DrFuhrman’s Prescription for Improving and Maintaining Great Health: Nutritional Excellence

The quality of a diet can be based on three simple criteria:

1.  Levels of micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals) per calorie.

2.  Amounts of macronutrients (fat, carbohydrate, protein) to meet individual needs, without excessive calories that may lead to weight gain or health compromise.

3. Avoidance of potentially toxic substances (such as trans fats) and limited amounts of other potentially harmful substances (such as sodium).

Before I created Nutrient Rich.com, Dr. Fuhrman created The Health Equation: H=N/C or Health = Nutrients/Calories (first published in 1999 in his work, The Health Equation and later described in more detail in his book, Eat To Live) to define how the quality of calories impacts health.

This equation means your future health can be predicted by the micronutrient per calorie density of your diet. Micronutrient per calorie density is important in devising and recommending menu plans and dietary suggestions that are the most effective for tackling weight loss and for preventing and reversing disease.

Dr. Fuhrman’s Aggregate Nutrient Density Index (ANDI) and Menu Aggregate Nutrient Density Index (MANDI) food scoring system are featured in his book set Eat For Health, so people can easily recognize foods, meals and menus that offer sufficiently rich micronutrients to ideally meet their individual needs.

Assuring nutritional excellence means meeting an individual’s unique nutritional needs for profound therapeutic effects and and preventing, treating and reversing disease. According to DrFuhrman , dietary micronutrient quality must be increased accordingly to utilize dietary recommendations therapeutically for disease reversal or to protect high-risk individuals.

Though micronutrient density is critically important, it is not the only factor that determines health. For example Vitamin D levels, B12, and proper omega-3 intake are important for optimal long-term health as well as avoidance of sodium and other toxic excesses. These concerns are not addressed in the H = N/C equation. However, if the focus is consuming more micronutrient-rich natural foods then the other important nutritional benefits automatically will follow, such as lower sodium, reduced calories, high fiber and volume, a low glycemic index, and a high satiety and phytochemical index to name a few.

Eating low nutrient foods fuels overeating behavior.

Last, but not least, DrFuhrman ‘s unique contribution to the science of nutritional care, disease reversal and weight loss is his explanation of the physiology behind hunger and food cravings.

It is important to recognize that nutrient poor eating (and toxic eating) leads to increased cellular toxicity with undesirable levels of free radicals and advanced glycation end products (AGE’s), lipfusion, lipid A2E and other toxins that contribute to the development of chronic disease. His findings are that these toxic substances lead to addictive withdrawal symptoms (toxic hunger) which result in the desire to eat more frequently and overeat. Low nutrient eating, therefore, establishes a mechanism that leads to food addictions and food cravings that can’t be ignored. This is the reason why calorie counting diets fail. Without addressing dietary quality, excess food cravings are almost impossible to ignore.

Fortunately the drive to over-consume calories is blunted by high micronutrient, high food antioxidant, (NutrientRich food) consumption and the symptoms that people thought were hypoglycemia or even hunger, simply disappear after following his dietary recommendations. Not only do people lose the symptoms of fatigue, headaches, irritability and stomach cramping, but they get back in touch with true hunger felt in the throat, which simply makes eating more pleasurable and directs them to a more appropriate amount of calories for their body’s biological needs.

In a portion controlled (calorie counting) diet it is likely that the body will not get adequate fiber or micronutrients. The body will have a compounded sensation of hunger and cravings which for most is simply overwhelming. It invariably results in people either being unable to lose weight or unable to keep the weight off and eventually gaining it back. The biochemistry and physiology behind food cravings are more thoroughly explained in Dr. Fuhrman’s books and lectures, but without a thorough understanding of these principles weight loss attempts are typically doomed to fail.

If you really want to learn what’s going on behind the scenes of why a Nutrient Rich diet works so well, why eating better not less is the way to go, tune into DrFuhrman .

The MANDI and ANDI food index’s are the most powerful out there.

John Allen Mollenhauer

Recently I had an experience with Dr Fuhrman than once again solidified my certainty that there is no better value for health and nutritional excellence on the entire Internet than DrFuhrman’s Members Support.

Membership Benefits & Join

I was working with a client who has type 2 diabetes who I sent to DrFuhrman’s member site. Here’s some of the dialogue from the member center.

And I might I point out, this advice, which is just the tip of the iceberg and certainly not limited to someone who has diabetes, is less then ten bucks a month. Go and find a doctor of Dr Fuhrman’s caliber who will even know you exist for that, let alone give you life changing answers to your question.

Here was the exchange.

From: Dr. Fuhrman [ Joel Fuhrman M.D]
Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 6:08 AM

Hi Cindy,

Yes, I think endocrinologist are dangerous and starting a type two diabetic on insulin when diet and exercise could have lowered the glucose and the weight is malpractice.
Insulin causes weight gain, worsens the diabetes, promotes vulnerable plaque and takes a person at borderline risk if heart attack or stroke and makes them high risk. This has already be demonstrated in various studies to increase death rate. I am so glad you have decided not to take it and to solve the real problem instead. If you made a drastic switch and your glucose skyrocketed, then you did not do what I recommend. That is why I have the member forum, so you can communicate with me to prevent errors and customize the recommendations to your needs to assure success.

In the Ask The Doctor forum, show me what medications you are taking, what exercise you do, voice your concerns there, write out your proposed diet for me to tweak and explain more and let’s get started on the road to becoming non-diabetic. Looking forward to the exciting opportunity to working with you and helping you conquer these health challenges.

Warmly,

Dr Fuhrman

From: Cindy
Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 10:12 PM
To: ‘Dr. Fuhrman’
Cc: ‘John Allen Mollenhauer’
Subject: My Diabetes

Dr. Fuhrman:

Do you think that if my endocrinologist thought I would have a heart attack or stroke by starting me on insulin that she ever would have given it to me?

I happen to be a professional writer who has a tremendous desire to research everything. That makes me a very informed consumer/patient. I spent the first 44 years of my life without an ailment and have spent the last 4 years waking up every day in pain and worried about some new condition that has been thrust upon me. Asking for help is, by far, the hardest thing I have ever had to do. So the questions I ask, I do not ask out of idle curiosity. I ask them to gain insight from someone who knows far more than I on the subject, and to better understand a condition or circumstance.

I have opted to stop the insulin because of my unwillingness to be dependent on it and the fear of what it will do to my body. My focus is now 100% on my eating regimen, uncovering what can and will turn my condition around, and making the required changes a permanent part of my life. However, when you have very few good days, a drastic dietary change can only make that situation worse. The last time I made a drastic switch to the diet you recommend, my blood sugar skyrocketed to over 450 and almost put me in the hospital. Thus, my resistance is not a resistance to the change: it is out of fear that I could have a repeat of what happened before – which no one could explain!

Membership Benefits & Join

This exchange, is invaluable, and probably just changed Cindy’s life, you can count on DrFuhrman giving it to you straight. If you haven’t read Eat for Health, today’s your day to start.

John Allen Mollenhauer

Joel Fuhrman MD

Tune in to watch Dr. Fuhrman interviewed on
NBC’s “First Look” as he discusses the health benefits of juicing
________________________________________
NBC “First Look” TV show
Date: Saturday, April 18, 2009
Time: 7:30 PM (EDT) and again following Saturday Night Live (at 1:00 am on 4/19)

The 7:30 pm segment will air only in the New York tri-state area.
The segment following Saturday Night Live will be broadcast nationwide at 1:00 AM (on 4/19)