Food = Health

This was a post from Darryl (aka "Nutritarian") from the Fuhrman forums about how changing your diet from the Standard American Diet to Dr. Fuhrman's plan will affect your health:

Here is what one might hope to achieve by really following Dr. Fuhrman's instructions:

First few weeks -- turning the ship around: Initial detoxification, improving cholesterol numbers, lowering of diabetic glucose levels, lowering of high blood pressure, etc. Some health conditions may resolve fairly quickly. Bowels start to work the way they are made to. Ability to taste and enjoy healthy food gradually develops.

Next few months - nutrient saturation: It takes quite a while for the body to readjust its complex physiology, so the entire system continues to work better and better as the months go by. The "healthy glow" develops, as phytochemicals diffuse through the body's nutrient-starved tissues. Detoxification is completed, excess inflammation resolves, immune system becomes stronger and more well-regulated. Weight moves toward ideal. Some kinds of health conditions may gradually resolve during this period.

Longer-term -- transformation: Ideal weight becomes just a normal part of life. As artery damage is gradually repaired, blood pressure works its way lower and lower until reaching extremely healthy levels. Nutritarian food just keeps tasting better and better. Skill for buying and preparing it develops to higher and higher levels. Tastes diversify, as one discovers more and more different wonderful-tasting vegetables, fruits, and legumes. Digestion and elimination become optimal, working exactly the way they are supposed to. Colds become mild and very infrequent. At the cellular level, the body's detoxification and anticancer mechanisms start functioning at maximal levels, gradually lowering (although unfortunately not eliminating) the probability of a cancer outbreak. Cellular damage that can lead to dementia and other premature degeneration later in life stops and perhaps is even reversed.