Movie Review: Forks Over Knives- PART ONE

Check out youtube for the trailer!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-OzTWY2J8E

One of my health mentors, my mother-in-law has been practicing good health way before it was trendy! She has inspired her whole family to be healthy. She is living proof that eating healthy pays off. She is almost 60 and has a body that most 20 year old woman strive for. :) She really does practice what she preaches. I value her advice and am inspired by her constant effort to LEARN!

She recently took a big step in becoming vegan. One really powerful documentary that played a role in her new choice was Forks Over Knives. Kevin and I decided to watch the documentary this past weekend. It was a very compelling and left me feeling confused about my food choices. We eat a variety traditional foods-- vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts, meat, dairy, etc. which the documentary pushes a plant based diet.

My circle of health mentors have concerns about vegetarian and vegan diets so this was very confusing to me. The people I look up to have very different opinions of what is "healthy." One thing that continues to ring in my ears are these two points:

1. There has never, in the entire history of man, been a country, culture or race that subsisted entirely on vegetables without animal flesh of some kind.

2. Why does our body require B12 which only comes from animal protein?

Plus, I personally feel energized and full when I consume animal protein. I do think everyone's make-up is digestively different and what makes one person feels good may make someone else feel bad. Because I am limited in nutrition education (just a personal passion/hobby of mine) I took it to some experts to see what their thoughts were on this topic. That will be part two of the movie review. I am anxious to hear their thoughts.

I do feel like the documentary inspired me to learn more about vegetarian cooking and expand my horizons as the family chef. We will not be giving up meat because we believe grass-fed meat and wild caught fish have many good benefits to our health but I like to stay open minded and continue the process of learning. As I have said before, my blog serves as my own personal health quest...trying to figure out what is the best for my family. Its so hard to know with all of the information out there but my personal search continues... More to come from the experts!