A couple of years ago, Benji Kurtz was perusing movie choices during a long Memorial Day weekend when he settled on the documentary “Forks Over Knives.”
At 5 feet 5 inches tall, the Atlanta man was 36 years old and weighed 258 pounds despite many diet attempts. Still, Kurtz turned to the film for entertainment, not weight loss.
But something clicked when Kurtz, an entrepreneur who has started Web development and marketing companies, watched the powerful documentary. The film makes a persuasive argument that many health issues, including heart disease, cancer and diabetes, can be prevented (and even in some cases reversed) by following a plant-based diet that includes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes and nuts and seeds.
Since its creation in 2011, the documentary has been described as a “vegan maker.”
Not only did Kurtz become one of them, losing more than 100 pounds within a year, and then going on to drop 30 more pounds, but he worked to bring a whole-food, plant-based lifestyle into mainstream health care conversations. To read more about his journey, a non-profit he started, and his organization's Food=Medicine Conference at the Emory Conference Center Hotel in Atlanta, go to myajc.com
