Raina overcame food addiction and toxic hunger

Dear Dr. Fuhrman,

I chose to live as an artist early on. As I started to reach my mid-30s financially I was always under the gun. I got into the habit of buying food solely based on stretching a dollar. If the choice was either five boxes of pasta for a buck or a head of lettuce, I went for the pasta. This, of course, lead to me eating boxes of Little Debbie brownies and Ring Dings - worse!

I ate like this for so many years that my once healthy body started to completely fall apart. I felt like I was drowning in a pool of toxicity with no way out for so many years. I couldn't eat just one brownie. I would literally eat an entire box. I couldn't just eat one Krispy Kreme. I would eat six, get sick, and then just a couple of hours later go back eat the other six for dinner. Sugar was an addictive drug for me. In retrospect I was probably becoming diabetic. I was so addicted to sugar I couldn't concentrate until I had a fix. I ate ridiculous amounts of sugar as a kid too of course.

During the low-carb craze six or so years ago, I lost a lot of weight initially but then really destroyed my body in the process. Before that I'd never in my life been a big meat eater. I never had a lot of cellulite on my body, even when I got up to 185 pounds. Boy did that change. I was eating three steaks a day, unlimited cheeses, and drinking cream and half and half. At first you lose weight but good luck as soon as you mess up just a little. I completely lost touch with any nutrition. I was solely concerned about dropping weight first. Making matters worse after suffering a very serious knee injury and bungled surgeries almost five years ago, I was unable to exercise for long stints of time.

I had seen Dr Fuhrman many years earlier on television in 1996 or 1997 and bought his first book but was too distracted by life's traumas to stay focused. I would try to eat a lot of veggies and salads for example but I didn't think Thousand Island dressing on a big salad mattered that much. Duh! I was messing up before I even got started.

Half heartedly paying attention to my nutritional needs for just a short time didn't work. I didn't have the ability to commit. But I would always pull the book out every now and then for many years because it was so informative. I hoped to inspire myself but a brownie always won in the end. That is until Jan. 18, 2006.

I had passed the 200 pound mark for a second time and I knew I couldn't go it alone. On a whim I called Dr. Fuhrman's office in N.J. and made an appointment. His receptionist helped me figure out a way to see the doctor even though I didn't have insurance. Now I feel like she saved my life.

The doctor took so much time with me and made me feel like I could call him anytime for guidance.

I've always loved fresh vegetables but I had myself convinced that I couldn't afford to eat whole foods. Dr. Fuhrman and his new book, Eat to Live, showed me otherwise and turned it all around for me.

He caught my ravenous need to eat anything that isn't nailed down by telling me abut the unlimited food categories (veggies, fruit, beans etc). Just knowing that I could eat five pineapples, 10 heads of lettuce, 16 tomatoes, and 45 eggplants, if I wanted to, gave me a feeling of security. What can I say? Of course I never would eat that much but the science and the logic gradually became clear.

I would fill up on a delicious salad and or a bowl of curried vegetable soup (or three if I wanted). Only the first three days were a little bit of a struggle. Then it became easy. Especially because I'd lost 9 pounds the first week! To see pounds fall off day by day, even if it was just water weight was thrilling.

I would wake up in the morning without aches and pains in my joints which I had previously surrendered to believing that my 45-year-old body was just becoming arthritic. I had a rash on my upper arms for almost two years and suddenly it had clear up and was gone too. I felt like my body loved me back for showing it love by eating the whole foods the human body is meant to eat.

One morning I discovered I couldn't finish a banana! I only ate two-thirds of it and I was full. The cravings seemed to stop almost completely. Once in a while it was hard but I held fast and quickly got right back on track.

In total as of today, about 10 weeks later, I have lost 33 pounds. Now my focus is more about what I'm putting into my body as opposed to what I weigh. It's just a thrilling surprise to see another 2 to 3 pounds melt away each week, sometimes more.

-Raina F.