Herbal Health

When it comes to making some changes in your diet, only you can make the decision to make that commitment. Some men and women have a difficult time taking the first step. Take the case of Dr John Smith. That’s not his real name, and in a moment you’ll see why I don’t want to identify him. I met Dr Smith at a Heart Association meeting in Dallas. After I interviewed him regarding his research, we chatted a while about our own lives. The subject of our cholesterol came up and it turned out his cholesterol level was dangerously high, sometimes nearly 7.8.

But Dr Smith did little about it. Seems he was so busy with his research, his patient load, and trying to achieve tenure at the university that he had no time for his own health. Asked what he had for dinner, he replied that he and his family ordered pizza quite often. His wife also was a physician and neither had much inclination to prepare food.

OK, I said, how about ordering the pizza without cheese, and then spreading some low-fat or non-fat cheese substitute on when it arrived. A minute or two in the oven and the pizza would be ready to eat. Well, he replied, that would be a lot of effort. He’d have to stock the cheese, make a special request over the phone, and he didn’t think he’d want to do that.

Hmmm, 1 thought, coming up with another suggestion. How about ordering the pizza with half the cheese, and getting all vegetable toppings? No, Dr Smith said, rather sadly shaking his head, that, too, would be too difficult, since his wife and children refused to eat a lower-fat diet.

Getting a bit exasperated, I said he could get half the pizza with half the cheese. Uh, no, he said, then he would have to somehow decide which half was which and, even then, it would take a special order. Besides, most of the time the kids ordered the pizza.

Needless to day, Dr Smith can’t find any time to do any exercise either. He was under enormous stress because of concerns over his tenure, but took no steps to alleviate that stress. And he was carrying about 9 kilograms of extra weight around his waist. To make matters worse, Dr Smith had a family history of heart disease. I wish him a lot of luck, but it’s going to take more than that. It’ll probably take a heart attack to get his attention. I hope he survives.

The next story is just as sad. I’ve heard it from at least two dozen women since writing The 8-Week Cholesterol Cure. Those women were trying to help their husbands get better after their heart attacks. That meant preparing more fish, more poultry and more low-fat foods in general. But instead of thanks those women got complaints. “Why the hell don’t we have steak any more?” “I’m tired of cereal. I want some bacon and eggs.” “Margarine just doesn’t taste as good. Get some real butter.” Many of the wives had tears in their eyes as they told their tales of woe.

Often cliches hold a lot of truth. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. Same with those husbands. I often tell such women to get some clothing catalogues and some cruise brochures and put them on the cocktail table. When asked by their husbands what those are all about, I tell the women to simply say they’re figuring out what to do with the insurance money.

Too harsh? Actually that usually gets a laugh, since I deliver that advice with a smile on my face and tongue in cheek. But the fact remains that no one can lead another’s life. You can’t force someone to take the steps necessary for cardiac recovery or any other aspect of health.

But for every negative story, I can tell a dozen positive ones. Take the example of Sam Horwitz. Sam is a very successful businessman who must travel and attend dinners frequently. He finds no problem in requesting a fish alternative at banquets and is almost never turned down. He has his travel agent automatically order a low-cholesterol meal on all his flights. Sam knows which restaurants serve a wide variety of foods he and his wife can enjoy. And through such efforts he has lowered his cholesterol from the 6.5 range to well under 5.2. He’s confident that he won’t ever have another heart attack.

Sam is typical of young, dynamic men who have taken charge of their own destinies. They won’t let that heart attack get in the way of living a full, rewarding life. And they know they have to take certain steps to provide the protection they want.

Keith Ingram, on the other hand, shows us how older individuals can also make remarkable recoveries. Even after having a bypass, performed by the eminent surgeon Dr Michael DeBakey, Keith didn’t do much to change his lifestyle. But then he was told that his disease had progressed to the degree that even another bypass was deemed inadvisable. “My doctor told me I wouldn’t survive it,” Keith said. At the age of 67 he couldn’t enjoy his retirement, lived the life of a cardiac cripple because of angina pains, and made life a living hell for his wife Lucille.

Then Keith took charge. He changed his diet almost overnight, getting fid of most of the fat, and adding a lot of soluble fibre. Despite the angina, Keith forced himself to walk, a little mote every day. To get his cholesterol down sufficiently from the horribly high point of 8.8, he took the prescription drug colestipol and took niacin daily. Knowing that he was doing something for himself, his attitude slowly changed for the better.

When I met him, Keith was 69, walking briskly five kilometres every day, with a normal blood pressure and a cholesterol reading under 5.2. His doctors are amazed. The angina pains are gone and he now lives his life to the fullest.

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Cardio & Blood/ Cholesterol

Diet remains the basis of any cholesterol-cutting program. But it’s up to you. Will you make the commitment to a real change in your diet?

All I ask is that you give it a real chance. A low-fat diet can be absolutely delicious, and there’s no reason at all to feel deprived. If you saw the way my family and I eat you’d never know we were doing anything special; that’s because the foods we enjoy have been prepared with the fat taken out but with the fun and flavour left in. We all love dining out in restaurants. When there’s something special to celebrate, I can feel just as festive in ordering a lobster or king crab as in having the steak.

Perhaps at this point in your recovery you’re saying to yourself that food is one of your life’s pleasures, and you just don’t want to give it up. Well, you don’t have to give up all your favourites. You just have to make some simple modifications.

It’s unfortunate that so many heart patients feel so sorry for themselves and that they use food as a consolation prize. It’s even more unfortunate that they can’t recognise their own self-destructive behaviours when bingeing on fats. Think about what you’re really saying when you dig into that bacon and egg breakfast: “I’m not feeling well, and I’m not feeling good about myself, so I’m going to eat this food which is certain to make my condition worse rather than better.” Yes, you might enjoy that meal. You’ll have a certain amount of instant gratification. But consider the long term.

Feeling really good is the ultimate pleasure! You just don’t know that yet, because you haven’t given it a chance. I used to think that taking Alka Seltzer was a natural thing to do after a big meal. Bouts with indigestion were common. I’d lie in bed feeling lousy, never thinking that it was that huge meal dripping in butter and cream that was the culprit. You’ll feel better in just days by deciding today to toss out the fatty foods and concentrate on a light approach to eating.

People ask me all the time if I don’t miss certain foods that I’ve given up since my second bypass surgery in 1984. Sure, I’d really like to eat a bacon and egg breakfast. Today I stick with egg substitute and Canadian bacon. There’s just no substitute for sunnyside-up eggs and three or four strips of crisp bacon. But I’ve never given in to the temptation in all these years.

Why not? There’s no breakfast in the world that could compare with another day of life and living. I wouldn’t trade seeing a beautiful sunset for those sunnyside-up eggs. There’s no hot fudge sundae that could tempt me to miss one of my daughter’s birthday parties or my son’s baseball games. Every time I enjoy one of those special moments, I strengthen my resolve to stick with my diet.

Now, you might ask wouldn’t it be all right to have a special treat just once in a while? Would that breakfast really do that much damage? Probably not. But here’s the problem with having this or that “just once in a while”. Today you have a piece of chocolate because you haven’t had one in a month. Tomorrow you have a slab of steak because it’s been so long since the last time. Then it’s a lovely dessert. And a corned beef sandwich. And on and on and on. Add up all those “once in a whiles” and you have an “all the time” cheat.

Sometimes it’s just a lot easier to make big changes rather than little ones. Compare this with the decision to quit smoking. One of the most masochistic things I ever did was to try to smoke just a few cigarettes a day after smoking two packs daily for years. I was in a constant state of withdrawal. Ask any former smoker and he or she will tell you the same thing. The same applies to exercise. Do it just now and then, and you’ll never really get into it. But make the decision to do some physical exercise regularly and it becomes a part of your life.

Heart-healthy eating is, indeed, a part of my life. And I’m not alone. I’ve spoken with literally hundreds of men and women who’ve made the same changes in their own lives. Everyone who’s given it a fait chance says that it’s amazing how little you miss certain foods. That’s because you’re concentrating on all those foods that are good for you. You can’t order everything on the menu, so make your selections from the low-fat offerings.

Take the right mental approach to your decision to eat heart-healthy foods. Make it a hobby, trying to find new restaurants and new products in the supermarket. There are non-fat ice-creams, and non-fat cheeses; the list keeps getting bigger and bigger.

When I made the decision that the entire family would benefit from a healthier diet, I discussed the matter with my son Ross, who was only seven years old at the time. I explained that there would be some foods and restaurants that would be off the “approved” list, but that it would get easier and easier as time went on. The reason, I said, was that more and more people were realising the value of eating low-fat foods, and that the food industry would respond by providing more products that we could enjoy without the fat. That was in 1985, and my predictions have certainly come true. Moreover, we continue to see new and wonderful offerings all the time. No doubt about it, it’s getting easier all the time.

But whether it’s easy at certain times or difficult at others, the effort will be worthwhile. Every time you eat a bowl of oat bran cereal, every time you order the fish or chicken rather than the steak, every time you have frozen yoghurt instead of ice-cream, try to picture your coronary arteries. Visualise them getting cleaner and cleaner. “Feel” the blood coursing through your arteries without blockage.

Make an effort to think about all the wonderful, positive things in your life. Your children and grandchildren. Sports and hobbies. Nature and wildlife. Holidays and travel. Your career. Making love. Feeling love for all those around you. Then associate those good things in your life with your new dietary habits. Soon you wouldn’t trade those moments for a hot fudge sundae any more than I would.

I promise that within days you’ll feel better. And within eight weeks you’ll experience significant improvements in your cholesterol levels and your attitudes. That’s about the amount of time needed to show a change. When you go into the doctor’s office for that next cholesterol check and he or she tells you with a broad smile that your efforts have paid off, you’ll be on your way to a lifetime of healthier eating. Nothing succeeds like success.

So here’s my challenge: give it a try for at least eight weeks. Make a teal effort to get the fat and cholesterol out of your diet. Don’t cheat for that full eight-week period. You’ll feel a whole lot better. You won’t need those antacids. You’ll start to see some weight loss. And then you’ll see your results on the cholesterol test. 1 really doubt that after all that you’ll ever want to go back to your old ways of eating.

Bon appetit!

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Cardio & Blood/ Cholesterol