Joel Fuhrman

Joel Fuhrman (born December 2, 1953) is an American celebrity doctor who advocates a plant-based diet termed the "nutritarian" diet which emphasizes nutrient-dense foods.<ref name=fad>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Health">"Nutritarian Diet". health.usnews.com. Retrieved March 5, 2023.</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His practice is based on his nutrition-based approach to obesity and chronic disease, as well as promoting his products and books.<ref name="MHJ" /> He has written books promoting his dietary approaches including the bestsellers Eat to Live,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Super Immunity,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Eat to Live Cookbook,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The End of Dieting (2016)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and The End of Heart Disease (2016).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Fuhrman, Joel (2016). The End of Heart Disease. Description & arrow-searchable preview. HarperOne. Retrieved 26 July 2021.</ref> He sells a related line of nutrition-related products.

Life and career

Fuhrman was born in New York City, on December 2, 1953. He is Jewish.<ref>Template:Cite journalTemplate:Cbignore</ref> He was a competitor in the amateur figure skating circuit.<ref name="MHJ">Template:Cite news</ref> He was a member of the US World Figure Skating Team and placed second in the US National Pairs Championship in 1973. In 1973, he suffered a heel injury which prevented him from competing.<ref name="MHJ"/> Fuhrman claims that an alternative medicine therapy recommended by a naturopath helped speed his recovery, and led him to become interested in alternative medicine.<ref name="MHJ"/> He came in 3rd place at the 1976 World Professional Pairs Skating Championship in Jaca, Spain, skating with his sister, Gale Fuhrman,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> but due to short-term massive muscle loss from fasting was unable to make the Olympic team.<ref name="MHJ"/> In 1988, he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.<ref name="MHJ"/> Fuhrman is a board-certified family physician and serves as Director of Research for the Nutritional Research Foundation.<ref name=iview>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Diet and health

Nutritarian diet

Fuhrman has advocated eating at least one pound of raw vegetables and another pound of cooked vegetables each day with an emphasis on green vegetables along with beans, onions, mushrooms, berries, nuts and seeds. He also recommends eating at least one cup of beans a day to benefit from the resistant starch and increased satiety.<ref name=":0" /> The Nutritarian diet encourages whole plant foods and restricts dairy products, meat, snacks between meals, fruit juice, vegetable oils and processed foods.<ref name="MHJ"/><ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref>

Furhman's Nutritarian diet excludes dairy and meat for six weeks, but after this period a small amount of chicken and fish can be eaten.<ref>"What Foods Are Not Allowed on Dr. Fuhrman's Eat to Live Diet?". healthyeating.sfgate.com. Retrieved March 5, 2023.</ref> Fuhrman also allows a limited amount of low-fat dairy products, olive oil and refined carbohydrates on the diet after six weeks.<ref name=":0"/> If animal products are not added back into the diet, Furhman recommends [[Vitamin B12|vitamin BTemplate:Sub]], vitamin D and omega 3 supplements.<ref name=":0"/> On the Nutritarian diet, dairy products, eggs and fish are to make up less than 10% of calories whilst legumes make between 10% and 40% and raw and cooked vegetables make between 30% and 60% of calories.<ref name="Health"/>

Nutrient density

Fuhrman popularized the notion of nutrient density in what he calls the Health Equation: Health = Nutrients/Calories (abbreviated as H = N/C).<ref name="MHJ" /> Peter Lipson, a physician and writer on alternative medicine, has been heavily critical of Fuhrman's health equation, writing that since its terms cannot be quantified, it is "nothing more than a parlor trick".<ref name="lipson">Template:Cite web</ref> Fuhrman created what he calls the "Aggregate Nutrient Density Index" or ANDI, a ranking of foods based on his claims of micronutrient concentration and kale is at the top of this list.<ref name="MHJ" /> Whole Foods began using the scores as a marketing project and reported that the sales of high scoring foods "skyrocketed".<ref name="MHJ"/>

Reception

Fuhrman has heavily marketed his products and his infomercials have "become a staple during the self-improvement bloc of PBS pledge drives."<ref name="MHJ"/> In the October 2012 edition of Men's Journal, Mark Adams stated that Fuhrman "preaches something closer to fruitarianism or Christian Science than to conventional medical wisdom".<ref name="MHJ"/> Adams also reported that Fuhrman believes that the flu vaccine "isn't effective at all".<ref name="MHJ"/> David Gorski has commented that Fuhrman has promoted a vitalistic view of food and the pseudoscientific idea of detoxification.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Dietitian Carolyn Williams has described Fuhrman's Nutritarian diet as a fad diet. According to Williams "This can be helpful for people who feel stuck in their weight loss journey and want to totally reset or detox their diet following a holiday or vacation. Although this diet is marketed as an eating pattern, it is essentially a fad diet. Those who do try this diet should go into it knowing that it is not sustainable for everyone long-term, and is only a temporary quick fix to lose weight."<ref name="Williams 2018">Template:Cite web</ref>

Harriet Hall, a founder of Science-Based Medicine, a website owned and operated by the New England Skeptical Society,<ref>About this website at Science-Based Medicine</ref> reviewed Fuhrman's Nutritarian diet and commented that he tends to incorrectly assume association studies show causation and that his diet has not been tested in controlled trials. Hall stated that "Fuhrman makes extraordinary claims for the Nutritarian diet, but extraordinary claims must be supported by extraordinary evidence, and the evidence he presents is far from compelling."<ref>Hall, Harriet. (2022). "Eat for Life: Joel Fuhrman’s Nutritarian Diet". Science-Based Medicine. Retrieved February 24, 2022.</ref>

Books

• Fasting and Eating for Health: A Medical Doctor's Program for Conquering Disease (1995) Template:ISBN
• Eat to Live: The Amazing Nutrient-Rich Program for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss (2003) Template:ISBN
• Disease-Proof Your Child: Feeding Kids Right (2006) Template:ISBN
• Eat for Health: Lose Weight, Keep It off, Look Younger, Live Longer (2008) Template:ISBN
• The End of Diabetes: The Eat to Live Plan to Prevent and Reverse Diabetes (2012) Template:ISBN
• Super Immunity: The Essential Nutrition Guide for Boosting Your Body's Defenses to Live Longer, Stronger, and Disease Free (2013) Template:ISBN
• The End of Dieting: How to Live for Life (2014) Template:ISBN
• The End of Heart Disease: the eat to live plan to prevent and reverse heart disease (2016) Template:ISBN
• Eat to Live Quick and Easy Cookbook: 131 Delicious Recipes for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss, Reversing Disease, and Lifelong Health (2017) Template:ISBN
• Fast Food Genocide: How Processed Food Is Killing Us and What We Can Do about It (2017) Template:ISBN
• Transformation 20 - Blood Pressure and Cholesterol (2018) Template:ISBN
• Eat for Life: The Breakthrough Nutrient-Rich Program for Longevity, Disease Reversal, and Sustained Weight Loss (2020) Template:ISBN

See also

• Neal D. Barnard
• T. Colin Campbell
• Michael Greger
• Michael Klaper
• John A. McDougall
• Michael Pollan

External links

• Template:Official website
• Template:IMDb name