Joel Fuhrman - Eat To Live

Eat to Live 185

You do not have to prepare fancy recipes all the time. If you're

going to be out for a while, just grab some leftover vegetables, lettuce

and tomato on whole-grain bread or stuffed into a whole-wheat pita

pocket, and a few pieces of fruit. Wash and dry plenty of heads of ro-

maine lettuce on the weekends or when you have the time.

"The best prescription is knowledge."

— Dr. C. Everett Koop

The Life Plan

This is the Six-Week Plan in a nutshell. However, losing weight will

do you no good unless you keep it off. When you adopt the Eat to

Live program as a longevity plan, a slim weight will be a by-product

of your new commitment to excellent health. Once the first phase is

over, you will move on to the Life Plan, which offers more choices.

This is a critical juncture.-You have lost a great deal of weight; you

don't want to revert to your previous unhealthy diet. You need to

decide not only how to maintain the benefits you have achieved but

how to change your diet forever. Many of my patients have found a

good balance by following the 90 percent rule.

The 90 Percent Rule

For longevity and weight loss, the Life Plan diet should aim to be

made up of at least 90 percent unrefined plant food. My most success-

ful patients treat processed foods and animal foods as condiments,

constituting no more than 10 percent of their total caloric intake.

The obvious corollary to the principle of consuming a large

quantity of nutrient-dense foods is that you should consume smaller

quantities of low-nutrient foods. Therefore, you must not have sig-

nificant amounts of animal foods, dairy, or processed foods in your

diet. If you desire these foods, use them occasionally or in very small

amounts to flavor a vegetable dish. After the Six-Week Plan, if you

want to add animal products back into your diet, then add a little

White-meat chicken or turkey once a week, and beef even less fre-

quently. This will essentially limit your total animal-product con-

sumption (beef, turkey, fish) to 12 ounces or less per week. In this

manner, you can alternate: one night with a small serving of animal