Joel Fuhrman Quotes

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

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

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

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.

Health is normal. The human body is a self-repairing, self-defending, self-healing marvel. Disease is relatively difficult to induce, considering the body's powerful immune system. However, this complicated and delicate machinery can be damaged if fed the wrong fuel during the formative years. ... Healthy living with nutritional excellence throughout life can slow the decline of aging. It can prevent the years and years of suffering in ill health that is so common today as people get older and become dependent on medical treatments, drugs, and surgery. Nutritional excellence is the only real fountain of youth.

The self-healing power of the body is often overlooked because it is rarely given a chance to act in a world that expects the quick fix.

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

Delaying a meal brings about symptoms most people call "hunger." These symptoms include abdominal cramping, weakness, and feeling ill-the same as during drug withdrawal. This is not hunger. Our dietary habits, especially eating animal-protein-rich foods three times a day, are so stressful to the detoxification system in our liver and kidneys that we start to get withdrawal, or detoxification, symptoms the minute we aren't busy processing such food. Real hunger is not that uncomfortable.

Clearly, it is difficult to eat healthfully in our crazy world, where it seems that everyone else is on a mission to commit suicide with food.

try to eat at least one pound of raw vegetables a day and one pound of cooked/steamed or frozen green or nongreen nutrient-rich vegetables a day as well.

Beans or legumes are among the world’s most perfect foods. They stabilize blood sugar, blunt the desire for sweets, and prevent mid-afternoon cravings. Even

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.

In our present toxic food environment, many have lost the ability to connect with the body signals

Moderation kills.

Don’t be alarmed if during the first week or two of healthy eating, you feel worse and the desire to use food to curtail discomfort is heightened. This usually passes within the first four days.

Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed. —HERMAN MELVILLE

If you have a significant layer of fat around your waist, it means you have regularly consumed food in response to toxic hunger or have eaten recreationally. The body does not store large amounts of fat when fed a wholesome natural diet and given only the amount of food demanded by true hunger.

Here are five simple rules for a powerful immune system that you should commit to memory: 1. Eat a large salad every day. 2. Eat at least a half-cup serving of beans/legumes in soup, salad, or another dish once daily. 3. Eat at least three fresh fruits a day, especially berries, pomegranate seeds, cherries, plums, oranges. 4. Eat at least one ounce of raw nuts and seeds a day. 5. Eat at least one large (double-size) serving of green vegetables daily, either raw, steamed, or in soups or stews.

And people who eat beans merely twice a week were found to have about a 50 percent reduction of colon cancer.8 Imagine the protection we would achieve if we ate beans almost every day in conjunction with other well-investigated cancer-fighting foods.

The three irrefutable facts about health and foods are these: Vegetables, beans, seeds, fruits, and nuts are good for you. Excessive amounts of meat or animal products cause disease. Eliminating refined carbohydrates will aid in sustainable weight loss and overall health.

TOP SUPER FOODS FOR SUPER IMMUNITY Kale/collards/mustard greens Arugula/watercress Green lettuce and cabbage Broccoli and brussels sprouts, Carrots and tomatoes Onions and garlic Mushrooms Pomegranates Berries (all types) Seeds (flax, chia, sesame, sunflower) The Micronutrient Revolution We have an opportunity to earn great health via what we eat.

All berries and their juices—including blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, acai berries, goji berries, elderberries, and strawberries—are super foods.

White, cremini, portobello, oyster, maitake, and reishi mushrooms have all been shown to have anticancer effects

Imagine the protective effects of eating adequate amounts of the top three super food groups together—cruciferous greens, mushrooms, and onions—almost daily.

cruciferous vegetables are far more potent and have a more profound association in the scientific literature

Green vegetables are about half protein, a quarter carbohydrate, and a quarter fat.

Once or twice a week, make a giant pot of vegetable bean soup and use that soup for several days to limit cooking chores.

Those with the highest alpha-carotene had a 39 percent decrease in risk of death compared to those with the lowest alpha-carotene.

I recommend six fresh fruits and eight total servings of vegetables per day, including two servings of cruciferous vegetables (at least one raw).

The most common and least expensive mushrooms—white button mushrooms—showed these strong benefits. If that’s not enough great news about mushrooms, there’s more.

If green vegetables are the king of Super Immunity, mushrooms are the queen.

The power of the body is as evident as green grass, rainy days, and sunshine. It is by no means a mystical power: it arises from the same exceptional intelligence that produced you out of two microscopic cells and that heals your wounds when you are injured. It is the same set of natural human characteristics that allows you to eliminate waste or to “lose weight” when you change your diet. It is the same innate ability that allows an exhausted individual to go to bed (without eating) and wake up vibrant and full of energy for another 16 hours.

One ounce of nuts is about 200 calories and can fit into a cupped hand, so do not eat more than this one handful of nuts per day. They are best used in salads, salad dressings, and dips, because when eaten with greens, they greatly enhance the absorption of nutrients from the green vegetables. You should never snack on nuts and seeds; they should be part of a meal.

Green vegetables are the highest in overall nutrient density, meaning that they contain the most micronutrients per calorie, and of course they are the foods richest in alpha-carotene.

Foods with a high ratio of alpha-carotene to calories include the following: Bok choy Cabbage Red peppers Carrots Swiss chard Green peppers Asparagus Collards Broccoli Peas Winter squash

Your key to permanent weight loss is to eat predominantly those foods that have a high proportion of nutrients (noncaloric food factors) to calories (carbohydrates, fats, and proteins). In

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.

Now, 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

When you eat mostly high-nutrient foods, the body ages slower and is armed to prevent and reverse many common illnesses. The natural self-healing and self-repairing ability that is hibernating in your body wakes up and takes over, and diseases disappear. A nutrient-rich menu of green vegetables, berries, beans, mushrooms, onions, seeds, and other natural foods is the key to achieving optimal weight and health.

Eat some beans with every lunch. Among your choices are chickpeas, black-eyed peas, black beans, cowpeas, split peas, lima beans, pinto beans, lentils, red kidney beans, soybeans, cannellini beans, pigeon peas, and white beans.

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.

As your level of micronutrients increases—by consuming greater amounts of high-nutrient foods—your appetite will naturally decrease. The result is that you will become healthier and will look and feel young well into your later years.

The body needs time between meals to finish digesting, because when digestion has ended, the body can more effectively detoxify and promote cellular repair. To maximize health, it is not favorable to be constantly eating and digesting food.

There are also stretch receptors in the stomach to signal satiety by detecting the volume of food eaten, not the weight of the food. If you are not filled up with nutrients and fiber, the brain will send out signals telling you to eat more food, or overeat.

Cheese is also a powerful inducer of acid load, which increases calcium loss further.89 Considering that cheese and butter are the foods with the highest saturated-fat content and the major source of our dioxin exposure, cheese is a particularly foolish choice for obtaining calcium.

I encourage my patients to do what it takes to normalize their blood pressure so they do not require medication. Prescribing medications for high blood pressure has the effect of giving someone a permission slip. Medication has a minimal effect in reducing heart attack occurrence in patients with high blood pressure because it does not remove the underlying problem (atherosclerosis), it just treats the symptom. Patients given medication now falsely believe they are protected, and they continue to follow the same disease-causing lifestyle that led to the problem to begin with, until the inevitable occurs—their first heart attack or stroke. Maybe if high blood pressure medications had never been invented, doctors would have been forced to teach healthful living and nutritional disease causation to their patients. It is possible that many more lives could have been saved.

MICROGRAMS OF FOLATE IN FOLATE-RICH FOODS Asparagus (1.5 cup cooked) 402 Edamame (1 cup cooked) 358 Lentils (1 cup cooked) 358 Broccoli (2 cups cooked) 337 Chickpeas (1 cup cooked) 282 Adzuki beans (1 cup cooked) 278 Romaine lettuce (3 cups raw) 192 Brussels sprouts (2 cups cooked) 187 Spinach (3 cups raw) 175

Beans contain both insoluble and soluble fiber and are very high in resistant starch. While the benefits of fiber are well-known, resistant starch is proving to be another highly desirable dietary component. Although it is technically a starch, it acts more like fiber during digestion. Typically, starches found in carbohydrate-rich foods are broken down into glucose during digestion, and the body uses that glucose as energy. Much like fiber, resistant starch “resists” digestion and passes through the small intestine without being digested. Because of this, some researchers classify resistant starch as a third type of fiber.

One final note: soaking whole grains, such as brown rice, buckwheat, and quinoa, for a day before cooking them increases their nutritional value.3 Certain phytonutrients and vitamins are activated as the grain starts to germinate. These include powerful chemopreventive phenols that inhibit the growth of abnormal cells.

Legume or bean intake is an important variable in the promotion of long life. An important longitudinal study showed that a higher legume intake is the most protective dietary factor affecting survival among the elderly, regardless of their ethnicity. The study found that legumes were associated with long-lived people in various food cultures, including the Japanese (soy, tofu, natto), the Swedes (brown beans, peas), and Mediterranean peoples (lentils, chickpeas, white beans).2 Beans and greens are the foods most closely linked in the scientific literature with protection against cancer, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and dementia.

As Dr. Fuhrman shows us, the right nutrients can turn on these abilities, while the wrong nutrients—which are all too common in the standard western diet—can leave these abilities buried forever. The most amazing results, however, come when the body is given a complete rest from the work of digestion and assimilation of food.

The modern food and drug industry has converted a significant portion of the world’s people to a new religion—a massive cult of pleasure seekers who consume coffee, cigarettes, soft drinks, candy, chocolate, alcohol, processed foods, fast foods, and concentrated dairy fat (cheese) in a self-indulgent orgy of destructive behavior.

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.)

HIGHEST IN PESTICIDES— BUY ORGANIC IF POSSIBLE LOWEST IN PESTICIDES— BUY EITHER ORGANIC OR CONVENTIONAL Celery Onion Peaches Avocado Strawberries Sweet corn Apples Pineapple Blueberries Mango Nectarines Sweet peas Bell peppers Asparagus Spinach Kiwi Kale Cabbage Cherries Eggplant Potatoes Cantaloupe Grapes (imported) Watermelon Grapefruit Sweet potato Honeydew

Low blood pressure, on the other hand, is: blood pressure values below 140/70 are associated with excess mortality in the elderly, and this is especially noticeable when drugs push down the diastolic blood pressure too low.14 Systolic pressure is the first, higher number; it represents the force of the heart pumping against the resistance offered by the blood vessel walls.

To maximize the immune-function benefits of cruciferous vegetables, do the following: 1. Chew all cruciferous greens very, very well, trying to crush every cell. 2. Puree, blend, or chop cruciferous vegetables before adding them to stews or soups. 3. When steaming green cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli and cabbage, try to undercook slightly so they are not too mushy.

Simply put, this means we need to eat lots of high-nutrient, natural plant foods: vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts, and seeds. In conjunction, we need to eat much less from the animal products category and eat far fewer (or no) foods that are completely empty of nutrients or indeed are toxic for the body—foods such as sugar, other sweeteners, white flour, processed foods, refined oils, and fast foods.

NUTRIENT DENSITY SCORES OF THE TOP 30 SUPER FOODS To make it easy for you to achieve Super Immunity, I’ve listed my Top 30 Super Foods below. These foods are associated with protection against cancer and promotion of a long, healthy life. Include as many of these foods in your diet as you possibly can. You are what you eat. To be your best, you must eat the best! Collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens 100 Kale 100 Watercress 100 Brussels sprouts 90 Bok choy 85 Spinach 82 Arugula 77 Cabbage 59 Broccoli 52 Cauliflower 51 Romaine lettuce 45 Green and red peppers 41 Onions 37 Leeks 36 Strawberries 35 Mushrooms 35 Tomatoes and tomato products 33 Pomegranates / pomegranate juice 30 Carrots / carrot juice 30/37 Blackberries 29 Raspberries 27 Blueberries 27 Oranges 27 Seeds: flax, sunflower, sesame, hemp, chia 25 (avg) Red grapes 24 Cherries 21 Plums 11 Beans (all varieties) 11 Walnuts 10 Pistachio nuts 9 If you are a female eating

Beans, peas, corn, wild rice, barley, steel-cut oats, oatmeal, tomatoes, squashes, berries, and fresh fruits are examples of the most favorable carbohydrates sources. Beans, green peas, berries, and tomatoes are at the top of the list. Squashes, intact whole grains (such as steel-cut oats), wild rice, quinoa, wheat berries, and even sweet potatoes would be more favorable choices than white potatoes, which would be at the bottom of this list. Unacceptable Carbohydrates

Our body is like a machine. If we constantly run the machinery at high speed, it will wear out faster. Since animals with slower metabolic rates live longer, eating more calories, which drives up our metabolic rate, will cause us only to age faster. Contrary to what you may have heard and read in the past, our goal should be the opposite: to eat less, only as much as we need to maintain a slim and muscular weight, and no more, so as to keep our metabolic rate relatively slow.

Nuts and seeds contain 150 to 200 calories per ounce. Eating a small amount—one ounce or less—each day, however, adds valuable nutrients and healthy unprocessed fats. Nuts and seeds are ideal in salad dressings, particularly when blended with fruits and spices or vegetable juice (tomato, celery, carrot). Always eat nuts and seeds raw because the roasting process alters their beneficial fats. Commercially packaged nuts and seeds are often cooked in hydrogenated oils, adding trans fats and sodium to your diet, so these are absolutely off the list. If

Chicken has about the same amount of cholesterol as beef, and the production of those potent cancer-causing compounds called heterocyclic amines (HCAs) is even more concentrated in grilled chicken than in beef.11 Another study from New Zealand that investigated heterocyclic amines in meat, fish, and chicken found the greatest contributor of HCAs to cancer risk was chicken.12 Likewise, studies indicate that chicken is almost as dangerous as red meat for the heart. Regarding cholesterol, there is no advantage to eating lean white instead of lean red meat.

FOODS RICH IN ZINC Oysters, farmed, eastern, cooked, 3 medium—13 mg Alaska king crab, cooked, 1 leg—10.2 mg Beef, top sirloin, 4 oz—5.6 mg Raw, unhulled sesame seeds, 2 oz—4.4 mg Raw or roasted pumpkin seeds, 2 oz—4.2 mg Adzuki beans, cooked, 1 cup—4.1 mg Raw pine nuts, 2 oz—3.6 mg Raw cashews, 2 oz—3.2 mg Sunflower seeds, raw, 2 oz—2.8 mg Wild rice, cooked, 1 cup—2.2 mg Edamame, cooked, shelled, 1 cup—2.1 mg Black beans, kidney beans, cooked, 1 cup—1.9 mg Shiitake mushrooms, cooked, 1 cup—1.9 mg Fava beans, cooked, 1 cup—1.7 mg Broccoli, cooked, 2 cups—1.6 mg Tahini, raw, 2 tbsp—1.4 mg Kale, cooked, 2 cups—1.2 mg

The resistant starch found in beans powerfully reduces hunger and, thus, food consumption over many hours, coinciding with the fermentation that takes place in the large intestine hours after eating the beans. So eating beans with lunch will reduce your hunger and appetite for dinner many hours later, overall lowering the amount of calories you desire for the day. For diabetics, beans are critical for lowering the insulin requirement for starch digestion. They also supply amino acids that complement the other vegetables, nuts, and seeds to enhance the biologic value of the protein in the diet, without raising IGF-1.

Therapeutic fasting accelerates the healing process and allows the body to recover from serious disease in a dramatically short period of time. In my practice I have seen fasting eliminate lupus and arthritis, remove chronic skin conditions such as psoriasis and eczema, heal the digestive tract in patients with ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, and quickly eliminate cardiovascular diseases such as high blood pressure and angina. In these cases the recoveries were permanent: fasting enabled longtime disease sufferers to unchain themselves from their multiple toxic drugs and even eliminate the need for surgery, which was recommended to some of them as their only solution.

One of my secrets to nutritional excellence and superior health is the one pound–one pound rule. That is, try to eat at least one pound of raw vegetables a day and one pound of cooked/steamed or frozen green or nongreen nutrient-rich vegetables a day as well. One pound raw and one pound cooked—keep this goal in mind as you design and eat every meal. This may be too ambitious a goal for some of us to reach, but by working toward it, you will ensure the dietary balance and results you want. The more vegetables you eat, the more weight you will lose. The high volume of greens not only will be your secret to a thin waistline but will simultaneously protect you against life-threatening illnesses.

All of our actions and decisions are governed by our core beliefs. Our core beliefs define the limits of what we will and will not do. You may need to change your core beliefs in order to get healthy. At this point, you know that eating more vegetables has health benefits, but you may not really feel that this life-saving information will give you control of your health destiny, save you from suffering with pain, and add many quality years to your life. Your subconscious mind hasn’t accepted it yet. For many people, the partial knowledge that they have acquired is in conflict with their core beliefs. They are unable to accept it, so their awareness of it dims and, with it, the ability to make the changes.

The modern food and drug industry has converted a significant portion of the world’s people to a new religion—a massive cult of pleasure seekers who consume coffee, cigarettes, soft drinks, candy, chocolate, alcohol, processed foods, fast foods, and concentrated dairy fat (cheese) in a self-indulgent orgy of destructive behavior. When the inevitable results of such bad habits appear—pain, suffering, sickness, and disease—the addicted cult members drag themselves to physicians and demand drugs to alleviate their pain, mask their symptoms, and cure their diseases. These revelers become so drunk on their addictive behavior and the accompanying addictive thinking that they can no longer tell the difference between health and health care.

SERVES 3 1 mango, peeled, pitted, and cubed 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro 4 green onions, thinly sliced 1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and chopped ½ cup frozen corn, thawed, or fresh corn off the cob 3 cups cooked black beans or 2 (15-ounce) cans no- or low-salt black beans, drained and rinsed 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice 1 teaspoon minced fresh garlic 1 teaspoon dried oregano 1 teaspoon ground cumin dash chili powder 9 cups chopped romaine lettuce If using fresh corn, water sauté for 5 minutes or until tender. Mix all the ingredients except the lettuce in a bowl. Let stand for at least 15 minutes. Serve on top of the lettuce. Note: The vegetable mixture without the mango can be made a day ahead and refrigerated. Add the mango and a splash of lime juice just before serving.

The Transition to Fewer Animal Products Many people claim to need animal products to feel good and perform well. In my experience, this assertion generally comes from individuals who felt worse during the first couple of weeks after a change to a lower-animal-source diet. Instead of being patient, they simply returned to their old way of eating—genuinely feeling better for it—and now insist that they need meat to thrive. A diet heavily burdened with animal products places a huge stress on the detoxification systems of the body. As with stopping caffeine and cigarettes, many people observe withdrawal symptoms for a short period, usually including fatigue, weakness, headaches, or loose stools. In 95 percent of such cases, these symptoms resolve within two weeks. It is more common that the temporary adjustment period, during which you might feel mild symptoms as your body withdraws from your prior toxic habits, lasts less than a week. Unfortunately, many people mistakenly assume these symptoms to be due to some lack in the new diet and go back to eating a poor diet again. Sometimes they have been convinced that they feel bad because they aren’t eating enough protein, especially since when they return to their old diet they feel better again. People often confuse feeling well with getting well, not realizing that sometimes you have to temporarily feel a little worse to really get well.

Got Milk — Or Leave It? Dairy is best kept to a minimum. There are many good reasons not to consume dairy. For example, there is a strong association between dairy lactose and ischemic heart disease. There is also a clear association between high–growth–promoting foods such as dairy products and cancer. There is a clear association between milk consumption and bladder, prostate, colorectal, and testicular cancers. Dairy fat is also loaded with various toxins and is the primary source of our nation's high exposure to dioxin. Dioxin is a highly toxic chemical compound that even the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency admits is a prominent cause of many types of cancer in those consuming dairy fat, such as butter and cheese. Cheese is also a power inducer of acid load, which increases calcium loss further. Considering that cheese and butter are the foods with the highest saturated–fat content and the major source of our dioxin exposure, cheese is a particularly foolish choice for obtaining calcium. Cow's milk is "designed" to be the perfect food for the rapidly growing calf, but as mentioned above, foods that promote rapid growth promote cancer.

Components of nuts and seeds also seem to have anti-arrhythmic and anti-seizure effects that dramatically reduce the occurrence of sudden death.37 The

Red Meat, Gut Bacteria, and Heart Disease The high-protein intake from animal products doesn’t just accelerate aging and produce cancer. Excessive meat intake has also been associated with an elevated risk of cardiovascular death.29 For example, combined data

What if all Americans: ate a large bowl of green salad daily had a large serving of steamed greens daily ate a cup of beans daily had at least an ounce of raw seeds and nuts daily ate at least three fresh fruits daily had some tomatoes, peppers, onions, mushrooms, herbs, and garlic daily

A nutrient-rich menu of green vegetables, berries, beans, mushrooms, onions, seeds, and other natural foods is the key to achieving optimal weight and health.

Our immune system also protects us from developing cancer. The same white blood cells and other immune system components that are utilized to fight infection are also used to recognize our own human cells as they become abnormal and to remove them before they can evolve into a tumor or cancer.

You do not have to be a nutritional scientist or dietitian to figure out what to eat, and you don’t need to mix and match foods to achieve protein completeness. Any combination of natural foods will supply you with adequate protein, including all eight essential amino acids as well as nonessential amino acids.

There are subtle nuances and nutritive interactions that create disease resistance from the synergy of diverse substances in natural foods. Like a symphony orchestra whose members play in perfect harmony, our body depends on the harmonious interaction of nutrients, both known and unknown. By supplying a rich assortment of natural foods, we best maximize the function of the human masterpiece.

As trans fatty acids offer no benefits and only clear adverse metabolic consequences, when you see the words partially hydrogenated on the side of a box, consider what’s inside poisonous and throw it in the trash.

Superior nutrition is the most powerful medicine; pharmacological medicine is comparably close to worthless—especially because a drug prescription gives people tacit permission to continue the same disease-causing diet that caused their problems in the first place.

preventing

One of the most fascinating areas of research in recent years has been related to the therapeutic value of cruciferous vegetables, which include vegetables in the cabbage family and others such as kale, collards, watercress, arugula, cauliflower, and bok choy. Cruciferous vegetables have the most powerful anti-cancer effects of all foods. Most of the phytonutrients function as antioxidants in your body, meaning they neutralize free radicals, rendering them harmless and reducing cancer risk. The phytonutrients in cruciferous vegetables also activate your body’s own antioxidant control system. These unique compounds cycle through the body for three to five days after consumption, offering protection and fueling numerous bodily systems, enabling them to function more effectively.

Cruciferous vegetables are twice as powerful as other plant foods. In population studies, a 20 percent increase in plant food intake generally corresponds to a 20 percent decrease in cancer rates, but a 20 percent increase in cruciferous vegetable intake corresponds to a 40 percent decrease in cancer rates.8 • Twenty-eight servings of vegetables per week decreases prostate cancer risk by 33 percent, but just three servings of cruciferous vegetables per week decreases prostate cancer risk by 41 percent.9 • One or more servings of cabbage per week reduces the occurrence of pancreatic cancer by 38 percent.

In one recent study, women who ate at least 10 grams of fresh mushrooms each day (equivalent to just one small mushroom) had a 64 percent decreased risk of breast cancer.

High anti-aromatase activity: white button, white stuffing, cremini, portobello, reishi, maitake • Mild anti-aromatase activity: shiitake, chanterelle, baby button • Little or no anti-aromatase activity: oyster, wood ear

In the United States, for example, less than 5 percent of total calories consumed come from fresh fruits, vegetables, seeds, and nuts. And yet these are the foods that are richest in micronutrients!

The essential issue in human nutrition is meeting your macronutrient needs without excess calories, and getting sufficient micronutrients in the process.

Since natural foods supply us with 600–800 milligrams of sodium a day, it is wise to limit any additional sodium, over and above what is in natural food, to just a few hundred milligrams. I recommend no more than 1,000 milligrams total of sodium per day.

More than 40 percent of Americans aged twenty years and older have either diabetes or prediabetes according to a review of data from the 2005–2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Several studies illustrate the dangers of giving insulin to the adult diabetic. In one such study, when diabetic patients were given insulin, compared to those given metformin (Glucophage), the risk of death from heart attacks tripled.5

The main principle of this book is that for both optimal health and weight loss, you must consume a diet with a high nutrient-per-calorie ratio.

for the vast majority of people, being overweight is not caused by how much they eat but by what they eat. The idea that people get heavy because they consume a high volume of food is a myth. Eating large amounts of the right food is your key to success and is what makes this plan workable for the rest of your life.

our goal should be the opposite: to eat less, only as much as we need to maintain a slim and muscular weight, and no more, so as to keep our metabolic rate relatively slow.

If you want to lose weight, the most important foods to avoid are processed foods: condiments, candy, snacks, and baked goods; fat-free has nothing to do with it.

Fat deposits around your waist are a greater health risk than extra fat in other places, such as the hips and thighs.

satisfy our sweet tooth with fresh, natural fruits and other plant substances that supply us not just with carbohydrates for energy but also with the full complement of indispensable substances that prevent illness.

We observed a direct relationship between body weight and mortality. By that I mean that the thinnest fifth of men experienced the lowest mortality, and mortality increased progressively with heavier and heavier weight.

Americans are nutrient-deficient because they do not eat a sufficient quantity of fresh produce.

The good news is, the healthier you eat and the better you feel, the more you will want to exercise and keep your body in the best possible shape. Yes,

Be aware, though, that once you’ve been diabetic, the tendency to become diabetic again remains if you regain weight or go back to unhealthy eating. This is a new diet style and lifestyle forever. You