Joel Fuhrman don't need no slides…
Published 4.1.2025: It was this presentation that made me register for the summit, in part because I am currently reading his Eat for Life book. He does not use slides, so all of this is based on the notes I took about a half a month ago when I heard the talk. (Publishing dates are delayed because I have decided to try and publish here every Tuesday.)
I'll give Dr Fuhrman this, he is very consistent. I read and reviewed his Eat to Live book back in the day, and his message is pretty much the same as back then. He, himself, would tell you that the difference between Eat to Live and Eat for Life is that he was far more lenient (that's very hard to believe) in the first book. Basically in Eat to Live he said that 90% adherence to his plan was okay, and you could even have animal products in that last 10% if you wanted. Now he's like, nope— it's all or nothing.
He runs a retreat (a VERY expensive retreat) in San Diego where he teaches folks how to follow his plan. He'd like people to stay for THREE months, but he realizes that most can't afford that. I think at least a month is the shortest time you can go for.
Fuhrman is still a believer in the formula H=N/C or Health = Nutrients/Calorie. Nutrients per calorie is how he ranks food, and naturally plants score well and animal products score poorly. Oil and fats are right out, though he has come around to the idea that nuts and seeds in moderation is a good thing. He's also a believer in calorie restriction to increase longevity (that's his stated goal, the longest possible health-span).
Lifespan has increased (pretty much worldwide) due to modern medicine, but health-span (life without medical intervention) has not increased. He does not believe that any overweight person can be healthy. (He would define me with my BMI of 26 as overweight). He tries to soften the calorie restriction blow by emphasizing that it only works with nutrient sufficiency. And how does one attain nutrient sufficiency? Why, you follow the Nutritarian Diet of course!
I have started Valter Longo's book about longevity (I am also reading Exercised— thanks for asking) and he is also a proponent of calorie restriction. He worked for the guy who created the Biosphere experiment, but Longo is not about prolonged fasting. It's dangerous. Not sure how he'd react to Fuhrman's calorie restriction with nutritional sufficiency. I do know that his diet plan is not vegan, so I'm sure he would say that becoming one is not necessary. More on that though, when I finish the book.
Fuhrman believes that maximizing nutrition (most through green leafy vegetables) will eliminate toxins and waste in cells. He also states that eating more green leafy vegetables will naturally lead to calorie restriction. He makes the (new to me) claim that humans are green vegetable dependent primates. I do not believe this any more than I believe that humans are frugivores. Humans are omnivores, and can survive on any diet— including a nutritarian one.
His diet ends up being very high in fiber (any diet with a ton of whole plant foods in it will be). During the section on fiber he was nattering on about the biofilm in the gastro-intestinal microbiome— to be honest, I didn't follow that line of reasoning at all, and I'm not sure I've ever heard that before.
He thinks fiber controls the appetite (that's not news) and beans control the appestat— the appestat is part of the hypothalamus, which I think is where appetite control originates.
His diet, unlike McDougall's, doesn't let you eat to satiety. Rather, he says that most diets fail because we miss the "caloric rush" of food, which increases dopamine. I think another way to say this is that people eat too much and get used to the amount of food on their plates, and so when they reduce the amount of food their body doesn't feel sated. He would say that in teaching his way of eating the body is relearning the appropriate amount of food to eat. He does admit that the first five days are the toughest— which is why he runs retreats where people are forced to eat his food (because there isn't anything else to eat).
Absent the retreat though, not sure many people are going to put themselves through this. He claims the rough patch at the beginning is due to "detoxing" RED FLAG. I don't need to "detox" because I have a functioning liver and kidneys. I think it's more a case of people are used to eating a LOT more calories, and his diet isn't that.
He claims that insulin is required for cancer— that's news to me. Not saying it's wrong, just saying I haven't heard it before, and I'm not going to research it now. He also says we need to chew our food until it's almost water in our mouth, which frankly sounds disgusting.
He does believe in the glycemic index (as does Longo) and volumentrics, (Barbara Rolls deal) though without using the name. She was at the summit, so I will have a whole piece on what she had to say.
So his plan for longevity is lowering the metabolism, which calorie restriction would do. I haven't finished the book, Eat for Life, Not sure I will after this talk. I already know that I do not want to live this way.
As noted previously, oils and animal fats are out permanently, nuts and seeds are okay— unless you need to lose a lot of weight. Fuhrman does not believe in snacking, people should have 3-4 hours between meals. He signals to his body that he is done eating for the day when he has a tiny bit of fruit based dessert relatively early. Late dinners are not a thing at his retreat. Again, this wouldn't work for me and my life.
Almost the last question is about yoyo dieting, the reason it's so dangerous is that rebound weight gets packed on as visceral fats rather than subcutaneous. This is another new fact to me (it's reason #2 in the article). Subcutaneous fat goes on slowly per Fuhrman, though he doesn't want people to have much of that either. His point was defining that yoyoing is dangerous.
The last line in my notes is that he is narcissistic, I don't remember what he said that prompted me to right that… Overall, I'm not sorry I listened, but I learned very little that was new.
DISCLAIMER: I am NOT any type of medical professional. Do NOT take medical advice from me!!
I'll give Dr Fuhrman this, he is very consistent. I read and reviewed his Eat to Live book back in the day, and his message is pretty much the same as back then. He, himself, would tell you that the difference between Eat to Live and Eat for Life is that he was far more lenient (that's very hard to believe) in the first book. Basically in Eat to Live he said that 90% adherence to his plan was okay, and you could even have animal products in that last 10% if you wanted. Now he's like, nope— it's all or nothing.
He runs a retreat (a VERY expensive retreat) in San Diego where he teaches folks how to follow his plan. He'd like people to stay for THREE months, but he realizes that most can't afford that. I think at least a month is the shortest time you can go for.
Fuhrman is still a believer in the formula H=N/C or Health = Nutrients/Calorie. Nutrients per calorie is how he ranks food, and naturally plants score well and animal products score poorly. Oil and fats are right out, though he has come around to the idea that nuts and seeds in moderation is a good thing. He's also a believer in calorie restriction to increase longevity (that's his stated goal, the longest possible health-span).
Lifespan has increased (pretty much worldwide) due to modern medicine, but health-span (life without medical intervention) has not increased. He does not believe that any overweight person can be healthy. (He would define me with my BMI of 26 as overweight). He tries to soften the calorie restriction blow by emphasizing that it only works with nutrient sufficiency. And how does one attain nutrient sufficiency? Why, you follow the Nutritarian Diet of course!
I have started Valter Longo's book about longevity (I am also reading Exercised— thanks for asking) and he is also a proponent of calorie restriction. He worked for the guy who created the Biosphere experiment, but Longo is not about prolonged fasting. It's dangerous. Not sure how he'd react to Fuhrman's calorie restriction with nutritional sufficiency. I do know that his diet plan is not vegan, so I'm sure he would say that becoming one is not necessary. More on that though, when I finish the book.
Fuhrman believes that maximizing nutrition (most through green leafy vegetables) will eliminate toxins and waste in cells. He also states that eating more green leafy vegetables will naturally lead to calorie restriction. He makes the (new to me) claim that humans are green vegetable dependent primates. I do not believe this any more than I believe that humans are frugivores. Humans are omnivores, and can survive on any diet— including a nutritarian one.
His diet ends up being very high in fiber (any diet with a ton of whole plant foods in it will be). During the section on fiber he was nattering on about the biofilm in the gastro-intestinal microbiome— to be honest, I didn't follow that line of reasoning at all, and I'm not sure I've ever heard that before.
He thinks fiber controls the appetite (that's not news) and beans control the appestat— the appestat is part of the hypothalamus, which I think is where appetite control originates.
His diet, unlike McDougall's, doesn't let you eat to satiety. Rather, he says that most diets fail because we miss the "caloric rush" of food, which increases dopamine. I think another way to say this is that people eat too much and get used to the amount of food on their plates, and so when they reduce the amount of food their body doesn't feel sated. He would say that in teaching his way of eating the body is relearning the appropriate amount of food to eat. He does admit that the first five days are the toughest— which is why he runs retreats where people are forced to eat his food (because there isn't anything else to eat).
Absent the retreat though, not sure many people are going to put themselves through this. He claims the rough patch at the beginning is due to "detoxing" RED FLAG. I don't need to "detox" because I have a functioning liver and kidneys. I think it's more a case of people are used to eating a LOT more calories, and his diet isn't that.
He claims that insulin is required for cancer— that's news to me. Not saying it's wrong, just saying I haven't heard it before, and I'm not going to research it now. He also says we need to chew our food until it's almost water in our mouth, which frankly sounds disgusting.
He does believe in the glycemic index (as does Longo) and volumentrics, (Barbara Rolls deal) though without using the name. She was at the summit, so I will have a whole piece on what she had to say.
So his plan for longevity is lowering the metabolism, which calorie restriction would do. I haven't finished the book, Eat for Life, Not sure I will after this talk. I already know that I do not want to live this way.
As noted previously, oils and animal fats are out permanently, nuts and seeds are okay— unless you need to lose a lot of weight. Fuhrman does not believe in snacking, people should have 3-4 hours between meals. He signals to his body that he is done eating for the day when he has a tiny bit of fruit based dessert relatively early. Late dinners are not a thing at his retreat. Again, this wouldn't work for me and my life.
Almost the last question is about yoyo dieting, the reason it's so dangerous is that rebound weight gets packed on as visceral fats rather than subcutaneous. This is another new fact to me (it's reason #2 in the article). Subcutaneous fat goes on slowly per Fuhrman, though he doesn't want people to have much of that either. His point was defining that yoyoing is dangerous.
The last line in my notes is that he is narcissistic, I don't remember what he said that prompted me to right that… Overall, I'm not sorry I listened, but I learned very little that was new.
DISCLAIMER: I am NOT any type of medical professional. Do NOT take medical advice from me!!