Joel Fuhrman Quotes

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

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

- Joel Fuhrman

A significant number of research studies have documented that heart disease is easily and almost completely preventable through a diet rich in plant produce and lower in processed foods and animal products.

- 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

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

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

- Joel Fuhrman

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

- Joel Fuhrman

Onions, along with leeks, garlic, shallots and scallions, make up the allium family of vegetables, which can have beneficial effects on the cardiovascular and immune systems, as well as possible anti-diabetic and anti-cancer effects.

- Joel Fuhrman

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

- 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

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

- 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

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

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

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

There is simply not enough money available to support a system in which the lion's share of expenditures is devoted to acute care, with virtually nothing being spent on preventive medicine, i.e. health care.

- Joel Fuhrman

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

- 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

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

- Joel Fuhrman

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

- 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

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

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

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

- Joel Fuhrman

Don't forget: cruciferous vegetables must be chopped, crushed, or chewed well for maximum benefit!

- 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

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

- Joel Fuhrman

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

- Joel Fuhrman

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 problem with the standard American diet, a primary cause of our current obesity epidemic, is the fact that the majority of foods consumed are high in calories and low in micronutrients.

- Joel Fuhrman

Hypertension is an important risk factor for kidney disease, but dietary sodium has other damaging effects on the kidneys. High salt intake drives the production of oxygen radicals, leading to oxidative stress in kidney tissue.

- 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

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

- Joel Fuhrman

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

- Joel Fuhrman

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

- 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

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

- 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 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

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

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

- 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

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

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

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

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

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

Without micronutrients to remove waste, cells become congested, DNA gets broken, and the body doesn't have the ability to repair itself. Eventually, you get sick.

- 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

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

- Joel Fuhrman

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

- Joel Fuhrman

When you eat healthfully, your body gravitates relatively rapidly toward a better weight.

- 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

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

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

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

- 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

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

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

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

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

- 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

The American diet causes disease. It is composed of 25 percent animal products and 62 percent processed foods and only 5 percent of calories from fruits and vegetables.

- Joel Fuhrman

It may seem difficult at first, but eating more high-nutrient foods reduces the desire for low-nutrient foods; it becomes easier with time.

- 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

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

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

- Joel Fuhrman

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

- 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

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

- Joel Fuhrman

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

- 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

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

- Joel Fuhrman

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

- 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

Food is really and truly the most effective medicine.

- Joel Fuhrman

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

- Joel Fuhrman

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

- Joel Fuhrman