Dr. Joel Fuhrman
Dr. Joel Fuhrman is a board-certified family physician and nutritional researcher who specializes in preventing and reversing disease through nutritional methods. As one of the nation’s leading experts in nutritional medicine, he has appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, The Discovery Channel, and more. Dr. Fuhrman is the author of the bestselling Eat to Live and his latest release, Eat for Health.
Eat for Health not only guarantees permanent weight loss, but that you can reverse diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease, asthma, headaches, allergies, and much more.
DietsInReview.com had a chance to speak with Dr. Fuhrman about his two-book set and his scientifically-tested nutritional program. Here is an excerpt of that conversation.
What do you see as the main problem with the way Americans eat?
The current American diet is toxic. Processed foods and low-nutrient foods all contribute to food addiction. The more we consume of these low-nutrient foods that are packed with white flour, sugar, additives etc., the greater the inflammatory response in our bodies. This inflammation overwhelms our body’s natural detoxification mechanisms so that this toxic waste accumulates in our bodies.
I call this toxic hunger. This sensation is brought on by toxin-producing foods in our diet. And when we consume these foods, they produce feelings of physical and emotional discomfort. So, in order to stop the painful feelings, we eat again. And then again.
Just like addicts, food has become a drug and we are constantly over-stuffing ourselves. We have become completely disconnected from our body’s need for an appropriate quantity of calories and the feeling of true hunger.
You suggest that for optimal health and long-lasting weight loss, we need to eat a diet rich in micro-nutrients. Can you explain what a diet like this looks like?
Most Americans have been eating poorly for their whole lives. We currently have an epidemic of diabetes, obesity and certain cancers. These diseases are not just increasing in their prevalence, but they are affecting us younger and younger.
We want to give people the opportunity to be healthy, but in order to be healthy and offer your body powerful protection against these conditions, you have to do more than just cut back on eating red meat. In order to experience a dramatic reduction in your risk for weight-related conditions, you must cancer-proof your body and to do that, you have to eat the right foods and a lot of them, namely vegetables.
You also need to make beans, greens, berries, nuts and seeds diet staples in order to arm your body with what it needs to repair the damage already inflicted upon it and renew itself. And it will take more than just five servings a day.
I encourage everyone to have a big salad every day. But be smart about the salad dressing you choose. A 35-calorie bowl of vegetables can turn into a 500-calorie meal with the wrong kind of dressing. Choose fresh ingredients like juices from fresh fruit like lemons and blood oranges, herbs, garlic and infused vinegars for delicious and healthy salad dressings.
Also, green vegetables, mushrooms and onions are the most potent cancer-fighting foods. Make these part of your regular diet to arm your body with the nutrients it needs to fight disease. This is especially true for women and their risk of breast cancer. Mushrooms have been clinically shown to have strong anti-cancer benefits for women and their risk of breast cancer.
By following this plan, you’ll lose weight without counting calories as your body will naturally calibrate to its ideal weight. And your quality of life will greatly improve.
Dr. Furhman has a revised and updated version of Eat to Live coming out in January, 2024. Stay tuned to DietsInReview.com for a complete review closer to the publishing date.