“Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and is a major cause of disability. The most common heart disease in the United States is coronary heart disease, which often appears as a heart attack. In 2009, an estimated 785,000 Americans will have a new coronary attack, and about 470,000 will have a recurrent attack. About every 25 seconds, an American will have a coronary event, and about one every minute will die from one. [1] “(CDC, Feb. 2009, http://www.cdc.gov/features/heartmonth/)
“The general public must learn how to challenge heart disease as the nation’s number one killer” (Fuhrman, p.112, Fasting and Eating for Health).
How is it possible that it is common to ignore and choose not to even learn about, our great nation’s number one killer, when we live in a country with such a strong will to stop enemies. After 911 many strong people were willing to risk their lives, leave their families and travel to another country. It can’t be that the idea of changing ones diet and/or starting exercising can seem even scarier. Maybe we think we have the cure. Unfortunately, it is not so simple to have a pill or an operation to cure heart disease.
Pills and outcomes of heart surgeries do not keep the problem from continuing to get worst the way changing your diet is proven to do. Also the surgery involves many risks. Being put to sleep in an operating room, having one’s sternum split and chest pried apart, while a heart-lung machine pumps your blood is a procedure that can and has ended in death or decline in mental ability. “…in-hospital death rate for bypass surgery is 4.45 percent for women and 3.33 percent for men.(11) Bypass surgery is also associated with a 13 percent rate of post-operative compilcations, including heart attacks, strokes, bleeding, kidney failure, and infections. In almost every heart bypass patient, some brain injury occurs from the time spent on the heart-lung machine.(12) It is believed that 15 to 44 percent of those who survive such surgery suffer permanent brain damage, detectable as minor degrees of intellectual impairment, memory loss, sleep disturbance, and personality change.(13,14,15)” (Fuhrman, p.104, Fasting and Eating for Health)
Why is it so difficult for many of us to eat vegetables? Well it is obvious they are not addictive in the way sugar is and the process of losing this addiction can be incredibly uncomfortable, although that feeling is temporary. In the face of so much junk food, a plant-based diet requires a conscious development of tastes. It can be very hard even to slowly develop this change after so many years of habits. In my opinion, slight changes to your diet is a great way to start. For example, plan to eat one large salad a day. Also in my opinion, it is best to start by focusing on adding great foods (especially greens) rather than demonizing any foods. See what you are doing that is ultimately working best for you or has worked best for you and plan ways to do more of that; find books/people/ideas/journal articles/etc. that inspire.
Very inspiring post. People do really need to start taking care of themselves before it’s too late.
We’ve been enjoying the heart healthy and vibrant food of Good to Go since my mom passed from a mistake due to heart surgery.
They have the best food, most joyful staff, desserts to suit every persons taste and budget.
I am wondering if you can shed some light on the raw cashew swindle on your blog. As a raw foodist, i rely heavily on raw cashews for various recipes and just as a plain snack. Yet, i’ve recently learned that the vast majority of raw cashews that are sold in the raw community aren’t truly raw! In the nut industry, the term “raw” simply means not roasted, yet they can still be steamed or boiled. I’ve learned that many raw food companies that sell “raw cashews” are just selling these industrial cashews that are in fact cooked!
And the unfortunate thing about this is that the vast majority of these companies know they aren’t truly raw. After learning the truth, i had to do some homework to find out more. The only truly raw cashews are coming out of Indonesia from a company called Big Tree Farms. There are some raw food companies that do buy these truly raw cashews from Big Tree Farms, that i could tell, yet the majority of raw food companies are blatantly misleading the raw food community by industrial selling cooked cashews!
I think this is a major swindle that needs to be exposed, as we rawbians, have been dooped!