The Joel Fuhrman Diet Meals

Fuhrman recommends a vegetable-based, whole-foods diet of raw and cooked vegetables, fruits, legumes, raw nuts and seeds (and limited quantities of whole grains), while severely limiting or eliminating animal products, all oils, refined grains, sugars and salt. Though he does not promote a strict vegan diet as ideal, he does restrict all animal products to less than 10 percent of total calories, the threshold at which he claims epidemiological data indicate increased risk of disease. At the same time, he emphasizes that a vegan diet rich in junk foods is less healthful than an omnivorous diet based on nutrient-dense plant foods with a modicum of animal products.

For Fuhrman, the cardinal issue is not abstinence from any particular foods (although some, e.g. nitrite-containing processed meats, have such a clear link to disease that they should be avoided altogether), but the "nutrient density" of the overall diet: maximizing the essential vitamins, minerals, and protective phytochemicals in the minimum number of calories to maintain a healthy weight. He claims that the more nutrient-dense the diet, the lower the risk of developing chronic disease, or as he expresses it mathematically, "H=N/C" ("Health = Nutrients/Calories").