Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States and in much of the industrialized world. And rates in the less developed world are skyrocketing.
But we have learned something very important. We have learned that what was once thought to be an unavoidable consequence of aging is actually 90 percent preventable with lifestyle choices.
Watch this incredible 4-minute video from Food Revolution Summit speaker Michael Greger, MD, of Nutritionfacts.org to get the whole story:
Why diet is so important for heart disease prevention and treatment
Dr. Greger points out in this video that populations whose diets are based on whole plant foods rarely get heart disease (and they tend to steer clear of many other health problems, too – including diabetes).
This corroborates the findings of another Food Revolution Summit speaker, Caldwell Esselstyn, MD. Dr. Esselstyn’s work is featured in the highly acclaimed documentary Forks Over Knives. He is also the author of the acclaimed bestseller, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, has published more than 150 scientific papers in peer-reviewed medical journals, and draws on his decades of rigorous research.
He says that with the right dietary changes we can become virtually “heart attack proof” and that heart disease is a “foodborne illness, one that can be prevented, reversed and even abolished by eating a (whole foods) plant-based… diet.”
He adds that “plant-based diets that don’t include fried foods and margarine have no building blocks for heart disease.”
To learn more about how you can make food choices that could make you “bullet-proof” to heart disease, you can listen to this conversation with John Robbins and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, which was recorded as part of the 2014 Food Revolution Summit.
Another physician who has seen profound success in reversing heart disease is Food Revolution Summit speaker Dr. Dean Ornish. Dr. Ornish’s program is the only lifestyle-based heart treatment program to ever be covered by Medicare and many of the big insurance companies. It has helped former President Bill Clinton and countless others to prevent and reverse heart disease.
The Ornish Program addresses the root causes of heart disease not only through nutrition but also with stress management, moderate exercise, and emotional support. To learn more, you can watch some powerful videos from Dr. Ornish.
Though there are minor differences in their approaches, these three physicians, Michael Greger, M.D., Caldwell Esselstyn, M.D., and Dean Ornish, M.D., are virtually speaking with one voice. Backed by an overwhelming amount of rigorous medical research, they are showing you how you can, with healthy food choices, reduce your risk for the greatest killer in the industrialized world by 90 percent.
What do you think? How does this change your understanding of heart disease and diet?