Dr. Joel Fuhrman, M.D. is a family medicine physician who practices in Flemington, New Jersey, USA. He specializes in treating some major illnesses through nutrition.
He has written four books: Disease Proof your Child, Cholesterol Protection for Life, Eat to Live and Fasting and Eating for Health. 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, fruits and legumes, while minimizing 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 emphasizes the nutritional value of vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber 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 programs, such as the "Good food pyramid". This has allegedly resulted in a high incidence of ill health, including diabetes, heart disease, autoimmune diseases (e.g. arthritis), cancers, high blood pressure etc. These and other conditions can be minimized, he claims, through a simple and easy change to our eating habits.
He has a members forum on his website where members can ask the doctor questions. It includes access to delicious and healthy recipes, a bi-monthly newsletter, monthly member teleconferences and a member library.
He recently introduced his new blog site, www.diseaseproof.com, and also has free recorded podcasts available for listening and download.