Joel Fuhrman - Eat To Live

Eat to Live 147

cent. You may think, "Heart disease won't happen to me!" But I have

news for you: it has already happened, and your chance of dying

from a heart attack because of your atherosclerosis is about 50 per-

cent. Your exercise program and your Americanized low-fat diet won't

help you much, either. You need to do more.

American Heart Association Recommendations Are Dangerous

The typical dietary advice, represented by the American Heart Associ-

ation's guidelines, is still a dangerous diet. It is not likely to protect you

from having a heart attack and does not allow heart disease to reverse

itself. Moderation kills. The fact is that such dietary advice still allows

heart disease to advance in the overwhelming majority of patients.

WARNING: Do not merely comply with these overly permissive

recommendations of the American Heart Association, or you will most

likely die of a heart attack.

• Total fat intake should be restricted to no more than 30 percent of total
  calories.


• Cholesterol intake should be less than 300 mg daily.


• Salt intake should not exceed six grams of sodium chloride daily.

Just to highlight a small difference between the American Heart

Association guidelines and my recommendations: My diets have less

than 300 mg of cholesterol and six grams of sodium chloride per

week! More than a dozen studies have demonstrated that the major-

ity of patients with coronary artery disease who follow an American

Heart Association step one or step two diet have their condition

worsen.^6 No study has ever shown that the patients who follow an

American Heart Association diet can reverse or stop the worsening of

coronary artery disease.

In contrast, numerous studies have documented that heart dis-

ease is reversible for the majority of patients following a vegetarian

diet.^7 Most often these diets, such as the Ornish program, are not

even optimal diets, as they do not sufficiently limit processed grains,

salt, and other low-nutrient-density processed foods. Nevertheless,

they arc still effective for most patients.

The medical literature continues to refer to the diet recom-

mended by the National Cholesterol Education Program as "low-fat."

By worldwide standards it should be called a high-fat diet, but more