Disease-Proof Your Child: Feeding Kids Right
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About this ebook
Disease-Proof Your Child features easy-to-prepare, kid-friendly recipes that will satisfy even the pickiest eaters, and will help your whole family establish life-long healthful eating habits.
Harness the power of a nutrient-rich diet to ensure a lifetime free of illness and full of health!
In his private practice, Joel Fuhrman, M.D. helps families transform their eating habits and recover their health. His nutrient-rich eating plan can have a significant impact on your child's resistance to dangerous infections, and a dramatic effect on reducing the occurrence of illnesses like asthma, ear infections, and allergies. Dr. Fuhrman explains how you can make sure your children are eating right to maintain a healthy mind and body, and how eating certain foods and avoiding others can positively impact your child's IQ and success in school.
He also presents the fascinating science that demonstrates that the current epidemic of adult cancers and other diseases is closely linked to what we eat in the first quarter of life. Eating well in our early years may enable us to win the war on cancer. Bolstered by this scientific evidence, he helps you do everything you can to protect your child against developing diabetes, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune diseases, and cancer through a solid nutritional groundwork.
Dr. Joel Fuhrman
Joel Fuhrman – geb. 1953 Der US-Amerikaner Dr. Joel Fuhrman ist Allgemeinarzt mit eigener Praxis, Bestsellerautor, Ernährungswissenschaftler, Vater von vier Kindern, ehemaliger Weltklasse-Eiskunstläufer und in zahlreichen Ernährungs- und Forschungsgremien in den USA aktiv. Sein besonderes Interesse gilt der Erforschung des Zusammenhangs unseres Stoffwechsels mit unserer Ernährung. Dr. Fuhrmans Ansatz ist es, Krankheiten – wie Allergien, Autoimmunerkrankungen, Asthma, Diabetes und auch Krebs – durch Ernährungsumstellungen vorzubeugen und zu heilen. Dafür hat er seine Gesundheits- und Langlebigkeitsformel entwickelt: Gesundheit = Nährstoffe/Kalorien. Entscheidend sind dabei Lebensmittel, die viele Nährstoffe im Verhältnis zu wenigen Kalorien enthalten. Im amerikanischen Fernsehen ist er eine anerkannte Größe und z. B. Gastgeber des populären Fernseh-Specials „3 Schritte zu fantastischer Gesundheit“. Mit weiteren Büchern ist der Arzt in den Bestsellerrängen: „Superimmunität“ und „Essen für die Gesundheit“. Neben seinem Erfolg mit dem in zahlreiche Sprachen übersetzten Eat to Live, hat er viele weitere Bücher verfasst. Auf Deutsch sind zum Beispiel noch die Bücher Super Immun und Diabetes einfach wegessen erschienen.
Read more from Dr. Joel Fuhrman
Super Immunity: The Essential Nutrition Guide for Boosting Your Body's Defenses to Live Longer, Stronger, and Disease Free Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End of Diabetes: The Eat to Live Plan to Prevent and Reverse Diabetes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End of Dieting: How to Live for Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sprout Book: Tap into the Power of the Planet's Most Nutritious Food Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Starved to Obesity: My Journey Out of Food Addiction and How You Can Escape It Too! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
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Reviews for Disease-Proof Your Child
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Book preview
Disease-Proof Your Child - Dr. Joel Fuhrman
Praise for Disease-Proof Your Child
Should be required reading for every parent.
—Howard F. Lyman; author of The Mad Cowboy: Plain Truth from the
Cattle Rancher Who Won’t Eat Meat and No More Bull!: The Mad
Cowboy Targets America’s Worst Enemy: Our Diet
Joel Fuhrman; M.D., shares his nutritional and healing wisdom in this practical, readable book. [It] will help you give your offspring the healthiest start possible.
—Michael Klaper, M.D., director of the Institute of Nutrition
Education and Research, Manhattan Beach, California
It is full of clarity, wisdom, and guidance you can trust and [the book] gives you the power to shape your child’s health destiny.
—John Robbins, author of The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can
Help Save Your Life and Our World; Reclaiming Our Health:
Exploding the Medical Myth and Embracing the Sources
of True Healing; and Diet for a New America: How Your
Food Choices Affect Your Health, Happiness and
the Future of Life on Earth
Children don’t need to be chronically sick—as children or adults. Dr. Fuhrman’s book compels parents to rethink the way they raise their children, starting with what they eat.
—James Craner, M.D., M.P.H., consultant in occupational and
environmental medicine, Reno, Nevada, and assistant
clinical professor in the Department of Medicine,
University of California, San Francisco
School of Medicine
A powerful tool for insuring that the children you love will live healthy and happy lives.
—Douglas J. Lisle, Ph.D., and Alan Goldhamer, D.C.,
authors of The Pleasure Trap: Mastering the Hidden
Force That Undermines Health & Happiness
Dr. Fuhrman’s book offers your family the solution to the epidemic of obesity and sickness that afflicts nearly every child eating the rich Western diet.
—John McDougall, M.D., director of the McDougall
Live-in Program, Santa Rosa, California
If you truly love your children and your grandchildren, or if you are simply concerned about the health of the nation, then read this book and put it into practice. It’s light-years ahead and is a magnificent source of salvation for our children.
—Groesbeck P. Parham, M.D., professor of gynecologic oncology and
preventive medicine, and senior scientist at the Comprehensive
Cancer Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham
The natural, clean, and simple approach to eating described in this book represents the ideal for healthy living today and preventing disease tomorrow. The connection between nutrition and disease is very real. There is abundant evidence that using the healthy food choices advocated for by Dr. Fuhrman will make a significant difference in the ability of children as well as adults to fight disease. If we as a society could even partially shift our approach to eating in the direction of the recommendations made in this book, we would see dramatic improvements in the challenges we currently face with obesity and many other childhood diseases.
—Wayne S. Dysinger, M.D., M.P.H., chairman of the Department of
Preventive Medicine, Loma Linda University
"The war against cancer is just beginning and the most powerful artillery in the scientific arsenal has just been launched. Disease-Proof Your Child is one of the most important health books of this century."
—Thomas Davenport, M.D., Massachusetts General Hospital
Fellowship/Harvard University, Microsurgery/Aesthetic
Surgery Fellowship/Memorial Sloan Kettering,
Webster International Fellowship/Interplast
It is simply unnecessary to die of heart disease and cancer. Dr. Fuhrman’s book offers the lifesaving solution. I urge you to read it.
—T. Colin Campbell, professor Emeritus of Nutritional
Biochemistry at Cornell University
Dr. Fuhrman provides information, easy to read and understand but science backed, that will help every parent raise healthy children who will later become disease-proofed adults.
—Neal Pinckney, Ph.D., founder and director, Healing Heart Foundation,
author of Healthy Heart Handbook: How to Prevent and Reverse Heart
Disease, Lower Your Risk of Heart Attack and Cancer,
Reduce Stress, Lose Weight Without Hunger
An essential guide for every parent. The nutrition and health information, practical meal plans and recipes, and medical advice from one of our nation’s leading preventive medicine physicians is invaluable.
—John Westerdahl, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D., nutrition editor,
Veggie Life magazine, director, Wellness & Lifestyle
Medicine, Castle Medical Center, Kailua, Hawaii
Disease-Proof
Your Child
Also by Joel Fuhrman, M.D.
Fasting and Eating for Health:
A Medical Doctor’s Program for Conquering Disease
Eat to Live: The Revolutionary Formula for
Fast and Sustained Weight Loss
Disease-Proof
Your Child
Feeding Kids Right
Joel Fuhrman, M.D.
ST. MARTIN’S GRIFFIN
NEW YORK
DISEASE-PROOF YOUR CHILD. Copyright © 2005 by Joel Fuhrman, M.D. Foreword copyright © 2005 by T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLIC ATION DATA
Fuhrman, Joel.
Disease-proof your child : feeding kids right / Joel Fuhrman.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 223) and index (p.241).
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-33808-4
ISBN-10: 0-312-33808-2
1. Children—Nutrition. 2. Diet therapy for children. 3. Children—Health and hygiene. I. Tide.
RJ206.F797 2005
613.2'083—dc22
2005040707
10 9 8 7 6 5
To my four wonderful children, who have made fatherhood the most joyous and valuable thing I do.
Talia
Jenna
Cara
Sean
Contents
foreword: by T Colin Campbell, Ph.D.
Note to the Reader
Acknowledgments
introduction: We Are Molded by Our Childhood
one: Understanding Superior Nutrition
two: Preventing and Treating Childhood Illnesses Nutritionally
three: Understanding the Causes of Cancer and Other Illnesses
four: Feeding Your Family for Superior Health
five: Preparing Healthy Foods That Your Kids Will Love
Final Word
List of Abbreviations
Notes
Index
Foreword
I commend Dr. Joel Fuhrman for writing this book, Disease-Proof Your Child. In recent decades, much has been written on the relationship of diet and health or, more to the point, of diet and disease. Much of this literature has dealt with the so-called chronic degenerative diseases like the cardiovascular diseases, cancers, diabetes, and obesity. These are the diseases that primarily occur during adulthood and that command so much of our total health care costs.
But, in this rush to elaborate this information, far too little attention has been given to childhood nutrition and its large contribution to our adult health. It is for this reason, among others, that I believe readers will find Dr. Fuhrman’s book to be so valuable. For children, the diseases of concern to many are of the communicable and infectious types. Do the foods that protect against adult diseases like heart disease and cancer, for example, protect against childhood diseases as well—especially those like colds, flu, sore throats, and earaches that seem to come from school? Read this book and you will find plenty of evidence that the answer is a resounding yes. Healthy eating is a family thing: what is good for the young is also good for the elderly; what is good for one disease is mostly good for all diseases.
Dr. Fuhrman is well qualified to write this book—from several vantage points. As a doctor, he has had experience utilizing nutritional methods to help children in his practice; as an author, he brings credibility because of the standard of excellence in his highly successful book, Eat to Live: The Revolutionary Formula for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss; as a student of biomedical science, he is careful to reference his observations; and as a father of four children of his own, he knows what is possible.
Children are our future and it just makes common sense that the food they become accustomed to will likely be the food that they prefer for the rest of their lives. In today’s society most children consume foods that will produce serious adult onset diseases down the road, and they do not eat the foods that may offer dramatic protection. But common sense doesn’t always ring true for many people; they want empirical evidence, the scientific stuff. So, Dr. Fuhrman provides that evidence from the scientific literature and from his own practice.
In his practice, the good doctor’s primary approach is to do no harm,
as the Hippocratic Oath dictates, and whenever possible he does this by choosing dietary change before choosing the nearest bottle of pills. His successes are impressive, not only because of his patient reports but also because these successes are substantiated in science. Nutritional science applied to the next generation can gift them a long and healthy life.
For those parents who are beholden to getting a prescription for their children’s virus-induced colds and sore throats and earaches, a dietary remedy may come as a surprise. Making simple changes in the child’s diet and lifestyle often can do more than pills and do it more safely. A good diet often solves both the immediate illness and, even more important, keeps future illnesses at bay.
Eating the right foods has far-reaching benefits, one of which means much less dependence on drugs. Remember that old adage: an apple a day keeps the doctor away
? Dr. Fuhrman is making the same point—in his case, with lots of evidence. The excessive use of antibiotics is a good example. These drugs are being substantially oversubscribed, about ten times too much. Sadly too many people still seem not to know that antibiotics don’t work on viral diseases. This often does nothing for the illness but only leads to the development of antibiotic-resistant organisms that can cause a more serious problem in the future. Dr. Fuhrman also presents evidence that excessive use of antibiotics can lead to more problems, such as an increased risk of asthma and allergies.
Dr. Fuhrman’s recommendations are simple yet profound. Eat the right foods,
he says, and avoid physicians, medications and remedies
as much as possible.
Many will say that getting children to eat the right foods like vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and whole grain products is very difficult if not impossible. I do not deny the difficulty, but it is here that Dr. Fuhrman’s insight and advice shines. I agree with his conclusions and have also observed that both parents must really believe the advice they give their children and must eat the same foods. Our five grandchildren (7–13 years) have done well with their peers and willingly and proudly defend what they eat; so do the Fuhrman children. Healthy food can be almost addictive.
This is a book that should be on every physician’s desk as well as in any home where there are children. Do it right and you will be surprised at the results. Your children deserve the best start in life possible.
T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D.,
author of The China Study and
Jacob Gould Schurman
Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry
at Cornell University
Note to the Reader
The information in this book is provided to describe the dramatic health benefits of nutritional excellence started early in life. However, any decision involving the treatment of an illness should be made only after consulting the physician of your choice. Neither this nor any other book can guarantee complete absence of disease nor substitute for professional medical care or treatment. The names of patients discussed in this book have been changed, along with certain identifying characteristics.
Acknowledgments
I first have to acknowledge my wife, Lisa, for many reasons that I cannot list here. Not only does she put up with my arduous work and travel schedule, frequently being left alone to care for our four children, but she also supplies unflinching encouragement and sacrifice for my projects to reach fruition. She works as my partner to meet the needs of our family, business, and literary endeavors.
Many close friends of mine have assisted me with the book, notably Steven Acocella, D.C., and Barbara Sarter, Ph.D., who have helped me collect research; Marion Fanock, who has helped me with testing and modifying recipes; and Bob Phillips, who has assisted me in making charts and graphs.
I also acknowledge the many young people who allowed me to use their success stories in the book. Their names have been modified.
I am grateful to my literary agent, Mary Ann Naples, for all her out-of-the-ordinary contributions to this book and my work in general, and to the intelligent editing job by Sheila Oakes of St. Martin’s Press. I also want to thank Marian Lizzi of St. Martin’s Press for her enthusiastic support of this project.
introduction
We Are Molded by Our Childhood
When our son Elliot was three we already had a sickly child. He was suffering from his seventh ear infection this year and had severe eczema since his first year of life. We had been to numerous specialists for his raw, itchy skin and tried many medical treatments to no avail. My search for a better solution led me to Dr. Fuhrman. In only two months after changing Elliot’s diet his skin condition has disappeared. To our surprise he never suffered another ear infection. It is not merely Elliot’s recovery that has moved us to write, it is our enthusiasm and gratitude for the knowledge we have gained from Dr. Fuhrman that has given us an incredible sense of freedom and control over our own and our children’s health.
—Leslie and Stuart Raymond
As parents, we want what is best for our children. We would never intentionally harm them—in fact, we make sure to get them the best possible care, read to them, play with them, and ensure their safety at home, at school, and at play. But when it comes to feeding them, somehow we don’t know what’s best. Our kids seem finicky and eat nothing but cheese or pasta or chicken fingers or milk and cookies, and we let them. At the same time, we notice that they are frequently ill—they suffer from recurring ear infections, runny noses, stomachaches, and headaches. We take them to the doctor, who prescribes yet another round of antibiotics. We assume, because we also see it happening with friends and family, that it is par for the course when bringing up children. It doesn’t have to be so.
This scenario may be normal
for kids today, but it is not normal for humans or any other species of animal that eats nutrient-rich natural foods. Scientific research has demonstrated that humans have a powerful immune system, even stronger than that of other animals, that makes our body a self-repairing, self-defending organism with the innate ability to defend itself against microbes and prevent chronic illness. The system operates at its best only if we give it the correct raw materials to work with. When a young body doesn’t receive its nutritional requirements, bizarre diseases occur. Of late, there has been an increase in cancers that were unheard of in prior human history. Most of these can be linked to improper nutrition.
Despite our very best intentions, today there are health risks that well-meaning parents inflict on their children without being aware of it. Every day in small ways, we may well be causing harm to their precious little bodies through the choices we make about what we decide to feed them.
There is an issue of vital importance that most well-meaning parents are not aware of: the modern diet that most children are eating today creates a fertile cellular environment for cancer to emerge at a later age. Trying to prevent breast, prostate, and other cancers as an adult may not be totally possible because most risk factors cannot be changed at this late stage. The bottom line is that in order to have a major impact on preventing cancer we must intervene much earlier, even as early as the first ten years of life. In other words, childhood diets create adult cancers. When our children eat junk food instead of fruits and vegetables, the groundwork is being laid for cancer and other diseases to occur down the road.
Additionally, many children today are very often recurrently sick with ear infections and allergies and then, later in life, may develop autoimmune illnesses such as lupus, ulcerative colitis, and rheumatoid arthritis. The major contributor to the development of these illnesses is suboptimal nutrition. Kids become ill not because they just naturally pass around germs or have bad genes, but because their diets are inadequate. Medications cannot prevent these problems—only a diet of nutritional excellence can.
The most recent scientific evidence is both overwhelming and shocking—what we feed (or don’t feed) our children as they grow from birth to early adulthood has a greater total contributory effect on the dietary contribution to cancers than dietary intake over the next fifty years. American children and most children in developed countries eat less than 2 percent of their diet from natural plant foods such as fruits and vegetables.¹ American children move into adulthood eating 90 percent of their caloric intake from dairy products, white flour, sugar, and oil. Amazingly, about 25 percent of toddlers between ages one and two eat no fruits and vegetables at all. By fifteen months, french fries are the most common vegetable consumed in America!
Childhood diets are unhealthy, but the issue goes beyond simple nutrition. Recent, compelling, scientific evidence over the past two decades has shown links between precise dietary factors and autoimmune illnesses such as Crohn’s disease and lupus, as well as later-life cancers. This means that we now know what helps to create an environment in our bodies that is favorable for cancers to emerge later in life, and we understand how what they eat now can prevent cancer in our children’s future. While the scientific evidence is in, parents haven’t been informed that what their children eat during their growth years has such a profound effect on their later health and that the first ten years may be the most critical. Unfortunately many parents are unwittingly feeding their children dangerous, cancer-provoking diets. My goal is to inform parents so that they can give their children the greatest gift of all: the opportunity for a long and healthy life.
This book reviews the scientific evidence and explains that the vast majority of adult cancers are avoidable if an excellent diet is begun and maintained from early childhood. Unfortunately, pediatricians and family physicians rarely discuss diet with parents, encouraging the perception that what a child eats does not matter. Parents also are uninformed that following an anti-cancer diet can free their children from repeated trips to the doctor, endless courses of antibiotics, and the curtailed living that comes from being frequently sick.
While the scientific information may be alarming, the solutions are simple. Eating to prevent common illnesses as well as to prevent life-threatening illnesses in the future can be easy and taste good. You and your family will discover that the right foods can protect against obesity, autoimmune disease, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. It is my mission and my passion to get this vital information out to all parents, and I am not going to sugarcoat the message. The truth is too important. This book will show you the science and the solution—and you won’t believe how easy and tasty it can be.
MY ROLES AS A PHYSICIAN AND A PARENT
ARE SIMILAR
I have been a family physician for more than fifteen years. I chose the specialty of family practice because I knew the health of each family member is cohesively linked. I realized that in order to have a major impact on one family member, I had to affect the lifestyle and diet of the entire family unit.
I envisioned seeing everyone in the family and getting to know them all as their doctor and friend and becoming an extension of the immediate family, like in the old days, when everyone in town knew the doctor and paid him in home-grown produce and apple pie. I may not have received the bounty of the family farm, but I have been given the opportunity to care for and help many, many individuals and families. The results have been richly rewarding.
Most families seek me out because they are tired of having a perpetually sick child and have learned of my successes in helping children reclaim their health and stay well. The most common complaint is recurrent ear infections, and at the first visit many parents bring in a list of ten to twenty antibiotic prescriptions given to their child over the last year by their well-meaning family physician or pediatrician. Some of these children are faced with the prospect of undergoing sinus surgery or having tubes placed in their ears. Others are on drugs such as Ritalin for behavioral disorders. Doctors and parents tend to assume that because almost all children suffer from these common problems and frequent infections, they are normal.
When children are repeatedly or chronically ill, today’s doctors treat patients as they were taught to—with antibiotics and other drugs. I see things very differently. If a child is repetitively or chronically ill, with one infection after another, I see that there is a problem with immunity—a problem that likely comes from an inadequate diet. I know that rather than antibiotics and other drugs, nutritional excellence must be the first choice in recovery and prevention. I have seen it work in my own practice. After seeing me and making dietary adjustments, almost every chronically ill child recovered and is able to maintain good health without resorting to more drugs and antibiotics.
I tell parents that if they follow my advice