Figured you’d enjoy this:
Question. My Cholesterol is Just Fine. My Weight’s Fine, I Exercise, and I Eat a Healthy Mediterranean Diet. Why in the World Would I Need to Eat This Way (Esselstyn nut & oil free plant based diet)?
Short Answer from Dr. Esselstyn: Unless you are one of the lucky few and none of your relatives have ever had vascular disease and they all lived to be a healthy 100, then you more than likely already have some degree of vascular disease. Unless, of course you’ve been eating like the Papua New Guinea Highlanders or the Tarahumara Indians all your life.
There are countless autopsy studies (click here for a few) of young adults from age 15-34 showing that everyone who eats our Western diet has heart disease. It’s a given.
If you eat a healthier Mediterranean diet with olive oil, fish & chicken you’re better off than someone who is eating cheeseburgers & fries–and you may be able to put off the likelihood of getting those nasty imperceptible tiny strokes (Dr. Megan Cleary of California examined over 11,000 MRIs of the brains of 50 year olds & found many had tiny white spots that indicated that they had unknowingly experienced tiny, imperceptible strokes. These “brain attacks” have the same history and cause as heart attacks), heart disease or vascular problems until your mid-70s or 80s–but just think about spending your last years in a wheelchair, immobile, befuddled, and mute–or think about the erectile dysfunction, slowed mobility, balance and cognitive problems that are all caused by impaired circulation and could be prevented.
And then there’s a whole host of other problems, like diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, constipation, and some cancers that could be avoided if you changed your diet. Not to mention the side effects to all the medications you’ll likely end up taking to keep heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, aortic valve stenosis, and erectile dysfunction at bay. Diet can do a much better job.