Films & Videos / Films About Diet and Food / Videos

A Diet For All Reasons, The Strongest Reasons to Eat A Plant-Based Vegan Diet

by Jennie Richards · Published January 15, 2017 · Updated April 13, 2019

A Diet For All Reasons is a powerful documentary demonstrating how the foods we eat can either maintain our health and help us thrive, or cause disease, chronic illness and even death. The video presents the detrimental health effects of an animal-based diet, and the positive, life-sustaining health benefits of a plant-based vegan diet, and compares the two.

Dr. Michael Klaper, M.D. has practiced medicine for more than 40 years and is a leading educator in plant-based nutrition and integrative medicine. Dr. Klaper practiced acute care medicine in New Zealand for three years and currently serves on the staff of the TrueNorth Health Center in Santa Rosa, California, a nutritionally based medical clinic specializing in therapeutic fasting and health improvement through a whole-foods, plant-based diet. He is the author of a successful book on cholesterol-free nutrition and has contributed to the making of two PBS television programs Food for Thought and the award-winning Diet for a New America film based on the book of the same name by John Robbins.

Video Length: 58 Minutes

The Health Effects of an Animal-Based Diet

Coronary Artery Disease – Animal fats clog you up
Obesity – Animal fats make you fat
Cancer of Colon, Breast and Prostate – Animal fats cause cancers
Osteoporosis – Animal foods have too much protein, too much protein causes severe calcium loss. All plants have calcium
High Blood Pressure – Eating animal flesh causes arteries to clog and become narrow, sodium is found in all meat and dairy products
Adult Onset Diabetes – Animal fat causes fat and diabetes

Human Nutrition Needs – All you need to run the human body and stay healthy

Moderate Protein – All plant proteins are complete protein, in and of themselves, they don’t need to be combined with another food. Eat plant-based foods including grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, sprouts and green vegetables
Water – from fruits and juices
Vitamins – from green and leafy vegetables
Minerals – from plants and grains
Energy – from carbohydrates found in grains, fruits, and starchy vegetables
Oils from whole grains, vegetables, and fruits
Fiber – from whole grains, legumes, beans, vegetables and fruits

Quotes from the Video

“Over the decades, we’ve exchanged a plant-based diet for a meat-based diet and it has been disastrous for our health and environment.”

“Cow’s milk is for baby calves, you have no more need for cow’s milk than drinking giraffe milk, camel’s milk or rat’s milk!”

“Arterosclerosis is saturated fat that has built up in arteries caused by eating a flesh-based diet.”

“The number one cause of death in North America is from eating animal saturated fat and cholesterol that clogs human arteries. It’s a disease for people who eat animals.”

“If you keep your blood fatty for years and years from eating red meat, poultry, dairy and eggs, you end up with arteriosclerosis and hardening of the arteries. There are three sources of animal fat that will make your blood fatty, 1) Red meat is the number one source of cholesterol in our diet, 2) Second, the yolk of hen’s eggs is full of cholesterol, and 3) Dairy milk, which is high fat fluid that is designed to grow a cow in a very short period of time, it is not designed for humans.”

“All fats are not created equal – animal fats contain cholesterol and are highly saturated. They are solid at body temperature. However, plant fats are liquid at body temperature, so they don’t adhere to our body or stick to our arteries. That’s the beauty of plant oils, they don’t cling to your arteries. Plant oils contain no cholesterol.”

“The ‘Basic Four Food Groups’ scheme was designed by the Department of Agriculture to support the dairy and meat industries, it has nothing to do with the truth or what’s good for us.”

“People who are vegan or vegetarian have far less inflammation in their body.”

Eating Animal Protein

“There’s a whole new set of problems today with eating animal-based foods – today animals are housed on factory farms that use herbicides and pesticides on the grains they are fed; the animals are fed excessive antibiotics; there’s toxic salmonella bacteria from poultry and meat; food poisoning in dairy, meat and poultry from chemicals and bacteria; eating these animals exposes us to numerous health hazards.”

“If you are being treated for high blood pressure, and you’re still eating cheese, milk, poultry and meat – you are kidding yourself. Stop eating animal foods and transition to plant foods only, and your blood pressure will decrease.”

Eating a Plant-Based Diet

“Base your diet on grains, whole grains (not refined grains), cereals, rice, noodles, legumes, lentils, and soy tofu. Eat as much of your diet as you can with raw, fresh, lightly cooked, but not processed foods. Think about moving your diet to more uncooked foods. Keep your food as fresh and vital as you can.”

“We have to stop kidding ourselves about what we’re doing on this planet. We must start living reverently on this planet, and changing our diet to a plant-based diet. You have the power to make your body healthier and the planet healthier.”

“The single most effective thing you can do to make you healthier and the planet healthier—eliminate the animal foods in your diet.”

Fat

“Animal fats clog you up and make you fat. Animal fats wash into your blood stream and stick to you.”

“Our kids are eating a lot of fat and it is hurting them. We’re seeing heart attacks in younger and younger people in the U.S. Teenagers are suffering strokes.”

Dr. William Castelli, who runs the Framingham Heart Study, said “He has never seen a heart attack in anyone with cholesterol below 150.”

“There is no nutrient found in meats and dairy products that is not found in plant-based foods.”

Cancer

“If you are eating a lot of animal fat in your diet, you increase your risk of cancer. For a woman eating meat and dairy, the risk of breast cancer is significantly higher. When a man eats animal fats those fats are turned into male hormones that stimulate the prostrate gland to get larger. Prostate cancer is the #1 killer of men.”

“The more animal fat eaten the more men die of prostate cancer.”

Protein

“Eliminating animal foods from your diet will significantly reduce your risk of colon cancer.”

“We are not carnivores no matter how you look at it. We are designed far more like an herbavore than a carnivore. We have the same digestive systems of plant-eating animals, and we have very different digestive systems than carnivores.”

“We only need 30 grams of protein a day. But the typical American eats a total of 161 grams of protein per day due to eating animal flesh. The body cannot store protein, so eating too much protein causes significant calcium loss and osteoporosis.”

“Osteoporisis is due to excess calcium. You see patients with osteoporosis who consume the most dairy products, the countries that consume the highest dairy products have the highest rates of osteoporosis. There’s too much protein in milk and dairy, instead get your calcium from plants and vegetables.”

“We do have the ability to eat very small amounts of meat, like in an emergency ration to get us through famine. If you eat a diet of all meat, you’ll die—if you eat a diet of plants, you’ll thrive.”

“The problem with meat is too much fat, too much protein, and not enough fiber.”