The way to a healthy heart is via the stomach

You may have literally fattened your heart last Christmas and new year, and Valentine’s Day is fast approaching. It’s time to give our own hearts that tender, loving care.

The reason isn’t all that romantic, though. Every year, more people die from cardiovascular diseases and cancer—the top two killers of Filipinos. The causes are mostly preventable, as they are all mostly lifestyle related, such as lack of exercise, proper sleep and rest, stress and a diet that is animal protein-based.

Among all the factors affecting heart health, diet has the most direct impact, yet one of the most difficult to manage. Many medical experts today, however, are looking more closely at how to incorporate diet into their prevention and disease reversal programs for their patients and for the public.

Proven diet protocols

One of these proven diet protocols is that of Dr. Dean Ornish’s, as detailed in his book “Program for Reversing Heart Disease.” He said that for those who even already had coronary heart disease, there is a “reversal” diet—which, instead of limiting the amount of food you eat, asks you to modify the type of food you eat, and to select only from vegetarian (plant-based) sources.

The recipes in his book prove that you don’t have to necessarily deprive yourself of great-tasting, filling foods. The recipes the book recommends are vibrant with color, rich in flavors and textures of many different foods—fresh vegetables, tangy herbs and flavorful spices, chewy grains, savory beans, elegant pastas and sweet, enticing fruits.

As one can observe, vegetables, grains and dried beans are the backbones of Ornish’s diet protocol. Here is just a sampling of the recipes offered in the book: eggplant lasagna (strips of grilled eggplant placed over the last layer of pasta before baking makes this dish a visual treat); pasta with asparagus and asparagus cream; Polenta with tomato sauce (very coarse cornmeal); black bean burritos; Ratatouille (a classic French vegetarian stew with all of the major elements, except the olive oil); mushrooms braised with herbs (stirred into your favorite tomato sauce, and served over pasta); mushroom and artichoke frittata; stuffed zucchini with tomato sauce and fennel seeds; marinated tofu; scrambled tofu and vegetables.

Ornish’s reversal diet makes patients avoid all cooking oils and all animal products, except nonfat milk and yogurt, caffeine and other stimulants; food seasonings such as monosodium glutamate (MSG), and foods high in saturated fat. It does allow moderate intakes of salt and sugar, and tolerates moderate alcohol consumption (less than two ounces a day).

CHIP

Another proven method would be the Coronary Health Improvement Project, or CHIP, which has helped more than 50,000 people reverse their diseases. It was started in Loma Linda Medical Center in California by Hans Diehl, Ph.D., director of the medical center’s Lifestyle Medicine Institute, and a National Institutes of Health-supported research fellow in cardiovascular epidemiology.

Locally, CHIP has been adapted by nutritionist-dietician Blecenda Miranda Varona, RND, MPH, and applied as a plant-based nutrition education community program (in which Inquirer Science has documented actual cases of patients who have reversed not only their CVDs, but cysts, kidney stones, and gout as well).

Varona’s workshops have taught patients and their caregivers how to prepare a nutrition protocol that is plant-based (vegan), low in fat and high in fiber.

Patients who have undergone this protocol and experienced dramatic reversals in their health conditions have included patients who went on a diet of vegetables (without using oil and sauteed only in water) such as malunggay, tomatoes, tofu, brown rice, crushed corn and beans such as mung, white, red and black.

Other success stories have been of a medical doctor with high cholesterol and high triglyceride, a 21-year-old male entrepreneur whose gout (500-plus uric acid level) debilitated him for years, a female teacher scheduled for surgery to remove four cysts in both breasts and two ovaries, and a 55-year-old male with kidney stones.

For those who would wish to make this lifesaving diet transition from meat-based to plant-based easier and more delicious, log on to www.happycow.net and choose from a variety of vegetarian restaurants around the metro and the country. Join Pinoyvegs at Facebook, or consult Varona at (632) 5250389.