Salad Days

Suppose you are a fat American (or maybe just a few pounds over what you dream of weighing). Suppose, furthermore, that you are increasingly susceptible to any number of diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, high cholesterol, headaches, or stroke. (Oh, wait…that is everyone who is reading this!) Time is not on your side, and there are more than 25,000 diet and health books in print. Where do you go to find dependable counsel? One place: Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Fuhrman.

In just one month this book has completely changed our lives (that would be Nick and me) for the better. It was also the catalyst for my daily salad posts on facebook and ultimately this blog. Rather than keep all the goodness to ourselves, I thought I’d write a review in the hope that you too will be encouraged to cultivate healthy, life-prolonging, disease-preventing eating habits.

Overview

A good subtitle for this book would be “unlearn everything you ever knew about nutrition and eat what is right.” The book begins with a critical analysis of the Standard American Diet (SAD), USDA dietary recommendations (perpetuated by self-interested lobbying groups), and common weight-loss programs. Then it moves to a crash-course in nutritional excellence, explaining how a nutrient dense diet can reduce or eliminate disease. It ends with dietary recommendations based on the author’s formula for health and two seven-day menus with recipes to get started.

What makes this book truly stand out from the pack of diet books is the amount of scientific research backing the information (the bibliography is 20+ pages). His dietary recommendations are also really easy to follow – no counting points, no calorie restriction, no deprivation.

Sound too good to be true? It isn’t, I promise! Stay tuned for Part 2 of this review: a chapter by chapter tour of the book.