GOMBS Diet

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“A properly fueled body is a miraculous self-healing machine”

Dr. Joel Fuhrman MD, is a board certified family physician, a widely published nutritional expert and a researcher who explains how you can lower cholesterol levels,  reverse heart disease and diabetes  and have a healthy way to lose weight through natural means. In his recent PBS Special  “Three Steps To Incredible Health,”  Dr. Fuhrman explained his three step diet plan filled with nutrient rich foods that help people achieve optimal health and vitality without drugs or surgery. Dr. Oz called Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s plan  “A medical breakthrough. If you give this diet your complete commitment, there is no question in my mind that it will work for you.”

Furhman’s segment titled Super Foods for Health and Pleasure, explains and illustrates that solutions for preventing cancer are right in our grocery store aisles and kitchens.  He speaks enthusiastically about the Superfoods he calls GOMBS.

Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s research has led him to believe that these super foods are the most powerful disease fighting foods available on the planet.  Their healing capacities are great, as well as their ability to put the body on the path to be self healing and lean and fit.  A simple way to remember these Super Food is to think of the word GOMBS (rhymes with Combs as in “she combs her hair”) – although it is useful to add the second B in the word because the B stands for both Beans and Berries, so sometimes the new word is written out as GOMBBS.

Dr. Joel Fuhrman will be interviewed on a fantastic summit that deals with the new food revolution we are starting to experience. Dr. Fuhrman is a family physician and researcher who specializes in reversing disease through nutrition.  Dr. Fuhrman is New York Times bestselling author of Eat to Live, and research director for the Nutritional Research Project of the National Health Association. He studies the data, and then he makes the latest learnings of medical science accessible to all of us.

What are the GOMBS Diet Super Foods?

Greens – Green leafy vegetables have many diverse nutrients and systems that help the body.  Joel Furhman explains that they allow the blood vessels to function better by putting a  slippery, silicone like coating against the inside of our blood vessels. They activate other compounds inside the blood vessels called the Nrf2 mechanism which prevents plaque from binding and settling against the blood vessel walls.  This accelerates the rate at which dietary fat melt away from the lining of our blood vessels.

Onions –  The Medical Journal of Clinical Nutrition did a large study in Europe on people who ate onions regularly. They concluded that people who ate more onions on a regular basis exhibited  a 60 to 70% overall reduction in all major cancers. These cancers include prostate cancer, breast cancer, and ovarian cancer.  Merely a higher consumption of onions creates this large result. Have you ever cut into an onion and wondered about that stinging feeling you get?  The tears in the eyes? Well, when you cut an onion, there is a gas given off that creates disulfides which are anti-cancer nutrients that impact your blood health.

Mushrooms – Recently there have been  studies published in the international Journal of Cancer that showed that women who regularly consumed mushrooms were 64% less likely to develop breast cancer. This study was based on a consumption of about 10 g of mushrooms per day. This same study showed that women who ate 10 g of mushrooms while also simultaneously consuming green tea had a 89% less likely chance of developing breast cancer.

Beans and Berries -Beans and berries have long been known to have high cancer preventive antioxidants levels.  It is quite well know as well that they promote healthy brain function.

Beans and legumes provide superior nutrition. They are also the most nutrient-dense source of carbohydrates. They are considered anti-diabetes and weight-loss foods because they are digested slowly and have a stabilizing effect on blood sugar, which helps to curb cravings. They also contain soluble fiber, which has been shown to lower cholesterol levels. The fiber and resistant starch of beans reduce total the number of calories absorbed from beans and also are fermented by intestinal bacteria into fatty acids that help to prevent colon cancer. 

Blueberries, strawberries and blackberries are low in sugar and very high in nutrients – they are among the all time best foods you can eat. Their bright colors indicate that they are full of antioxidants and vitamins.  In fact, berries are among the highest antioxidant foods available. The antioxidants in berries provide both heart-protective and anti-cancer effects, from reducing blood pressure and inflammation to preventing DNA damage. Eating berries has been linked to reduced risk for diabetes, cancers and cognitive decline. Berries are also excellent food for the brain, improving both motor coordination and memory.

Seeds – Raw seeds and nuts have phytochemicals and fats that help have been proven to reduce the body’s inflammation, as well as help reduce cholesterol.  They also help in the body’s ability to absorb other important micronutrients. Dr. Fuhrman suggests that you should eat nuts as part of your salad or even making a salad dressing from them  (in other words a bowl full of nuts as snack food is not necessarily the best way to go).

Joel Fuhrman says that studies on mushrooms, onions, berries, and green vegetables have been shown to have dramatic protection properties against cancer.  He claims that this is recorded in medical publications such as The International Journal of Cancer and The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

In addition to the above mentioned properties, mushrooms and onions also contain angiogenesis inhibitors (compounds that prevent nutrients feeding into tumors and cancers).  To state this in another way, these foods prevent abnormal cancer cells from being fueled, which has the effect of starving the harmful cancer cells.

All mushrooms, even the least expensive one from the grocery store, have a compound called aromatase inhibitors. These work on body hormone levels. These aromatase inhibitors lower the toxic levels of the estrogen hormone (those that promote breast cancers) and they also have been shown to lower the hormones that promote prostate cancer. As you can see from what we have discussed already, these healthy foods have multiple effects that attack and prevent cancer from many different angles.

Dr. Fuhrman discusses this high nutrient eating style and says that it has been shown to lower cholesterol even more than pharmaceutical cholesterol drugs. When we lower our cholesterol levels with superior and vital nutrition we simultaneously lower our blood pressure, lose weight, and reduce inflammation in the joints and body.

All in all, these recommendations are easy to put into place, and also are some of the best tasting foods out there.  It only makes sense to incorporate more Green, Onions, Mushrooms, Berries, Beans and Seeds into our meals to achieve weight loss, health and vitality and long term well being.

For more information, Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s books Eat for Health and Eat To Live are very good resources – They are informative and inspiring, with clearly laid out plans and recipes to help you on your path to a healthy fit life.

Here is a very helpful chart that gives points for the best foods to eat for a healthy GOMBS DIET – The pyramid to the left says how much of certain types of food to eat and the chart on the left gives points for the best foods to eat – the higher the points the better the foods.