Eat to Live: The Revolutionary Formula for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss - Little, Brown and Company

Gotta get this book

Dr. Fuhrman tells it like it is. This is a good read and will change your life.

Not For Me

I found the early chapters exciting. As I heard about the smooth weight loss experienced by participants, their actual names and statistics listed and very positive sounding, optimism clutched me. I read on. I found a good and believable discussion of health problems that could very well subside with the new program. The thesis here is that it isn't how much you eat, it is what you eat. Bravo! I was willing to commit.
But my hopes dimmed as I pressed further in my reading. I learned I would be eating up to a pound of lettuce or salad greens a day. Breakfast, lunch, dinner - I could vary between iceburg lettuce, spinach leaves, mixed greens, arugula, so on - but it would always be basically a salad. All I could eat! No dairy, no animal products, little grains; these rules form a basic structure of your new metabolism.
At this point I dropped my reading. This may work very well for many people. But how well would be dependent on age and personal body make-up as well, I suspect, as digestive powers. At this point I had to drop out. I hope this book might be for you, but I would advise approaching "Eat to Live" with caution.

Eat to Live is truthful

I became vegan before reading ETL, and I'm currently reading The China Study. Both books have similar themes: our bodies were designed for whole foods, plant based diet and exercise. Without either, we put ourselves in harms way.

What rang true to me was Dr. Furhman's ridiculously simple concept of nutrient density. I've taken nutrition courses, read tons of information on nutrition, and yet this simple concept eluded me until I read his book. In a very simple nutshell, he asks the reader to take a really good look at their diet and to eat (until full, by-the-way) meals that are nutrient dense instead of calorie dense. I don't know why that was an "a-ha" moment for me, but it was. I've adopted this concept into my diet, and without trying, without hunger and without thinking I needed to, I've dropped over 12 pounds in about 4 months.

I took off 1 star because what I didn't care for was his style of trying to write a another diet book. I get that people love the next best diet, but I found it annoying. The concept of nutrient density felt so truthful and important, that I felt that the "diet" aspect clouded this truth.

Like I said earlier, The China Study is similar in concept. However, is more data reporting while ETL tends to be written on the basis of observation. The China Study appealed much more to my husband.

I very heartily applaud Dr. Fuhrman for speaking the truth about what our bodies need to work properly until our end. Just try not to get so caught up about it being a "diet" book.

Finally, round out your reading about animal farming so that you can get a clear idea of how harmful it is on many, many levels: the harm to the animals before ending up on our plate, the harm to our food, the harm to our environment, and the harm to our bodies. Once you put the pieces together, your life will forever be positively changed.

Eat your damn fruits and veggies! (Oh, and beans too.)

Geesh, I don't think I've seen a set of reviews more volatile and extreme than these. The fact is, this is one clinician's take on how to lose weight and keep it off, not a thorough and unbiased incorporation of the nutrition literature. One only has to hit the diet section of the nearest bookstore to find countless other clinicians/writers who do the same thing.

Don't get me wrong; I like a lot of Fuhrman's ideas here. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that most Americans would benefit greatly from higher produce and fiber intake. I'm one of them, and if this book has helped me with anything, it's with really making sure I get my fruits and veggies every day. That said, let's be clear: This is a restrictive approach that aims for major health transformation. You will be eating fruit, nonstarchy vegetables, beans, a serving or two of starch (i.e. sweet potatoes), and a smidge of fat every day. Period. Fuhrman "allows" animal protein once or twice a week on his Six-Week Plan. Anything else is highly restricted. Who the heck wouldn't drop a bunch of weight? The plan may work well for many people, but I suspect that it's just too extreme for many coming straight off the SAD. There's also a pretty militant, my-way-or-the-highway tone to the material, which I have to say I've encountered in a lot of the raw/vegetarian/vegan community.

If you're looking to make a hard-core life change, and are willing to tolerate the anxiety and cravings of the first weeks and months, by all means try this approach and see how it feels. If you find, though (as I ultimately did), that more fat, more protein, and more flexibility are necessary for long-term fitness and weight loss...don't think you failed. Take what works for your unique body and leave the rest. (Weight Watchers finally worked for me.)

Ditch the SAD diet and start the Nutrient Density Diet

This book is cutting edge and revolutionary when it comes to health. For the past 50+ years American's have been consumed with counting calories and cutting the fat or carb content in their diet. This book offers a revolutionary approach to judging the quality of a diet with Nutrient Density which is the amount of Vitamins, Minerals, Phyto-nutrients, and Anti-Oxidants found in foods.

He even has a way to score yourself and has a chart that ranks out a foods nutrient density per 100grams. For instance Kale ranks 1000 points where Oatmeal is about 50. So per 100grams you would have to eat like 20 bowls of oatmeal to equal 1 bowl of Kale!!! This book really puts diet and nutrition in perspective and also talks about the current pitfalls in the current American health model.

As a Physician myself, this book has helped changed my life and many of the patients I have read it.