Joel Fuhrman Quotes

Studies continue to provide evidence that more than any other food, fruit is associated with lowered mortality from all cancers combined.

Cutting back on calories is not the answer to successful weight loss and successful health ... you have to increase the quality of what you eat, not just reduce the quantity.

For both optimal health and weight loss, you must consume a diet with a high nutrient-per-calorie ratiothere are no shortcuts.

Although measuring omega-3 levels in the blood seems like it would be an objective and accurate indicator of fish oil intake compared to using the subjects' reported dietary intake, this test does not accurately reflect long-term dietary intake.

Preferring healthful foods is a skill, and skills take practice and perseverance to develop.

We need to take vegetables out of the role of side dish, even in low-fat, vegetarian diets, whose calories are generally derived mainly from grains and other starches.

Food is really and truly the most effective medicine.

Therapeutic fasting is not a mystical or magical cure. It works because the body has within it the capacity to heal when the obstacles to healing are removed. Health is the normal state. Most chronic disease is the inevitable consequence of living a life-style that places disease-causing stressors on the human organism. Fasting gives the body an interlude without those stressors so that it can speedily repair or accomplish healing that could not otherwise occur in the feeding state.

When people tell me they will give it a try, I say don't bother, you have already decided to fail. It takes more than a try to quit addictions; it takes a commitment. A commitment is a promise that you stick with, no matter what.

I am a physician specializing in nutritional interventions for chronic disease and a strong advocate of superior nutrition as the first line of attack to prevent and treat most chronic diseases.

Lower caloric exposure and episodic fasting can extend the life span of all animals, the longer we spend in the catabolic state, the longer we live.

Excess dietary salt is most notorious for increasing blood pressure. Americans have a 90 percent lifetime probability of developing high blood pressure - so even if your blood pressure is normal now, if you continue to eat the typical American diet, you will be at risk.

The modern diet is grossly deficient in hundreds of important plant-derived immunity-building compounds which makes us highly vulnerable to viruses, infections and disease.

A high nutrient diet, if widely adopted, could bring millions of people in touch with true hunger, and stop the proliferation of obesity and preventable chronic disease.

We can reduce these cancer rates - breast cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer - by 90 percent or more by people adopting what I call a nutritrarian diet.

It may seem difficult at first, but eating more high-nutrient foods reduces the desire for low-nutrient foods; it becomes easier with time.

And certain animal products, such as commercial beef and processed meats, are more disease-promoting in our diets than others, such as frogs, salamanders, sardines, snakes, and wild salmon.

Cancer is caused by what you do for many, many years, not what you do for a few weeks or months.

Meeting the body's micronutrient needs helps to suppress food cravings, and high-nutrient foods do not produce dangerous, addictive craving.

The diet, to be healthy, has to be mostly fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts and seeds.

One can be a vegan and eating a health-promoting, high-nutrient diet, but one can also eat a small amount of animal products while following a Nutritarian diet and still live a long, healthy life.

What are the physical sensations you associate with hunger? For most people, these sensations include stomach grumbling, headaches, light-headedness, irritability, fatigue and inability to focus.

Today the link between animal products and many different diseases is as strongly supported in the scientific literature as the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer.

A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that restricting calories by 30 percent significantly increased life span in monkeys.27 The experimental diet, while still providing adequate nourishment, slowed monkeys' metabolism and reduced their body temperatures, changes similar to those in the long-lived thin mice. Decreased levels of triglycerides and increased HDL (the good) cholesterol were also observed. Studies over the years, on many different species of animals, have confirmed that those animals that were fed less lived longest. In fact, allowing an animal to eat as much food as it desires can reduce its life span by as much as one-half.

Americans are grossly deficient in basic micronutrients and especially those phytochemicals that arm our immune system to fight cancer.

Since the foods Americans consume are so calorie-rich, we have all been trying to diet by eating smaller portions of low-nutrient foods. We not only have to suffer hunger but also wind up with perverted cravings because we are nutrient-deficient to boot.

Combine anti-cancer foods to maximize protection against all cancers: A number of plant foods are associated with lower risk of cancers, and substances contained in these foods display anti-cancer or immune-boosting properties.

There is no longer any question about the importance of fruits and vegetables in our diet. The greater the quantity and assortment of fruits and vegetables consumed, the lower the incidence of heart attacks, strokes, and cancer. There is still some controversy about which foods cause which cancers and whether certain types of fat are the culprits with certain cancers, but there's one thing we know for sure: raw vegetables and fresh fruits have powerful anti-cancer agents.

The American diet causes disease. It is composed of 25 percent animal products and 62 percent processed foods and only 5 percent of calories from fruits and vegetables.

Yesterday I saw a child wearing a T-shirt that said, "If you love me, don't feed me junk food." I was delighted to see this, but I also know how difficult it can be to feed our children well, particularly when the foods that are most convenient and the most heavily advertised are often the ones we should avoid. Joel Fuhrman's new book is a blessing, because it makes it so much easier. It is excellent, and full of clarity, wisdom, and guidance you can trust. It can indeed give you the power to shape your child's health destiny - John Robbins

If we get kids eating right, we could decrease cancer rates by 90 percent.

Dieting by portion control doesn't work because one is constantly fighting addictive drives.

The human body is a miraculous self-healing machine, but those self-repair systems require a nutrient-dense diet.

Without micronutrients to remove waste, cells become congested, DNA gets broken, and the body doesn't have the ability to repair itself. Eventually, you get sick.

Most of the time, the reason people are overweight is too little physical activity, in conjunction with a high-calorie, low-nutrient diet.

The problem with the standard American diet, a primary cause of our current obesity epidemic, is the fact that the majority of foods consumed are high in calories and low in micronutrients.

Whether the patient has a cardiac condition, hypertension, autoimmune disease, fibroids, or asthma, he or she must be informed that fasting and natural, plant-based diets are a viable alternative to conventional therapy, and an effective one.

We must always remember that all medical interventions have risk, and very little can be asserted with 100 percent certainty.

Noncaloric sweeteners signal the body that sugar is on the way and stimulate the pancreas to secrete insulin, which is not favorable.

Most weight loss diets center around portion control, which is just trying to eat smaller amounts of the same addictive foods. This approach inevitably fails.

Sodium is an important mineral that is essential for proper functioning of the human body - however, the American diet contains dangerously high amounts of sodium, almost 80 percent of which comes from processed and restaurant foods.

Instead of trying to increase your metabolism with the goal of losing weight, try to slow your metabolism with a low-calorie, high-nutrient diet for a longer, healthier life.

What you eat matters. It influences the quality of your life.

The vast preponderance of evidence in modern epidemiology shows that those who eat more whole plant foods and fewer animal products and processed foods have lower rates of chronic disease and longer lifespans.

Moderation kills.

which food has more protein - broccoli or steak? You were wrong if you thought steak. Steak has only 6.4 grams of protein per 100 calories and broccoli has 11.1 grams, almost twice as much.21 Keep in mind that most of the calories in meat come from fat; green vegetables are mostly protein. (All calories must come from fat, carbohydrate, or protein.)

Anything you adopt temporarily only begets temporary results, and fluctuating your weight up and down is not lifespan favorable.

Permanent results only come from permanent changes in lifestyle and diet style. You don't get permanently well unless you permanently change the way you live.

You cannot buy your health; you must earn it through healthy living.

High salt intake is a risk factor for osteoporosis because excess dietary sodium promotes urinary calcium loss, leading to calcium loss from bone and therefore decreased bone density.

My findings have demonstrated that an optimal micronutrient intake reduces the desire for calories and reduces body temperature and white blood cell counts.

Life is a highway - the enjoyment you get depends on the lane you choose.

Three of the most beneficial, longevity promoting anti-cancer foods are green vegetables, beans, and onions.

There is simply not enough money available to support a system in which the lion's share of expenditures is devoted to acute care, with virtually nothing being spent on preventive medicine, i.e. health care.

I make a big salad bowl just for myself, double or triple the size of a normal salad.

Blueberries, strawberries and blackberries are true super foods. Naturally sweet and juicy, berries are low in sugar and high in nutrients - they are among the best foods you can eat.

Don't forget: cruciferous vegetables must be chopped, crushed, or chewed well for maximum benefit!

American children are the heaviest worldwide, and they are getting heavier at a faster rate than other children around the globe. This spread of obesity foreshadows an explosion in degenerative diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer waiting to erupt in our children's future. Together we can stop this tragedy from ever happening.

The human diet, for millions of years, did not contain any added salt - only the sodium present in natural foods, adding up to only about 1000 mg sodium per day.

We are losing the war on cancer because we are on an incessant search for the impossible-to-find cure, when in fact removing the causes is the only way to win.

Doctors' positions and recommendations about drugs, procedures, surgical interventions, health and nutrition are not always based on strong scientific evidence.

We have these weapons of mass destruction on every street corner, and they're called donuts, cheeseburgers, French fries, potato chips, junk food. Our kids are living on a junk food diet.

Hypertension is an important risk factor for kidney disease, but dietary sodium has other damaging effects on the kidneys. High salt intake drives the production of oxygen radicals, leading to oxidative stress in kidney tissue.

Leafy greens such as romaine lettuce, kale, collards, Swiss chard, and spinach are the most nutrient-dense of all foods.

To provide optimal levels of protective micronutrients, a diet must be vegetable-based, not grain-based.

Micronutrient-poor foods, like pasta, sugar, and soda, don't just give you empty calories and make you fat; they also do damage to the body and cause disease.

Eating a high-nutrient diet actually makes you more satisfied with less food, and actually gives the ability to enjoy food more without overeating.

Out of one pocket we pay billions of our tax dollars to support the production of expensive, disease-causing foods. Out of the other pocket, we pay medical bills that are too high because our overweight population consumes too much of these rich, disease-causing foods.

Girls of 7, 8 or 9 years old are not emotionally or psychologically equipped to handle puberty.

A high nutrient density diet was associated with more feelings of hunger in the mouth and throat and less in the head and stomach.

The right raw materials can ... double or triple the protective power of the immune system.

A significant number of research studies have documented that heart disease is easily and almost completely preventable through a diet rich in plant produce and lower in processed foods and animal products.

Most brown bread is merely white bread with a fake tan.

Natural plant foods, though usually carbohydrate-rich, also contain protein and fats. On average, 25 percent of the calories in vegetables are from protein. Romaine lettuce, for example, is rich in both protein and essential fatty acids, giving us those healthy fats our bodies require. For more information about essential fats and the protein content of vegetables and various other foods, see chapter five.

When you eat healthfully, your body gravitates relatively rapidly toward a better weight.

The word salad here means any vegetable eaten raw or uncooked, e.g., a bowl of cold pasta in olive oil with a token vegetable is not a salad. I encourage my patients to eat two huge salads a day, with the goal of consuming an entire head of romaine or other green lettuce daily. I

We need radical dietary improvement, and the earlier in life that change is made, the better. Just following a vegan diet or eating a few more vegetables is not enough.

Healthy people eating healthy food should never need to take an antibiotic.

Resting metabolic rate is largely genetically determined, but our calorie intake has an effect as well.

Medicines cannot drug away the cellular defects that develop in response to improper nutrition throughout life.

The goal of my diet-style is eating for optimal health and longevity. What greater benefit could there be than living healthfully and actively into old age with no dependence on medications and almost no risk of heart disease, diabetes or dementia?

The most significant and alarming consequence of early maturation is an increased risk for breast cancer in adulthood.

You cannot escape from the biological law of cause and effect - food choices are the most significant cause of disease and premature death.

Certainly adding fats in the form of oils is fattening and unhealthy, but naturally fat-rich foods like nuts and seeds have profound cardiovascular benefits.