Voices of the Food Revolution. John Robbins

To maximally repair cellular damage, we are going to push the envelope of human longevity and really see if we can win the war on cancer.

      My approach is not just about losing weight and not having heart attacks. It's also about maximizing healthy life expectancy. A hundred years ago people lived about as long as they are living now. Life expectancy was lower because we had much higher infant and child mortality rates, and many women died during childbirth. But in the real comparison of health issues, we found that people who lived fifty or a hundred years ago actually didn't have as much disability, discomfort, and pain in the last ten years of their lives as people do today. They mostly had a bad time in the last three to six months of their lives. Now people are over-medicated and sickly, and have a very poor healthy life expectancy. This is because the American diet has degenerated with so much fast food, processed food, and refined food.

      We are literally seeing an epidemic of disease that's weighing down our health-care system, weighing down our economy, and creating huge amounts of personal human tragedy. Excellent nutrition is tremendously powerful in giving us personal choice and control of our health destiny. It can also be tasty, fun, and exciting to actually be in great health and continue to have a healthy life as we age.

      JOHN ROBBINS: You coined the term “nutritarian.” Would it be correct to say that refers to someone whose food choices provide an optimal amount of nutrients per calorie?

      DR. JOEL FUHRMAN: Sure, but also a person who strives for better nutrition. A “nutritarian” is someone who chooses to have excellent nutrition, in order to have better health. A lot of people are “nutritarians” and have never heard of the word before. Micro-nutrients are the noncaloric portion of food—the vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, and other newly discovered factors that are so important for human health. I use the formula H=n/c (health equals nutrients divided by calories). If you want to live a long time, repair cellular damage, and protect against late-life diseases like dementia, you want a large amount of micro-nutrients per caloric buck. That means a high n/c ratio. You need a broad spectrum of micro-nutrient diversity. You need to eat a lot of green vegetables and other colorful foods that supply you with high levels of the phytochemicals that prevent cancer.

      JOHN ROBBINS: Which micronutrients are the most important to consume to make sure we have superior immune function?

      DR. JOEL FUHRMAN: The most important nutrient for you to consume is the one that you're missing. You have to make sure that you have comprehensive micronutrient adequacy. If your body is an orchestra, you can't have a few extra drum sets pounding on while there are no flutes present. You have to make sure everything's present to create the music.

      It's not just about eating more broccoli. It's also about, for example, eating some mushrooms, because mushrooms supply some particular nutrients that are not present in many other foods and that are important to achieve comprehensive micronutrient adequacy. Micronutrient adequacy is not about numbers, but about the complexity and the diversity that is necessary for superior immune function.

      JOHN ROBBINS: What are the micronutrients that most Americans are deficient in, and what are good sources to provide them?

      DR. JOEL FUHRMAN: The American diet couldn't be better designed to create cancer and heart attacks had we designed it for that purpose. Right now it's degenerated to the point that 62 percent of calories are from refined foods and about 26 percent come from animal products. Of the 10 percent of calories that remains from unrefined plant food, half of that comes from white potato products, which are not exactly nutrient-rich. Americans are just not consuming fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, and seeds. They're not consuming sufficient quantity of natural plant foods with a broad assortment of protective micronutrients.

      I coined another acronym called G-BOMBS, to help people remember the foods that they are supposed to be consuming on a regular daily basis.

      The “G” stands for greens, which includes both raw and cooked green vegetables. Most of all we're focusing on leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts. A mixture of raw vegetables and cooked green vegetables in your diet has been documented to have an association with longer life and protection against cancer.

      The first “B” stands for beans, which are associated with longer life and are a rich source of phytonutrients that link to longevity in humans.

      The “O” stands for onions. I've been shocked and pleasantly surprised at the studies that show how protective onions are against cancer. I have changed my diet dramatically in the past five to ten years, trying to shred raw onion on my salad, and to eat more onions and mushrooms.

      The third one is “M” for mushrooms, which is a very exciting part of research. It appears that mushrooms have the ability to actually enhance human immune function. They help to label cells that are becoming abnormal for your immune recognition to remove them. Mushrooms also have weight-loss benefits outside of being low in calories, because they actually have angiogenesis inhibition effects, which prevent the blood vessels from fueling fat expansion. So they have fat-inhibiting effects as well as cancer- and tumor-inhibiting effects.

      The second “B” stands for Berries. Berries have Polyphenols and Anthocyanidins, which are very beneficial for the brain and the body's immune system.

      The “S” stands for Seeds, like flax seeds, Chia seeds, hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, and sesame seeds. Having some seeds on a regular basis can be beneficial for numerous reasons. The lignins have cancer-protective effects, and the fatty acids are beneficial for health, the stabilization of inflammation, and heart regularity.

      We can construct dietary recommendations to maximize human immune function, and to repair and resist the process of aging. We have an opportunity to live longer and in better health than in any other time or place in human history.

      JOHN ROBBINS: Is there a role for whole grains in your diet?

      DR. JOEL FUHRMAN