Disease-Proof Your Child: Feeding Kids Right [Hardcover]

Joel Fuhrman (Author)

Book Description

Release date: July 28, 2005

In his private practice, Joel Fuhrman, M.D. works with many families to turn around their health and eating habits and helps children with recurrent medial problems recover their health with nutritional interventions, avoiding the need for further medication.
Backed up by a multitude of scientific studies, Dr. Fuhrman explains how eating particular foods (and avoiding others) can have a significant impact on your child’s resistance to dangerous infections and have a dramatic effect on reducing the occurrence of illnesses like ear infections, asthma, and allergies. The right foods introduced early in life can also positively impact your child’s IQ and success in school.
Dr. Fuhrman presents the fascinating science that demonstrates that the current epidemic of adult cancers and other diseases is closely linked to what we eat in the first quarter of life. He explains how eating right in childhood is the most powerful weapon against developing cancer, cardiovascular disease, and autoimmune disorders in the future.
His nutrient-rich dietary recommendations give parents the information they need to ensure that their children are eating right to maintain a healthy mind and body. Moreover, he will give parents guidelines on how to get even the pickiest eater to learn to love healthy food. Also featured are his child-tested, kid-friendly recipes that are delicious, easy-to-prepare, and great for the whole family.
Every parent needs this book so that they can make sure that they are doing everything they can for their children’s health.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“…a timely response to America’s health care crisis. The time to effectively institute healthy nutrition is during childhood. Dr. Fuhrman provides solutions for children, parents, and physicians.”
-- Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., M.D., Preventive Cardiology – Cleveland Clinic Foundation         
 
“Dr. Fuhrman’s latest book couldn’t have come at a better time given the epidemic of obesity, cancer, diabetes and heart disease which is reaching earlier and earlier into the lives of our children. It is destined to take its place among the most important child-rearing books ever written…”
-- Mark A. Huberman, President, National Health Association
 
“The reduction in disease and suffering from this book could exceed any ‘medical’ advance one can conceive of.”
 
--John Kelly, MD, MPH, President, American College of Lifestyle Medicine, professor, Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, Loma Linda University

From the Back Cover

“A powerful tool for insuring that the children you love will live healthy and happy lives.”
--Doug Lisle, Ph.D. and Alan Goldhamer D.C., authors of The Pleasure Trap

“Dr. Fuhrman’s book offers your family the solution to the epidemic of obesity and sickness that afflicts nearly every child eating the rich Western diet.”
--John McDougall, MD, Director of the McDougall Live-in Program
Santa Rosa, CA

“If you truly love your children and your grandchildren, or if you are simply concerned about the health of the nation, then read this book and put it into practice. It's light years ahead and is a magnificent source of salvation for our children.”
--Groesbeck P. Parham, M.D., Professor of Gynecologic Oncology and Preventive Medicine Senior Scientist, Comprehensive Cancer Center University of Alabama at Birmingham

“Dr. Fuhrman reveals the secrets to long-term, sustainable health using diet choices for growing up smart and growing old happy. Take your doctor a copy!”
--Mehmet Oz, M.D., Director, Cardiovascular Institute, Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center

“A timely response to America's health care crisis. The time to effectively institute healthy nutrition is during childhood. Dr. Joel Fuhrman provides solutions for children, parents, and physicians.”
--Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., M.D., Preventive Cardiology - Cleveland Clinic Foundation

“Dr. Fuhrman’s latest book couldn’t have come at a better time given the epidemic of obesity, cancer, diabetes and heart disease which is reaching earlier and earlier into the lives of our children. It is destined to take its place among the most important child-rearing books ever written.”
--Mark A. Huberman, President, National Health Association

“Has the potential of turning the tide on the epidemic of chronic disease afflicting children in the first world. If the health principles so convincingly and warmly presented in this text were to be adopted by our children and their families, the reduction in disease and suffering would exceed any "medical" advance one can conceive of.”
--John Kelly, M.D., MPH, President, American College of Lifestyle Medicine; Professor, Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, Loma Linda University

“Dr. Fuhrman provides information, easy to read and understand but science-backed, that will help every parent raise healthy children who will later become disease-proofed adults.”
--Neal Pinckney, Ph.D., Founder and Director, Healing Heart Foundation
Author: Healthy Heart Handbook

“Should be required reading for every parent.”
--Howard F. Lyman, author of The Mad Cowboy and No More Bull!

“Joel Fuhrman, M.D. shares his nutritional and healing wisdom in this practical, readable book. [It] will help you give your offspring the healthiest start possible.”
--Michael Klaper, M.D., Director, Institute of Nutrition Education and Research
Manhattan Beach, California

“An essential guide for every parent. The nutrition and health information, practical meal plans and recipes, and medical advice from one of our nation’s leading preventive medicine physicians is invaluable.
--John Westerdahl, PhD, MPH, RD, Nutrition Editor, Veggie Life Magazine, Director, Wellness & Lifestyle Medicine, Castle Medical Center, Kailua, Hawaii

“Children don't need to be chronically sick--as children or adults. Dr. Fuhrman's book compels parents to re-think the way they raise their children, starting with what they eat.”
--James Craner, M.D., M.P.H., Occupational & Environmental Medicine, Reno, NV, Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (July 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312338058
• ISBN-13: 978-0312338053
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (90 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #289,503 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joel Fuhrman M.D. is a board-certified family physician, NY Times best-selling author and nutritional researcher who specializes in preventing and reversing disease through nutritional and natural methods. He is an internationally recognized expert on nutrition and natural healing, and has appeared on hundreds of radio and television shows including the Dr. Oz show, the Today Show, Good Morning America, and Live with Kelly. Dr. Fuhrman's own hugely successful PBS television shows, "3 Steps to Incredible Health" and "Dr. Fuhrman's Immunity Solution" bring nutritional science to homes all across America.

Dr. Fuhrman is the author of 7 books including 3 New York Times best sellers. Dr. Fuhrman's #1 NY Times best-selling book," Eat to Live" (Little Brown) has sold over 1,000,000 copies and has been published in multiple foreign language editions. In October 2012, "Super Immunity." (HarperOne ) also became a NY Times best seller and in January 2013 his latest book, "End of Diabetes"(HarperOne) reached the New York Times list. Dr. Fuhrman has published in several peer reviewed scientific journals, which include: "Glycemic and cardiovascular parameters improved in Type 2 Diabetes with the high nutrient density (HND) diet." Open Journal of Preventive Medicine and "Changing perceptions of hunger on a high nutrient density diet." Nutrition Journal.

Dr Fuhrman is the father of nutritarian eating. His health (longevity) equation H = N/C, (healthy life expectancy is proportional to lifetime intake of micronutrient diversity and quantity per calorie) has interested scientists the world over. As an advocate of diets rich in a vast array of plant micronutrients per calorie, his ANDI scoring system, (featured in Whole Foods Market) has directed millions of consumers to eat an anti-cancer diet-style .

Dr. Fuhrman's discoveries in differentiating the physiology and biochemistry of true hunger from addictive hunger (which he calls toxic hunger) is essential for understanding and resolving both health and weight concerns, and an essential element to solve our nation's obesity and health crisis.

Dr. Fuhrman is the Research Director of the Nutritional Research Foundation, a member of the Whole Foods Market Scientific Advisory Board and a member of the Dr. Oz Show Medical Advisory Board. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (1988) and has received the St. Joseph's Family Practice Resident's Teaching Award for his contribution to the education of residents.

As a former world class figure skater, Dr. Fuhrman placed second in the United States National Pairs Championships in 1973 and third in the 1976 World Professional Pairs Skating Championship in Jaca, Spain. Today, he is an active participant in multiple sports and is a health and fitness enthusiast. His dedication to sports medicine, foot and body alignment, injury prevention, human performance and longevity speaks to these lifelong interests. Along with his nutritional expertise, Dr. Fuhrman has been involved professionally with sports medical committees, advised professional and Olympic athletes, and has lectured to athletic trainers and world-class athletes for maximizing performance and preventing injury.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#1 in Kindle eBooks > Health, Fitness & Dieting

#1 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting

#1 in Kindle eBooks > Health, Fitness & Dieting

#1 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

243 of 252 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The one book every parent needs to read October 9, 2005

By Howard Jacobson, PhD

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Disease-Proof Your Child does two things no other book has ever done. First, it clearly and persuasively presents scientific research that shows what our children eat now will more or less determine their risk of developing cancer and other killer diseases as adults. After reading the first few pages, you will never again view sodas, donuts, fries, pizzas, candies and other "All-American" junk foods as innocent again.

Allowing and encouraging our kids to eat this garbage on a regular basis is excusable only when we don't know what we're doing. Now that Dr. Fuhrman has exposed the truth - we can cause or prevent 99% of all diseases by what we eat - no parent who reads this book will be able to allow their child to develop "cancer on the installment plan" through malnutrition. And if you're not into long-term thinking, Dr. Fuhrman also demonstrates the link between the Standard American Diet and the national epidemics of childhood asthma, ear infections, colds, flus, and allergies.

So a warning: do not buy this book unless you're willing to exert your responsibility to protect your children. If you read it and do nothing, you'll go through hell as you watch your kids poisoning themselves with their favorite addictive substances and starving their immune systems by not eating nutrient rich foods.

Which brings me to the second thing this book does that no other has: it provides tools and a roadmap and a philosophy for transitioning your family to a healthy diet. Remember paint by numbers? This is the diet transition equivalent. From practical ideas (the "refigerator advertisements" is a wonderful example) to over 50 recipes ("string beans and almost dust" will blow you away with its simplicity and how much your kids will love it) to lists of delicious "non-recipe snacks" that ensure you'll always have healthy alternatives to junk fod - Disease-Proof Your Child is a well-written and well thought out "operations manual" to your most important job as a parent: setting your child up for a lifetime of health and happiness.

In Disease-Proof Your Child, Dr. Fuhrman explains:

- how to prepare your home for eating healthfully before making the shift

- why "three meals a day" is a recipe for failure when it comes to feeding kids right

- why focusing on quality, not quantity, is the key to healthy eating

- why "consistent but not perfect" is more effective than 100% "compliance"

- when and where it's OK to compromise

- how to teach your kids never to "diet"

- how to reform the picky eater

Dr. Fuhrman is not an armchair researcher. He runs a family practice, and offers many case studies that show exactly how families transitioned successfully to a healthy diet - even when both parents thought their child's eating habits were a lost cause.

After reading the first half of the book, you will be shocked, angry, and motivated like crazy to do something to save your kids from a lifetime of obesity and disease. The second half of the book, the solution, is going to get dog-eared and underlined and photocopied and food-spattered. You're going to want to recommend it to your friends, mostly because you won't be able to part with your own copy. I already find I need two - one for my study and another for the cookbook shelf.

There are few books ever written that have to potential to have such a huge positive impact on the well-being of your family. Is it easy to put this into practice? Not at first. But is it worth it? Try the following thought experiment:

It's 35 years from now. Your child is a grownup, with a kid in elementary school and another in high school. You get to choose one of the following scenarios: a) your child is a healthy and vibrant adult, at the prime of life; or b) your child has just been diagnosed with cancer, possibly fatal within 3 years.

I know that's stark. But the links between what we feed our kids now and their health as adults are that real. Try the thought experiment for 2 minutes and see what moves within you.

If you're not able to link current behavior with the long-term future, here's another experiment:

What if you were able to prevent most of the ear infections, allergies, colds, feveres, and severe asthma attacks that your child gets on a regular basis? The long nights up with a crying child, the endless trips to the doctor for another round of antibiotics, the missed events, the feelings of "when will they outgrow it"? That's a real outcome too.

Please - as a health educator, as a parent, as someone who cares about the world we're sending our kids into - I urge you to get and study this book.

77 of 82 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars So you think your kids will make good decisions about food when they're older? October 26, 2005

By John Allen Mollenhauer

Format:Hardcover

... Unfortunately, that's not how it works after their taste buds are now addicted to nutrient poor, super stimulating foods that haven't provided the nutrients they've needed, but haven't gotten, for likely some time.

When they try to eat better "Nutrient Rich" foods, especially the way most parents serve them in the typical "eat your veggies", "side dish" kind of way, what would normally be great tasting, nourishing, fulfilling and make them feel great with a smile on their face, tastes bland compared to the junk they've been eating; junk that's "designed" to make food addicts out of them. When this is the case, they rarely break out of poor eating patterns on their own.

Dr Fuhrman hits the mark with Disease Proof Your Child, and your childs health depends on you reading it and "getting", that you are literally setting your kids up for health, success and sustainability or, disease, failure and a life cut short, each and every time you feed them. It's a cumulative thing.

Dr Fuhrman not only explains the basic science confirming "why" you want to feed your kids Nutrient Rich foods in great tasting ways, but he also explains how. And when it comes to eating better and kids, "how", is everything. Starting with his 50 kid-tested and proven recipes, this book is a big deal.

Dr Fuhrman is America's Doctor, because first and foremost he has your best interests at heart. He is in the business of getting you well. With all the competing interests promoting foods that do the opposite, I don't think he'll run out of customers any time soon, but make sure you and your kids are his customers so that you don't have consider yourselves part of the ever-growing statistics on overweight, obesity and sickness.

The statistics are getting crazier by the day and all it takes, first and foremost, is ensuring they get better quality food, rich in the nutrients they need to succeed, and without all the crap that doesn't serve them.

Today's Kids, perhaps your kids right now, are toxifying their undernourished, getting-more-unhealthy-by-the-day bodies, and their bodies are waiting for the opportunity to clean up and get healthy once again. But they need your help.

And you need help to. That's why Dr Fuhrman is here. We all need to get re-educated and shed most of what we've learned about eating in the past 50 years.

I can't recommend anyone better for the job, of steering you and your family in the right direction. He is the real deal, a successful family man of four with a dog, leading physician, world champion athlete, and successful businessman, in part because he eats to live well and boy does he live well.

With great tasting food he and his family enjoys day in and day out they live free of disease and feeling powerful to pursue their interests. He wants the same for you and your family and he can show you how.

Help yourself in the process and make it a family affair. You need to disease proof your kids at a time when what they eat is going to set the trend for their life. Their taste buds, and their desires are being built right now, and it will show in their weight and health, if not already, in the very near future.

Are you setting your kids up for success, or failure? Are they eating foods that are promoting their health or disease?

Read this book, its worth is weight in your child's well being.

Don't read it and let your child make the decision to eat better when they're older and by then it may be too late.

Read it and disease proof your child, bring their taste buds back to earth, nourish and protect their bodies and set them up for success, moving forward.

If you could accomplish all this, and enable them to look better, feel better and perform better, while they enjoy great tasting foods, that you'll love too, would you do it?

Then do it!

All my best.

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars "Children aren't responsible for poor food choices--their parent's are." March 17, 2007

By Eco Mama's Guide To Living Green

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book should be required reading for everyone who has a child (or one on the way) or who works with children. Rather than pumping our children up with sugar, toxins, carcinogens and frankenfood and then medicating them for the side effects, why not just feed them what nature intended and watch them thrive. Behavioral issues as well as serious health concerns can be resolved, alleviated, or completely avoided with a few lifestyle adjustments.

Dr. Fuhrman drives home an important point: it's one thing to trash your own health with poor choices, but it's irresponsible to trash the health of trusting children.

The tone of the book is not scolding however, just direct. In fact when he's done explaining the consequences of poor food choices (diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc.), he comes accross very upbeat and and encouraging with ideas for coping with the bombardment of toxic food out there. He also has great suggestions for meals and treats.

Forget about what one reviewer said about nut allergies. This book not only has alternatives for eating nuts, but offers suggestions to help Prevent nut allergies. I also don't agree with the person who says it's "difficult". It's very simple and straightforward and really the only thing making it difficult is lack of education, unscrupulous marketing techniques, and the limiting belief that children won't eat healthy food.

This is a book full of hope and an important work. At long last, an MD is addressing children's diets in a real way. Two books that go along quite nicely with this one is THE CHINA STUDY by Campbell and GREEN FOR LIFE by Boutenko. The former illustrates in great detail with hard evidence why a vegan diet is necessary and the later focuses on greens. GFL gave me the idea for green smoothies (example: bannanas and greens such as kale or swiss chard) which are a fantastic way of getting the daily comsumption of greens Dr. Fuhrman recommends. I have never been a fan of Kale, but you honestly cannot even taste it when prepared this way and kids Love it! You will need a high powered blender for this (Fuhrman recommends Vitamix, but I prefer the Blendtec) which is expensive, but worth every penny. In the end, this diet is way cheaper than the standard American diet (SAD).

This book is the real thing, nothing gimmicky at all. Read it and thrive!