each year on health care, yet millions of people are dying every year due to high blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, and heart disease. In the movie Forks Over Knives, western diet, fast food, and dairy products are shown as unhealthy food for the people who have chronic diseases, and also for the people who are likely to get those diseases in future. People don’t have enough education on how to make a smart choice by eating healthy food. Plant based diets are good for the patient who has cancer and chronic diseases. Research supports this idea and proves it by disclosing that changing our diet to one that is plant based helps lower our risk of disease and increase our chance of survival without taking any medicines. The question remains that instead of government spending 2. We will write a custom essay sample on Forks over Knives documentary or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page 2 trillion dollars each year, why wouldn’t our government just educate people on how to live a healthier lifestyle? The government must implement plant based diet by encouraging every doctor in the nation to start this treatment for their patients and by educating kids in high school. This will have an enormous effect on the government health care budget, it will save the government billion of dollars on drug industry and the government can used that money in implementing plant based diet program and producing fresh food across the country, so individual people won’t consume too much junk food and they would be in better shape. Ruth Heidrich was a marathon runner and she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her doctor recommended chemotherapy and radiation to treat her cancer. A frozen section was done immediately; she was told it was invasive cancer, and it had spread throughout the whole breast, bones and one lung. After recovering from the surgery she saw a newspaper article about breast cancer and diet research study. She immediately decided to visit Dr. John McDougall. She was told by the doctor to change her diet to a plant based diet. She was told to eat lots of fruits and vegetables. After changing the diet her arthritis and constipation disappeared. She was more energetic and she finally reversed her cancer. She is now in her 70’s living a healthy life. We can all be motivated from her, we cannot change our diet to completely plant based but we can at least reduce our food intake of fried food and meat. This sets a good example to every patient in America and across the world, that if doctors encourage their patient to change their eating habit and also if the patient takes the responsibility they can reverse any diseases they have. When a patient hears that they have cancer they feel like it is the end of the world, because there is no way to cure this disease. It takes lot of money and luck to survive the cancer. There is only 1% survival rate for patient with breast cancer, and that’s with chemotherapy and radiation. This was very unusual for Ruth to reverse such a big cancer just by adjusting her diet. San’Dera Nation thirty-something was overweight, type two diabetic and hypertension patient. She was treated with expensive prescription drugs to lower her sugar level. When she met Dr. Esselstyne she was strictly told by him and his wife to change her diet to completely plant based. She stopped taking her diabetes medications after 3 weeks on the diet and within two months her diabetes and blood sugar level was down. This was the drastic change for Nation in just two months. Now she is completely living on a plant based diet and her entire family eats plant based diet, including her children. According to San’Dera Nation, plant based diet is cheaper than buying bulk of chicken and pork chops. A great lesson to be learn from San’Dera Nation that it is easy to change your diet if you make up your mind. This was unusual for Nation to reverse her diabetes just by eating fresh vegetables and fruits and that too without taking any medication. If the government can implement plant based diet many patient like Nation who have lost their hope in curing this disease can live a healthy life without any headache of taking medicines. Dr. Campbell’s experiment in China shows that there are fewer chances of people getting cancer and diabetes, because they eat plant based diet. In China, people only eat meat for the flavor; they eat more vegetables and soup. The results convinced Dr. Campbell that plant based diet helps to reduce chronic diseases. The government should take responsibility to educate people and they should educate kids in high school by providing a diet class that gives knowledge on how to live a healthier lifestyle. People in the United States have more liberty in choosing their diet than any other country, because people in the US have privilege. Fast food is very cheap in the US, so people from all income can afford to eat in restaurants like McDonald and Burger King. In the US, western diet is more popular, because of its demand and it serves faster. Based on the commissioner, department of public health, Terry Mason, said that â€Å"people are addicted to western diet, because it is salty and fried. † People are responsible for their own dietary action. The average Americans carries 23 extra pounds, 40% are obese and half of us are taking prescription drugs. According to CDC, every state in the United States has 20% or higher rate of obesity. The numbers speak for themselves. It is our responsibility to change our diet or otherwise be included in the statistics of the number of people who die in the United States every year due to chronic diseases. It will be tough for the people to change their diet completely to a plant based, but it is possible to reduce the amount of intake from dairy products and meat in our daily diet. In The New York Times article, â€Å"Unhappy Meals† Michael Pollan says, â€Å"Eat food. Mostly Plants. Not too much,† this is the most simple and powerful answer to the people across the United States to start thinking about their health and take responsibility of their diet. â€Å"Let food be thy medicine. † This quote reflects very well into our society. Instead of spending thousands of dollars in prescription drugs, wouldn’t it be nice to just change our eating habit slightly to cure our diseases. The research done by the Dr. Esselstyne and Dr. John McDougall on a plant based diet, and also the experiment conducted by Dr. Campbell in China suggest that American people should consider changing their diet towards a plant based diet in order to live longer. This is the responsibility of our government and citizens of this country to take a step further and reduce the western diet from our body and encourage ourselves to start eating a plant based diet, because it is a benefit to us and to the government. Based on the real life story of Ruth Heidrich and San’Dera Nation a plant based diet does help to cure chronic diseases. This change will have to take place in our society, because it is worth the effort we will live longer and our government won’t be spending trillions of dollar on health care budget. This trillions of dollar can be use to create jobs, helping doctors to implement plant based diet, and creating food industry that only serves fresh food to the public.