The Forks Over Knives diet plan, popularized by the documentary of the same name, advocates a whole-food, plant-based (WFPB) approach to eating. This diet emphasizes minimally processed plant foods while excluding or minimizing animal products and refined ingredients. By focusing on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes, the Forks Over Knives diet aims to improve health, manage weight, and prevent chronic diseases.
Understanding the Forks Over Knives Diet
The Forks Over Knives diet is rooted in the idea that nutrition can play a powerful role in preventing and even reversing chronic diseases. It promotes the consumption of "whole foods," which are natural, unprocessed or minimally processed foods. It is also "plant-based," meaning that the diet consists of foods that come from plants and excludes animal ingredients such as meat, milk, eggs, or honey.
While there are similarities between WFPB and vegan diets, there are key differences. Vegans avoid all animal products in food, clothing, and other aspects of their lives, but they may not necessarily focus on whole, unrefined foods. The Forks Over Knives diet, on the other hand, specifically emphasizes whole, plant-based foods while minimizing or eliminating animal products and highly refined foods.
Core Principles of a Whole-Food, Plant-Based Diet
A whole-food, plant-based (WFPB) diet is based on the following principles:
- Whole Foods: Prioritize natural foods that are not heavily processed. This means choosing whole, unrefined, or minimally refined ingredients.
- Plant-Based: Focus on foods that come from plants, eliminating animal ingredients like meat, milk, eggs, or honey.
What to Eat on a Forks Over Knives Diet
The Forks Over Knives diet encourages the consumption of a variety of plant-based foods, including:
Read also: Comprehensive Diet Review
- Fruits: Any type of fruit, such as apples, bananas, grapes, and citrus fruits.
- Vegetables: A wide range of veggies, including peppers, corn, lettuce, spinach, kale, and peas.
- Tubers: Starchy root vegetables like potatoes, sweet potatoes, and yams.
- Whole Grains: Grains, cereals, and starches in their whole form, such as quinoa, brown rice, whole wheat, and oats.
- Legumes: Beans of any kind, plus lentils and pulses.
Also, other foods can be enjoyed, including nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, tempeh, whole-grain flours and breads, and plant-based milks.
What to Limit or Avoid
The Forks Over Knives diet advises minimizing or avoiding:
- Meat and poultry (chicken, beef, pork)
- Dairy (milk and cheese)
- Eggs
- Fish
- Other processed foods (potato chips, chocolate bars)
- Refined grains (white pasta, rice, and bread)
- Sweets (cookies, brownies, and cake)
- Sweetened beverages (soda and fruit juice)
- Fried foods
- Oils
Benefits of the Forks Over Knives Diet
Transitioning to plant-based nutrition offers several major benefits supported by scientific evidence:
Easy Weight Management
People who follow a plant-based diet tend to be leaner because whole plant-based foods are low in calories, meaning you can eat a high volume of food without exceeding your calorie needs. Meat, dairy products, and highly processed foods are high in calories yet low in the fiber that helps us feel full and fuels a healthy gut microbiome. A 2020 review of 19 intervention studies found that participants assigned to plant-based diets lost weight in each one.
Disease Prevention
Whole-food, plant-based eating can prevent, halt, and in some cases reverse chronic diseases. Scientific research highlighted in the book The China Study shows that a plant-based diet can reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, certain types of cancer, and other major illnesses.
Read also: Do Fillers Dissolve Over Time?
Cardiovascular Health
A whole-food, plant-based diet is extremely effective at promoting cardiovascular health and preventing, halting, and in some cases reversing heart disease. A 2021 review of 99 studies found that diets rich in whole and minimally processed plant-based foods were associated with significantly lower risk of cardiovascular disease compared with diets high in meat and dairy products.
Animal-based foods are high in saturated fat and cholesterol, which raise blood cholesterol levels, causing fatty, wax-like plaque to build up in the arteries. By eliminating these harmful foods and replacing them with whole plant-based foods, you can bring down your cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and risk of heart disease.
Type 2 Diabetes Management
Healthy plant-centered diets are associated with significantly lower rates of Type 2 diabetes and improved outcomes in those who already have this dangerous chronic condition. A 2018 report in BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care found that for people with Type 2 diabetes, plant-based diets were more beneficial than the diets recommended by several diabetes associations, offering greater improvements in physical and emotional well-being.
Plant-based diets are low in saturated fat (a culprit behind insulin resistance) and high in fiber, which helps the body to regulate blood sugar and properly absorb nutrients. Plant-based diets also reduce the risk of being overweight or obese, a primary risk factor for Type 2 diabetes.
Environmental Impact
Switching to a WFPB lifestyle is one of the best things you can do for the environment. The main reason is that raising animals for food is an incredibly inefficient use of resources. A 2018 analysis found that livestock provides just 18% of calories consumed globally but takes up 83% of farmland.
Read also: Senior Health and the Mediterranean Diet
Cost-Effectiveness
Whole and minimally processed plant-based foods are not only the healthiest and most sustainable foods around; they’re also some of the most affordable. In fact, going plant-based can cut grocery bills by $750 a year per person, according to research published in the Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition.
Practical Steps to Adopt the Forks Over Knives Diet
Here are some practical steps to help you adopt the Forks Over Knives diet:
- Start Gradually: Begin by incorporating individual healthy plant-based meals into your diet and focus on the foods you enjoy most.
- Replace Animal Products: Replace one daily serving of animal products with whole plant foods. For instance, swapping processed meat with whole grains, nuts, or legumes can offer significant health benefits.
- Focus on Whole Foods: Choose whole, unrefined foods over processed options. This ensures you're getting the most nutrients and fiber.
- Plan Your Meals: Meal prepping and planning can help you stay organized and make healthier choices. It saves time, reduces food waste, and saves money.
- Explore Plant-Based Recipes: Experiment with different plant-based recipes to find meals that you love. The Forks Over Knives website and cookbooks offer a variety of options.
- Read labels carefully: When shopping, read labels to identify hidden animal products and refined ingredients.
- Be Mindful of Nutrients: Ensure you're getting all the essential nutrients, including vitamin B12, which may require supplementation.
- Eat at Home Regularly: Eating at home regularly makes it much easier to maintain healthy eating habits.
- Think Outside the Produce Aisle: Stock up on grains, canned beans, and canned or frozen fruits and veggies so you don’t have to shop every few days.
- Swap Meat for High-Protein Legumes: Tofu, tempeh, black beans, chickpeas, pinto beans, and dried peas are some of your many options.
- When Eating Out, Ask the Waiter for Suggestions: Sometimes a server will help you piece together a meal with sides and appetizers if there isn’t a plant-based main course on the menu.
- Choose Budget-Friendly Options: Keep grocery costs down by buying in-season produce and sticking to simple plant-based foods such as grains, beans, and frozen and canned foods.
- Keep Nutrition Basics in Mind: Limit the sugar, fat, and refined grains you cook with at home. These ingredients can quickly make a home-cooked plant-based meal unhealthy.
Addressing Common Concerns
Protein Intake
Many people worry about getting enough protein on a plant-based diet, but there isn’t a scintilla of evidence to show that you need more than what is naturally occurring in a calorie-sufficient, plant-based diet. On a plant-based diet, your protein intake will generally range from 8-15 percent of calories.
Vitamin B12
Whole and minimally processed plant-based foods contain all the essential nutrients (with the exception of vitamin B12) we need. You can get some B12 from fortified foods such as plant-based milks and breakfast cereals, but the best source is a simple B12 supplement.
Cost
Eating a plant-based diet can be very inexpensive. The staple foods of this lifestyle are potatoes, beans, rice, and whole-grains-these are the cheapest source of calories out there.
Meal Planning Tips
Meal prepping and planning may sound daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. It can be as easy as thinking ahead and sketching out what you want to eat for the next several days before making a grocery list. Or it can be as structured as spending a weekend afternoon prepping and portioning out single servings of the upcoming week’s breakfasts and lunches.
Benefits of Meal Planning
- More Free Time: It’s more efficient to sit down once a week, scan through your pinned recipes or earmarked cookbooks, and make one grocery list for the week, rather than repeat the process every day or two.
- Less Food Waste: Weekly meal planning helps you purchase only the groceries that you actually need-and to make maximum use of every ingredient.
- Saves You Money: Throwing away less food means throwing away less money. And fewer visits to the store and restaurants means that you’ll be spending less on groceries and takeout.
- Less Stress: Thinking about what you’re going to eat takes mental energy, something that can be in short supply during a lunch break or at the end of the long workday.
- Healthier Eating: Making healthier, more mindful meal choices by planning ahead contributes to better overall health.
- More Fun: Meal planning leaves room to get creative week to week so that even though some meals may repeat, you won’t get bored with what’s on your plate.
Sample Meal Ideas
- Breakfast: Fruit, oatmeal, or savory breakfast potatoes. Whole grain cereal with rice or almond milk.
- Lunch: Burritos or enchiladas with beans and rice. Whole grain pasta primavera with plant-based pesto sauce.
- Dinner: Vegan shepherd’s pie. Corn Chowder.