Forks Over Knives Page #3

life was accelerating,

even with our food.

The late '50s was the heyday

of the drive-in burger joint.

The supermarket was just

beginning to thrive

in the newly built,

post-World War II suburbs.

This was when the so-called

convenience foods were born,

like the legendary

foil-wrapped TV dinner,

not to mention a host of other

tasty processed delicacies

devised to make our lives

easier and better.

By now, Colin Campbell

was in graduate school

at Cornell university,

which had one of the

most prestigious

nutritional science

departments in the country.

His research was on animal

nutrition and biochemistry.

But it was focused more

on feeding animals

for their ability to

be able to produce

meat, milk, and eggs,

protein containing.

And so my own research

was focused on protein,

making sure we got enough.

It was considered to

be the vital nutrient.

It was one of the first

nutrients discovered

and without protein,

the animal would die,

so it was a life force.

In fact, in the

even early 1900s,

there were statements made

that this is the stuff

of civilization itself.

Protein was also

nearly synonymous

with animal-based

foods like meat.

It still is today

all over America.

Why do you think meat is

important in our diet?

Protein.

- Protein.

- Protein.

- Protein.

- Protein.

- Protein.

- Protein.

- Protein.

- A lot of protein in it.

We need protein, don't we?

You can't live without protein.

The idea that plants had protein

also didn't come into play

until maybe the late

and then it struggled

through the years.

No matter what source

the protein came from,

in the late 1950s, most

scientists believed

the world needed a

lot more of it.

We had a lot of starving

and malnourished

children in the world.

And so in my community, in

the nutrition community,

there were discussions

about why so.

You know, what could be done?

And one of the

prominent thoughts

was to make sure they

get enough protein.

I certainly went along

with this view.

At about the same time,

Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn

was just beginning

his medical career

at the world famous Cleveland

Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio.

Surgery soon became

his specialty.

There's something awfully

satisfying about

if you can remove the disease.

For instance, if a

patient had gallstones

you could remove them.

If it was a gastric ulcer

or a stomach ulcer,

you directly could

take care of that.

If it's a hernia,

the same thing.

During the 1960s,

heart disease was on

the rise in the U.S.

What doctors commonly call

"coronary artery disease"

is usually caused by a

condition of the arteries

that supply the

heart with blood.

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