Made by the producer and writer of the 2011 hit Forks Over Knives, PlantPure Nation puts forth a convincing argument about the benefits of a plant-based diet, and has just completed a preview screening bus tour that went through 23 cities in the U.S. and Canada. It's not just a movie. It's a movement. At least that's what the filmmakers would have us believe. The movie opens Friday at the Cedar Lee Theatre for a limited week-long run.
Dieting isn't the sexiest of subjects and many clips in the film center on patients who switched to plant-based diets. One guys hears that his cholesterol levels have dropped, and he's shocked. Another woman, a Type II diabetic, is told "there is no cure" but then finds that switching to a plant-based diet helps her illness. And a guy who was denied life insurance because of his tri-glycerides finds his levels have dropped dramatically. It's all a little too much like reality TV, but the message is clear. The film holds together a narrative by following three people who try to spread the word about a plant-based diet.
The filmmakers hope the film will create a broad grassroots movement and they've created PlantPure Nation Foundation to establish local PlantPure Pods in cities and towns across the states. They'll help institute the 10-day Jumpstart program depicted in the movie.
The film delves into the politics of the matter too, and it shows how there have been few official medical or state-sponsored efforts to support the benefits of a whole-food, plant-based diet. Doctors confess they don't know what to tell their overweight and unhealthy patients about dieting. And food-related legislation stalls. In spinning this narrative, the film includes interviews with pundits such as Steve Forbes Jr. (editor-in-chief, Forbes Magazine), Dr. T. Colin Campbell (co-author, The China Study), Dr. Neal Barnard (founder and president, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine), and Dr. Michael Greger (director of public health and animal agriculture, Humane Society of the United States). Former President Bill Clinton even chimes in to talk about how he switched to a plant-based diet.