Charlotte's Story

Eat To Live may take time and effort, but the results are well worth it. It would be easy to blame my health problems on heredity since I was heavy since childhood. I have a history of obesity, heart disease and diabetes on both sides of my family. Over the years, I tried many diets with minimal and never lasting success. I reached a top weight of 263 pounds on my 5ft. 4in. frame and resigned myself to forever being a plus-sized woman. I avoided seeing doctors because, although they lectured me about my weight, the only solution they offered was a calorie restricted version of the standard American diet, on which I was always hungry and miserable.

But, in July 2003, I began a new way of life. It started tragically when, at age 56, I suffered a stroke. After almost a month in the hospital and a rehab center, I returned home diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, arteries that were about 65 percent blocked, and low thyroid levels. To control all these ills I was given prescription medications, which I was expected to take for the rest of my life. About a year after the stroke, I was diagnosed with a serious form of tachycardia and ended up having two stents for a 95 percent blockage and more prescriptions.

My husband searched the Internet for ways to help me become healthier and found Eat To Live, which claimed dramatic results through dietary changes. I was skeptical about trying yet another diet, but since I could no longer be in denial about my weight and health, I agreed. Because I was still wheelchair bound, my husband had to prepare meals for both of us. Although he only had little weight to lose, he joined me on the diet, assured by Dr. Fuhrman's website that a high nutrient, vegetable-based diet would also be healthy for him. I quickly shed pounds and my lab tests improved. Although my diabetes was controlled to the satisfaction of my doctors, Dr. Fuhrman said the first priority was to get rid of it completely with nutritional excellence. No physician I had seen ever mentioned this as a possibility.

About a year and a half later, I was no longer diabetic and had no further heart problems. My current weight is around 130, slightly less than half my maximum. I have gone from a plus-size 24W/26W to a misses 8/10, which is a smaller size than I have ever worn in my adult life. As hard as it is to imagine, the last time I was this weight I was under the age of 12.

Less measurable, but important, benefits are that I no longer snore and my energy and stamina have increased. Although I didn't fully recover from the stroke, maybe about 90 percent, there are things I can do easier now than before when I was just fat. My husband and I both have more immune resistance. We used to catch every bug that came around, but now we're rarely sick.

It’s been many years since I started on the Nutritarian diet and I have maintained my weight loss and have had no diet-related medical problems.  Even though I take no medication for diabetes or statins for cholesterol, my most recent lab results show my fasting blood sugar as 75mg/dl, total cholesterol of 144 mg/dl, and triglycerides of 61mg/dl.

I owe all these positive changes to Dr. Fuhrman's program. I still have a hearty appetite, but my relationship to food is far less addictive.