The Bottom Line
For anyone who has suffered a heart attack or fears heart attacks in the future, this book has the answer. Dr. Esselstyn's diet not only stops further damage from happening to your heart, it can actually reverse heart disease. If you have had a heart attack, I cannot recommend this book enough. Follow the diet and your chances for a long, healthy, happy life go way up.
Pros
- Contains photos of scans that prove the effect of the diet.
- Has lots of recipes and ideas for making good food on the diet.
- Provides easy summaries of the "rules" of the diet.
Cons
- Many say the diet is too difficult for most people to follow.
Description
- Begins with the story of his 20-year research project on reversing heart disease, then goes into detail about his diet.
- The back half contains recipes for eating well while on this no-meat, no-fish, no-dairy, no-nuts and no-oils diet.
- Provides scientific explanations for why his diet works.
Guide Review - Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr - Book Review
Twenty years ago, 23 men and women came to Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr., out of desperation. They had just had a heart attack and were told that things didn't look good. Dr. Esselstyn, a cardiac surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic, began a 20-year experiment that has kept almost all 23 patients alive and happy.
The idea is simple -- make someone "heart-attack proof" by keeping their cholesterol below 150. Dr. Esselstyn does this through a strict vegetarian diet with no dairy, no nuts and no oils. The diet may sound extreme, but he has documented that this can not only stop heart disease from getting worse, it can actually reverse heart disease in severely ill patients.
The book covers the story of those patients, the changes they made and the data that proves their hearts have healed and become healthier. Dr. Esselstyn also provides a host of tips, recipes and suggestions for eating well on his diet.
