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Easy Esselstyn Diet Recipes with Pictures: Getting Started with Cooking

 

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Changing the Eating Habits

Lifestyle changes for improvement of cardio-vascular health. Since the first dietary findings and recommendations of the American Heart Association, the American Society of Clinical Nutrition and the National Cancer Institute were established in the 1970ies and the Select Committee on Nutrition of the US Senate published Dietary Goals (1973) it is known – since 40 years - what a healthy diet should look like. The change to such a diet is not difficult at all and may be guided by a little paperback cookbook published in 1981/1982 with an even now-a-days astonishing title “No Salt, No Sugar, No Fat Cookbook”.

 

A Cookbook for the Transition

 

[On the front cover of the revised edition: An Easy, Delicious Approach to Good Health.]

Jacqueline B Williams with Goldie Silverman,

Bristol Pub. Enterprise, Inc, CA. 1981. Revised Editions 1982, 1993, 2005.

Soft cover. ISBN 0-911954-65-1

 

The author’s husband underwent 1974 coronary by-pass surgery and she read that that procedure is not necessarily a long term cure and that her two teenage sons may have a similar destiny. It was the same year the first comprehensive literature survey and lifestyle recommendations were published (Leonard, Hofer and Pritikin, Live Longer Now. The first One Hundred Years of Your Life, 1974).  So she Text Box:  Leonar, Hofer, Pritikin, 1974


undertook to change the eating habits of her family of four to a more nutritious style of meat, fish and plant diet. Then, she wrote about her cooking solutions in this little practical book for all those who care about a longer and more enjoyable life.

This cookbook, nicely illustrated with inspiring drawings, is easy to read and follow and is readily available on the web for approximately $5 (used book, incl. S&H). It may serve as a great guide on how to change the meal expectations of an entire family slowly from a meat and fish diet to a pure plant-based diet.

 

The book explains all the basics, starting with reading food labels, making stock for cooking, how to adapt favorite family recipes to salt-free, sugar-free and fat-free, and how to brown, ‘stew’ (using water-based stock instead of oil  used to sauté) and marinate without using that unhealthy triplet of condiments essential to traditional cooking (salt, sugar and fat).

 

Lifestyle changes for those at-risk of heart disease. Through the research done by Esselstyn and Ornish in the late 1980ies it is now clear (to most knowledgeable and interested persons as Text Box:  Kurzweil, 1993well as physicians) that the real culprit for coronary heart disease includes the cholesterol present in all animal products. Thus, the next step in changing to a healthy diet is the exclusion of all meats, fish and dairy products (rationalized by Kurzweil in The 10% Solution for a Healthy Life, 1993). Esselstyn and Ornish developed each a popular approach to solely plant-based cooking for the prevention and reversal of heart disease. The Esselstyn guidelines are easiest to follow over a long time (see book section).

 

The “10% Fat Plant-based Diet” without any cholesterol intake from animal products, low-salt content and no plant oils is the essence of Esselstyn’s recommendations. Liver production of cholesterol should be reduced by low dosage (10mg) of a statin (Crestor). Optimal Blood Data are Total Cholesterol below 150 mg/dL and LDL (bad cholesterol) below 85 mg/dL. At risk patients with heart disease should have a LDL (bad cholesterol) level below 70 mg/dL. In addition, recent understanding recommends that if high LDL values are persistent LDL particle sizing should be employed for ruling out at risk-levels of small particles.

 

All books mentioned here and in in the book page of this site provide ample of medical data in support of these guidelines with only small variations in life style requirements between various authors.

 

However, a successful application requires first a commitment to a high level of adherence to the guidelines. Every physician knows that there is a vast difference between a doctor’s “recommendations” and a patient’s actual “adherence” to a given advice. The higher the risk factors for heart disease the more urgent is it to closely follow the recommendations. However, even at similar risk factors the physiological conditions between patients vary widely. Therefore success in preventing or healing heart disease depends primarily on the patient’s discipline in following the low-fat low-salt lifestyle and closely monitoring the trends of the blood values.

 

This site is devoted to those with the highest risk factors having acute heart disease or having had actual bypass surgery (like the author had). It is ESSENTIAL that changes in lifestyle must be supervised by a physician providing close guidance in maintaining the use of required previously prescribed medications as well as the execution of the desired dietary changes including suggested supplements. Under these conditions an ABSOLUTE adherence (Esselstyn) to recommendations is essential if progression of the disease should be stopped or even reversed. If you are at high risk (having had a bypass surgery) and want to have a chance for enjoying life to the end of your statistical life expectancy, then a most stringent adherence to the 10% total daily fat intake seems essential.

 

Getting Started with Plant-Based Cooking

All previously mentioned books and web sites have plenty of advice how to cook low-fat or fat-free recipes. They all seem to share a common thread of experience in cooking without added fat. The classic cook-book “Fat-Free & Easy” resulted from the cooking experience the author Jennifer Raymond gained when being Guest Chef with Dean Ornish in his “Open Your Heart” program (from the book cover).

 

In daily practice, as Jennifer Raymond proposes, most recipe can be adapted to a low-salt low-fat diet by just eliminating the fat and adjusting the cooking procedures appropriately like braising (browning or searing in a hot dry skillet without oil and then deglazing the skillet by solubilizing the caked browned layer with vegetable broth) instead of sautéing (browning in oil), or using water soluble spices instead of oil-soluble spices. The greatest change however will come from eliminating salt. Most greens taste sweet, earthy or bitter but not salty. Focusing on their texture (not cooking them to mush) and complementing their natural consistency and flavor with herbs and spices will be the greatest as well as most rewarding challenge.

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 The Basics

[On the front cover: Great Meals in Minutes! No Added Fat, No Cholesterol, No Animal Ingredients)

Jennifer Raymond, Heart & Soul Publications, CA. 1997. Soft cover. ISBN 1-57067-041-2

 

Unfortunately it is out of print and used books are rarely available online (I got mine in Dec 2011 for $22), but may be it is accessible for free in your Public Library. This book covers all the basic information from

·        Calculating Fat Intake

·        Tips for Cutting the Fat

·        Meeting Your Protein Needs

Most recipes are lenient in regards to low-fat (as is the Ornish Diet contrary to the Esselstyn-Diet).

 

The basic cooking techniques for fat-free meals are introduced and recipes for all occasions are provided. It seems to me that this book lays the foundation for all the other books with recipes from Esselstyn and Ornish since all are very similar. There is only so much that can be done in a non-traditional kitchen.

 

References

U.S. Senate. Sugar in Diet, Diabetes and Heart Disease. Hearing before the Select Committee on Nutrition of the U.S. Senate, 93rd congress, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC. 1973.

 

Other Resources

New commercial and many free web resources are available for people trying to adjust to the Esselstyn Diet. Go, look and learn from their experiences. Everyone has something to contribute to the cause of low-salt low-fat cooking but one must also read between the lines. Fat-free does not mean the same for all cooks and freely available information can be costly.

 

 

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Rip Esselstyn, son of Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, wrote a more practical book with recipes for people without cardiovascular disease who want to improve their lifestyle and reduce the risk of heart disease. Therefore he can promote a more lenient plant-based diet than his father prescribes, and can allow avocados, fish oil and fish. He has a four week plan for breaking the traditional eating habits. However, for someone who is not used to cooking, also this book is a bit hard to follow.

http://engine2.com/

If you do not like to read the books (for free from your local library or used from Amazon) here is the “ultimate”  Commercial Version:

 

http://www.engine2immersions.com/sign-up/

 

From the Website: An Immersion with Engine 2 is a nutrition education program designed to give you what most of us have never received—a true education about what foods are good for you.

Learn the science of food—how amazingly good and surprisingly bad food can be for your body

One Person (Pre-Jan 1 special): $ 525.00 USD

Four Person(s) (Pre-Jan 1 special): $ 2,020.00 USD

 

 

Happy Healthy Long Life

a medical librarian's adventures in evidence-based living

 

http://www.happyhealthylonglife.com/ and http://www.happyhealthylonglife.com/happy_healthy_long_life/sodium/

 

Great resource blog for a more lenient version of the Esselstyn Diet allowing for walnuts, olives and soy as well as almond milk products. Non-meat products are welcome like meat replacements with 7% fat (MATCH) and sausages with 15% fat (Field Roast products) etc, i.e., this diet is very lenient indeed.

On the other side, great resources are provided for low-fat and low-sodium products like order information for no-fat hummus from Oasis Classic Cuisine Zero Fat Hummus (call the manager Evan Lanigan at 419-269-1459 for local locations, or to order a case) and Sahara Cuisine no fat, no tahini Roasted Red Pepper Hummus and Sahara Cuisine no fat, no tahini Black Bean Dip with garlic, lemon & spices (call the owner, Hassan Kahlid at 216-832-8833).


 

 

http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/

 

Susan Voisin’s blog has great recipes ideas with artistic food pictures for a more lenient “fat-free” diet made “without added oil”. So, avocado, nuts, plain soy milk, raw cashew butter and so on are more than welcome for her. Amazing, how the same word “Fat Free” can be applied to such different scenarios.

 

 

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