4/22/2015

You Are What You Eat

Dr. Esselstyn, a former internationally known surgeon, researcher and clinician at the Cleveland Clinic, explains in his book, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, heart disease can indeed be prevented, reversed, and even abolished. Based on his 20-year nutritional study, the book explains how we can end the heart disease epidemic in this country forever by changing what we eat.

Dr. Esselstyn’s diet is simple but takes some discipline:
• Don’t eat anything with a face or a mother. This includes meat, poultry, fish, and eggs.


• No dairy products. This means no milk, ice cream, yogurt, butter, cheese—not even skim milk.


• No oils, including no olive oil or sunflower oil or canola oil. Coconut is off limits because of its oil content. (Some heart specialists like Dr. Ornish do recommend taking fish oil supplements.)


• No nuts because of the oil. If you do not already have heart disease can eat moderate amounts of walnuts because of their omega-3 fatty acids.


• No refined grains, which have been stripped of much of their fiber and nutrients.



What you can eat is everything else:
• All vegetables and all fruits, especially the green leafy vegetables and the colorful ones. Avocados are banned because of the oil, unless you don’t have heart disease.


• Legumes, such as beans, peas, and lentils.


• Whole grains, including whole wheat and rye, bulgur wheat, whole oats, barley, buckwheat, corn and cornmeal, wild and brown rice, popcorn, couscous, quinoa, amaranth, millet, spelt, etc. Grape-Nuts are good too, and provide a nice crunch.


• Sugar is allowed in moderation, but avoid fruit drinks which are high in sugar content.


Note: Dr. Esselstyn’s book (mentioned at the beginning of this article) contains 150 recipes that he and his wife use. Another book you may want to check out is The China Study: Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, and Long-Term Health by T. Colin Campbell. He also makes the case for eating a plant-based diet.

Both these books, Preventing and Reversing Heart Disease and The China Study, were given to me by my brother and read after my first heart surgery in which 3 of my heart arteries were eventually cleaned and 5 stints were inserted, My 3 arteries were blocked 100%, 90%, and 90%, respectively. And, in a very short amount of time (strictly following this diet) and without any exercise other than the required therapy, I lost 30 pounds.

I have always found it amusing to tell people that I don't eat anything with a face or a mother because of the looks that I get, but that enthusiasm was not enough to keep me on the diet and I soon gained my 30 pounds back and then some.

When you think about it or compare it to a Vegan Diet, you will see that they are remarkably similar., and the term vegan was coined in 1944 by Donald Watson when he co-founded the Vegan Society in England, at first to mean "non-dairy vegetarian" and later to refer to "the doctrine that man should live without exploiting animals."

Whereas being a vegetarian abstains from the consumption of meat, such as red meat, poultry, seafood and the flesh of any other animal.

Neither vegans nor vegetarians eat meat. However, while vegetarians tend to consume dairy products and eggs, a vegan avoids all animal products, including eggs and dairy, and often inedible animal-based products, such as leather, wool, and silk. Vegetarianism is usually a diet, while veganism is a lifestyle. 

And, while I basically (to some degree) follow both these diets, I do eat chicken and fish but no salt and no sugar at all and try to stay away from artificial sweeteners as well but that is a whole lot easier than it sounds, especially since my heart condition keeps me from being as active as I once was and still want to be, but that is no longer in the cards for me.

Part of my problem is compounded by the fact that I am receiving chemo infusions once a month as a maintenance treatment for NHL and the steroids used make me hungry as well as retain weight; although, since I have been walking 20-30 minutes a day, my hunger has reduced substantially.

While this is not fun to eat like this at age 67, it is how I must eat if I want to live long and prosper as Spock might have said to Kirk or to another Vulcan or perhaps a colleague; nevertheless, it is a fact-of-life that we all will have to address sooner or later as we age, especially if we delay eating healthy.

Believe me, eating healthy is no fun at all. I love fully loaded pizza except for the little fish (whatever they are called), and I love a $6 cheeseburger from Hardees, and I love a Dutch or French Apple Pie but not necessarily with ice cream. I also missed sausage and hotdogs but I was never into biscuits and gravy.

I stopped eating red meat over 20 years ago and never did like Ham but did like (very much) a North Carolina Political Style Pig Pickin' with Hush Puppies and Cole Slaw.

Because I am an adept student of Economics, I am fully aware of the concepts of:
  • Opportunity Costs
  • Trade Offs
and, I am wondering why a “grumpy old man” like myself cares about living a long time such that he would simply stop eating those foods that he loves for the sake of living a little longer...

I have a handicapped license plate because of my heart attack and because I can not walk 20 feet without getting tired and having to rest. I first discovered my heart attack in 2008 (or 7 years ago) and since then there has been very little improvement.

So, this is now my lifestyle and will be my lifestyle for the rest of my life... and it is because I did not do a very good job at managing my stress from work... along with not eating right. And, smoking cigarettes for 25 years may have contributed to this developing situation as well.

So, how does that saying go?

You can pay me now or you can pay me later but you will be paying me...

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