[jimbo2012]

What's not to like?

Dr. Caldwell Blakeman Esselstyn Jr., the author of the best seller “Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease: The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven, Nutrition-Based Cure,” who promotes a vegan diet and does not allow olive oil.

His views and those of another promoter of a very-low-fat diet, Dr. Dean Ornish, president of the nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research Institute, have influenced many to try to become vegan. Former President Bill Clinton, interviewed on CNN, said Dr. Esselstyn’s and Dr. Ornish’s writings helped convince him that he could reverse his heart disease in that way.

Dr. Esselstyn said those on the Mediterranean diet still had heart attacks and strokes. So, he said, “the Mediterranean diet was able to create disease in people who otherwise did not have it.”

Misleading Research

"The New England Journal of Medicine article entitled Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease with a Mediterranean Diet is misleading and inappropriately titled. It should read Promotion of Cardiovascular Disease with a /Mediterranean and Control Diet.

All three dietary groups had almost equal facility promoting the growth and clinical appearance of cardiovascular disease in those who at study onset did not have this illness. The single exception was the control group which had a significantly higher stroke rate; however at baseline, they also appeared to have a greater BMI, waist circumference, hypertension, anti hypertensive agents and diuretics suggesting a cohort at greater risk for strokes.

Earlier this month the British Medical Journal updated the randomized Sydney Heart Study, which confirms the findings of this present Spanish study that the addition of oils worsened the outlook for cardiovascular disease.

By way of contrast, our small plant based nutrition study (devoid of 10 food items contained in the Spanish Study Control diet group known to injure endothelial cells) took patients with established advanced cardiovascular disease and not only halted disease progression but was able to demonstrate disease reversal. We will shortly publish an expanded version confirming our original findings.

The epidemiological ultimate confirmation of the power of plant based nutrition to prevent cardiovascular disease is best demonstrated in T. Colin Campbell’s China Study. In a rural province in China over a three year period examination of over 250,000 death certificates, not one death was attributable to cardiovascular disease.

Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., M.D."