Disease Proof : Disease Proof : Health & Nutrition News & Commentary : Dr. Joel Fuhrman

Last weekend the first Nutritarian Food Festival was held in beautiful Aspen, Colorado.  It was organized and co-chaired by renowned chef, Martin Oswald, who owns the Pyramid Bistro on Main Street; the first, fully nutritarian restaurant in America.  Dr. Fuhrman said the cook-off contest between the top chefs in town, making their best nutritarian dishes, was a blast! The entire event was a great success and widely received by the public due to Martin’s vision and dedication, and everyone’s hard work. Welcome to Disease Proof, Martin.

How did you discover nutritarian eating and cooking that eventually led to opening the Pyramid Bistro?

I heard about Dr. Fuhrman many years ago, but it wasn’t until someone in the health section of Whole Foods in Denver introduced me to his books again. I saw the nutrient density guides and recognized the chef-friendly approach of Dr. Fuhrman’s plan. It was one of those, "Nutrition meets chef" moments!

From your perspective as a renowned chef and owner of the first nutritarian restaurant in the United States, what was the highlight of the Nutritarian Food Festival for you?

The highlight for me was to see all these chefs from competing restaurants, and nutritionists with different backgrounds, come together and push forward a bigger idea. As you may know, Colorado is the only state with under 30% obesity rate so it makes sense to join forces to create a tipping point right here. I think Dr. Fuhrman has come up with the right approach that everyone can embrace.

Was it hard to bring so many chefs together to organize such an event for an entire community & city?

Yes, first of all we only had about two months to get the chefs to read and learn the guidelines. Then they had to approve it with the restaurant owner, and all this was done at the height of the busy summer season. For example, the winner, Miles Angelo, caters all summer long and it was difficult for him to switch gears.  I'm very appreciative of everyone’s efforts who participated in the events. 

With the nutritarian health revolution on the horizon, what do you see the restaurant industry’s role will be in helping to repair our broken healthcare system?

I'm very fortunate to live here in Aspen and meet some of the great thinkers of our time. For instance, while I was proposing a non-profit approach to spread more information on nutritarianism, some prominent people told me it would make much more sense to come up with a business model that is for-profit and encourage others to do the same.  The Pyramid Bistro had a great first year and people have asked me to open in other locations, which is so important for a nutritarian revolution.

The role of restaurants will be to work much closer with nutritionists in order to prevent obesity and other health related issues. By working with nutritionists and then creating dishes that everyone can enjoy we can make a real difference in peoples’ lives that will ultimately lead to a healthier nation.  

Do you have any final comments to share with the Disease Proof reader?

Talk to your favorite waiter, restaurant owner, or chef about Dr. Fuhrman’s nutritarian eating-style.  By encouraging them to include nutrient dense items on their menus, you just might start a food revolution in your own hometown!

Thank you Martin for pioneering this exciting vision to promote nutritarian food choices in restaurants all across America and beyond!  Best wishes of great success ~ bon appétit! 

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Here in the United States tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and for many, the day typically includes many compromises; especially overeating on disease promoting foods to the point of misery. What a perfect time to be reminded of the pitfalls of the myth of “everything in moderation.” Dr. Scott Stoll, a board certified physician in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation; along with being the team physician for Lehigh University, team physician to the USA Bobsled and Skeleton Team, department chair of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Coordinated Health Medical Director, member of the Whole Foods Medical and Scientific Advisory Board, national speaker on achieving optimal health through nutritional excellence and exercise, and faculty member of the Nutritional Education Institute will be sharing valuable insights to bust the popular moderation fallacy. Welcome to Disease Proof, Dr. Stoll.

We are now on the threshold of a beautiful holiday season that is filled with joy, family, wonderful traditions, and numerous dietary landmines. Traditional foods of the holiday season are typically the least healthy and most addictive foods that can trigger destructive cycles of overeating and binge eating.  How can one safely navigate the season ahead? By avoiding the myth of “everything in moderation."

Why do so many people find that by the first of January they have gained weight and derailed their healthy diet? One common justification, as people reach for a piece of chocolate or second piece of dessert, is that one can safely eat everything in moderation. The underlying belief is that somehow the moderate consumption of unhealthy food is okay and won’t cause any harm. However, science has verified that even small amounts of these foods cause harm to the body; and for many that struggle with food addiction and disease, the moderate consumption of addictive, sugar laden and processed foods can be dangerous.

“Everything in moderation” is a deceptive belief, because there is no established standard for moderate intakes of food. 

How much is too much and where does one draw the line? Without a standard, moderation is a continually moving target; motivated by cravings and desires that promote the overconsumption of unhealthy foods. The only outcome in the end is disease, guilt, and feelings of failure.

Moderation thinking ultimately depends on one’s ability to accurately recall food intakes and amounts. How much was eaten today, yesterday, or last week? The preponderance of studies on dietary food recall found that people generally under-report or forget the consumption of unhealthy foods. 

I want to encourage you to enjoy all the beautiful things of the upcoming holiday season and create new memories with healthy food alternatives. Don’t be caught off guard by the myth of moderation, but instead proactively set your eyes on the prize of optimal health. 

• Prepare mentally and have a plan in place regarding how you will handle the tempting seasonal foods that will appear in break rooms, living rooms and dining rooms. 

• Know yourself, your weaknesses, and the potential for food addiction.  Avoid circumstances that may lead to temptation. 

• Prepare healthy meals for your guests, or if you are a dinner guest, take healthy alternatives to share with others.

Don’t let the myth of moderation lead you astray. Excellent health is never found in moderate effort, but rather in excellent dietary habits that are consistently and diligently applied to each new day and situation over time. 

 

Happy Holidays!

image credit: flickr - man eating by subwel; produce by US Army Africa

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Statins are a class of drugs used to treat elevated LDL cholesterol levels. Recently, researchers carried out a meta-analysis of 13 statin vs. placebo trials. Collectively, these researchers included over 90,000 subjects in their analysis, and came to the conclusion that taking statin drugs to lower cholesterol increases the likelihood of being diagnosed with diabetes by 9% over the following four years.¹

This is in fact the second meta-analysis performed in the past few months to come to this conclusion – an analysis published in October 2009 determined that statins increased diabetes risk by 13%. ²

Nine percent (or even 13%) may seem like a small risk, but let’s think about how many people take statin drugs. Today, cholesterol-lowering medications are the 2^nd most prescribed drug class in the U.S. (behind only pain relievers).³ Between 1988 and 2006 the use of statin drugs in U.S. adults over 45 increased 10-fold.⁴ 

Currently, over 30 million Americans take statin drugs, and this number may increase further. Statins may soon be recommended to older Americans who have normal LDL levels but elevated C-reactive protein.⁵ 

Each one of these millions of people will have a 9% increased risk of diabetes – when they could have used a high nutrient diet to lower their LDL and reduce their cardiovascular risk. A high nutrient diet rich in unrefined plant foods can reduce cholesterol to the same extent as statin drugs.⁶ Since reducing cholesterol with diet and exercise addresses the cause of the high cholesterol (the typical American diet), there will be no risk involved – in fact, it will also lead to weight loss, which will then reduce diabetes risk.

Statins are not benign substances – they are powerful drugs with side effects that include muscle pain and liver damage. Which would you choose to lower your LDL – statin drugs plus increased diabetes risk and potential liver and muscle damage, or dietary changes that reduce blood pressure, reverse and prevent diabetes and protect against dementia? My view is that drugs also have the psychological effects to inhibit the necessity of lifestyle and dietary changes that are the root cause of almost all our nation’s medical problems. Any way you look at it drugs kill millions of people and drug-centered health care is the problem, not the solution to our heath crisis and tremendous medical suffering.

References:

1. Sattar N et al. Statins and risk of incident diabetes: a collaborative meta-analysis of randomised statin trials. Lancet. 2010 Feb 16. [Epub ahead of print]

2. Rajpathak SN et al. Statin therapy and risk of developing type 2 diabetes: a meta-analysis. Diabetes Care. 2009 Oct;32(10):1924-9.

3. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/FASTATS/drugs.htm

4. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/10newreleases/hus09.htm

5. Spatz ES et al.  From here to JUPITER: identifying new patients for statin therapy using data from the 1999-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes. 2009 Jan;2(1):41-8. Epub 2009 Jan 13.

6. Jenkins DJ et al. Effect of a very-high-fiber vegetable, fruit, and nut diet on serum lipids and colonic function. Metabolism. 2001 Apr;50(4):494-503.

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Are you sick and tired of a medical culture that's influenced by drug reps trained in communication skills and research funded by pharmaceutical companies instead of scientific nutritional research?

Are you fed up with a health care system, including dietitians and food service personnel, who see absolutely nothing wrong with serving pizza, fried chicken, beef 'n noodles, dinner rolls, butter and jelly, cake, ice cream, and pudding to severely ill patients?

Are you disappointed that our educational system values and prioritizes college and career preparation over instruction in optimal health and longevity? How fulfilling and productive is a career intermingled with food addiction and hangovers? What enjoyment and satisfaction is there in a beautiful home and nice car mixed with alcoholism, eating disorders, heart disease, depression, chemo treatments, pain meds, diabetes, and broken relationships?

Are you saddened by a social culture, including religious, academic and athletic; that models, by example, and promotes gluttonous pleasures and indulgences? What will happen to a society in which eating for disease has run rampant? 

Are you disturbed by the fact that a quarter of a million dollars can be spent on a preventable heart surgery, and $110 for an unnecessary vial of insulin, while entire families go to bed hungry? Is it even ethical to squander such financial resources?  

The change of one is a transformation.

The change of many is a revolution.

Change begins with you and me. 

It’s time for a revolution!

“We are free to choose our actions. We are not free to choose the consequences of our actions.”   -Steven Covey

image credit: montville.net

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 An article by Christina Pirello, an advocate of natural foods nutrition and professor of culinary arts at Drexel University, on Huffington Post states the uncomfortable truth about healthcare reform that the mainstream media consistently fails to report:

“Healthcare reform is irrelevant until Americans improve their lifestyles.”

The fact is, our healthcare costs are out of control because the diet and lifestyle that has become the societal norm in this country causes disease.  As Ms. Pirello mentioned in her article:

“We are willing to tolerate this revolutionized food because it's cheap. But it comes at a high price to our health. We spend less on food today than any other people at any other time in recorded history. And the less we spend on food, the more we spend on health care.”¹

 Here are some numbers:

- Overweight and obesity rates are at an all time high – 73% of Americans are either overweight (38.8%) or obese(34.2%).² In 1980, 15% of adults were obese – over the past 30 years,that number has more than doubled.³

- According to the CDC, U.S. obesity-related health costs totaled $117 billion in 2000, and if current trends continue, that figure is projected to reach $344 billion per year by 2018.^3,4

- Coronary heart disease costs are estimated at $177 billion for 2010, costs for stroke at $74 billion, costs for hypertension at $77 billion. ⁵

- Health insurance premiums have gone up 131% in the last 10 years.⁶

- Over 50% of insured Americans take prescription drugs for a chronic condition – the majority of these drugs are for blood pressure or cholesterol.⁷  

These costly diseases are caused by poor lifestyle choices, and they are also preventable by positive lifestyle choices.

The problem is not the fact that there are so many uninsured Americans – the problem is that there are so many unhealthy Americans. Do we need a better health care system? Of course. But not as desperately as we need better health. Better health through improved lifestyle choices is also fiscally responsible. Vegetables are cheaper than statin drugs. A gym membership is cheaper than bypass surgery.

Health care costs are the symptom, poor lifestyle choices are the cause. If we want to improve the situation, we need to address the cause. The only way to reduce these costs is to reduce the prevalence of these devastating (but preventable) diseases.

No matter how many confusing messages the American public gets about nutrition, there are some very simple truths. Fruits and vegetables are healthy, processed foods and fast food are not. If you follow a nutritarian diet, it will cost less to keep you healthy. 

Ms. Pirello suggests a healthcare system in which individuals are rewarded for having healthy habits – sounds like a great idea to me. She also mentions Whole Foods Market’s new Health Starts Here program, for which I provide nutritional guidance.

“They are about to implement a program that encourages their employees to get and stay healthy. Beginning with a simple blood test and survey, each employee who chooses to participate will receive a diet plan. Each benchmark they hit (lower cholesterol and blood pressure, healthier BMI, etc., will result in a greater discount on their groceries purchased at Whole Foods Market. Imagine a health care plan that does the same thing.”¹

No matter what the outcome of healthcare reform in Washington D.C., if enough of us develop and practice healthy habits, it will be to the benefit of our healthcare system.

References:

1. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christina-pirello/healthcare-reform-is-irre_b_440589.html

2. Ogden CL et al. Prevalence of High Body Mass Index in US Children and Adolescents, 2007-2008. JAMA. 2010;303(3)

Flegal KM et al. Prevalence and Trends in Obesity Among US Adults, 1999-2008. JAMA. 2010;303(3)

3. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/overweight/overweight_adult.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/publications/AAG/pdf/obesity.pdf

4. http://www.americashealthrankings.org/2009/obesity/ECO.aspx#2018

5. http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/reprint/CIRCULATIONAHA.109.192667

6. http://money.blogs.time.com/2009/09/30/a-dozen-disturbing-health-care-statistics/

7. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/14/health/main4094632.shtml?source=related_story

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Nutritional science has made dramatic advances in recent years. We are at a point in history where we understand that the majority of diseases plaguing Americans are preventable. We have an unprecedented opportunity in human history to live healthier and longer than ever before. Nevertheless, most Americans have been brought up to believe drugs are the solution to their health care issues and billions of dollars get donated though non-profits to fuel drug development. This is the main reason we have a health care crisis today; the lack of funding for research in nutrition.

With the help of the National Health Association, I have set up the Nutritional Research Project, a non-profit foundation for the purpose of funding medical research utilizing my high-nutrient-diet therapeutically to reverse diseases. This information is also needed to promote the awareness of dietary-caused disease, the major cause of chronic illnesses and premature death in modern countries. As a nation it is possible for us to win the war against heart disease, strokes, dementia, diabetes, and cancers by making a few simple but profound diet and lifestyle changes.

My 20 years of patient experience with more than 10,000 patients and thousands of case histories demonstrate nutritional excellence is not merely preventative, but more effective than medications for most diseases. However, our population and the medical profession will never incorporate this lifesaving knowledge into our nation’s health care system until it is shown to be effective in medical journal published clinical studies.

We are in desperate need of funding to support such medical studies demonstrating the effectiveness of this dietary-based approach to disease and to bring the results of the research to the public for implementation.

I sincerely appreciate any money that can be donated to help this important cause. The billions of dollars that are typically donated to medical causes go exclusively to drug research and that is what essentially has caused the health care crisis in the modern world, and millions of needless deaths; an over-reliance on drugs, while people destroy their health with a disease-causing diet-style.

Especially in these trying economic times, even the smallest donation will make a difference. If everybody receiving this gave something we would be able to start 3 major studies in 2009. So, please join us in our effort to support the medical research projects that we have been developing. This is the time to initiate a new approach to health care.

Thank you for your support it means so much.

Sincerely,

Make your tax-free donation here. Please email this page to a friend!

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