—Systemic change begins with personal change—
Joel Fuhrman, M.D. is a board-certified family physician, six-time New York Times best-selling author and internationally recognized expert on nutrition and natural healing, who specializes in preventing and reversing disease through nutritional methods. He is the President of the Nutritional Research Foundation and on the faculty of Northern Arizona University, Health Sciences division. Dr. Fuhrman coined the term “Nutritarian†to describe a nutrient-dense eating style, designed to prevent cancer, slow aging, and extend lifespan.
For over 25 years, Dr. Fuhrman has shown that it is possible to achieve sustainable weight loss and reverse heart disease, diabetes and many other illnesses using smart nutrition. In his medical practice, and through his books and television specials, he continues to bring this life-saving message to hundreds of thousands of people around the world.
Dr. Fuhrman is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (Perelman) School of Medicine (1988) and has received the St. Joseph’s Family Practice Resident’s Teaching Award for his contribution to the education of family practice residents; and a C3 Cardiology Global Health Award for teaching cardiologists nutritional science.
In addition to the Dr. Fuhrman Wellness Center in New Jersey, Dr. Fuhrman also operates his Eat To Live Retreat in San Diego where overweight people from all over the world come to stay for 4-12 weeks to conquer food addiction and recover their health.
A native of Yonkers, N.Y., Dr. Fuhrman is a former world-class figure skater, who placed second in the United States National Pairs Championships in 1973 and third in the 1976 World Professional Pairs Skating Championship in Jaca, Spain. 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 about maximizing performance and preventing injury.
In his hundreds of radio and television appearances, including The Dr. Oz Show, The Today Show, Live with Kelly, and Good Morning America, Dr. Fuhrman has educated millions of people on the long-range benefits of healthy eating. His four hugely successful PBS specials, which have raised over $35 million for public television, bring essential nutritional knowledge to homes all across America.
Dr. Fuhrman is the author of six New York Times bestsellers: Eat to Live (Little Brown, 2003); Super Immunity (HarperOne, 2012); The End of Diabetes (HarperOne, 2013); The Eat to Live Cookbook (HarperOne, 2013); The End of Dieting (HarperOne, 2014) and The End of Heart Disease (HarperOne, 2016).
In addition to his New York Times best sellers, Dr. Fuhrman has written several other popular books on nutritional science which include: Dr. Fuhrman’s Transformation 20 Blood Pressure and Cholesterol (Gift of Health Press); Dr. Fuhrman’s Transformation 20 Diabetes (Gift of Health Press); 10 in 20: Dr. Fuhrman’s Lose 10 Pounds in 20 Days Detox Program (Gift of Health Press); Eat for Health (Gift of Health Press), Disease Proof Your Child (St. Martin’s Griffin), Fasting and Eating for Health (St. Martin’s Griffin) and the Dr. Fuhrman’s Nutritarian Handbook and ANDI Food Scoring Guide (Gift of Health Press).
Dr. Fuhrman’s latest books include Fast Food Genocide and Eat to Live Quick & Easy Cookbook.
Dr. Fuhrman has collaborated on a number of articles that have appeared in medical journals, including: University of Pennsylvania Orthopaedic Journal; American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine; Open Journal of Preventive Medicine; Nutrition Journal; Current Sports Medicine Reports; and Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine.
Joel talked so passionately about everything I look to bring out in other guests, I hardly spoke about his commitment with bringing bags. No problem, I loved hearing his views, history, and approach. I went with it. He also approaches the environment from food, though from a medical background. I just kept learning from him. Sadly, we as a culture keep moving toward disease and pollution, however much we want to move toward health and cleanliness. You and I can lead. This is our chance. Joel has been for decades. He's gotten results with the public through his books and his clients personally. You and I can build on what he started. I can't say much more than Joel did, connecting food and the environment and the benefit to us. Who knows, maybe our conversation will result in a PBS show. On a personal note, I'm glad to have heard his message of joy. Before these conversations I associated him mostly with medicine and nutrition. He covers those things, but with no lack of joy.
Food is important part of environment, as you know. The book Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Fuhrman changed a lot for me. I came across it after my experiments avoiding packaged food, fiber-removed foods, and meat. Eat to Live showed me that the delicious diet I found by reducing garbage and pollution turned out healthy. People stopped me in public to tell me how the book changed their lives. I'm in the middle of another of his books, Fast Food Genocide, as I'm writing and find it fascinating. You'll hear me at the beginning stumble a bit. I had prepared, but meeting Joel in person at his home became a lesson in food preparation and joy. He showed me the plants he's growing in solar powered greenhouse. Now, I think I'm getting good at making my stews, salads, and desserts, but with his kitchen full of vegetables and fruit, he whipped together a salad more delicious than mine effortlessly. I invite people over and they seem to like the food and impressed with my technique. All he did was make a salad and offer some snacks, including dried fruit and a chocolate chia pudding, but he showed a mastery I haven't developed yet. I mostly associated him with nutrition and healthy eating. Now I associate him with everything I'm trying to create around the environment: based in science but once you get it, about joy, community, connection, family. I realized I'm barely started developing my food-making skills. So by when we started recording the conversation, I was trying to learn from watching. By the way, if you hear noise of something brushing the microphone, it's his adorably dog, who was running around us as we spoke. You'll hear something that made me feel great---he noticed the yellow in my hand skin color and told me it meant I was eating a diet with plenty of phytonutrients. The recognition felt great. Again, Eat To Live changed my life. I recommend his books, his videos, his advice, and now his lifestyle.