My original review was scattershot, though I've placed it in the comments section because I believe it makes several points in defense of Atkins. Let me first say that I absolutely love the diet in this book. I have had my sister put my niece on this diet, and she has already lost 15 pounds, and her blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol are already becoming normal and it's been only 3 weeks. What I don't like about this book is the rabid attack on meat, fish, saturated fats, and the poor science he uses to back it up. I've decided to go through each of the researches that he put in his notes--incredibly difficult to track down mind you, because his notes weren't the best.

My friend read the original review, and suggested I go back and reread the book, so I could see some of the major contradictions on meat. The thing is that for the most part, I am a vegetarian. My reason for defending meat is simply a distaste for bias science. I am not a fan of a person who says in Chapter 4: The science is as conclusive between meat and cancer as cigarettes and cancer. And then on Chapter 6 pg. 161 bottom paragraph, says, "Although it would be wrong to say that animal foods are the sole cause of cancer, it is now clear the increased consumption of animal products COMBINED with decreased consumption of fresh products has the most powerful effect of INCREASING one's risk for various kinds of cancer."

The science on smoking causing cancer is not correlative it is causal, which is to say, if you smoke your chance of cancer increases exponentially, whether or not you exercise, eat vegetables, or take vitamin supplements--smoking has carcinogenic qualities that will effect your health. The science on high protein diets that have found causal cancer links--the studies he himself quotes--have always been in the absence of other nutrient based foods, which makes the studies correlative, which is to say, a person must increase animal protein, while decreasing nutrients. Now, you might be saying, well they're of course going to decrease nutrients because, if they were eating 1500 calories of vegetables, and their adding meat but keeping 1500 calories, they would have to cut vegetables. But this is not what the studies did. The studies that he quotes that studies cultures were between cultures who ate a majority of vegetables, and societies who ate high starch foods and meats--in each case, the meat group ate more carbohydrates than the vegetable group. Such as note 41 in chapter 4, page 334, the study of china women and breast cancer. The breast cancer in women came, yes, at a decrease of vegetables, increase of meat, but, also, an increase of rice, and other starches. He also tries to link meat consumption with early puberty for females. This is untrue, as any biologist and physiologist will tell you--the original scare of hormones in meat causing early puberty, was just that, a scare. It is weight that determines a girls entrance into puberty--specifically weight distribution, it's why anorexic's stop having periods, why gymnast never start until they stop training--and why again the enemy is processed carbohydrates which show constantly to be the cause of weight gain. He also says that the average age of puberty was once 17. Given that the average age of individuals until the mid 1800's was 30, and most young women were married off by 14 and having children, the science and history shows 13 to 14 were the average age.

He makes statements that have now been disproven by the sheer number of people who have succeeded at weight loss on Atkins, South Beach, and the Core Diet. Fat--especially saturated fat--does not make you fat, and, at least in the first year (almost universally agreed and seen by doctors), they lower cholesterol, increase HDL, increase good LDL, and lower bad LDL, also, it lowers blood sugar, and high blood pressure. His constant repetition of the Lipid Hypothesis--a study that has remained a hypothesis for fifty years--is sad for a man who truly does seem to want to help people.

I believe Dr. Fuhrman is a militant vegan, who also wants to help his patients, so, he tries to scare people away from eating meat, because he doesn't believe people should eat meat, not because the science is conclusive on meats causing problems--conclusive enough for him, as long as he ignores the other science out there. Dr. Oz wrote the forward and Dr. Oz raves about the health benefits of salmon on his show every week, so they're at a disagreement. The fact is that birth defects through fish consumption has been seen only through heavy eating of heavy metal fish, and the link is scarce at best--since these birth defects could've existed without the food, and often do.

The greatest travesty in this book, in my opinion, is that he holds that weight gain comes from overeating. I was a vegetarian, eating whole wheat bread, pasta, vegetables, and fruit, exercising two miles a day, and consuming no more than 2500 calories a day (I was doing weight watchers at the time) weighing 280 pounds, eating only when I was hungry, which meant, some days, I'd have 600 calories, somedays I'd have 2500 calories. I gained weight weekly. Did I mention I was drinking only water? When I cut down all refined carbohydrates, limited my fruit intake to no more than 2 servings a day (snacks), and ate vegetables four times a day, whether or not I was hungry, I lost 80 pounds--of course, without proper plant or animal fat and protein, a lot of that weight loss was in my muscles.

I've read over a 1,000 documents (over a hundred of those documents being books) on health, nutrition, diets, physiology, and psychology. I've looked at my own body. I've looked at family. My cousin's children, both fed the same diet, both eat roughly the same amount of food, one is morbidly obese, the other is skinny as a rail. It's why portion control and low fat diets don't work. Though he believes it's toxicity of the food, it's because the food triggers insulin. Insulin Sensitivity is the cause of weight gain, people with high insulin sensitivity cannot gain weight even when they try--which doesn't mean they can't be unhealthy--while people with low insulin sensitivity gain weight even while their making a conscious effor to lose it. Fat people do not become fat because they overeat, they overeat because their fat, which is to say, their fat cells refuse to feed the body, so they're hungry, and need to eat more.

The number 1 driver of insulin is carbohydrates and sugar. However, and his the kicker, though eating vast amounts of plant vegetables will keep you from going into ketosis, complex carbohydrates will not and do not have the same effect on the body as pasta. Fruits and vegetables are the best sort of carbs to eat for an insulin sensitive body, and the necessary carbs to eat because they can balance the insulin sensitivity. Of course, one should keep fruit down to a minimum, two to five servings in my opinion, while vegetables should be 10 to 15 servings.

None of what I wrote above disproves his diet, in fact, everything I wrote about insulin holds his diet high. That's what makes Dr. Joel Fuhrman's arguments and poor science saddening. His diet is one of the best diets a person can go on, you'll feel wonderful, energized, the weight comes off so easily, you feel full all the time, and you never worry about counting calories, or measuring food, or any of that stuff. Dr. Fuhrman created one of the best diets I've seen and that I've tried out, he balances ones need for protein with hefty amounts of plant protein, ones need for fat, with natural plant fats from seeds and nuts. He hates meat, and that's fine. He quotes actual science that shows the correlative link to meat consumption and cancer. But, he also says in Chapter 8 that food should be your medicine. If we were to agree that meat causes cancer as a scientific fact, is there something that would be done that would allow you to eat meat and not have any negative effects... yes. Eating lots of fresh food the majority of the time counteracts any and all negative effects of meat. Meat is not like smoking, if you smoke, you do damage to your body each and every time, there is nothing that can counteract the damage of smoking except the cessation of it. WHen you eat meat, there are nutrients and vitamins that can't be found in anything else, and any and all damage that meat can cause is cessated by eating more greens as well. So instead of meat and potatoes, eat meat and broccoli with a side salad.

Buy this book, whether or not he uses bias science to disparage something he doesn't like, Dr. Fuhrman has created a diet that will not only promote your good health, but could and should save your life. I am impressed with this book, I read it in one day each time that I read it. It is absolutely brilliant. You'll feel wonderful, you'll glow, and in weeks friends will notice the difference... and the opposite sex--or same sex if that's how you play it--will notice as well because your skin will get healthier, your body will get healthier, and you'll feel and exude health.

Brand	N/A
Rating	4.5 (11273 ratings)
Price	$12.69
Category	Addiction & Recovery

Eat to Live: The Amazing Nutrient-Rich Program for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss, Revised Edition