Become Heart-Attack Proof

Going Vegetarian Is Easy—and Good for Your Heart

It’s never too late to change your habits for the better and improve your health. Switching to a low-fat vegetarian diet today can help prevent heart attacks and even reverse existing heart disease—without the side effects of pills or complications from risky surgeries.

Best of all, going vegetarian is easier than you probably think!

Start by “vegging up” meals you already eat. Think of three or four recipes that you prepare regularly that can easily be made meat-free. For example, keep your favorite chili recipe—just replace the beef with beans or a meat substitute, such as Boca Ground Burger or Gimme Lean Ground Beef Style. Marinara sauce can be substituted for meat sauce in pasta dishes, and pizza can be made with soy cheese or even without cheese (loaded with sauce and roasted vegetables). For breakfast, try Fantastic Foods Tofu Scrambler, which makes delicious scrambles when mixed with tofu and fresh veggies. Tofu can also be used instead of eggs in “egg” salad, blended with an eggless mayonnaise, such as Nayonaise or Vegenaise.

Virtually any meat-based dish can be made with vegetables or mock meats. And even die-hard carnivores are amazed by the taste and texture of today’s “fooled you” fakes—from “beefy” Original Vegan Boca Burgers and Lightlife Smart Dogs to Gardenburger Riblets, dripping with tangy barbecue sauce. Health-food stores also carry meat-free deli slices, soy sausages and “bacon,” and other meat imposters. Try different brands to decide which one is your favorite.

While you’re shopping, look for dairy substitutes, too, including soy milk and cheese; Silk Cultured Soy Yogurt, available in luscious flavors like Key Lime and Black Cherry; and Tofutti or Soy Delicious dairy-free frozen desserts. They’re rich and creamy like the “real thing,” but they have no cholesterol and are much lower in fat.

Eating out? Ethnic restaurants usually offer a variety of vegetarian dishes, from pad Thai with tofu to black-bean burritos to falafel to chana masala. Chinese, Mexican, Thai, Indian, and Middle Eastern restaurants are good places to start. Johnny Rockets and even Burger King boast veggie burgers on their menus, and more and more restaurants are adding creative vegetarian entrées, such as pasta dishes with soy “cream” sauces or beans and rice served with soy sausage. If you don’t see what you want on the menu, ask for it. Most restaurants will gladly accommodate special requests, and you’ll be surprised at the creativity of some chefs!

Source : GoVeg

Healthy Hearts for Children

A Vegan Diet for Kids Can Prevent Heart Problems in Adulthood

Many children who are raised on the “traditional” American diet of cholesterol and saturated fat-laden chicken nuggets, hot dogs, and pepperoni pizza are already showing symptoms of heart disease, the number one killer of adults.

A surprising number of children as young as 3 or 4 years old have the early signs of artery changes that can lead to heart attacks later in life. Many American kids have signs of heart disease by their early teens. A study in The New England Journal of Medicine found that at least 60 percent of children and young adults have early atherosclerotic (hardened artery) damage. It’s no wonder, considering that hot dogs, sausages, and bacon are on the daily menu for a stunning 25 percent of kids between the ages of 19 months and two years.

The number of obese adolescents has tripled since 1990. Pediatricians are reporting an alarming increase in the number of children diagnosed with type 2 diabetes (typically an adult disease), and 85 percent of those cases involve overweight kids. Kids are becoming sick and developing lifelong, debilitating diseases because of the traditional, animal-based American diet.

Nutritionists and physicians have learned that plant foods are good sources of protein, iron, calcium, and vitamin D because they can be easily absorbed by the body and don’t contain artery-clogging fat and cholesterol. A plant-based diet offers kids the best protection against high blood pressure, reducing their risk of developing this disease by nearly 70 percent. The American Dietetic Association states, “Well-planned vegan … diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including during pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence.”

Caring parents should start kids off right by teaching them to make healthy eating choices that will protect them from a host of painful ailments. The best way to prevent and control obesity, diabetes, and ensure healthy hearts is to feed kids a low-fat, cholesterol-free vegan diet and to make sure that they get regular physical activity. After all, our kids deserve to be able to run and play with their own kids someday.

Source : GoVeg

Cholesterol-Lowering Drug

Prescriptions Only Treat Heart Disease—a Vegan Diet Prevents It

Half of all Americans develop heart disease, because the typical American diet puts almost everyone at risk. Every meal rich in meat, dairy products, or eggs has a direct effect on the heart as the blood thickens with cholesterol and other waxy substances, which accumulate in the arteries. The Food and Drug Administration states that dietary cholesterol is not necessary and that any dietary cholesterol will raise overall cholesterol levels to some extent. Many who suffer from high-cholesterol are turning to drugs as an easy fix.

One of the world’s leading research and advisory firms focusing on pharmaceutical and health-care issues has forecasted that the total market value of drugs to treat heart disease could reach $15 billion by 2007 and $23 billion by 2012. The American Heart Association estimates that heart disease costs the Medicare system more than $10 billion each year. A new study by Pharmacor, an advisory service that analyzes the commercial outlook of drugs in research and development, reports that the number of total prevalent cases of heart disease will increase from 187 million in 2002 to 217 million in 2012.

The world’s largest randomized study of cholesterol-lowering drugs, or “statins,” followed 20,000 patients for up to eight years. It revealed that cholesterol-lowering drugs reduced the risk of heart attack and stroke by at least one-quarter for those at highest risk, proving that these drugs are effective. However, the effectiveness of these drugs is far outweighed by their expense and inherent risks. Americans spend billions of dollars annually for cholesterol-lowering drugs that often have dangerous side effects. The two main complications from taking cholesterol-lowering drugs are liver problems and myopathy, a painful muscle condition.

In contrast, adopting a vegetarian diet is cheaper and more effective than cholesterol-lowering drugs, and it has absolutely no adverse side effects. Dr. Dean Ornish, head of the Preventative Medicine Research Institute in California, says, “Most people can accomplish comparable reductions in LDL-cholesterol [bad cholesterol] by diet and lifestyle alone.” In a 1998 study, Ornish reported a 40 percent reduction in LDL-cholesterol after one year among a group of patients with heart disease who followed his program, including 30 minutes of moderate exercise daily and a low-fat, vegetarian diet.

Drugmakers spend billions of dollars marketing cholesterol-lowering drugs, and the advertising works. Doctors write millions of prescriptions. The pharmaceutical companies make billions of dollars. But since the focus is on treating the disease rather than preventing it from happening in the first place, the vicious cycle repeats itself.

Source : GoVeg

Cholesterol and Atherosclerosis

Clogged Arteries Can Be Cleaned With Vegan Diet

Having high cholesterol means living with a greater risk of suffering a heart attack. For every 1 percent increase in the amount of cholesterol in the average American’s blood, there is about a 2 percent increase in the risk of heart attack; conversely, every 1 percent reduction from the average cholesterol level reduces the risk by about 2 percent. Elevated cholesterol—anything above 150—promotes atherosclerosis, the buildup of cholesterol, fat, and cells in the arteries that feed the heart muscle. Incidentally, while the average cholesterol level in the U.S. is 210, the average vegetarian’s cholesterol level is 161 and the average vegan’s cholesterol level is 133. People with cholesterol levels below 150 are virtually assured of never having a heart attack, while nearly one-third of meat-eaters will die from one.

Heart researchers have found that a vegan (pure vegetarian) diet is the best for lowering cholesterol levels. Plant foods contain no cholesterol, whereas meats, eggs, and dairy products contain large amounts of cholesterol, saturated fats, and concentrated protein—all harmful substances. In contrast, soy protein has been proved to lower cholesterol, and the high fiber content of a vegetarian diet helps eliminate excess cholesterol from your digestive tract (meat, dairy products, and eggs have no fiber at all).

Even if you’ve been diagnosed with atherosclerosis, there’s still hope. Dr. Dean Ornish has demonstrated that the disease can be reversed without drugs and their sometimes dangerous side effects. In a landmark study, he put a group of patients on a completely vegetarian diet with less than 10 percent fat. They also had to engage in moderate exercise. Within a year, the plaques that had been growing in their hearts for decades actually started to dissolve. Patients’ chest pains disappeared, and their cholesterol levels dropped. Nearly 80 percent of people with severely clogged arteries who follow the Ornish program for at least a year are able to avoid bypass surgery and angioplasty. Says Dr. Ornish, “I don’t understand why asking people to eat a well-balanced vegetarian diet is considered drastic, while it’s medically conservative to cut people open or put them on powerful cholesterol-lowering drugs for the rest of their lives.”

Although fish and fish-oil capsules have been promoted for their omega-3 fatty acids as a means of lowering heart-disease risk, these acids have highly unstable molecules that decompose quickly and unleash free radicals. Free radicals are damaging to living tissues and cells, but that damage can be prevented by antioxidants. The kinds of fatty acids found in vegetables, fruits, and beans lower free-radical activity while increasing antioxidant levels. When you choose vegetarian foods, you naturally and safely lower your risk for heart disease and other serious illnesses. You get twice the level of protection every time you eat.

Source : GoVeg