A place to see good, share good, and do good.

Joel Fuhrman, (born December 2, 1953), is an American author, physician, speaker, and media personality who advocates what he calls a micronutrient-rich diet.

A former competitive figure skater, he suffered a serious injury which removed him from competition. He says an alternative medicine therapy helped speed his recovery and led him to become a physician. His practice is based on his nutrition-based approach to obesity and chronic disease as well as promoting his products and books.[1] He has written several books promoting his dietary approaches and sells a related line of nutrition related products. As of April 2013, his book Eat to Live was on the New York Times bestseller paperback Advice & Misc. list for 90 weeks.[2]

Life and career[edit]

Fuhrman was born in New York, New York, on December 2, 1953. He was a competitor in the amateur figure skating circuit.[1] He was a member of the US World Figure Skating Team and placed second in the US National Pairs Championship in 1973. In 1973, he suffered a heel injury which prevented him from competing.[1] He followed an " irregular cure" from a naturopath which included a long fast and lead Fuhrman to become interested in alternate medicine.[1] He came in 3rd place at the 1976 World Professional Pairs Skating Championship in Jaca, Spain, skating with his sister, Gale Fuhrman,[3] but due to the short-term massive muscle loss from the fast was unable to make the Olympic team.[1] In 1988, he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.[1]

Fuhrman has advocated eating at least one pound of raw vegetables and another pound of cooked ones each day.[1] He popularized the notion of nutrient density in what he calls the Health Equation: Health = Nutrients/Calories (abbreviated as H = N/C).[1] Peter Lipson, a physician and writer on alternative medicine, has been heavily critical of Fuhrman's health equation, writing that since its terms cannot be quantified, it is "nothing more than a parlor trick".[4] Fuhrman created what he calls the "Aggregate Nutrient Density Index", a ranking of foods based on micronutrient concentration.[5] Whole Foods began using the scores as a marketing project and reported that the sales of high scoring foods "skyrocketed".[5]

Fuhrman has heavily marketed his products and his infomercials have "become a staple during the self-improvement bloc of PBS pledge drives."[1] In the October 2012 edition of Men's Journal, Mark Adams stated that Fuhrman "preaches something closer to fruitarianism or Christian Science than to conventional medical wisdom".[1] Adams also reported that Fuhrman believes that the flu vaccine "isn't effective at all".[1]

Fuhrman is a board-certified family physician and serves as Director of Research for the Nutritional Research Foundation.

Source: Wikipedia