Unrefined Plant Food Consumption vs. The Killer Diseases
By Joel Fuhrman, M.D.

I insist that our low consumption of unrefined plant foods is largely responsible for our dismal mortality statistics. Most of us perish prematurely as a result of our dietary folly.

Populations with low death rates from the major killer diseases—populations that almost never have overweight members—consume more than 75 percent of their calories from unrefined plant substances. This is at least ten times more than what the average American consumes.

1. World Health Statistics Annual 1994–1998. Online version. www.who.int/whosis; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Statistical database food balance sheets, 1961– 1999. Available online at www.fao.org; National Institutes of Health. Global cancer rates, cancer death rates among 50 countries, 1986–1999. Available online at www.nih.gov.