There's a world of diets out there, and one particular strain of eating smart and healthy based on a two-decade study in China has caught a lot of attention during the past 10 years.
Lee Fulkerson's 2011 documentary "Forks Over Knives" has popularized nutritional research and writings, which favor a plant-based diet over one of animal-based and processed foods to avoid or even reverse diseases such as cancer and diabetes.
Dr. T. Colin Campbell, one of the world's premiere nutritionists, and one of the men whose work was focused on in Fulkerson's documentary, will talk about "The Health Care Crisis and Its Missing Link" at 7 p.m. Thursday at Akin Auditorium in Midwestern State University's Hardin Building.
The lecture is part of the 11th annual Speakers and Issues Series, and admission is free. Claudia Montoya, MSU Spanish professor and director of Speakers and Issues, saw the documentary in Dallas in 2011 and it made a very strong impression on her.
MSU screened Fulkerson's documentary Thursday in the Clark Student Center to a very good crowd, Montoya said.
"It shows his (Campbell's) life and the life of another doctor, a heart surgeon, (Caldwell Esselstyn) and how they were doing different studies in their own fields about how your diet affects you. They began to share their research and realized how much nutrition has to do with heart disease."
It is very important to be aware of things like this, Montoya said.
"Dr. Campbell proposes to have a plant-based diet, and that is an excellent idea. But, to follow the program the way he suggests it takes a lot of discipline."
There also is more to the plant-based diet that Campbell suggests than just going to the store and buying vegetables and eating them, she said. "He is very concerned about the production of those vegetables, and he is very much in favor of organic farms."
The idea is to avoid chemical pesticides and fertilizers. "Different studies have shown that those types of chemicals have a very bad impact on your health, long-term," she said.
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Nutritionist to present food theory at MSU
