I’m probably one of the last people who have seen the documentary, Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, but last night after reading a note from one of my friends on Facebook, I decided to take a look.

If you aren’t familiar, the film follows an overweight Australian man who suffers from an autoimmune disease as he sets out to “reboot” his life and stop relying on medicine.

During the movie, Joe Cross commits to healing himself from the inside out by drinking only freshly prepared fruit and vegetable juices for 60 days. What happens is astounding. During the course of the process he sheds more than 60 pounds and sends his disease into remission. He was also able to get off of the various medications he’d been on for years, and by the end of the film, he looked years younger. I was impressed.

Watching the film got me to thinking. Perhaps America’s (and the UK’s and other Western countries) growing obesity and disease rates have to do with our food. Not how much we eat — although surely many of us overeat — but the things in our food. Over the years we’ve begun to consume far more chemically treated processed foods and we’ve watched as our waistlines and cancer rates have exploded.

If what we eat makes us less able to fend off disease, can changing our diet do the opposite?

Unfortunately, most people rely on medications to heal themselves. After all, popping a pill seems easier than overhauling your entire life. But if we can avoid getting sick all together by simply eating a natural, plant-based diet, then don’t we owe it to ourselves to at least make better choices?

We all know that clean eating — or eating minimally processed foods — is healthier than consuming junk, but can it also keep us disease free?

*If you’re in the U.S., you can watch the entire documentary here for free.