Joel Fuhrman - Eat To Live

36 Joel Fuhrman, M.D.

an ideal food for those desiring to lose weight. I often use these juices

as part of salad dressings and other dishes rather than alone as a

drink. Fresh fruits and even dried fruits do contain an assortment of

protective nutrients and phytochemicals, so stick with the real thing.

Lester Traband's Yearly Checkup

My patient Les Traband came in for his yearly checkup. He was not over-

weight and had been following a vegetarian diet for years. I did a dietary

review of what he ate regularly. He was eating "healthy" flaxseed waffles for

breakfast, lots of pasta, whole-wheat bread, and vegan (no animal prod-

ucts) prepared frozen meals on a regular basis.

I spent about thirty minutes pointing out that he was certainly not fol-

lowing my dietary recommendations for excellent health and presented him

with some menu suggestions and an outline of my nutritional prescription

for superior health, which he agreed to follow.

Twelve weeks later, he had lost about eight pounds and I rechecked his

lipid profile, because I didn't like the results we received from the blood test

taken the day of his checkup.

The results speak for themselves:

2/1/2001 5/2/2001

Cholesterol 230 174

Triglycerides 226 57

HDL 55 78

LDL 130 84

Cholesterol/HDL ratio 4.18 2.23

Enrichment with Nutrients Is a House Made of Straw

White or "enriched" rice is just as bad as white bread and pasta. It is

nutritionally bankrupt. You might as well just eat the Uncle Ben's

cardboard box it comes in. Refining the rice removes the same im-

portant factors: fiber, minerals, phytochemicals, and vitamin E. So,

when you eat grains, eat whole grains.

Refining foods removes so much nutrition that our government

requires that a few synthetic vitamins and minerals be added back.

Such foods are labeled as enriched or fortified. Whenever you see those

words on a package, it means important nutrients are missing. Re-