axanghelescu
Warning this might have spoilers !! If anyone knows me they would say that I'm the biggest health advocate, so I really had high hopes for this movie. And while I don't hold any degrees in nutrition, I do have graduate studies and critical thinking in general, and I do know how to write/read scientific research on a topic. That being said, I thought this movie LACKED ESSENTIAL DETAILS ABOUT THE RESEARCH RESULTS shown. It's unfortunate but the way they presented the research was very biased (to prove their theory "animal produce bad, plant produce good") which is just wrong. I have a hard time believing a person that does research in this field at Cornel University would choose to ignore the whole research and present only parts of it for the sake of making this movie, so I am really baffled as to what these people actually think and how they could make such a one sided story. After I saw the movie I thought it was great but I couldn't help thinking how come the striking "scientific" discoveries and correlations between cancer tumors and plant/animal protein intake were not taken seriously by the medical community. Well I answered my questions just by doing a tiny bit of research. There are many blogs objectively discussing the misinformation in this movie (and there sure is a lot). So just google some critique, it is all there including "The curious case of Campbell's rats", or dig up the original research papers if you find the critique non objective. So that was a major disappointment, I can expect people to misinterpret and broadcast bad research but not "scholars" who have dedicated lives to it. The movie has the right intention, YES the western diet is killing you, YES people are uneducated when it comes to knowing what to eat, YES people don't know that food can be your medicine, YES your diet can save you from taking a fist of pills and having surgeries. But NO, there is no scientific proof that animal products cause cancer or reduce your life span while plant-based food reverses the cancer and guarantees longevity !!!! No such thing folks. There are so many many complex factors in determining what is cancer(and how different all types of cancer are), how it evolves and so on. Half of this movie is presenting some very biased and taken out of context evidence. That is unacceptable, and that's why I can't give it more than 3 stars. If you want to watch a documentary about food, watch FOOD INC.
LilyDaleLady
Even if I was a vegetarian, I'd be dismayed by this film, which is a textbook example of propaganda -- think Leni Reifenstahl and "The Triumph of the Will" in Hitler's Germany. Such films have an agenda, and use cinematic techniques to promote that agenda, without balance or integrity or truthfulness. Truth plays a backseat to promoting the political agenda.Here the agenda is .... veganism. And not just general "it's good for you!" veganism nor even the "save the cute widdle animals" veganism -- this is a direct polemic stating that veganism -- and ONLY veganism -- will save your life, enable you to cure a whole range of diseases and live for a very long time, the whole while as a fit, buff triathelete or firefighter.The theories of Dr. Caldwell and Dr. Esselstyn are the most extreme of all eating regimes -- not even vegetarianism is remotely good enough here. This is the Pritikin or Ornish diets, on steroids. ZERO fats, zero meat, zero dairy products -- yup, folks, YOGURT will kill you. Milk, of course, will kill you -- even organic skim milk.What does this leave you to eat? Only vegetables, and more vegetables. Furthermore, they must be steamed or baked, as you cannot of course fry or stir fry, sauté or fricassee because remember -- ZERO fats. Yes, folks -- OLIVE OIL, now it's bad for you. Even Canola oil. No oils or fats whatsoever, in any form. SO this is a diet of steamed vegetables and only steamed vegetables, and nothing else.Needless to say, this very harsh diet is not too appealing to any normal person, nor is it a diet normally eaten by any human society on earth. It lacks a number of nutrients and vitamins, which must be taken by pill form (B-12 etc.). But of course, unpalatable as it is, it leads directly to weight loss -- and the weight loss to remission from obesity, Type II diabetes, coronary artery disease and cholesterol problems.I can almost accept that, though of course 99% of people cannot stick to a diet this horrible. You might as well say you can cure these things if you fast all the time, and live on water, but it does not translate that most folks can do that.But it goes off the rails when the filmmakers state you can CURE METASTATIC BREAST CANCER (and infer, all cancers) by eating vegan foods. Not prevent breast cancer -- not cure a primary tumor -- but cure breast cancer which had spread to the subjects spine, liver and bones. This is untrue, and a hateful, ugly promise to make to suffering cancer victims, which cannot possibly be true. Nor does the movie offer any PROOF, besides one elderly lady's anecdotal story (we do not even know for sure she ever had cancer, for starters) that this is so. Certainly any "proof" would involve thousands of patients with metastatic cancer over many years, and with double blind studies.It is shocking and horrifying that two physicians who call themselves "scientists" would promise such a thing. It proved to me, what I had been thinking silently through the rest of the film -- this is not science, this is RELIGION...the religion of veganism, which incorporates a hatred for all things pleasurable in the world (but especially food), a belief in eternal life (promised to you by eating vegan!) and the necessity to preach at and convert others. As such, it is frightening beyond any other type of diet hucksterism.NO matter what you eat, I assure you -- you are going to die sometime, and you will die of SOMETHING. No diet in the world can save you from metastatic cancer, and I am appalled beyond words at DOCTORS pushing a protocol on patients which involves REFUSING chemo and radiation (proven to help) and instead an unproven diet plan. (Note that cancer victims typically lose a lot of weight and have trouble eating; I can't imagine a worse thing that forcing them to eat tasteless vegan dishes and lose weight on purpose!)On top of this, the film is dry and full of statistics, along with simple-minded attacks on old filmstrips that show "the 7 basic food groups" or whatever, from like 1946. Also I noted that when the filmmaker himself is shown going on his diet, as well as other participants, they are very openly showing bags and boxes from the Whole Foods chain of stores (was it a paid advertisement?).In short, not recommended. This is religion, not science. It is a sad comment on society that we cannot discuss and debate issues about food and diet, without it becoming an attack on other people who eat differently than we do, or on other people's body types or habits.
