Eat to Live: The Revolutionary Formula for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss

Eat to Live: The Revolutionary Formula for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss

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4.16 of 5 stars 4.16  ·  rating details  ·  3,614 ratings  ·  646 reviews

When Mehmet Oz or any of New York's leading doctors has a patient whose life depends on losing weight, they call on Joel Fuhrman, M.D. In EAT TO LIVE, Dr. Fuhrman offers his healthy, effective, and scientifically proven plan for shedding radical amounts of weight quickly, and keeping it off.

Losing weight under Dr. Fuhrman's plan is not about willpower, it is about knowledg

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Paperback, 304 pages
Published January 4th 2005 by Little, Brown and Company (first published January 2nd 2003)
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The China Study by T. Colin CampbellWhy We Get Fat by Gary TaubesThe Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael PollanIn Defense of Food by Michael PollanThe Paleo Diet by Loren Cordain
A Nutrition Reading List
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2nd out of 27 books — 12 voters


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Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)
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Lisa
Eat to Live is such a life changing book!!!! It's changed the way I look at food. This isn't a fad diet book. It's a book that examines the American diet and exposes it to the truth it really is.......disease causing.

Now here is the downside to the diet:

1. It's extreme compared to the American diet so unless you are very motivated to change, the diet will prove to be foreign and challenging.

2.Since no one really eats like this, it's hard to find healthy options when you go out to restaurants.

3...more
Kate Merriman
This is NOT about a diet. Which is what all the diet books say, I know, I know. I believe this truly is the exception, focusing on nutritional excellence, disease prevention, and backed by serious research.

If you ever had a suspicion that there was something really wrong with a 100-calorie portion pack of cookies getting a "thumbs up" from your weight loss group leader, or felt kind of freaked out that a doctor was recommending several months of protein shakes laden with fake sweetener, then thi...more
Miranda (M.E.) Brumbaugh
This is a wonderful guide for anyone interested in eating healthy by sticking to a diet full of vegetables and fruits. It is not just a diet book, but a lesson in nutrition. The best part about the book, though, is all of the recipes and ways to incorporate fruits and vegetables into your everyday. Everything from ice cream made from only fruits and nuts to purees of lentils and vegetables to use as a veggie dip.

Here are the basics of the nutritarian diet:

Very limited meats including fish or me...more
Alanna
I'm only giving this four stars until I can try it for myself and see. If I like it, I'll up it to 5 stars later.

Basically, Fuhrman's theory is that we should be eating mostly vegetables, fruits, beans, and nuts. Everything else (dairy and meat, oils and fats) is mostly not very good for us. A little bit is okay, but not much, whereas it's nearly impossible to overeat fresh produce. He recommends a six week period of only eating the good stuff in order to cure your body of the addictions we have...more
April
Nov 10, 2008 April rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: EVERYONE- I'm annoying everyone I know by raving about it. :-)
Recommended to April by: Jenna Adams
Life changing for me. It's marketed as a diet book and I NEVER would have picked it up based on that but Jenna swore it would change my life. . .and it did!
This book is great because it provides basic nutrition information and provides summaries of medical/health studies to help educate you and provide motivation to eat healthy. You can tell me a million times to eat my fruit not drink it but if you tell me exactly what happens in my body suddenly I think "Oh! I don't want to do that" and I don...more
Heather
So, this book almost convinced me to become a vegetarian. It is very well written, but a tad preachy. The author does a great job explaining why vegetarianism is good for you, but then goes on and on about how dumb you must be to not believe him. Or something like that.

I was shocked to learn the nutritional value of some foods. I had no idea lettuce had protein or fat. I loved all the tables which showed me how ignorant I've been my whole life on the real make-up of food.

I thought he used resear...more
Stephanie
Things I learned from this book:
- olive oil is NOT a health food
- cancer is a fruit- and vegetable-deficiency disease
- 2% milk is 35% fat (by weight it is 2%, which is irrelevant)
- fruits/veggies contain THOUSANDS of phytonutrients that make them superior to any derivative foods i.e. fruit juice, apple sauce... further proof that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts
-all medications are toxic to varying degrees, whether side effects are experienced or not
- not all proteins are alike; pr...more
Celeste
Dec 23, 2008 Celeste rated it 3 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition
Recommended to Celeste by: Amylyn
This is one of those books that you don't want to read because it might be true, and then you read it, but you don't want to try it because it might be true, and then you try it, but you still don't want it to be true because if it were true, you'd have to change your lifestyle, and after you changed, you know that you'd never want to go back to your previous bad eating habits because you'd feel fabulous, lose a ton of weight and be disease free for life - if it's true. Most of the premises in t...more
Kelly Roach
I loved this book and read the new unabridged version on my iPad in 2 days. This is a straight forward, fact based approach to eating that will improve your life - health - weight - get u off of your prescription meds - help u remain disease free and look and feel great!
Elias
The nutrition/eating book I recommend to the majority of my patients, and one of the only nutrition/eating books I recommend to anyone, since it's one of the only ones that doesn't require a major suspension of disbelief when it comes to physiology. The book gives a solid foundation in nutrition and foods and helps you understand why you're making the food choices you are. Requires a major lifestyle change for most people, but with serious payoffs -- I lost 50 lbs, went down 3-4 pant sizes (arou...more
Judith
My brother highly recommended this book after he lost 31 pounds in three months, and I am such a naive moron when it comes to diet books that I fell for it. I like the theory behind it: eat more fruits and vegetables and less meat. But Dr. Fuhrman's advice is near impossible to follow. He wants you to start out by eating a pound of raw and a pound of cooked vegetables each day, as well as a ton of fruit. No meat, cheese, dairy, eggs, or egg whites. You can add beans and nuts as the week goes on,...more
Dwain
The information in this book is great, and I would have given it four stars but for the extremely repetitive writing. Despite the writing, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to be healthy, lose weight, or avoid (mostly) preventable diseases like diabetes, cancer, and heart disease.

Yes, I did say preventable in that last paragraph. I found it amazing that I had never heard this information before, but Furman claims, and backs up with copious statistics, studies, and data, that...more
Amy Garrett
Dr. Fuhrman is the guy in Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. His ethos aligns just as well with the guys from Forks Over Knives, so if you are interested in how to eat for your HEALTH not just weight loss, this is a good primer. He also has a volume called Eat For Health that may be of more interest if the fact that the title states "weight loss," in it is off-putting for you.

I liked the format of the book, which is largely educational. Dr. Fuhrman spends most of the book explaining what all the diffe...more
Cory Zorker
I listened to the unabridged audiobook version. Interesting book. Talked about the relationship between animal protein-based diets and cancer rates and the benefits of plant-based diets.

I went 46 days on the "vegan" lifestyle and lost about 20 pounds. I never thought I would be able to do it. Overall, it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. However, I felt a little weak during some of my harder workouts (for triathlons). I'm glad I tried it as it introduced me to new vegetable dishes,...more
Saraelizabeth
I will always give a book 5 stars when it changes my life for the better.:-)
This book is also well-written and has lots of ideas for practical application. A new way of eating that was easy to follow.

Basically his plan is to eat an unlimited amount of Fruits and Vegetables and Beans/Legumes. You only get 1 cup of whole grains and 1 cup of starchy grains a day. And no dairy, animal products, or treats.

I've been doing it for a week and can tell a real difference in how I feel. I think my previou...more
Lee
Aug 15, 2012 Lee rated it 1 of 5 stars
Recommended to Lee by: My doctor
Shelves: junk-science
Dr. Furhman's book starts with a hand full of principles that are helpful to losing weight and then ventures out into lala land with a hypothesis for a vague and unbacked theory about nutrition (H = N/C where H is health, N is nutrition and C is calories) for which he has zero empirical evidence. Using this formula, he extends the principles he brought in past any reasonable application to a point of extremity that is likely to be counter productive for people trying to lead a healthy lifestyle....more
Aimee
I read this book becauase I had heard that it was good for people with auto-immune disorders, which I have a few.
I have to say, as a person who thoroughly researched vegetaranism about 15 years ago I knew most of the information in the book already but had forgotten some of the key/crucial elements of eating well.

My entire family has been following the diet for about three weeks now. The first two weeks I was down 7 lbs. I have a significant amount of weight to loose and I have tried pretty mu...more
Elisa Wadsworth
Eat To Live took everything I have learned about nutrition and put it all together. It was great. I do have a couple of problems with it, but I am still following the basic program outlined, just with a few tweaks.

Problem number 1: Nothing is said in this book about food combining. I don't agree with eating fruit with other foods besides greens.
Solution: Just eat the fruit first thing in the morning by itself, or a few hours after eating a meal. Easy.

Problem number 2: I don't agree with the sug...more
Brandy
It's harder for me to rate a non-fiction book for some reason. If the topic is one of interest to me, then I often find even a relatively bad book worth reading because it helps me refine my thoughts as I argue with it. I've been gathering information on nutrition for a while as I think about changes we need to make to our eating, and this one fits in well with most of the information I've found as far as getting closer to a plant-based diet. I think the recipes will be useful, and at the moment...more
Riannon
This book was much better than I expected. Having had an interest in nutrition for quite a few years, it's fairly rare that I actually get some new information, as opposed to the same old nutritional information repackaged. There is a lot of useful advice in here, but the best part is that it is so well researched and cited. I especially liked the section that discussed many popular nutritional fads today.

The one thing I did not like about this book is that the author assumes that everyone readi...more
Sarah
**Originally I gave this a 3 star rating. Make sure to see the update below.

I know, I know, only a three? Nothing personal to the author, it was a ton of good info and I will never think of what I eat the same way again. I've been practicing it this week, but have yet to get on the scale. I think I have definitely lost weight though. I'm just not a non-fiction lover to be bluntly honest (I agree there is good info, just not what I jump excited at.) This book could have been MAJORLY condensed. In...more
Didi
This book doesn't have quite the number of scientific references as some other works (see The China Study) about the link between dietary choices and health, but it benefits from being a much more approachable read. The author is also less rigidly tied to veganism. The author recognizes that any change in this direction is to be applauded, and getting meat protein down to a minimal component of one's diet is a significant improvement over the standard American dietary average. He also created a...more
Meg
Every writer has their own vernacular, which at times can be preachy or hard to read (the health scare tactics bother my slightly, but I get why they're there) but don't you dare let it detract from the central purpose of the book: you will not be completely healthy unless you eat lots and lots and lots of plants!
This is really just an entire book dedicated to driving home (painfully at times) a very common sense point.
If there is just one book to get started on a whole foods plant based diet...more
Miriam
There is a lot in this book that rang true for me, but I think the approach that he takes is more extreme than it needs to be, and I think that any rapid weight loss is going to be dangerous, even if it is done with healthy foods. Also, I think that a lot of his foods would end up being very expensive. His soup recipe, for example, requires the juice from a couple pounds of carrots and celery, in addition to the many other vegetables that go into the soup, and could easily cost $2 or $3 dollars...more
Donna
Nov 08, 2012 Donna rated it 4 of 5 stars
Recommended to Donna by: Dr. Kent Ta
Dr. Fuhrman makes a lot of sense. I started drinking those diet so-called shakes (one in place of each meal) when I was nine years old. Nine. By the time I was at the proper weight for my height and structure, the muscles in my jaw had begun to atrophy from not chewing anything. My friends' mothers said this was a bad idea, and my mother bristled at that, but they were right.

Through my teens I went through bouts of fasting; just eating one meal a day; and 900-calorie-a-day diets in order to stay...more
Bill
Fuhrman is a pretty hard-core vegan, saying you should only have 1-2 portions of animal protein per week. He says all varieties of animal protein seem to be almost-equally bad for you in terms of cancer potential, etc.

He wants much of that intake to be RawFood.

On the plus side, he says you can eat just about any quantity you want, and says that studies showing vegans to be malnourished are because people don't compensate by eating a lot. (This is also his counter to arguments about carnivore cav...more
Deanna
Very similar to "The China Study," "Fit for Life" and "The Original Fast Foods." I think I'm needing a lot of repetition in this area.

I think that I like to be entertained by my food too much (ya think?) and so it's hard to eat raw, whole foods. Good things in life do not entertain, they enrich your life. This book continued to hammer away, like the others listed, as to why I need to eat whole foods. Lots of education.

One of the things that I found funny in it is that I'm suppose to weigh 111 po...more
Darryl
May 10, 2013 Darryl added it
Dr. Fuhrman's view of what one needs to eat to stay healthy is fairly radical for the average American eater, and yet it makes a good deal of sense -- out with the fat, the animal products, even oils, but if you still eat High Nutrition foods (greens, etc.) you can be healthy, weigh less, and even beat back some diseases. In some ways, though it is a turn off -- in spite of his attempts to explain why his analysis is correct, one gets the sense that he is both preachy and a bit defensive. A coup...more
Brian
Obesity really is epidemic and though I don't really like to stick my nose in others business when it comes to personal freedom, the cost of healthcare is rising, the rate of diseases is rising, the weight of Americans is risin. Is it wise, is it necessary, is it sinful to ignore the expanding waistline for the momentary glory of the greasy cheeseburger, answer as you will. This book presents a different road, one filled with an effective approach to riding yourself of many woes in the diet. I k...more
Alisa
This book changed my life in a big way. I read it 6 months ago or so and was astonished to read about real nutrition and how it is different than what the government recommends we should eat. In fact, it is very nearly opposite. In all honesty though, I was skeptical but decided to give the 6 week plan a try. Basically you change your food intake to include plant based whole foods and remove all animal products and processed food. It was difficult and I fought intense cravings, but he claims it...more
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Eat to live 2 80 Nov 15, 2012 01:55am  
Eat to Live: The Amazing Nutrient-Rich Program for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss (Paperback)
Eat to Live: The Amazing Nutrient-Rich Program for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss, Revised Edition (Paperback)
Eat to Live: The Revolutionary Formula for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss (Kindle Edition)
Eat to Live: The Revolutionary Formula for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss (Hardcover)
Eat to Live: The Revolutionary Formula for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss (ebook)

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“Most brown bread is merely white bread with a fake tan.” 4 people liked it
“There is one food that scientific research has show has a strong positive association with increased longevity in humans. So which food do you think that is? The answer is raw leafy greens. Normally referred to as salad. Leafy greens such as romaine lettuce, kale, collards, swiss chard and spinach, are the most nutrient dense of all foods.” 3 people liked it
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