Forget Counting Calories--Make the Quality of the Calories Count

I got this message from Dr. Fuhrman today and it is absolutely the best way to summarize the way I eat.

I hope you enjoy it and are encouraged to adopt a more plant-based diet.

Health and Weight Loss Basics

My nutritarian food pyramid illustrates the principles of my Health Equation: Health = Nutrients / Calories (H = N / C) which defines how health is impacted by the micronutrient per calorie density of the diet. In other words, the future of your health can be predicted by the quality of the calories you consume. Micronutrient per calorie density is important in devising and recommending menu plans and dietary suggestions that are the most effective for tackling weight loss and for preventing and reversing disease.

The base of my nutriarian food pyramid – the foundation of the diet - are the foods with the highest ratios of nutrients to calories (highest ANDI scores). The large majority of your daily diet should be made up of nutrient rich plant foods, whose calories are accompanied by health-promoting phytochemicals: green and other non-starchy vegetables; fresh fruits; beans and legumes; raw nuts,seeds, and avocados; starchy vegetables; and whole grains.

Even though processed foods, and concentrated sweets are included on the pyramid as foods to be used in minor amounts, it is certainly a health advantage to reduce these foods to special occasions or not at all. Animal products should also be limited to the condiment level, and certainly under 10 percent of total calories.

It is not merely that these foods are not micronutrient rich and displace protective foods off our plate, but also that too much animal protein is linked to higher levels of IgF-1 (insulin-like growth factor 1) increasing risk of breast and prostate cancer. By keeping these low nutrient foods to a minimum and striving to eat at least 90% of calories from unrefined plant foods you construct a health-promoting, disease-preventing diet that has tremendous potential.

My experience in the last 20 years of medical practice is that individuals following this type of diet have transformed their health, and are living well in their 80’s and 90’s without the diseases plaguing other Americans. I call those who strive to follow a high nutrient eating style for its disease-protective properties, nutritarians.

Nutritional science has demonstrated that colorful plant foods contain a huge assortment of protective compounds, most of which still remain unnamed. Only by eating an assortment of nutrient-rich natural foods can we access these protective compounds and prevent the common diseases that afflict Americans.

Learn more:

• Become a nutritarian

• Best foods for weight-loss and disease protection

• Compare it to the USDA MyPyramid


By following the guidelines of my nutritarian food pyramid and eating an abundance of high nutrient foods you can obtain superior health, lose weight, and recover from chronic illnesses such as headaches, indigestion, high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease.

~Dr. Fuhrman