Joel Fuhrman - Eat To Live

190 Joel Fuhrman, M.D.

tional Institutes of Health (NIH) for those desiring to lose weight. Ac-

cording to these guidelines, women should choose a diet with fewer

than 1,200 calorics a day and men, one with fewer than 1,600.^8

A computer analysis of many different diets has shown that the

Eat to Live diet is the only way to meet the National Institutes of

Health guidelines for calories while at the same time supplying ade-

quate nutrients and fiber content. Even the dietary menus for 1,200-

calorie and 1,600-calorie diets published in the National Institutes of

Health's recent guide for physicians do not meet the RDAs, because

the traditional American food choices are too low in nutrients. The

NIH diets are too low in important nutrients such as chromium, vita-

min K, folate, and magnesium, whereas the Eat to Live diet plans

and suggested menus more than meet all RDAs within the NIH's

caloric limits.

How Do I Know How Many Calories I Should Eat?

Don't worry about it. Try to follow my rules for a longevity diet and

just watch the weight fall off. If you were never able to lose weight

in the past, be happy with about one to two pounds per week. If you

are not losing weight as fast as you'd like, write down what you eat

and how much, to see if you are really consuming a whole pound of

raw vegetables a day and an entire pound of steamed green vegeta-

bles a day. If you are an overweight female following my guidelines

and losing about one to two pounds per week, you are probably con-

suming about 1,100-1,400 calories a day. You can count calories if

you want, but it is not necessary; you will feel sated and content on

fewer calories than you were eating before.

My observations over the years have convinced me that eating

healthfully makes you drop unwanted pounds efficiently, indepen-

dent of caloric intake. It's as if the body wants to get rid of unhealthy

tissue quickly. I have seen this happen time and time again. Eating

the exact same diet, many patients drop weight quickly and easily

and then automatically stop losing when they reach an ideal weight.

Time and time again, I have seen individuals who were not over-

weight nonetheless lose weight after the switch. In a few months,

however, they gravitated back to their former weight as their health

improved. It is as if the body wanted to exchange unhealthy tissue

for healthy tissue.