How to Reverse Heart Disease and Lower Cholesterol Naturally

Do you really want to lower your cholesterol and reverse heart disease? Be prepared for a shock! All the things you learned about food in elementary school are wrong! The government has been highly promoting the dairy and cattle industries through public school systems for over 30 years. The idea that you are to have 3 to 4 servings as a kid in order to receive enough calcium and protein is false. Dairy and meat are not the superior sources of necessary proteins and iron. Furthermore, animal proteins should not be the major source of calories in your meals! Scientists have known these things for 50 years. We have access to all of the best that is medical and scientific in America. And yet, heart disease has been the #1 killer since the early 1940’s. Why? Because there are false beliefs about the foods we eat, even among scientists and medical professionals. We think we are eating healthy. Our doctors tell us we are doing well with skinless baked chicken and rice for dinner with a side of spinach and a glass of skim milk. Is it healthy? No! So, then…What is a healthy diet? What has research shown about the American diet and its relation to heart disease? How does this affect me? Keep reading.

1. The only way to truly be healthy is to completely eliminate all animal derived foods. Yes, a drastic change from what is taught and practiced in America. Now, since we all enjoy meat and dairy far too much, scientists have allowed for 10% of your diet to include some animal protein. It is shockingly not necessary for optimal health. Animal foods provide high amounts of cholesterol (even with the fat removed), calories and protein with no fiber. Plants are abundant in fiber, lower cholesterol naturally and provide more nutrition per calorie than any animal food. Animal proteins interact in negative ways with your body’s vital hormone system, nervous system, immune system, and digestive tract. You may be asking how you can make such a lifestyle change. After all the American diet consists of 42% animal and dairy products.

2. The best way to be healthy is to also remove nearly all processed and refined foods from your diet. These are some of the basics we all eat including white flour, sugars, canned items, frozen meals etc. They give little benefit to your body, especially when compared to the harm they can cause. They are virtually free of fiber and vitamins. They also include many harmful toxins and chemicals for processing and preservation. This is perhaps a bigger pill to swallow. Americans eat 51% refined and processed foods. Foods like this could be considered junk foods.

3. Achieving optimal health will absolutely require you to eat a whole foods, plant based or vegan diet 90% of the time. Fruits and vegetables are widely available to us. The government labels, however, in your produce department or on frozen packaging will make you feel like you are buying air. I have even looked at the packaging of fruit and vegetables before and wondered why I was buying it. It had no protein, and the % of everything else was negligible. I have to set you straight. It is highly valuable. It will save your life. It is truly a God send. It heals, restores, protects, revitalizes. America is only eating about 7% of this good stuff. Fruits are bursting with antioxidants to protect you from disease. Vegetables have protein and iron which are building blocks in your tissues and blood. They also have lots of calcium for your bones! All of them have fiber that will clean out toxins from your body. The healing properties that are inside fruits and vegetables cannot be packaged and sold as pills or drinks. You have to eat the whole food to get the real benefit. The results of changing to a plant based diet will lower your cholesterol naturally and actually reverse heart disease.

Significant studies since the 1950’s show correlations between an animal food diet and heart disease. It was once thought that heart disease was an inevitable part of growing older. This is no longer scientifically approved of. The studies that have been carried out over many years have all pointed to diet having an undeniable impact on heart health.

1. “Coronary disease among United States soldiers killed in action in Korea.” Was one of the first studies that showed heart disease in young, athletic Americans. In fact, 77% of the soldiers in the study had plaque significantly blocking their arteries. This study disproved the age factor and the sedentary factor.

2. “Statistical associations between international coronary heart disease death rates and certain environmental factors.” Studied 20 countries and their incidence of death from heart disease. There was a direct correlation between increased animal protein diets and heart disease.

3. Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr. performed studies on a group of his patients. He wanted to see if a change in diet could help his heart patients. His patients changed their diet to eliminate fats and nearly all animal proteins and had great success. Their average blood cholesterol dropped over 100 points and 70% had an opening of clogged arteries.

4. Dr. Dean Ornish had similar results in the Lifestyle Heart Trial. He had control groups of standard medical treatment and a lifestyle change group. The second group changed their diet to a low-fat, 90% plant-based diet for a year. They were also given instructions on stress management and had an exercise program. The results were astounding. In one year 82% had regression in their heart disease. The first group all had increased symptoms with blockages worsening.

These are only a few studies that have been done relating to diet, lowering cholesterol naturally and heart disease. The facts are clear. A plant based, whole foods diet will improve your health in dramatic ways.

Did you know that 35% of heart attacks come to people with the “low” cholesterol norms of 150-200 mg/dL? If you have cholesterol in this range the doctors pat you on the back and say you’re healthy! The advice given in doctor’s offices because of government recommendations is killing America. A 30% fat, 200mg per day of cholesterol diet will increase your levels of cholesterol and further progress your heart disease. A diet that follows the USDA Food Pyramid will give you heart disease. If you are on high blood pressure medicine and/or cholesterol medication I want you to know it is not going to be necessary after your lifestyle change.

Heart disease is reversible. Only 1 year after the change to a 90% plant food diet your health will be dramatically different. Your cholesterol levels will quickly drop. Research in the former studies and continued research is the evidence behind this statement. I personally know a man whom after reading “The China Study” adopted a plant food diet. At 76 years of age, and after being on high blood pressure medication for nearly a decade, he does not need it anymore. He is my father-in-law. It took about 2 years. ‘Real’ people are making this change all of the time. You cannot eat what everyone else is eating! If you do, you will likely be overweight (obese even) and riddled with all the diseases related to a poor diet.

Heart disease is the biggest killer. The other diseases related to diet (really!) include diabetes, cancers and auto-immune diseases. I want you to think about this lifestyle change the next time you sit at a fast food restaurant. Look around you. Do you see healthy people? Are the people sitting close to you 20, 50, 100 pounds overweight? We have a problem in America. The statistics on obesity are alarming! Roughly 1 out of 3 Americans are obese. This means that depending on their height, they are between 150-200 pounds overweight!! We need a wake-up call. Many scientists are really trying. The industries that have the most money to advertise, however, are winning. (You know, like McDonald’s)

Some scientists and medical people really care about your prevention or reversal of heart disease. They are looking at your overall health. The surgeries and medications to lower cholesterol and blood pressure are treating the symptoms. Don’t you want to be healed? You have a choice. It is not genetics that got you where you are. It is, however, your environment. You can rise above it. You can lower your blood cholesterol with the God given fruits and vegetables and whole grains.

You can learn more about a healthy diet by reading “Eat to Live” by Joel Fuhrman M.D., and “The China Study” by T. Colin Campbell PhD. You will not be served well by asking your regular physician. They won’t know!