This is the first time I have ever been moved to write a review on Amazon - this is how strongly I feel about this book!
I found an article by Dr. Fuhrman on reversing and preventing heart disease, which led me to his book (the 2005 edition). My husband's father had a heart attack at age 39, so the topic is something that concerns me. We both read it this Thanksgiving (2010) and were immediately floored by it. My husband is a scientist and usually skeptical of any type of advice books, but Dr. Fuhrman presents a lot of peer-reviewed research and makes, at least what was to us, a very convincing case. Neither of us was overweight but, just in our 40s, we were getting soft.
It's been 6 weeks now and it has changed the way we eat and think (and hopefully, live). We have both lost enough weight that we need to buy some new clothes and we fit into things we haven't fit into for years. In short, we're starting to look again like our younger selves, like us back in our 20s. That is fun, no denying, but more importantly, we both feel better. I suffered headaches for years. I knew in the back of my mind they were food-related, but I was too lazy to take the time to figure out what it was. Fogginess and headaches are gone. I feel clear and present and energetic now, virtually all the time, as does my husband.
Some caveats that may not apply to everyone. First, we ate fairly healthy before reading this, so I think the transition wasn't too hard for us. Second, my husband's sister is a naturopath/nutritionist, so we'd been hearing these themes for years. The mind shift was not entirely radical either. We were primed.
The book is not entirely without flaws, but even so, I don't think we'll ever go back to eating the way we used to. One thing people should be prepared for that he does not discuss is that eating this way is expensive. Fruits, vegetables, lettuce add up very quickly. We go to the store a lot more often. One joke I have is that you lose weight from constantly having to put away all the food you're buying (all that bending down, picking up, rearranging the fridge). No joke - it's constant. Rationally, I understand that you are investing in your health for the long-term and avoiding (hopefully) healthcare costs, but the reality is that it is much more expensive, in the short term, to eat this way. We were not big meat eaters before. Maybe it's comparable if you were.
Another challenge for us has been feeding our kids. I read "Disease-Proof Your Children" and, while I believe in everything he's saying, I think it's more difficult to get your kids to eat this way. If you go cold turkey, perhaps you can do it, but for some reason I'm not willing to do that with them when they are so adamantly against it. Again, they never ate terribly, and we are working more fruits and veggies in their diet (and also bought them Mitch Spinach, which they like), but it is a challenge. Mealtimes are now more complicated because we have to prepare more dishes to satisfy everyone.
I do worry if I'm getting enough nutrition. Frankly, it's hard to keep up with what he recommends, and I wonder how many people actually do. There is slim chance I am eating a pound or two of lettuce and a pound of veggies a day. Maybe some days, but I'm not sure. And finding enough fruit to eat in the winter, and keeping pace with his recommendations are not that easy. The thing that consoles me, oddly, is that perhaps I was not getting enough nutrition before either, and I was just ignorant of it. In any case, I firmly believe that eating this way is vastly better.
Although we bought the 2005 edition just 7 weeks or so ago, we actually bought this updated edition last week for the additional recipes. My last comment is that I cannot believe that he or anyone he works with tested many of these recipes! Some seem downright ludicrous in either prep time or number of ingredients or lack of flavor. I'm hopeful this new edition will have better recipes. We also bought a vegan cookbook and have been amending those recipes to fit his guidelines.
I do see the world differently now, how "the system" conspires to get you to eat unhealthfully. The mantra out there is that we need more self-control, we need to eat less but, after reading Dr. Fuhrman I see how wrong that is. On the contrary, it's not at all about eating less. It's about eating more of the food we were meant to eat instead of the processed stuff that has taken over.
