“[Y]our body has an amazing healing potential waiting to be unleashed by the gift of superior nutrition.”
Simply put, the premise behind nutritarianism, developed by Dr. Joel Fuhrman, is to eat foods – focusing on a diet centered around greens, other vegetables, fruit, beans, nuts and seeds – that are micronutrient-dense and phytochemical-rich in order to strengthen our immune systems and protect us against and reverse illness and disease. An added bonus is weight loss or control (I will have a future post on an article about that).
Part of our problem is that we conform to fad diets that focus on low this and high that, paying complete attention to macronutrients, but the “health-enhancing qualities of a diet are not accurately determined by the level of either for or carbohydrate [or protein]. They are determined by the amount and the diversity of micronutrients.” You can be on a weight loss diet but still be really unhealthy.
The main idea behind nutritarianiam, though, is that food does not just supply us with basic nutritive functions but also has a level of nutrition that protects against and fights disease and benefits the immune system and promotes longetivity. Further, we can prevent most common modern day diseases, such as cancer, heart disease, heart attacks, strokes and dementia, by eating foods rich in vitamins, minerals, and especially phytochemicals.
Greens, cruciferous veggies, mushrooms, onions, and berries play a major role in our health, building our immune system, and protecting against cancer, especially when we eat a combination of them. As well, seeds are high in protein and nutrients.
Nutritional status and health are one factor determining whether or not you get sick and to what degree. When people are well-nourished and healthy, a virus can remain harmless. Optimal nutrition can indirectly and directly protect against infectious disease. Maintaining nutritional adequacy all throughout the year is the best way to protect against illness.
Those are strong claims, and ones he backs up with research and studies (to see more specifics on that as well as specific diseases and vitamins, check out his books, especially Super Immunity), and is a very powerful idea. It really does give credence to the idea that our health is in our hands and that “we are made from the food we eat.”
Dr. Fuhrman thinks 90% of our diet should come from plant-based foods, contrary to what the current practice in the US is, with less than 5% of our calories coming from fruits, veggies, seeds, and nuts. In fact, he thinks the standard American diet is so devoid of nutrients that most of our phytonutrient intake comes from a latte. How sad is that?
He recommends having less than 10% of non-micronutrient-dense foods, no more than one or two a day, and if this includes meat or fish for you, “choos[e] eggs, grass-fed meats, clean wild fish, and naturally raised,
In his pyramid, 30-60% of cals come from vegetables (1/2 raw and ½ cooked), 10-40% from beans/legumes, 10-40% from fruits, 10-40% from seeds, nuts, and avocado, 20% or less from whole grains and potatoes, rarely from eggs, oil, fish and fat free dairy, and rarely from beef, sweets, cheese and processed foods. We should aim for six fresh fruits and eight servings of veggies a day, including 2 servings of cruciferous veggies (at least 1 of which is raw).
It is easy to find out the foods highest in nutrients by looking at the Aggregate Nutrient Density Index (ANDI), which compares different vitamins, minerals and antioxidxants, with scores ranging from 1000-0. A complete list can be found online, but kale is at the top, and soda is at the bottom. In general, green vegetables are the most nutrient-dense foods that exist.
Dr. Fuhrman has an equation, Health = Nutrients/Calories, suggesting that there is a direct relationship between health and longevity and the more nutrients consumed per calorie. In other words, ““your health will improve as you eat more foods with a high nutrient-per-calorie density and fewer foods with a low nutrient-per-calorie density.”
There are a few things that Dr. Fuhrman is against (but I want to emphasize that nothing is completely off-limits) that others deem healthy and might surprise people.
First, fish. He acknowledges the benefits of omega 3’s (which he suggests getting instead from flaxseeds and walnuts), DHA and EPA, and thinks that fish is better than other animal products, but still suggests limiting it because it is polluted , containing mercury and PCBs. If you are going to eat fish, try to eat ones containing less mercury, such as shrimp, tilapia, haddock, scallops, squid, trout, hake and ocean perch.
Animal products. I don’t think this will surprise people, based on what I’ve already said about nutritarianism, but according to Dr. Fuhrman, animal products do not do a body good. It can be cancer-producing, and “even egg whites and lean white mean…[are] not longevity-favorable.” He even likes chicken to a cookie in terms of lacking phytochemicals, and immunity-protecting qualities. Reducing animal products is also an automatic consequence of having a diet that is high in micronutrients per calorie.
Milk and dairy. Dairy has sort of always been controversial, and claims on both ends are too extreme and are major exaggerations. But Dr. Fuhrman’s view is you can get the benefits of milk through plant foods, which are high in micronutrients and phytochemicals, and low in saturated fat (if you have whole milk, although he doesn’t like fat free either), which milk is not.
Oil. Finally, someone who agrees with me about oil. Yes, I have read all the research about its health benefits, and dieticians would always try to get me to include olive or coconut oil in my diet (I occasionally added the latter), but I wouldn’t, partly because I am a volume eater, but also partly because of Dr. Fuhrman’s beliefs, which do overlap with my volume eating behavior. Oil is high in calories, low in nutrients, contains no fiber, and is processed. Including more oil lowers the nutrient-per-calorie density of a diet. I will say, though, that for those who are trying to gain weight or just have a hard time getting enough cals in because they get full really quickly, oil is an easy solution. I would recommend nut butter instead, but do think that is a bit more filling and might be a harder choice for some.
I know the Mediterranean diet has proven to have so many health benefits, with heaps if research to back it up, but Dr. Fuhrman suggests this is because of its focus on vegetables and nuts and not because of its emphasis on fish or oil. But I do think the fact that the Mediterranean diet has so much research to back it up shows that you can eat those foods, even though nutritarianism recommends seriously restricting them.
Some people might think this diet is too restrictive to really be healthy, but I argue it’s not. Just like with vegetarianism, veganism, and raw foodism, which nutritarisnism is often compared to but is different than (in part because vegetarians and vegan can still eat a diet full of processed foods), supplementation with vitamin B12, vitamin D and fish oil is advantageous and probably necessary, but otherwise, you can get everything you need. Avoiding meat and dairy as much as possible might make you think you can’t get enough calcium or protein (a future post will be on the issue of protein), but that is false. Calorie for calorie, bok choy, for example, has more calcium than milk, and broccoli more protein than beef. But those are two of a cornucopia of examples.
He can be a wee bit extreme, though, saying things like, “[t]he white the bread, the sooner you’re dead.” I do however, understand his point, and think the statement is more for shock value and might make people shy away from such a lifestyle, thinking there is no room at all for moderation, when there is, although I don’t think it’s encouraged (and I agree with that. I am not a “anything in moderation” person, although believe it’s fine for others to be that way).
Basically, nutritarianism is about “the combination of more fruits and veggies in conjunction with a reduction in animal products that offers us the greatest opportunity for longevity.”
I am not a nutritarian. For example, I have two servings of dairy a day. But I still really believe in its tenets and it resonates and intrigues me more than any other lifestyle diet.
randi morse, randi.morse@gmail.com, newton, ma
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