Eat to Live Summary

- Book by Joel Fuhrman MD

Eat to Live: The Amazing Nutrient-Rich Program For Fast and Sustained Weight Loss

"My promise is threefold: substantial, healthy weight reduction in a short period of time; prevention or reversal of many chronic and life-threatening medical conditions; and a new understanding of food and health that will continue to pay dividends for the rest of your life.” ~ Joel Fuhrman

This book is one of the best nutrition books you’ll ever read, I’ll share with you some of my favorite ideas and I hope to inspire you to go get the book, read and apply it in your life…

1. Do not say you will give it a try. Do not try; instead, make a commitment to do it right.

2. The key to this extraordinary diet is a simple formula: H = N/C. Health = Nutrients/Calories

3. Raw vegetables and fresh fruits have powerful anti-cancer agents.

4. Eat two huge salads a day.

5. Focusing on your health, and not your weight, will eventually result in achieving successful long-term weight loss.

“Do not say you will give it a try. Do not try; instead, make a commitment to do it right. When you get married, does the religious figure or justice of the peace ask, “Do you swear to give this person a try?” 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.

Without that commitment, you are doomed to fail. Give yourself the chance to really succeed this time. If you commit to just six weeks on this program, you will change your life forever and turning back becomes much more difficult.

Make a clear choice between success and failure. It takes only three simple steps. One, buy the book; two, read the book; three, make the commitment.”

If you’re currently facing a health challenge or just want to commit to truly optimizing your health and life, 100% commitment to this program is a real deal!

“These results sound fantastic, and they are—but they are also true and predictable on my program. The key to this extraordinary diet is a simple formula: H = N/C.

Health = Nutrients/Calories

Your health is predicted by your nutrient intake divided by your intake of calories.

H = N/C is a concept I call the nutrient-density of your diet. Food supplies us with both nutrients and calories (energy).

All calories come from only three elements: carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. Nutrients are derived from noncaloric food factors—including vitamins, mineral, fibers, and phytochemicals. These noncaloric nutrients are vitally important for health.

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 physics a key formula is Einstein’s E = mc2. In nutrition the key formula is H = N/C.

Every food can be evaluated using this formula. Once you begin to learn which foods make the grade—by having a high proportion of nutrients to calories—you are on your way to lifelong weight control and improved health.”

That means we need to stay away from refined foods that provide empty calories (like white flour, pastas, sugar, etc.) and focus on food packed with micronutrients that keep us healthy.

For example, raw leafy greens (like romaine lettuce, kale, red chard, etc.) scores a 100 out of 100 on Dr. Furhman’s nutritional density scale whereas refined sweets clock in at a 0!!

A few other data points: refined oils (like olive oil) register as a 1, refined grains (like white rice and white flour) get a 2, and wild meats and fowl get an 11 while whole grains (like brown rice) get a 22, fresh fruits get a 45 solid green veggies (like broccoli) get a 97.

Check out his book and his website for more information about this: www.DrFuhrman.com

Dr. Fuhrman says: “As a general rule of thumb: the closer we eat foods to their natural state, the healthier the food.”

And he also says: “More than 90 percent of my diabetic patients who were on insulin at the time of their first visit got off all insulin within the first month.”

“You wouldn’t let your children sit around the table smoking cigars and drinking whisky, because it is not socially acceptable, but it is fine to let them consume cola, fries cooked in trans fat, and a cheeseburger regularly.

Many children consume doughnuts, cookies, cupcakes, and candy on a daily basis. It is difficult for parents to understand the insidious, slow destruction of their child’s genetic potential and the foundation for serious illness that is being built by the consumption of these foods.”

You would never let your kids sit around the kitchen table smoking cigars and drinking whisky, would you?

So, why do you feed them fast-food meals? That may be as risky -or even more- than smoking!

“Most Americans are not aware that the diet they feed their children guarantees a high cancer probability down the road. They don’t even contemplate that eating fast-food meals may be just as risky (or more so) than letting their children smoke cigarettes.”

That’s true…

So, are you serving your kids junk food?

If yes, you can swap out the junk for fruits and vegetables… Keep them healthy 🙂

“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.”

We don’t know for sure which foods causes cancer.

But we DO know that raw veggies and fresh fruits have powerful anti-cancer agents.

The question is how many should we eat?

Fuhrman’s personal goal is to eat a pound of raw veggies and a pound of cooked veggies + at least four servings of fruit EVERY day.

So, how many are you eating a day?

“Phytochemicals, or plant-derived chemicals, occur naturally in plants (phyto means “plant”). These nutrients, which scientists are just starting to discover and name, have tremendously beneficial effects on human physiology.

The effects of our not consuming sufficient amounts of them are even more astounding--premature death from cancer and atherosclerosis.

Eating a wide variety of raw and conservatively cooked foods (such as steamed vegetables) is the only way we can ensure that we get a sufficient amount of these essential health-supporting elements.

Taking vitamin and mineral supplements or adding some vitamins to processed foods will not prevent the diseases associated with eating a diet containing a low percentage of calories from whole natural foods. Scientists cannot formulate into pills nutrients that have not been discovered!”

Dr. Fuhrman also says: “The point to be emphasized is that supplements alone cannot offer optimal protection against disease and that you cannot make an unhealthy diet into a healthy one by consuming supplements.”

“Now, which food has more protein--broccoli or steak? You were wrong if you thought steak.

Steak has only 5.4 grams of protein per 100 calories and broccoli has 11.2 grams, almost twice as much.”

Broccoli has more protein than steak?

Yes!

A fact is that “The biggest animals on the planet--elephants, gorillas, rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, and giraffes--all eat predominantly green vegetation.”

“Interestingly, there is one food that scientific research has shown has a strong positive association with increased longevity in humans. So which food do you think that is?

The answer is raw, leafy greens, normally referred to as salad. Leafy greens such as romaine lettuce, kale, collards, Swiss chard, and spinach are the most nutrient-dense of all foods.

Most vegetables contain more nutrients per calorie than any other food and are rich in all necessary amino acids. For example, romaine lettuce, which gets 18 percent of its calories from fat and almost 50 percent of its calories from protein, is a rich powerhouse with hundreds of cancer-fighting phytonutrients that protect us from a variety of threatening illnesses. Being healthy and owning a disease-resistant body is not luck; it is earned.”

So, remember that… Longevity = raw, leafy greens = salad

​

Make salad the main dish and eat two huge salads a day, OK! 🙂

“I tell my patients to put a big sign on their refrigerator that says THE SALAD IS THE MAIN DISH.

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 suggest that you go and make the sign and tape it to your fridge right now--and then come back. If you plan on doing it later, you may forget. If you learn one practical habit from this book, let it be this one.”

Dr. Fuhrman says: “Leafy greens, the most nutrient-rich foods on the planet, were the best predictor of extreme longevity.”

Do it right now… Put this big sign on their refrigerator THE SALAD IS THE MAIN DISH.

“Let’s not argue whether it is all right to eat a little bit of animal foods or not, and thereby miss the point that cannot be contradicted or disagreed with:

Whether you eat a vegetarian diet or include a small amount of animal foods, for optimal health you must receive the majority of your calories from unrefined plant food. It is the largest quantity of unrefined plant food that grants the greatest protection against developing serious disease.”

Fuhrman also says: “People who omit meat, fowl, and dairy but fill up on bread, pasta, pretzels, bagels, rice cakes, and crackers may be on the low-fat diet, but because their diet is also low in vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, important essential fatty acids, and fiber, it is conspicuously inadequate and should not be expected to protect against cancer...

Let me repeat this again to be clear: Following a strict vegetarian diet is not as important as eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables. A vegetarian whose diet is mainly refined grains, cold breakfast cereals, processed health-food-store products, vegetarian fast foods, white rice, and pasta will be worse off than a person who eats a little chicken or eggs, for example, but consumes a large amount of fruits, vegetables, and beans.”

So, the main key here is to eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables.

That’s it!

And remember that: “Cancer is much more preventable than treatable.”

And also “Never forget that coronary heart disease and its end result—heart attacks, the number one killer of all American men and women—is almost 100 percent avoidable.”

“So, instead of searching for weight-loss gimmicks and tricks, try to adopt a resolution to be healthy first. Focusing on your health, and not your weight, will eventually result in achieving successful long-term weight loss.

Eating a healthy diet, one that is rich in an assortment of natural plant fibers, will help you crave less and feel satisfied without overeating. All diet plans fail because they cater to modern American tastes, which include too much processed foods or animal products to be healthy.

Stop measuring portions and trying to follow complicated formulas. Instead, eat as many vegetables, beans, and fresh fruits as possible, and less of everything else. Any other program is an insult to your intelligence.”

It’s easy!

Just put our HEALTH first. Eat as many vegetables, beans, and fresh fruits as possible, and less of everything else.

Get the book and join the Eat to Live program! It’ll change your life for sure… 🙂

That was my Eat to Live summary, a very quick look at this great book. This book is for everyone wants to have a more healthy life style or lose weight. There is a HUGE amount of life-changing tips in this book, and we’ve only touched on a tiny bit of it. If you haven’t read it yet and you’re interested in it, get a copy. 

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