Resolving the Coronary Artery Disease Epidemic Through Plant‐Based Nutrition

Abstract

The world's advanced countries have easy access to plentiful high-fat food; ironically, it is this rich diet that produces atherosclerosis. In the world's poorer nations, many people subsist on a primarily plantbased diet, which is far healthier, especially in terms of heart disease. To treat coronary heart disease, a century of scientific investigation has produced a device-driven, risk factor-oriented strategy. Nevertheless, many patients treated with this approach experience progressive disability and death. This strategy is a rear-guard defensive one. In contrast, compelling data from nutritional studies, population surveys, and interventional studies support the effectiveness of a plant-based diet and aggressive lipid lowering to arrest, prevent, and selectively reverse heart disease. In essence, this is an offensive strategy. The single biggest step toward adopting this strategy would be to have Unit- I have drawn two compelling observations from my service as the program director of two national cholesterol conferences and my participation in three others over the past decade. First, a great deal is known about what factors are responsible for causing coronary artery disease (CAD) and what populations are vulnerable. Second, the present emphasis on identifying risk factors and those who are particularly vulnerable to atherosclerotic disease will not resolve the cardiovascular epidemic, which currently threatens one of every two Americans and is predicted to become the number one global disease burden by the year 2020. 1Autopsy data from the conflicts in Korea 2 and Vietnam, 3 the Bogalusa study, 4 and the Pathological Determinants of Atherosclerosis in Youth (PDAY) 5 study all testify to the ubiquitous nature of the disease in young Americans. Recently, intra-arterial ultrasonography confirmed that "normal" segments in patients with CAD also have diffuse symmetric atherosclerosis, which is not yet disfiguring the intraluminal diameter and thus is invisible on angiography. 6 This work is further confirmation of the Roberts autopsy data, 7 which demonstrate that essentially all patients with ischemic heart disease have triple-vessel involvement.However, CAD is virtually absent in cultures that eat plant-based diets, such as the Tarahumara Indians of northern Mexico, 8 the Papua highlanders of New Guinea, 9 and the inhabitants of rural China 10 and central Africa. 11 Hundreds of thousands of rural Chinese live for years without a single documented myocardial infarction. 12 Modern North Americans and Europeans pride themselves on having the world's most advanced medical care. What are these health care systems doing about CAD? PRESENT HEART DISEASE MANAGEMENT STRATEGIESThe present strategy focuses on interventional procedures and risk factor modification. This approach is strictly defensive. It is pressing the limit of what society can afford. Our present cardiology budget exceeds one quarter trillion dollars per year. 1 Millions of symptomatic patients-generally, those with arterial stenosis of more than 70...

A worksite programme significantly alters nutrient intakes

“…Intervention group participants significantly increased the reported intake of carbohydrate, fibre, total vitamin A activity, b-carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, folate, magnesium, potassium, sodium and iron. In comparison with the control group, the intervention group significantly reduced mean intake of energy, fat (total, saturated, monounsaturated and trans), cholesterol, protein, vitamin D and vitamin B 12 . The intervention group significantly increased mean intake of carbohydrate, fibre, total vitamin A activity, b-carotene, folate, vitamin C, iron, sodium, magnesium and potassium, compared with the control group ( Table 3).…”

“…The reductions in reported fat (from 37 % to 21 %), saturated fat (from 11 % to 5 %) and cholesterol (from 238 mg to 38 mg) intakes observed in the intervention group, if sustained over the long term, are of sufficient magnitude to be associated with a reduction in the risk of CVD (3,11,12) and may also be associated with reduced risk of cancer and diabetes (6,7,9) . The intervention group reported significant increases in the intake of micronutrients associated with disease prevention, including b-carotene (13,14) , folate (15,16) , magnesium (17) and vitamin C (18) .…”

The Cost of Affluence: a Closer Look at the Food Industry

“…(p. 105) Other scientists have found similar results in their research. For instance, heart disease patients who initially had high blood cholesterol and had experienced at least one coronary event (e.g., angina, heart and/or bypass surgery) were prescribed a change in diet (Campbell & Campbell, 2006, Crowe, Ellis, Esselstyn, & Medendorp, 1995Esselstyn, 2001;Ornish et al, 1990). The diet consisted of whole foods (foods as close to their natural form as possible), and plant-based foods, in which no meat and no dairy products (or very small amounts of low-fat milk or yogurt) were allowed.…”

“…One reason why this occurs may be seen in the disconnect among results of various scientific research studies. A prominent example involves one set of research results that indicate that meat and dairy products are healthy for humans to consume (Biesalski, 2005;Pereira & Vincente, 2013), while results from other research indicate that animal-based foods are detrimental to human development and can lead to health issues (Campbell & Campbell, 2006;Esselstyn, 2001). This paper aims to define and identify some externalities/internalities that exist within the food industry as well as utilize a behavioral systems approach, including an analysis of the relevant meta and macrocontingencies and the interlocked relationship formed between the two.…”

“…However, overall findings sometimes differ among nutritional studies in humans. For example, some research has indicated that meat products are healthy for humans to consume (Biesalski, 2005;McAfee et al, 2010;Pereira & Vincente, 2013), while other research has indicated that animal-based foods (including both meat and dairy products) are detrimental to human development and are often linked to various health-related ailments (Campbell & Campbell, 2006;Esselstyn, 2001;Ornish et al, 1990;Robbins, 1987). Similarly, although some studies have shown that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) has been linked to the rise in obesity (Bray, Nielsen, & Popkin, 2004), others argue that HFCS has the same reaction in the human body as any natural sweetener and has not THE COST OF AFFLUENCE yet been linked experimentally to the rise in obesity (White, Foreyt, Melanson, & Angelopoulos, 2010).…”