I do not miss the old pattern of 10 pounds down, 15 pounds up. I can recall various comments from doctors over the years, but they did not move me in the right direction. Blood sugar and blood pressure encouraged me to change immediately, and we had a pristine copy of Fuhrman in our home library.
I also owned a book from one of my MA students in education - on diabetes, plus additional diabetes books. The student's son almost died of type 1 diabetes and is now a healthy strong young man. Diabetes is more than a disorder - it is a constellation of many bad outcomes from high blood sugar.
Fuhrman staggered me with the facts of greens and vegetables being so much better than sugar, white flour, high fat foods, and high salt snacks. In addition, nuts and fruits are a return to Eden. Instead of apple pie from Schwan, I have fresh crunchy apples from the store. I still eat some meat, but far less than before.
I like the Fuhrman emphasis on rare eating:
Fish - I already noped that.
Cheese - maybe once a week, too much salt. It is basically a fat product, but can be enjoyed in small amounts.
Milk products are fat products I never liked, except for ice and whipped cream, which are fatal temptations.
I like the joke that tomatoes are the fourth stage of water, because I used to raise delicious tomatoes and eat them warm from the sun. Store tomatoes are little more than water, but tomato paste delivers flavor and super-nutrition at the same time but with a low cost.
Beans are satisfying but I do not like them alone. However, many canned varieties are tasty with a lot of vegetables. I often open a can of vegetable soup, add favorite vegetables (mushrooms, peas, mixed vegetables) plus nuts and flaxseed.
A fellow bean convert suggested lima beans, which I have always loved. They also have to have super nutrition benefits. I will list them.
"One cup (170 grams) of cooked lima beans contains (
- Calories: 209
- Protein: 12 grams
- Fat: 0.5 grams
- Carbs: 40 grams
- Fiber: 9 grams
- Manganese: 92% of the daily value (DV)
- Copper: 58% of the DV
- Magnesium: 30% of the DV
- Iron: 23% of the DV
- Potassium: 21% of the DV
- Thiamin: 20% of the DV
- Vitamin C: 19% of the DV
- Vitamin B6: 19% of the DV
- Phosphorus: 18% of the DV
Lima beans are especially high in manganese, which acts as an antioxidant and plays a key role in metabolism (
They also provide a good amount of copper in each serving, which supports immune health and promotes brain function (
Plus, lima beans are rich in magnesium, a mineral your body needs for energy production and DNA synthesis (
As others have said, multi-vitamins are good for supplementing food, but these simple, inexpensive foods are loaded with nutrition that lowers blood pressure, blood sugar, and increases the body's fight against various disorders - like cancer.
Someone can get a shopping basket worth of nutritional medicine simply from
- mounds of greens (like spinach),
- a variety of beans,
- walnuts and almonds, and
- a number of fruits.
The miracle compounds sold at a high price and promising everything - they are derived rather selectively from vegetation. Instead, the beans and greens, nuts and fruits fill in more of our needs than we can get from fast food, snack food, and donuts.
