There is irrefutable evidence that high cholesterol levels are associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease. There is a direct correlation between cholesterol level and heart attack risk at total cholesterol levels above 150 mg/dl. As one’s cholesterol level rises over this baseline, the risk of death from heart attack increases proportionally. The average cholesterol level in America is 208 mg/dl, which places the average American at an unacceptably high risk of sudden death. It has also been shown that lowering your LDL cholesterol below 100 offers powerful protection against heart disease. (1)
For years, epidemiology studies have shown that people in countries where a simple plant-based diet is consumed did not have heart attacks. Those populations are always found to have much lower cholesterol levels. For example, in rural China where the average total cholesterol was found to be 127 and very little animal products are consumed, less than 5% of the population suffered from heart attacks.(2) By comparison, in the United States, more than 40% percent of the population dies of heart attacks.
Most people are not aware that scientific studies show that there is only one dietary profile that has ever been shown to lower cholesterol as powerfully as cholesterol lowering drugs; and that is my Eat To Live nutritional program, which gets the majority of it’s calories from high nutrient foods such as vegetables, fruits, beans and nuts and seeds. It is impossible to reduce cholesterol levels to the no risk point with a conventional diet.
The only way to achieve lipid levels that low without drugs is to use the vegetable based dietary approach described in my books,
Eat to Live and
Cholesterol Protection for Life. By using nutritional excellence with the judicious use of natural cholesterol lowering supplements, cholesterol can be lowered without the dangers of medications. When you reduce cholesterol levels with high green vegetable intake and other nutrient rich foods, you remedy other factors that promote disease causation and receive an even more dramatic reduction of heart problems and other diseases associated with aging in modern societies.
Cholesterol lowering drugs can produce serious side effects. They offer a lesser degree of benefit and create a new risk; one from the toxicity of the drugs themselves. The known side effects for various statins (the most popular and effective medications to lower cholesterol) include hepatitis, jaundice, gastrointestinal upsets, muscle problems and a variety of blood complications such as reduced platelet levels and anemia.
But the main difference between the drug approach to lessening disease risk and adopting a program of nutritional excellence is that the nutritional approach will also:
• Lower your body weight
• Lower your blood pressure
• Lower your blood glucose
• Lower your waist measurement
• Increase anti-oxidants in tissues
• Reduce CRP
• Reduce inflammation
Anything less is selling you out. If you have heart disease or are at risk of developing it, I say "lets" to everything necessary to assure you have a tragedy free future. Heart disease can be reversed and prevented with proper nutrition. When you lower your cholesterol with drugs, you drop risk about 30 percent, which is substantial, but not enough for me. How about you? Do you want to decrease your risk about 30 percent or do you want 100 percent certainty that you will not have a heart attack or a stroke? People are simply not aware that you can marry a disease-protective diet with delicious taste. If you can enjoy your diet-style and have it guarantee you will be protected against future cardiac events, why not do it; why die due to ignorance? I invite you to join our army of heart attack proof individuals. Learn more about my program to wipe out heart disease and strokes through nutritional excellence.
Cholesterol Protection for Life
1. Kannel, W.B. 1995. Range of serum cholesterol values in the population developing coronary artery disease. Am. J. Cardiol. 76 (9): 69c-77c; Castelli, W.P., K. Anderson, P.W. Wilson, and D. Levy. 1992. Lipids and risk of coronary heart disease: the Framingham Study. Ann. Epidemiol. 2 (1-2): 23-28.
2. Chen, J., T.C. Campbell, J. Li, and R. Peto. 1990. Diet, life-style and mortality in China: a study of the characteristics of 65 Chinese counties. Oxford: Oxford University Press; Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press
