Joel Fuhrman Quotes & Sayings

I am a physician specializing in nutritional interventions for chronic disease and a strong advocate of superior nutrition as the first line of attack to prevent and treat most chronic diseases. — Joel Fuhrman

The key to excellent health and longevity is to eat a high ratio of micronutrients to macronutrients. — Joel Fuhrman

Primates are the only animals on the face of the earth that can taste sweet and see color. We were designed by nature to see, grasp, eat, and enjoy the flavor of colorful, sweet fruits. — Joel Fuhrman

We need radical dietary improvement, and the earlier in life that change is made, the better. Just following a vegan diet or eating a few more vegetables is not enough. — Joel Fuhrman

Food is really and truly the most effective medicine. — Joel Fuhrman

We know that childhood and adolescence are the most crucial times for environmental stimuli to affect breast cancer risk, but changes made during adulthood and even after diagnosis still have the potential to create positive changes in the body. — Joel Fuhrman

Yesterday I saw a child wearing a T-shirt that said, "If you love me, don't feed me junk food." I was delighted to see this, but I also know how difficult it can be to feed our children well, particularly when the foods that are most convenient and the most heavily advertised are often the ones we should avoid. Joel Fuhrman's new book is a blessing, because it makes it so much easier. It is excellent, and full of clarity, wisdom, and guidance you can trust. It can indeed give you the power to shape your child's health destiny - John Robbins — Joel Fuhrman

Combine anti-cancer foods to maximize protection against all cancers: A number of plant foods are associated with lower risk of cancers, and substances contained in these foods display anti-cancer or immune-boosting properties. — Joel Fuhrman

I have serious concerns about the potential risks of taking lots of fish oil capsules. So much fish oil can have paradoxical effects, reducing immune function in later life. — Joel Fuhrman

One can be a vegan and eating a health-promoting, high-nutrient diet, but one can also eat a small amount of animal products while following a Nutritarian diet and still live a long, healthy life. — Joel Fuhrman

Seeds and nuts are indispensable for cardiovascular health. The protective properties of nuts against coronary heart disease were first recognized in the early 1990s, and a strong body of literature has followed, confirming these original findings. — Joel Fuhrman

High salt intake is a risk factor for osteoporosis because excess dietary sodium promotes urinary calcium loss, leading to calcium loss from bone and therefore decreased bone density. — Joel Fuhrman

Eating a high-nutrient diet actually makes you more satisfied with less food, and actually gives the ability to enjoy food more without overeating. — Joel Fuhrman

Regardless of whether we are required to purchase medical insurance, know that we can only buy real health insurance in the produce section of the local supermarket. — Joel Fuhrman

Therapeutic fasting is not a mystical or magical cure. It works because the body has within it the capacity to heal when the obstacles to healing are removed. Health is the normal state. Most chronic disease is the inevitable consequence of living a life-style that places disease-causing stressors on the human organism. Fasting gives the body an interlude without those stressors so that it can speedily repair or accomplish healing that could not otherwise occur in the feeding state. — Joel Fuhrman

Meeting the body's micronutrient needs helps to suppress food cravings, and high-nutrient foods do not produce dangerous, addictive craving. — Joel Fuhrman

Simply restricting portions of the same disease-causing foods does not resolve the symptoms of toxic hunger. — Joel Fuhrman

American children are the heaviest worldwide, and they are getting heavier at a faster rate than other children around the globe. This spread of obesity foreshadows an explosion in degenerative diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer waiting to erupt in our children's future. Together we can stop this tragedy from ever happening. — Joel Fuhrman

The diet, to be healthy, has to be mostly fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts and seeds. — Joel Fuhrman

We must always remember that all medical interventions have risk, and very little can be asserted with 100 percent certainty. — Joel Fuhrman

Three of the most beneficial, longevity promoting anti-cancer foods are green vegetables, beans, and onions. — Joel Fuhrman

We have these weapons of mass destruction on every street corner, and they're called donuts, cheeseburgers, French fries, potato chips, junk food. Our kids are living on a junk food diet. — Joel Fuhrman

Certainly adding fats in the form of oils is fattening and unhealthy, but naturally fat-rich foods like nuts and seeds have profound cardiovascular benefits. — Joel Fuhrman

Reducing dietary salt is not only important for those who already have elevated blood pressure - limiting added salt is essential for all of us to remain in good health. — Joel Fuhrman

Although measuring omega-3 levels in the blood seems like it would be an objective and accurate indicator of fish oil intake compared to using the subjects' reported dietary intake, this test does not accurately reflect long-term dietary intake. — Joel Fuhrman

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 — Joel Fuhrman

What you eat matters. It influences the quality of your life. — Joel Fuhrman

A high nutrient diet, if widely adopted, could bring millions of people in touch with true hunger, and stop the proliferation of obesity and preventable chronic disease. — Joel Fuhrman

Most of the time, the reason people are overweight is too little physical activity, in conjunction with a high-calorie, low-nutrient diet. — Joel Fuhrman

The modern diet is grossly deficient in hundreds of important plant-derived immunity-building compounds which makes us highly vulnerable to viruses, infections and disease. — Joel Fuhrman

The time may come when not offering this substantially more effective nutritional approach will be considered malpractice. — Joel Fuhrman

A high nutrient density diet was associated with more feelings of hunger in the mouth and throat and less in the head and stomach. — Joel Fuhrman

If you want ideal health, you need to overcompensate and eat an excellent diet. — Joel Fuhrman

You cannot buy your health; you must earn it through healthy living. — Joel Fuhrman

We need to take vegetables out of the role of side dish, even in low-fat, vegetarian diets, whose calories are generally derived mainly from grains and other starches. — Joel Fuhrman

Cancer initiates due to a wide variety of causes, some of which are outside of our control or already occurred during our childhood. — Joel Fuhrman

Anything you adopt temporarily only begets temporary results, and fluctuating your weight up and down is not lifespan favorable. — Joel Fuhrman

Health is normal. The human body is a self-repairing, self-defending, self-healing marvel. Disease is relatively difficult to induce, considering the body's powerful immune system. However, this complicated and delicate machinery can be damaged if fed the wrong fuel during the formative years ... Healthy living with nutritional excellence throughout life can slow the decline of aging. It can prevent the years and years of suffering in ill health that is so common today as people get older and become dependent on medical treatments, drugs, and surgery. Nutritional excellence is the only real fountain of youth. — Joel Fuhrman

The goal of my diet-style is eating for optimal health and longevity. What greater benefit could there be than living healthfully and actively into old age with no dependence on medications and almost no risk of heart disease, diabetes or dementia? — Joel Fuhrman

Lower caloric exposure and episodic fasting can extend the life span of all animals, the longer we spend in the catabolic state, the longer we live. — Joel Fuhrman

Vegetables and fruits protect against all types of cancers if consumed in large enough quantities. — Joel Fuhrman

Medicines cannot drug away the cellular defects that develop in response to improper nutrition throughout life. — Joel Fuhrman

Delaying a meal brings about symptoms most people call "hunger." These symptoms include abdominal cramping, weakness, and feeling ill-the same as during drug withdrawal. This is not hunger. Our dietary habits, especially eating animal-protein-rich foods three times a day, are so stressful to the detoxification system in our liver and kidneys that we start to get withdrawal, or detoxification, symptoms the minute we aren't busy processing such food. Real hunger is not that uncomfortable. — Joel Fuhrman

Consuming mushrooms regularly has been associated with decreased risk of breast, stomach and colorectal cancers. — Joel Fuhrman

Natural plant foods, though usually carbohydrate-rich, also contain protein and fats. On average, 25 percent of the calories in vegetables are from protein. Romaine lettuce, for example, is rich in both protein and essential fatty acids, giving us those healthy fats our bodies require. For more information about essential fats and the protein content of vegetables and various other foods, see chapter five. — Joel Fuhrman

Cancer is caused by what you do for many, many years, not what you do for a few weeks or months. — Joel Fuhrman

Studies continue to provide evidence that more than any other food, fruit is associated with lowered mortality from all cancers combined. — Joel Fuhrman

Omega-3 fatty acids are essential nutrients that we must get from our diets because our bodies cannot make them; they are crucial for early brain development, and there is much evidence that they promote cardiovascular health and cognitive function. — Joel Fuhrman

My findings have demonstrated that an optimal micronutrient intake reduces the desire for calories and reduces body temperature and white blood cell counts. — Joel Fuhrman

Most weight loss diets center around portion control, which is just trying to eat smaller amounts of the same addictive foods. This approach inevitably fails. — Joel Fuhrman

For both optimal health and weight loss, you must consume a diet with a high nutrient-per-calorie ratiothere are no shortcuts. — Joel Fuhrman

Dieting by portion control doesn't work because one is constantly fighting addictive drives. — Joel Fuhrman

If you have a significant layer of fat around your waist, it means you have regularly consumed food in response to toxic hunger or have eaten recreationally. The body does not store large amounts of fat when fed a wholesome natural diet and given only the amount of food demanded by true hunger. — Joel Fuhrman

The most significant and alarming consequence of early maturation is an increased risk for breast cancer in adulthood. — Joel Fuhrman

We are losing the war on cancer because we are on an incessant search for the impossible-to-find cure, when in fact removing the causes is the only way to win. — Joel Fuhrman

The human body is a miraculous self-healing machine, but those self-repair systems require a nutrient-dense diet. — Joel Fuhrman

Preferring healthful foods is a skill, and skills take practice and perseverance to develop. — Joel Fuhrman

Fasting and natural diet, though essentially unknown as a therapy, should be the first treatment when someone discovers that he or she has a medical problem. — Joel Fuhrman

Blueberries, strawberries and blackberries are true super foods. Naturally sweet and juicy, berries are low in sugar and high in nutrients - they are among the best foods you can eat. — Joel Fuhrman

Excess dietary salt is most notorious for increasing blood pressure. Americans have a 90 percent lifetime probability of developing high blood pressure - so even if your blood pressure is normal now, if you continue to eat the typical American diet, you will be at risk. — Joel Fuhrman

Americans are grossly deficient in basic micronutrients and especially those phytochemicals that arm our immune system to fight cancer. — Joel Fuhrman

Instead of trying to increase your metabolism with the goal of losing weight, try to slow your metabolism with a low-calorie, high-nutrient diet for a longer, healthier life. — Joel Fuhrman

If you eat the standard Western diet that most people eat in the modern world, it's quite likely you will develop heart disease. — Joel Fuhrman

In the future, it's going to become more and more impossible for the economy to support how expensive medical care is and the number of sick people we have. Why don't we just get our population healthier so we don't need medical care? — Joel Fuhrman

Sodium is an important mineral that is essential for proper functioning of the human body - however, the American diet contains dangerously high amounts of sodium, almost 80 percent of which comes from processed and restaurant foods. — Joel Fuhrman

We're not going to find a magic cure for cancer. We've got to prevent it. — Joel Fuhrman

If we get kids eating right, we could decrease cancer rates by 90 percent. — Joel Fuhrman

The primary benefit of a vegan diet is that the removal of animal products usually necessitates a higher amount of nutrient-rich plant produce. The cons of a vegan diet could be the inclusion of too much heavily processed food, including seitan and isolated soy protein, flour, sweeteners and oils. — Joel Fuhrman

But the bottom line is that even though a cup of cooked beans may be listed as 225 calories, they actually give you much fewer calories per cup, a higher percent of protein, and fewer carbohydrates than show up in their analysis. All those listed 225 calories are setting off caloric and nutrient receptors in the stomach and small intestines, registering satiation and telling you that you have eaten enough. — Joel Fuhrman

Most brown bread is merely white bread with a fake tan. — Joel Fuhrman

Noncaloric sweeteners signal the body that sugar is on the way and stimulate the pancreas to secrete insulin, which is not favorable. — Joel Fuhrman

The right raw materials can ... double or triple the protective power of the immune system. — Joel Fuhrman

Out of one pocket we pay billions of our tax dollars to support the production of expensive, disease-causing foods. Out of the other pocket, we pay medical bills that are too high because our overweight population consumes too much of these rich, disease-causing foods. — Joel Fuhrman

Chemicals are not currently tested for their endocrine disruption potential before they are approved for use and enter our environment, and there are endocrine disruptors in a vast array of products we come into contact with every day, including organochlorine pesticides, plastics, fuels, and other industrial chemicals. — Joel Fuhrman

Resting metabolic rate is largely genetically determined, but our calorie intake has an effect as well. — Joel Fuhrman

Healthy people eating healthy food should never need to take an antibiotic. — Joel Fuhrman

Your future health can be predicted by the nutrient density of your diet. — Joel Fuhrman

The human diet, for millions of years, did not contain any added salt - only the sodium present in natural foods, adding up to only about 1000 mg sodium per day. — Joel Fuhrman

A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that restricting calories by 30 percent significantly increased life span in monkeys.27 The experimental diet, while still providing adequate nourishment, slowed monkeys' metabolism and reduced their body temperatures, changes similar to those in the long-lived thin mice. Decreased levels of triglycerides and increased HDL (the good) cholesterol were also observed. Studies over the years, on many different species of animals, have confirmed that those animals that were fed less lived longest. In fact, allowing an animal to eat as much food as it desires can reduce its life span by as much as one-half. — Joel Fuhrman

Since the foods Americans consume are so calorie-rich, we have all been trying to diet by eating smaller portions of low-nutrient foods. We not only have to suffer hunger but also wind up with perverted cravings because we are nutrient-deficient to boot. — Joel Fuhrman

Permanent results only come from permanent changes in lifestyle and diet style. You don't get permanently well unless you permanently change the way you live. — Joel Fuhrman

which food has more protein - broccoli or steak? You were wrong if you thought steak. Steak has only 6.4 grams of protein per 100 calories and broccoli has 11.1 grams, almost twice as much.21 Keep in mind that most of the calories in meat come from fat; green vegetables are mostly protein. (All calories must come from fat, carbohydrate, or protein.) — Joel Fuhrman

You cannot escape from the biological law of cause and effect - food choices are the most significant cause of disease and premature death. — Joel Fuhrman

Scores of studies support the power of certain natural foods to prevent cancer. — Joel Fuhrman

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. — Joel Fuhrman

Whether the patient has a cardiac condition, hypertension, autoimmune disease, fibroids, or asthma, he or she must be informed that fasting and natural, plant-based diets are a viable alternative to conventional therapy, and an effective one. — Joel Fuhrman

Girls of 7, 8 or 9 years old are not emotionally or psychologically equipped to handle puberty. — Joel Fuhrman

We can reduce these cancer rates - breast cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer - by 90 percent or more by people adopting what I call a nutritrarian diet. — Joel Fuhrman

The indisputable fact is that nutritional science is the most powerful weapon available to win the war on cancer. — Joel Fuhrman

I make a big salad bowl just for myself, double or triple the size of a normal salad. — Joel Fuhrman

Micronutrient-poor foods, like pasta, sugar, and soda, don't just give you empty calories and make you fat; they also do damage to the body and cause disease. — Joel Fuhrman

To provide optimal levels of protective micronutrients, a diet must be vegetable-based, not grain-based. — Joel Fuhrman

The vast preponderance of evidence in modern epidemiology shows that those who eat more whole plant foods and fewer animal products and processed foods have lower rates of chronic disease and longer lifespans. — Joel Fuhrman

Leafy greens such as romaine lettuce, kale, collards, Swiss chard, and spinach are the most nutrient-dense of all foods. — Joel Fuhrman

Raw leafy greens contain only about 100 calories per pound and are packed with nutrients. — Joel Fuhrman

What are the physical sensations you associate with hunger? For most people, these sensations include stomach grumbling, headaches, light-headedness, irritability, fatigue and inability to focus. — Joel Fuhrman

I have appeared on 'The Dr. Oz show' and recognize that Dr. Oz does not hold the exact same viewpoints about all controversies in human nutrition that I do, but he has a huge base of knowledge and is open-minded and willing to re-consider a position based on emerging evidence on multiple scientific and health issues. — Joel Fuhrman

Cutting back on calories is not the answer to successful weight loss and successful health ... you have to increase the quality of what you eat, not just reduce the quantity. — Joel Fuhrman

Excess body fat alters the levels of the hormones insulin, leptin, and estrogen, and these factors are believed to be responsible for the acceleration of pubertal timing by obesity. — Joel Fuhrman

Doctors' positions and recommendations about drugs, procedures, surgical interventions, health and nutrition are not always based on strong scientific evidence. — Joel Fuhrman