I have friends who love to diet! Even though I tell them NOT to.
How about this diet:
- You don’t count calories.
- You never watch portion size.
- You eat as much as you want.
What’s the catch? You have to go cold turkey on SFS drug for SIX WEEKS!
Something I could never do when I set out on my healing journey! One day was my max — and that was One Big Struggle.
But if you’re a seasoned dieter, then hey, why not give it a shot?
You’ll speed up the clean and feed cycle your cells are crying for. Even if you binge in the middle of it, you still give your cells a rest from junk on some days.
The diet is Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s. Read all about it in his book Eat to Live: The Amazing Nutrient-Rich Program for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss (#ad).
A key to your success is to eat BIG bowls of vegetables, as many as you want.
The more vegetables you eat, the more you lose.
What Is SFS Drug?
SFS = SUGAR FAT SALT. In other words — factory food, fast food, animal food.
Factory food comes in a can, box, jar, or brightly colored foil wrapper.
Does the food in front of you look like the food you pick in Nature? No? Then it’s SFS drug.
Do corn flakes look like corn? Do cookies look like a field of wheat? Does jelly look like fruit?
Does the piece of flesh in cellophane wrap look like a cow you’d bite into?
For six weeks — 42 days — you can’t touch SFS Drug.
Nutrients Per Bite
Dr. Fuhrman’s core message is: Be a NUTRI-tarian! Eat food that has the most nutrition in every bite you eat. He calls it “nutrient to calorie ratio.”
Are you a vegan who points at the vegetarian and says, “gross, how can you drink milk?” Or a meat-eater who points at the vegan and says, “no meat? you’re cuckoo.”
Joining a food religion is SO yesterday.
Today, the secret is to eat NUTRIENT-DENSE food. This will heal you and our planet. You can be vegan and eat nutrient-poor food, like organic cereal and almond milk for breakfast. That’s SFS drug. It’s made by a machine, not by Nature.
Dr. Fuhrman writes on his site:
“Following a strict vegetarian diet is NOT as important as eating a diet rich in vegetables. 90% of your daily diet should be nutrient-rich plant foods.”
In other words, don’t fret the small stuff.
Micro & Macro Nutrients
MICRO-nutrients are vitamins, minerals, and phyto-chemicals (phyto means plant).
MACRO-nutrients are protein, carbohydrates, and fats.
Scientists estimate there are 10,000 or more unique phytochemicals! They are ONLY in fresh plants. They feed you and protect you against disease.
The foods with the highest micronutrients per calorie are green vegetables, colorful vegetables, and fresh fruits.
Dr. Fuhrman gives us the ANDI Food Scores (Aggregate Nutrient Density Index). ANDI ranks each food by its micronutrient content.
Kale and collard greens win, with a score of 1,000 each. They’re the most nutrient dense.
Meat, seafood, and dairy all fall below 40! They give you the least nutrition per calorie.
See which foods score highest here: ANDI (Aggregate Nutrient Density Index) Food Scores.
Step-by-Step Up the Pyramid
In my own journey, I evolved naturally into the Food Pyramid that Dr. Fuhrman teaches. I had no idea he was teaching it! The first time I saw his food pyramid was in 2012 when I bought his video book Eat to Live: The Amazing Nutrient-Rich Program for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss (#ad).
With Dr. Fuhrman, I follow him 100% but I never made the decision to do it. My body found its own way there. Simply by reaching for more raw food.
That’s why I trust Dr. Fuhrman! If you move like a tortoise for 15 years, as I did, and:
- each year you reach for more fresh food and less factory food,
- until you finally arrive at the natural diet for you,
I bet you’ll find yourself doing it a lot like Dr. Fuhrman!
It’s such a lovely space to be in. You never think about what to eat. It comes naturally to you each day when you open your refrigerator door.
Of course your refrigerator is packed to the brim with fresh fruits and vegetables! Dr. Fuhrman reminds us:
“The salad is the main dish.”
Food Pyramid in Detail
Take a look at Dr. Fuhrman’s food pyramid. This is for normal every-day eating, not for your 6-week diet.
ROW 1 (bottom) of PYRAMID
- Eat as many VEGETABLES as you want: up to 60% of calories.
- At least half (50%) should be raw and the rest you can cook (or eat raw if you prefer).
- Cook veggies slowly on low heat, such as in a stew.
- Cooking enables you to eat more so you don’t get hungry.
ROW 2 of PYRAMID
- Eat as much RAW FRUIT as you want: up to 40% of calories. Snack on a banana, not a cookie.
- Eat at least one cup of COOKED BEANS every day: up to 40% of calories.
ROW 3 of PYRAMID
- Eat RAW SEEDS daily, especially the Omega-3’s (chia, hemp, flax) or avocado, or nuts: up to 40% of calories.
- Eat WHOLE GRAINS and potatoes less often: 20% or less of calories.
- Rather eat cooked beans for your lunch, not bread. That’s what I do! My body went off bread.
ROW 4 of PYRAMID
- Poultry, Eggs, Fish, fat-free Dairy and cold-pressed Oils: less than 10% of calories.
- Okay to eat ONE of these once or twice a week, or leave out altogether.
ROW 5 (tiny tip) of Pyramid
- Beef, Cheese, Sweets, Hydrogenated Oils, and All Processed foods: DO NOT EAT! It’s SFS drug.
- Eat only as a rare treat, do NOT keep these foods in your home.
Now that makes sense, doesn’t it? Eat your veggies! But why be a veggie fanatic? Treats are okay. That’s why I use the word plant-strong, not vegan or vegetarian.
Go plant-strong! Get addicted to vegetables. How do you do that? Commit to Dr. Fuhrman’s six-week program!
At the end of six weeks, you’ll find your body CRAVING all the rich nutrients in vegetables and fruit.
Dr. Fuhrman explains WHY his diet works so well at: Compare Diets: How do other diets stack up?
He writes:
“You have to learn about the addictive nature of processed foods and make a commitment to avoid them for a period of time to break free of this addiction.”
In other words, go cold turkey on SFS drug for 42 days 🙂
Summary of Six Week Plan
Would you like to try Dr. Fuhrman’s 6-week Diet? Then please get his book Eat to Live: The Amazing Nutrient-Rich Program for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss (#ad). Don’t do it alone, without his book.
Or become a Member on his site. As a Member, you get ongoing support.
Read testimonials on Dr. Fuhrman’s website at: Success Stories: The Power of Superior Nutrition! Search for specific illnesses or on keywords such as age range, pounds lost, gender.
Here’s my brief summary of the diet — one pound is 450 grams:
- Eat one pound (half a kilo) of raw vegetables daily.
- Eat one pound of leafy greens daily, raw and cooked.
- Fill up on as many non-starchy vegetables as you want.
- Eat one cup of cooked beans or legumes daily.
- Eat four fruits or more daily.
- For weight loss, omit starchy vegetables like butternut or yam, but if you do not want to lose weight, then it’s good to eat these.
- Eat meals as big as you like, but no snacking between meals.
- No compromise for six weeks!
Basically, you’re going vegan for six weeks 🙂
- No animal, bird, fish.
- No dairy or eggs.
- No processed foods — except frozen vegetables are okay.
- No fruit juices, not even raw and home-made.
- No grains or white potatoes — so no bread, no cereal, no pasta.
You don’t count calories. You fill up your plate and eat as much as you want!
BUT… “unlimited eating” applies ONLY to leafy greens, non-starchy vegetables, beans, and fruits.
Dr. Fuhrman writes on his website:
“Fresh fruits, vegetables, and beans, because of their high nutrient to calorie ratios, can be eaten in unlimited quantities.”
1. Raw Vegetables
Eat one pound (half a kilo) of raw vegetables daily. A key to your success is to eat BIG PORTIONS of vegetables, as many as you want.
Dr. Fuhrman writes in Eat to Live (#ad):
“When trying to eat one pound of green vegetables and one pound of raw vegetables a day, remember eat only the amount of food that is comfortable to you. This is an average goal to shoot for, but some people may do better with somewhat more or less.”
The more vegetables you eat, the more weight you lose. A pound of raw veg is less than 100 calories.
You digest raw foods quicker and lose more weight than with the same food cooked.
- 1 cup of raw cauliflower = 5 ounces,
- 1 tomato = 4 ounces,
- 1 red or yellow sweet pepper = 4 ounces,
- 1 carrot = 3 ounces.
- Total = 16 ounces, you see how easy it is to reach one pound?
2. Leafy Greens
Eat one pound of leafy greens daily, raw & cooked. Blend raw leaves into a smoothie, or steam them, or cook slowly in a stew on low heat, or simply munch away like a gorilla.
Same rule as for raw veg, eat as many as you want but at least a pound a day.
The more you eat, the more you lose. It’s true for leafy greens too.
Eat a variety of arugula (rocket), bok choy, broccoli, cabbage, collard, dandelion greens, endive, escarole, kale, lettuce, mizuna, mustard greens, parsley, spinach, Swiss chard, tatsoi, turnip greens, watercress, wild weeds (such as amaranth leaves, lambsquarters or goosefoot, purslane, sorrel).
Add in leafy-green SPROUTS like alfalfa, broccoli, buckwheat greens, sunflower greens. See photos here.
If it’s a green leaf, try it! See which you prefer cooked, which blended raw, and which to chew on raw in a salad.
In my early days of going raw, I had to steam broccoli and kale. I couldn’t stand to eat them raw. They tasted so vile! Today I love to eat both raw. I’d never dream of cooking either one!
- 5 cups of chopped raw leafy greens (like lettuce) = 8 ounces,
- 1.5 cups of cooked kale = 7 ounces,
- 2 cups of cooked broccoli OR Brussels sprouts = 11 ounces.
- Total = 27 ounces, that’s nearly 2 lbs!
Dr. Fuhrman writes in Eat to Live (#ad):
“Green vegetables are so incredibly low in calories and rich in nutrients and fiber that the more you eat of them, the more weight you will lose. … The high volume of greens not only will be your secret to a thin waistline but will simultaneously protect you against life-threatening illnesses.”
In his FAQ, The Protein Content of Green Vegetables Compared to Meat, 100 calories of each food below gives you:
- Broccoli, frozen, chopped, cooked — 11.1 grams protein,
- Beef Steak 1/8″ fat — 8.0 grams protein,
- Romaine Lettuce, raw — 7.2 grams protein,
- Kale, cooked — 6.8 grams protein.
Leafy Greens – OK to Juice?
Does it count if you juice your pound of leafy greens daily? Rather than eat them…
My personal experience is that the quickest way to beat sugar-fat-salt cravings is to drink green juices. Drink a green juice 5 days a week, and your cravings melt away. You notice it in the first month.
Kale juice is so nutrient rich! Most of those nutrients are locked up in the fiber. When your juicer removes the fiber, you “eat” more nutrients. It’s one big reason why juices vanquish cravings. Your cells aren’t hungry any more. They’re getting the molecules they need to perform their chemical reactions.
However, during your 6-week diet, Dr. Fuhrman prefers you to EAT your food rather than juice it. He’s very much against fruit juices. They’re too high in instant calories — all that sugar in the fruit!
He does use home-made vegetable juice as a base in his stews. And he advises to buy a juicer.
Why does he prefer you to eat, rather than juice? Because the fiber in green leaves trigger stretch receptors in your stomach that tell your brain when you’re full.
Dr. Fuhrman writes in Eat to Live (#ad):
“Liquid calories, without the fiber present in the whole food, have little effect at blunting our caloric drive.
… If you are not overweight, drinking fresh–prepared juice is acceptable as long as it does not serve as a substitute for eating those fresh fruits and vegetables. There is no substitute for natural whole foods.”
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