After several reschedulings, the much-anticipated Sanjay Gupta CNN special “The Last Heart Attack” featuring President Bill Clinton, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, and Dr. Dean Ornish finally aired.
The message is a powerful one in favor of regular screenings and a plant-based diet. Clearly an important wake-up call to many that deserves to be shared with friends and family. I hope you’ll recommend they watch…
This video from a couple years ago recently made its way back to the fore (what an interesting, apparently, but not actually, oxymoronic, expression) over on the Eat-2-Live Yahoo! group when one of the list members stumbled upon this post on Mark Sutton’s blog.
It’s from the Healthy Lifestyle Expo 2006 and features John McDougall, Joel Fuhrman, and several other lime-light panel members including, Caldwell Esselstyn (the first and last of whom, incidentally, endorsed Vegan Done Light). 
While the gentleman’s comment at the end was cute(-sy), my first reaction to it wasn’t a laugh, but rather a “What?! Are you kidding? Why cut short such a fascinating debate?”
It seems to me, once we have the gist of healthy eating down (i.e., whole, plant-based foods, consumed in moderation) it’s exactly this kind of discussion that helps us fine-tune our diets.
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I want to hear what you think… Is such a to-and-fro constructive and informative or does it detract from and/or confuse the overall message? |
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With blaring headlines like that of CBS News (Study Tips Scales In Atkins Diet’s Favor) or the UK Telegraph (Low fat diets ‘not as effective for weight loss’), it’s no wonder people are confused.
Not atypically, the diet described as low-fat was hardly worthy of the appellation. It followed the guidelines of the American Heart Association, which amazingly still sets the bar at 30% of calories from fat. This despite studies, such as those of Dr. Esselstyn, showing it to be insufficient for reversing heart disease. He recommends less than 10% and Dr. McDougall 7%.
What I find exciting though is the paper itself, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, makes it clear the low-carbers were encouraged to get their protein from vegetarian sources and to limit saturated and trans fats. That’s not the Atkins diet at all!
Seems we’re looking at a vindication, not of that unhealthy plan, but rather of a low-calorie, plant-based lifestyle, with little actually said about a truly low-fat diet.
Resources:
Weight Loss with a Low-Carbohydrate, Mediterranean, or Low-Fat Diet
