Dr. Joel Fuhrman, M.D. is a physician who practices in New Jersey, United States. He specialises in treating some major illnesses through nutrition.
He has written a book called Eat to Live. He states that he wants people to have the opportunity to benefit by developing life long health-giving eating habits.
He introduces the idea of nutrient density, as expressed by the formula Health=Nutrients/Calories. He believes (and quotes research projects and statistical information to support his claim) that there is excessive consumption of calorie rich food, and minimising of nutritional foods in our modern diet. This has resulted in a paradoxically overfed but undernourished and therefore diseased population in the developed world.
He advises that we should base our eating on mainly fresh vegetables, fruit and legumes, while minimising animal products, processed grains and high carbohydrate foods. If we do this we can eat as much as we wish, while progressively shedding weight until we reach and maintain our individual ideal weight. This is because our appetite and hunger (and our calorie intake) will be naturally limited through the high nutrient, and low calorie content of our diet. This emphasises the nutritional value of vitamins, minerals, fibre and phytochemicals, and other micro nutrients of which nutritionists are as yet unaware.
There are low levels of these nutrients (in ratio to calories) in officially recommended eating programmes, such as the "Good food pyramid". This has allegedly resulted in a high incidence of ill health, including diabetes, heart illnesses, autoimmune diseases (e.g. arthritis), cancers, high blood pressure etc. These and other conditions can be minimised, he claims, through a simple and easy change to our eating habits.
