Eat Your Way Out

From the book 'Dynamic Living' by Aileen Ludington, MD& Hans Diehl, DrHSc, MPH.

The sports world rejoiced when former Yale president, Dr. Bart Giamotti, became commissioner of baseball. A few months later a shocked nation wept when this respected man died suddenly at age 51, attacked by his heart.

Scenarios like this one are repeated thousands of times each day in western nations. Heart disease now strikes a deadly blow to four out of every 10 Americans.

Is there a solution? Does it have to be like this?

Yes... and no.

As long as we continue to eat our rich, fatty diet, the statistics will remain the same. We've known for years that a high fat, high cholesterol diet is the primary cause of coronary heart disease.

But there is a solution: it requires that we lean out our high fat diet. To the extent that we do this, we can help prevent and even reverse heart disease.

Are you saying that heart disease may be curable?

It looks more and more that way.

The idea took on a life of its own when Dean Ornish, MD, published a report in the LANCET medical journal, in 1990, that shook up the medical community. Dr. Ornish spent one year studying 50 men with advanced heart disease, many of whom were candidates for coronary bypass surgery.

He randomly assigned the men to different groups. Both groups were asked to quit smoking and to walk daily. In addition, the first group practised stress management and followed a vegetarian diet with less than 10 percent of calories as fat and no cholesterol.

The second group was given the American Heart Association's "Prudent Diet" for heart disease. This diet allowed 30 percent of calories as fat and up to 300 mg of cholesterol a day.

At the end of the year, when the results were presented at the Scientific Session of the American Heart Association in Washington, D.C., they became front page news all over America.

Dr. Ornish reported that those on the very low-fat vegetarian diet not only dropped their average blood cholesterol level by 40 percent, but their narrow, plaque-filled arteries had actually widened, allowing more blood and oxygen to the heart muscle. The heart disease had, in fact, begun to reverse itself. And the older men with the more advanced disease actually had the best results.

The group on the so-called "Prudent Diet," however, had virtually no cholesterol drop, and their coronary arteries showed increased narrowing. Their heart disease had actually got worse.

You mean the American Heart Association's diet did not help at all?

It appears that the "Prudent Diet" designed for the prevention and treatment of heart disease does not do its job. At the press conference Dr. Ornish concluded: "The moderate diet recommendations of the American Heart Association do not go far enough to effectively influence the progression of coronary heart disease. People with clinically demonstrated disease need to go beyond the present dietary recommendation."

We have known for years that much of today's heart disease could be prevented, but it's exciting to realise that, under the proper conditions, it is possible to reverse it. This revolutionary study suggests that, given the proper diet, we may be able to eat ourselves out of heart disease.

Archive

1. Too Many Carrots
2. The Dollar$ and $ense of Wellness
3. From Kernel to Colonel
4. Seven Wrong Roads
5. Getting Fatter Faster
6. Killer for Dinner