Joel Fuhrman - Eat To Live

Eat to Live 237

These twelve foods account for more than half of the total pesti-

cide exposure. They are the key foods to avoid (unless you purchase

organically grown ones).

It makes common sense to peel fruits, if possible, and not to eat

potato skins unless you are able to purchase them pesticide-free. Re-

move and discard the outermost leaves of lettuce and cabbage, if not

organically grown; other surfaces that cannot be peeled can be

washed with soap and water or a commercial vegetable wash. Wash-

ing with plain water removes 25-50 percent of the pesticide residue.

1 personally avoid strawberries completely unless we purchase or-

ganic— my children often eat frozen organic strawberries from the

health-food store.

Every study done to date on the consumption of food and its re-

lation to cancer, though, has shown that the more fruits and vegeta-

bles people eat, the less cancer and heart disease they have. All these

studies were done on people eating conventionally grown, not or-

ganic, produce. So, clearly, the benefit of conventional produce out-

weighs any hypothetical risk.

My doctor noted that my complexion had turned yellowish and told

me to cut back on foods containing carotene, such as mangoes,

carrots, and sweet potatoes.

The slight yellow-orange tinge to your skin is not a problem; it is a

marker that you are on a healthy diet. On the contrary, any person

who does not have some degree of carotenemia in his or her skin is

not eating properly, and such an eating pattern places him or her at

risk of cancer — including skin cancer. I drink no carrot juice; how-

ever, my skin has a slight yellow hue, especially when contrasted

with the skin of people eating conventionally. When my patients eat

a nutritionally packed diet, their skin changes color slightly as well.

Tell your doctor it is he who has the dangerous skin tone. However, I

still do not recommend taking vitamin A or high doses of beta-

carotene from supplements.

What about the argument about our ancestors being hunter-

gatherers who ate lots of meat?

Of course there were primitive populations who ate high-meat diets

and there were primitive people who ate plant-predominant diets.

Humans were desperate for calories, so they ale whatever they could