Joel Fuhrman - Eat To Live

Eat to Live 149

necessary to achieve a cardioprotective diet. It is not sufficient merely

to lower fat intake. If all you do is cut back on fat, you may see little

benefit and possibly raise your triglycerides.

However, triglyceride levels increase on low-fat diets only when

the diets are high in refined foods, low in fiber, and unsuccessful in weight

reduction.^12 My observations have been corroborated by other stud-

ies.^13 Researchers have compared a high-vegetable-and-fruit diet (like

the one recommended in this book) with a grain-based, low-fat diet.

Study participants who ate the high-vegetable-and-fruit diet experi-

enced a 33 percent drop in their bad cholesterol (LDL) — a reduction

that is greater than most cholesterol-lowering drugs.'^4 This reduction

is dramatically greater than for subjects eating a grain-rich Mediter-

ranean diet or the modern low-fat diet recommended by the Ameri-

can Heart Association. •

I rarely ever see triglycerides rise when patients are placed on my

nutrient-dense, high-fiber, low-fat diet. For 95 percent of the pa-

tients, triglycerides drop dramatically. This is also because my pa-

tients do not overeat; they lose weight because they feel satisfied

from all the fiber in the natural foods and because the diet has such

a high nutrient-per-calorie density. We watch the triglyceride prob-

lem melt away as they lose the unwanted pounds; triglycerides drop

precipitously with weight loss.

The conclusion of the nutrition committee of the American Heart

Association is something we all agree on:

There is overwhelming evidence that reduction in saturated fat, di-

etary cholesterol, and weight offer the most effective dietary strate-

gies for reducing total cholesterol, LDL-C levels, and cardiovascular

risk. Decreases in saturated fat should come at the expense of total

fat because there is no biological requirement for saturated fat.^15

So the main difference between my recommendations and those

of the American Heart Association is that I adhere more rigorously to

these conclusions than they do. You must do what is necessary to

achieve the results desired. If you water down the recommendations

to make them more politically or socially acceptable, you sell out the

people who want real help and are willing to do what is necessary to

protect themselves. An example of the results possible with such ag-

gressive dietary intervention is the patient below.

The results I see with my patients are consistently more spectac-

ular than other dietary interventions because my advice is generally