The American Diet is Killing Us With Heart Disease?

 

Heart Disease

Is the American Diet Killing Us?

Some doctors are beginning to argue that medications, stents, and bypass surgeries are not the solution to heart disease. But are we ready to listen?

Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, a heart disease specialist from the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute, believes using a plant-based diet is best to prevent heart disease.

Last week in this column I wrote about high blood pressure and its associated risk of heart disease. This week I talked to Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, a heart disease specialist from the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute, about treatment options and his interesting, effective, and unconventional solution.
I learned about Dr. Esselstyn’s work through a documentary film called Chow Down, which emphasizes that heart disease and some types of cancer can be prevented through a plant-based diet.

 Dr. Esselstyn conducted a study on a small number of people with severe heart disease. The study showed that the effects of heart disease could actually be reversed by eating a plant-based diet.

In an article published earlier this month in the American Journal of Cardiology, Dr. Esselstyn argues that the current treatment options for heart disease, meaning medications and invasive surgeries, do not actually cure heart disease because they don’t treat the root cause. He points out that heart disease is absent in some isolated cultures, but if those groups of people adopt an American diet, the rates of heart disease increase.

Dr. Esselstyn said that everyone is at risk for arterial disease, and that doctors have found “gross evidence of coronary artery disease” during autopsies of people as young as 17. The epidemic of heart disease in the United States “can almost be described as food borne,” Dr. Esselstyn said. He added that people should avoid eating any processed oils, dairy, and “anything with a mother or a face.”

To me, this seems a little extreme. Should we all switch to vegan diets? And what about the food pyramid?

There is a lot stacked up against Dr. Esselstyn’s theory. Pharmaceutical companies make billions from blood pressure and cholesterol-lowering drugs, and heart bypass grafting is another billion dollar industry. I learned from ChowDown that the USDA, the same organization that creates the food pyramid, also issues subsidies to farmers, creating an inherent conflict of interest. Furthermore, most doctors only see their patients in 15-minute time slots, nowhere near enough time to teach someone how to overhaul their diet. Dr. Esselstyn writes in his article that doctors believe that even if they did have time to explain a plant-based diet, most patients wouldn’t comply with it.

Some of this sounds a bit like conspiracy theory. But Dr. Esselstyn’s core argument, that diet alone is the cause of many of the chronic illnesses in the United States, is quite familiar.

For example, to create the documentary Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock ate only at a McDonald’s restaurant for 30 days straight. The healthcare workers following Spurlock told him that he was putting his health in serious risk and his doctor advised him to stop.

The reality show “Biggest Loser,” now in its 10th season, shows that contestants who start off at serious risk for heart failure can reverse artery damage and the effects of diabetes. Fitness is emphasized on the show because, frankly, people eating reasonable portions of healthy food doesn’t make for thrilling television. But all the contestants drastically alter their diets during the competition.

In the past two weeks alone, the New York Times published two articles about the need for doctors and other healthcare workers to buff up on their knowledge of nutrition. We don’t always know enough to guide patients’ decisions, and healthcare workers are notoriously bad at taking their own advice.

Earlier this year I sat in on grand rounds at a major Boston hospital and was a little surprised to see that doctors with 20 years of experience brought sugary pastries for breakfast.

It seems to me that the message that Americans need to seriously re-evaluate our relationship with food is out there, and we’ve been hearing it for a while. The real question is, are we ready to hear it? And when we do will it lower Heart Disease in America?