We have a great conversation going on with Dr. Joel Fuhrman with this blog, and he wanted very much to share the story of one of his clients, Rebecca, who started his program at 500 pounds and has lost over 300 pounds. It is a very long and detailed story and we are going to blog about bit by bit. It is very interesting.
We asked her a series of questions about her whole experience, but one question I wanted to ask because people ask us this all the time:
Is your new way of eating more expensive than what you used to do? Was there a lot of cost to manage?
"No, I find it’s actually less because of the highly dense nutrient foods you consume, you satisfy your hunger with less food. My prior way of eating food was expensive, as it did not fill me up so I ate a lot of it; got very little nutrients BUT lots of excess calories which gave me lots of excess poundage!
For example, a typical drive-thru value meal super-sized at the time was almost $5.00—I could and would easily eat 2 of those meals and STILL be hungry and buy more snack foods like pretzels and chips! However, with Eat To Live, I could go into a grocery store salad bar and for the same $10.00, get a pound of salad with lots of greens, some chick peas, a few raw sunflower seeds, purchase 1-2 pieces of fruit, and get a bottle of water---AND still have 2-4 dollars back in change!
But the best part was, I would feel full—actually I ate half the salad for lunch and saved the other half for my dinner. So, eating this way is much more cost efficient, not to mention, I think I saw my family physician just 4 times during those 4 years, because I needed a physical each year for work. So, there, even more money saved eating this way because your body just gets so pumped up with so many crucial nutrients that you just don’t sick and you save money on doctor visits!"
What is interesting about this part of her story is the idea that when you eat a more nutrient dense diet- more greens and vegetables, these things help you feel full. They help you feel full because your body is getting the nutrients it needs. After Eat To Live, Dr. Fuhrman wrote a two book set called Eat For Health, which introduces the MANDI points system which makes it easy to quantify the levels of nutrient dense foods. This way of eating does not have to be expensive and it can be very easy.
Fitbottomed Readers:
Welcome to PEERtrainer--we highly recommend buying a copy of Eat For Health, and the link above takes you to a page where you can buy the book for a $15 discount, plus you get a portable food scoring guide for free.
The doctor is right. It costs less to eat a healthier diet. In our case, my family rarely eats fast food because I buy and cook our food. I find this healthier and more economical because it is cheaper to cook and you know exactly what goes into your food.
Posted by: Carol | April 01, 2011 at 12:44 PM