Feather is committed to a healthy lifestyle and spreads the ETL message to an unhealthy medical community.

Dear Dr. Fuhrman,

I just read Eat to Live and was totally moved by the book and have recommitted to healthy eating. I actually read Diet for a New America about 12 years ago and my healthy eating began then. About one and a half years ago, at age 39, I was in the middle of fertility issues doing everything I could to get pregnant. All around me I was being told to gain weight and eat fat. I was told that I didn’t have enough body fat and women need fat to carry babies. I am 5 feet tall, weigh 102 pounds. My life has been committed to eating healthy with the intention of avoiding heart disease and other diseases associated with a poor American diet. At the time, I would do anything to get pregnant. For a year I ate things that were never a part of my regular diet like feta cheese, butter, cookies, wheat, pasta, etc. I went from fruits and veggies to all kinds of “yummy”, “fun”, “unhealthy” fat foods, (still no meat or dairy except for feta cheese). I continued to eat all my healthy foods, just added in the fat foods too. Needless to say, I gained about 10 pounds and never got pregnant. It was an age issue. Not a fat issue.

I have been trying to lose the weight and at 41-years-old it has been much harder, especially after being introduced to butter and cookies. But my sister gave me your book and I was recommitted immediately.

I am somewhat of an evangelist when I believe in something and here is the point of this email. I had surgery last Friday to remove a bulging varicose vein on the back of my leg that I have had since the age of 15. I had some anesthesia for the surgery but when I awoke in the recovery room I was giving a sermon to the surgeon, operating nurse, and recovery nurse about the importance of veggies, fruits, raw nuts, and everything which I had just read in your book. I urged them all to get the book and read it. The surgeon told me that the one bad food he eats is cheeseburgers. Three cheeseburgers every Saturday night! It is his “treat”. I was so uninhibited from the anesthesia that I told him his risk of having a heart attack. The recovery nurse said she had chicken and a cookie for lunch while the operating nurse had a coffee in her hand for her lunch. I lectured them all about the importance of their diets and the importance of being role models for others as medical professionals. I urged them to eat more vegetables and read Eat to Live. I vaguely remember saying all of this, but I know that I did.

Yesterday I went in for my post-op appointment and my doctor told me all that he had learned from me about nutrition in those few moments in recovery. He went home that night and bought Eat to Live. I was amazed. I have another appointment with him in two weeks. I’ll see if he’s still eating three cheeseburgers every Saturday night as his treat.

-Feather