An Interview with Dr. Joel Fuhrman

I had the honor recently of speaking via email with Dr. Joel Fuhrman, author of several books on plant-based nutrition, including Eat To Live and Disease-Proof Your Child, and host of the Disease-Proof Blog. Dr. Fuhrman emphasizes eating a healthy, vegan-friendly diet rich in nutrient-dense plant foods like vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts, and seeds. His work has been the inspiration behind my recent series of picnic posts, and following his nutrient-dense plan has helped me kick sugar addiction for the first time in my entire life.

Dr. Fuhrman, what advice would you give the vegan community? In what ways do most vegans fall short of nutritional excellence, and how can we improve?

Dr. Fuhrman: Most vegans fall short in that they follow the same suboptimal and outmoded nutritional recommendations as omnivores, utilizing grains or white potatoes as the major source of calories in the diet and wind up eating a diet low in high phytochemical foods such as green vegetables and raw nuts and seeds. They do not understand that 90 calories from a pretzel or white potato does not have the nutrient richness of 90 calories from a kiwi or red kidney beans. Without the knowledge of nutrient density they are eating in the dark and not optimizing their longevity.

The second serious error of the vegan community is the heavy use of fake meat and cheese analogues usually made from soy and almost always high in salt. Besides the lack of nutrients and high levels of acrylamides in these highly processed foods, with continuation of the high salt diet hemorrhagic strokes are even more likely in a vegan than in a person on a heart-disease promoting diet rich in animal products. Consuming salted foods should not be taken lightly; it is a killer.

The third error common in the vegan community is the lack of concern for individual differences which may heighten nutritional requirements in some individuals, especially the elderly, which make it advisable to supplement when appropriate with Vitamin D, B12, Taurine, DHA, or iodine, for example, to assure that no one develops a medical condition as a result of sub-optimal nutritional intake. To better assure nutritional completeness I recommend to my patients my vegan multi Gentle Care Formula and my vegan DHA Purity, and then if not getting regular sunshine to also add a Vitamin D supplement. Many vegans think supplementing with B12 is enough to guarantee nutritional excellence for most people. Long-term nutritional deficiencies are not harmless. Omnivores develop deficiencies, too, and blood tests can be used to ascertain if deficiencies exist.

Many of my readers pack lunches for their children every day. What advice would you give parents on packing a healthy lunch?

Dr. Fuhrman:Make a great tasting nut-based salad dressing or sauce and then you can use that to stuff veggies or salad into a whole wheat pita. And remember kids who eat more fruit have dramatically lower cancer rates as adults, so always pack a few fresh fruits with lunch.

How should parents respond to the vast amounts of junk food offered to our kids when they go to school, parties, etc.? It seems my son gets offered cake, candy, and soda almost every place we go!

Dr. Fuhrman:There has to be time invested to discussing nutrition in the home. This is a serious matter. In my book, Disease-Proof Your Child, I review the science that reveals adult cancers are predominantly caused by what we ate in our childhood. When this information is passed along to our children, they can grasp the concept that what they choose to put in their mouth dictates their future wellness. Even young children can learn it is dangerous to eat these foods and why. Junk food is dangerous, we should fight it as strongly as we fight drug abuse and smoking. Maybe we should put tee shirts on our kids that say:

No Thank You to Drugs

No Thank You to Smoking

No Thank You to Junk Food

We value our future health!

Thank you, Dr. Fuhrman!