Eat to Live Book Summary - Eat to Live Book explained in key points

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Eat to Live summary

Name: Eat to Live
Rating: 4.2 (157 reviews)
Author: Joel Fuhrman

Joel Fuhrman

The Amazing Nutrient-Rich Program for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss

4.2 (157 ratings)

22 mins

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Weight Loss Diets Simplify Podcast

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Eat to Live
Summary of 10 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 10

What’s in it for me? Discover a simple strategy for a healthy diet, backed by cutting-edge research.

Atkins, South Beach, paleo – do these names sound familiar? If so, you’re probably one of the many people who’s tried losing weight with the help of some kind of diet.

More than ever before, we struggle to maintain an optimal body shape in a world of readily and widely available food. It should thus come as no surprise that we’re constantly bombarded with countless weight-management programs promising rapid weight loss and instantly improved health.

While Eat to Live might appear to be just another dieting book in a never-ending series of dieting books, family physician and nutritional researcher Joel Fuhrman has actually produced a guide that aims to completely revamp the way we nourish ourselves. The book introduces readers to the benefits of a plant-based, high-nutrient diet intended as a lifelong dietary regimen that will result in excellent health and a prolonged life – hence the book’s title, Eat to Live.

In the following blinks, you'll learn all about the problems associated with the typical modern diet, as illustrated by the American example.

You’ll also discover what a diet that provides optimal nutrition is composed of, based on what nutritional science and many current case studies suggest.

Finally, you’ll be introduced to a practical dietary plan that includes specific recommendations and recipes.

The typical American diet consists of high-calorie but low-nutrient foods.

Even though Americans have access to a wide variety of healthy, nutritious food, they instead make unhealthy dietary choices, choosing to eat junk food like pizza, burgers and french fries.

Indeed, the typical American diet mainly comprises processed and high-caloric foods, such as refined carbohydrates (like pasta, bread and bagels), fat (oils) and animal protein (meat and dairy).

In fact, as research shows, the average American gets 62 percent of his or her calories from processed carbohydrates and extracted oils, 25.5 percent from fiberless dairy and animal produce, and just 5 percent from fruits and vegetables, excluding potatoes.

Consider, for example, that the human stomach can hold about one liter of food. Since food like french fries, cheese and meat are dense in calories, a stomach full of any of them contains approximately 3,000 calories. By contrast, a full stomach of much healthier foods, like greens, beans or fruit, would contain just 200 to 500 calories.

But aren’t calories useful? Don’t they provide the energy we need to survive?

While it’s certainly true that these high-calorie foods deliver energy to the body, they hardly contain any of the nutrients that are vital to optimal health.

All foods contain calories and nutrients: calories come from carbohydrates, proteins and fat; nutrients come from vitamins, minerals and water. Although nutrients contain almost no calories, they’re essential to the proper growth and development of the human body.

But just because a food contains many calories – as is typical in the modern American diet – this doesn’t mean that it necessarily supplies a lot of nutrients to the body. For example, one tablespoon of olive oil contains about 120 calories. While this is more than 5 percent of the typical daily calorie consumption, it actually provides almost no vitamins or minerals.

This diet is based on incorrect nutritional wisdom.

Given that the majority of Americans are obese, it’s surprising that most of the population still prefers a diet rich in calories and poor in nutrients.

What's behind this behavior? Simply put: widespread societal myths that lead many people to believe they’re actually making healthy food choices.

Key actors, such as the food industry, the media, scientists and governmental agencies, uphold false knowledge about food.

While prevalent myths about food have a huge influence on today’s American diet, they’re not the only determining factor. There are also certain deep-seated interests whose aim it is to preserve America’s current food culture.

Take the United States Department of Agriculture: its original role was to promote the meat and dairy industries. Today it still clings to its institutional roots, promoting animal products to the extent that it allocates over $20 billion in price supports to the beef, veal and dairy industries. However, it offers no such financial support for the production of fruits and vegetables – at least, not the ones cultivated for human consumption.

The typical American diet causes adverse health effects and serious diseases.

According to the latest research, the state of the population’s health reveals that there is something wrong with the well-being of American people.

Even though today’s Americans are lucky to have an unprecedented level of material wealth, they suffer from obesity and a number of other chronic diseases.

A plant-based diet fulfills all nutrient and energy requirements of the body.

Given the dangers associated with a diet rich in animal products, it makes sense that people should seek an alternative diet based on the best nutritional wisdom available.

Ideally, it’s a plant-based diet because most of the nutrients essential to good health – all the important vitamins, mineral and phytochemicals – can only be found in high concentration in plant-based foods.

A plant-based diet leads to sustained weight loss, protects against illness and can even reverse chronic diseases.

Although science has only begun to investigate the benefits of a plant-based diet, recent examples and personal experiences emphasize just how beneficial whole, natural foods are to human health.

One clear benefit is that such a diet can lead to weight loss as it prevents overeating. That’s because there’s a complex system of receptors in the digestive tract that tells the brain when the stomach is full. This occurs when the stomach is filled with sufficient nutrients – which happens quickly when fruits and vegetables are eaten – and when it’s filled with a lot of fiber, which is readily found in natural foods.

Raw and steamed vegetables, beans and legumes, and fruits may be eaten in unlimited quantities.

Since the Eat to Live plan is not a typical short-term diet, there’s no portion control. Rather, the plan is based on consuming as many greens, beans and fruits as the dieters like. In fact, they’re encouraged to eat as much of these foods as they can.

In particular, raw and steamed greens can be consumed in abundance. They are considered superfoods as they have the highest nutrient density. The greens with the highest nutrient density scores are vegetables such as kale, collard greens, Swiss chard, romaine lettuce, broccoli and cabbage.

Other foods should only be consumed in limited amounts or avoided altogether.

If greens and fruits are considered the most beneficial foods, nuts and seeds are a close second. Lowest in priority are all other foods.

That’s because seeds, nuts, starchy vegetables and whole grains provide healthy fats but also have many calories.

This nutritional program is easy to implement.

If you base your nutritional choices on the Eat to Live plan, you’ll maximize your health. Also, you won’t have to worry about counting calories or preparing sophisticated meals.

The only thing you’ll have to ensure is that you follow one basic rule of thumb: your diet should comprise mostly greens, beans and fruits.

Final Summary

The key message in this book:

Optimal health can be achieved by following a plant-based diet based mainly on raw and steamed greens, beans and legumes, and fruits. The diet doesn't rely on portion control or excessive exercise, both of which often only yield temporary positive effects. Instead, by following this diet as a lifelong plan, dieters can expect to sustain weight loss and superior health.

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What is Eat to Live about?

Eat to Live gives readers a comprehensive overview of human nutrition, a re-evaluation of conventional nutritional wisdom, personal case studies and a practical dietary program with lots of recommendations. The reader can expect to learn about a number of different nutritional studies as well as the health benefits and repercussions of basic foods such as meat, milk, fish, vegetables and fruits.

Who should read Eat to Live?

Anyone interested in learning about the link between nutritional science, the modern diet and health
Anyone looking for practical advice on losing weight and achieving optimal health

About the Author

Joel Fuhrman, M.D., is an American family physician and nutritional researcher. Fuhrman specializes in using the wisdom of nutrition and nature to prevent serious diseases. He has collected substantial scientific material and many case studies proving the effectiveness of his recommendations. Other books he has published include Eat for Health and Disease-Proof Your Child.

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