Quick and Simple Explanations by Dr. Esselstyn

Making the Change

Remember many years ago, when Dr. and Mary McDougall talked about their very first "book" that they made up in 1979 to give their early patients? It was hand typed and bound with those little loose-leaf binder clips.

Every now and then I roam the Internet used book sites hoping to see someone trying to sell theirs. I was even on Ebay this morning looking.

Then suddenly a message appeared in my email in-box at 9:01 - The McDougalls have scanned this little book into digital form and it's now available for free as a PDF download on their website!

Of course I immediately downloaded it!

Oh, it's so cute! OK, maybe not "cute", but I'm so happy to finally get my hands on this. I haven't read through the whole 252 pages yet, obviously, but I did flip through it. Definitely hand-typed, and there are even hand written page numbers and the occasional notes in the margins or between paragraphs.

Of course, the food plan is basically the exact same thing Dr. McDougall teaches today. Just like he did in the Health Supporting Cookbooks, The McDougall Plan, and other early books, the foods are broken down into categories I to IV based on what they're composed of and whether they're health-supporting or not, very similar to the current stoplight differentiation of the more recent  The Color Picture Book.

Glancing through the recipes, there are a lot of old tried-and-true ones that I still make to this day, like the enchilada sauce or the Easy Curried Pea Soup. There are many others I never saw before that look interesting, like a gravy called Whole Wheat Sauce or the variations of refried beans.

I'm going to have fun with this!

Thanks, Dr. and Mary McDougall!

Dr. Esselstyn at the 2019 Holistic Holiday at Sea

One Door Closes, Another One Opens

But in this case, "door" means Facebook Community.

The owner of the Esselstyn Nutrition Program Roundtable is closing the community because it takes too much of her time. She doesn't want to just hand it over to someone else to run because the community is so old it still contains some of the original Esselstyn guidelines, things he no longer allows, and she doesn't want erroneous information to confuse new members.

But JoAnn Downey to the rescue! She started up a new Esselstyn "reversal" plan community called 100% Esselstyn Nutrition Forum. It has the same rules as the other community - the discussions and recipes will ONLY be those that adhere to the strictest "reversal" guidelines of Dr. Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease program. That is, the ones mentioned here:



and here:



Here are the general guidelines for those following the strict reversal program, as compiled by JoAnn Downey:

1) NO OIL. Oils cause vasoconstriction and raise blood pressure as well as being damaging to the arterial endothelium (lining). Hidden fats may also be called hydrogenated___, mono and diglycerides, lethicin.
2) Eat starches, non-starchy veggies and a max of 3 fruit servings. Starches are important for satiation so you do not get hungry. Being hungry is not sustainable. Starches are root veggies (potatoes, sweet potatoes), beans/peas/lentils, winter squash and 100% whole grains.
3) Eat (chew) a fist-size (after cooking) serving of high nitrate veggies, with a few drops of balsamic vinegar or other vinegar, six times spaced throughout the day from breakfast to bedtime. This promotes the formation of nitric oxide (NO), the most powerful vasodilator we have, so arteries will dilate to their fullest. Esselstyn's favorite 6 ‘greens’ for NO production are KALE, SPINACH, SWISS CHARD, ARUGULA, BEET GREENS, BEETS (yes, beets!) Dr. E also has a ‘greens’ jingle which mentions bok choy, collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, napa cabbage, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, cilantro, parsley and asparagus.
4) Avoid all smoothies and juices. Chew your food.
5) Avoid all high fat foods like nuts, nut butters, coconut, avocado, tofu, coconut, seeds (see flaxseed reference below) An olive or two as a condiment is fine.
6) Avoid processed sugars like agave and maple syrup.
7) Avoid caffeinated coffee.
8) Avoid all animal foods/meat/dairy/eggs
9) Avoid salt in cooking and at the table, and be careful with condiments. The rule of thumb is no more milligrams of sodium in a serving as there are calories. Adding a SMALL amount of a higher sodium condiment to a whole low sodium meal is OK.

RECOMMENDED SUPPLEMENTS Pg. 73-74 Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease
1. Vitamin B12…..I favor 1000mcg daily
(Note….Meghan Brady spoke to Dr. Esselstyn and he said 500mcg for those under 70yo)
2. Vitamin D3…..Check your blood level. If your blood level is normal, it is not needed. If your blood level is below normal, I suggest 1000-2000 IU daily until the low normal blood level is reached. Adjust dosage then to maintain the low normal range.
3. 1-2T ground flaxseed and /or chia seeds daily, maximum of 2T.

Also….notes I have from Jan ’17 (Patricia Slimbarski ) "My take on alcohol stems from being around the entire Esselstyn family. I have had the pleasure of being with them on many events. I have spoken at DR Esselstyn's seminars for almost 2 years now and also spoken at Jane Esselstyn's Woman's Heart Conference and also at RIP Esselstyn 2 Forks Events. They are all on the same plate here and also the same mindset regarding drinking. I have heard them all say that Alcohol is empty calories, no nutritional value and inhibits your burning fat as much as 30 pct and is a KNOWN TOXIN to every organ in your body. Drinking can also induce cancer and heart disease and other organ damage. we are so concerned about maple syrup or molasses and caffeine then why are we not so concerned about drinking something like alcohol?"

So, if you still want to join the community, go over to 100% Esselstyn Nutrition Forum and click to join. You'll be asked to answer 2 questions. As soon as JoAnn or one of the other admins reads your answers you'll be approved. You can also just do a search for the community, but yesterday there was a little glitch and it didn't appear in a regular search - you had to click the link near the top of the page that said "Groups" before it appeared.

My thanks to JoAnn for starting this community, but I really wish someone from the Esselstyn program itself would open a message board or FB community, one that deals, like this one and the one Meghan had, with the "reversal" version of the program. So much out there that Ann and Jane Esselstyn do, whether in talks, articles, or their YouTube page, deals with the general Esselstyn program and NOT the "reversal" guidelines. When over half the cookbook, the majority of the recipes done on the YouTube channel, even many recipes from the original Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease book, are unsuited for this version, it would be nice to have that clarification "straight from the horse's mouth," so to speak. 

If you still belong to the original community, be aware that on May 1st Meghan is deleting everything, not just "closing" it to new people. If there are any recipes, photos, or any other information you would like to keep from there, get it now, while you still can, because like half the population of the universe in those Avengers movies, once she snaps her fingers it all goes away.

For the McDougallers who aren't aware of the details of the 2 Dr. Esselstyn programs, it's like the difference between the regular McDougall program and the Maximum Weight Loss version - basically the same but MWLP is stricter and doesn't allow or severely restricts some foods that are fine for the regular program. It's like that here, in the differences between the regular Prevent plan and the Reversal programs. All are healthy, but if you're suffering from severe cardio-vascular disease, you need to be super strict and go that extra mile to restore your health.

12 Essential Guidelines For Eating A Plant-Perfect Diet
By Ann Crile Esselstyn
Posted on Mind Body Green


So many years ago when my husband, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, published research that showed the power of plant-based, no-oil nutrition to arrest and reverse heart disease, I became the cook and our children the recipients of a plant-based diet. Since then, eating plant based has become part of who we all are, and none of us would ever look back with longing at the world of meat, grease and oil.

I wrote the recipes in my husband’s book, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, and our daughter, Jane, wrote the recipes in our son Rip’s second book, My Beef with Meat. With heart disease patients in mind, Jane and I have teamed up and written The Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook.

We want to share with you some of the things we have learned along the way and most specifically what we recommend for those with heart disease or type 2 diabetes or for anyone who wants to lose weight.

Here's our 12-step plan for plant-perfect eating.

1. Eat no meat, pork, fish, fowl.

No flesh. None. Every cell in an animal is made of cholesterol. All meat also has saturated fat and animal protein. And research suggests that digesting meat releases a byproduct, trimethylamine oxide (TMAO), that's an even stronger predictor of heart disease than cholesterol. Avoid highly processed fake vegan and soy “meats” because they have a lot of oil in them.

2. Consume no dairy products.

Like meat, all dairy products contain cholesterol, saturated fat, animal protein, and casein. The protein in dairy is one of the most rel¬evant carcinogens identified. Avoid all highly processed vegan and soy cheeses, which are made with a lot of oil and often have added casein!

3. Eliminate oil!

Get rid of all the oil in your cupboards, even if it’s virgin olive oil, so that you can’t use it. Instead of using oil when you stir-fry and sauté vegetables, you can use vegetable broth (no sodium added), water, wine, beer, or vinegar. They all work well. Instead of relying on oil when you bake, use applesauce, apple butter without sugar, puréed prunes, or mashed ripe bananas. Balsamic vinegars are delicious on salad and the flavor-infused ones are stunningly good.

4. Eat whole-grain oats.

Old-fashioned rolled oats or steel-cut oats are good choices. Avoid the more processed “quick-cooking” or “instant” oats. Enjoy whole-grain oats for breakfast any way you can — either as oatmeal or a cold cereal with nondairy milk and fruit, or in the batter for waffles or pancakes.

5. Eat whole grains.

Be sure the word "whole" is in front of wheat or rye in the ingredient list. And be sure the word brown is in front of rice. If you don’t see “whole” in front of the grain on a bread label, it’s likely made with white flour fancied up to sound impressive. Many wonderful whole-grain products are available in the cooler section and the frozen food aisle.

6. Eat greens, especially leafy greens, as well as all the symphony of rainbow-colored vegetables.

Cooked or raw, vegetables are king! Make leafy greens — like kale, collards, and Swiss chard — the nest on which you put your food, mix greens directly into your food, or pile greens on the side of your plate. Mix greens into soup.

If you’re making pasta, add small pieces of kale or other leafy greens to the pot four minutes before the pasta is done then drain the whole pot, and you have a meal ready to go. Use collard leaves instead of burritos in a wrap. Roll a collard green up like a sushi roll. Mix a bunch of greens into pasta sauce and spread it on your whole wheat, no-oil pizza crust, then top with veggies — but, of course, no cheese.

7. Eat beans and lentils!

All beans and lentils are delicious and filling, and are healthy protein sources. Try red lentils in soup. They cook quickly and give the soup a nice color. Put beans in salads. Our hummus, which is made without tahini or oil, has become our “mayonnaise” for spreading on sandwiches, and is our favorite dip for vegetables and crackers. It’s even an ingredient in our favorite salad dressing.

Our main party dish is brown rice and black beans piled high with chopped tomatoes, thawed frozen corn, chopped scallions, water chestnuts, cilantro, chopped arugula, chopped peppers, and topped with salsa.

8. Avoid sugar as much as possible.

Always avoid drinking fruit juice. Eat the whole fruit instead. Read labels and avoid added sugars. Don’t get caught up thinking one sugar is better than another. Avoid them all as much as possible. Save sweets for birthdays or special holiday treats. Instead, put grapes in your freezer for an amazing sweet treat, or freeze bananas or mangoes and blend them in a high-speed blender or a “Yonanas” machine for delicious dairy-free “ice cream.”

Also, a little fruit or dried fruit added to a dish can really help sweeten it up. We use pure maple syrup in some recipes because it has the smallest amount of fructose of all sweeteners.

9. Avoid salt as much as possible.

Look at the government label for the amount of salt (sodium) in a product. No added salt is ideal, or aim for the salt content being equal to the calorie content or less. Instead of salt, add vinegar, lemon juice, lime juice, or low-sodium hot sauces for flavor. You will lose your taste for salt before you know it. Gourmet salts like Celtic salt and sea salt are no better. Don’t get caught up thinking one is better than another. Avoid them all as much as possible.

10. Steer clear of nuts, avocado, and coconut.

Instead, use 1 to 2 tablespoons of ground flaxseeds or chia seeds daily on cereal or in salads — both are excellent for omega-3 fatty acids. An occasional sprinkling of sesame seeds is fine.

11. Drink water!

You can’t go wrong with water. You'll save thousands of dollars and thousands of calories by just drinking water. Absolutely never drink sodas, artificially sweetened or not. Avoid smoothies. Don’t drink your calories; chew them. You can flavor water, soda water, or seltzer water with a splash of orange or apple juice occasionally, but never drink juice by the glass on a regular basis!

12. Read food labels, especially the ingredients.

You'll be surprised how often products that claim to have “zero fat” will list oil among their ingredients. The government allows anything under .5 grams of fat to be labeled fat free. Even products labeled trans fat free can have trans fat in them if you see partially hydrogenated oil as an ingredient! Shocking. Be vigilant!

Gustavo Interviews Dr. and Ann Esselstyn - Questions Answered

They touch on greens 6 times a day and the need for using a few DROPS of balsamic vinegar, why no juices or smoothies, and more!

Lima Bean Comfort Soup

Long time readers of this blog may remember I have no love for lima beans, and even quit the Rancho Gordo Bean Club (three times now) because of all the lima beans they would send. I buy the Birdseye brand mixed frozen vegetables because, unlike store brands, they do not contain lima beans. When a recipe calls for lima beans I leave them out or substitute something like cannelini beans, instead.

Recently, I got a bug up my butt to rip some of the many WFPB nutrition DVDs that I have using a freeware software called Handbrake. My son fiddled around with various settings and we now have 2 custom settings, one for him and his stuff, and one for mine. His is higher quality to watch on his computer monitor, mine set for a lower quality for mobile viewing because I've been transferring them to my iPad Mini. For weeks I ripped most of my McDougall videos, all of Jeff's lectures and his Fast Food series, the Essesltyn and Fuhrman seminars. OK, I did a few movies, too.

What I did these last few weeks were the VegSource Get Healthy Now DVD sets that I bought a few years ago when they had the bundle sale. Of the 9 years' worth of DVDs, 3 discs to a set, 3 to 5 lectures on each disc, I may have watched 4 talks before this, I'm embarrassed to say. Why? Well, someone else would be using the tv when I had time when I first got them, or life happened and there was no time to watch. Eventually, I just plain old forgot I owned them when they got buried under stuff on the shelf where I had them.

But I recently dug them out and started copying them. Today, I'm working on the last one, 2014's Black case. As I did them all, one lecture at a time, I was amazed at how many great presenters they had at these VegSource Healthy Lifestyle Expos over the years. Dr. McDougall did a number of lectures, as did Jeff Novick and the Esselstyns. Dr. Fuhrman appeared at least twice, and many more.

The one thing each year that attracted my attention, the only ones I've been watching the past few days, are the cooking demonstrations. Each year, Sabrina Nelson would apron up and join 2-4 other people to demonstrate their favorite recipes. Jeff cooked a few times, as his Fast Food series discs were released; Ann and Rip Esselstyn each appeared a few times each, as did Chef Tanya of Native Foods restaurant. But the one whose recipes really caught my eye this time were the ones Sabrina Nelson herself did. She was demonstrating recipes using the pressure cooker years before the Instant Pot came out, back when I had my own stovetop PC. As far as I know, these recipes were never printed anywhere or included in any cookbook. She shared some of her family's recipes on their website, and I plan on making the Semi-Cajun Black Bean Soup (minus the sausages) from that page soon, and Randa's Corn Chowder from that page is already one of our favorites. Some of Sabrina's others made their way into the Twins' Clear Skin Diet book.

But this one, Lima Bean Comfort Soup, as far as I know, has only been shared on the Get Healthy Now Orange set from 2007.

In the demo, Sabrina talks about how lima beans have always meant "comfort" to her, as her mom would make lima beans when she was small and in need of comfort, and now that she's a mom, it's her turn to make them, hence this soup.


Lima Bean Comfort Soup 

Pre-soak 1 pound Lima beans a few hours. 
She said there was no need to soak them overnight. I did a quick soak this morning by bringing the rinsed bag of Rancho Gordo Classic Cassoulet beans I've had since 2015. They're no longer on their web site so I can't link them. These beans look exactly like limas - and when I made them in the past, they tasted exactly like limas, too, so to me, cassoulet beans are lima beans.

Sauté 1 diced onion, some garlic, and a stalk of chopped celery in water.
I diced up a large Vidalia onion, tossed some minced garlic, and about 2-3 tablespoons of the dried celery I bought from Harmony House. While that was cooking up the kitchen smelled so amazing my son actually poked his head out of his room asking what I was cooking. He's been eating a lot more of the WFPB meals I've been making lately, especially Jeff's Fast Food meals. He might even surprise me and ask for a bowl of this for his lunch today.

Add herbs to taste, maybe half teaspoon each of Rosemary, sage, about a teaspoon Muchi curry, garlic pepper. 
Sabrina mentioned during the demonstration that she really doesn't do exact measurements, and used her hand and the spice caps to dole out the spices. The amounts written here are her estimates of what she used. As for the curry, she explained how there are many different types of curry out there, and she prefers the Muchi curry for much of her recipes. I looked on Amazon and see it in one pound bags. The smaller jars can be had if you belong to Amazon Pantry or Amazon Fresh. I'll look around elsewhere, like Penzey's or our local health food store (They carry Frontier, the brand Amazon has in bags), and see what I can get. Today, I used the Madras Curry that I used for one of the chili recipes I have. I added some plain old black pepper and plan on grabbing some garlic pepper when I go grocery shopping this weekend.

Add water by tablespoon as needed to prevent sticking.

Add a quart of broth and a cup of water.
In the video she used Pacific no-chicken broth, a product I've never seen. I used the usual Kitchen Basics Unsalted Vegetable Stock that I use for everything.

Add a quarter cup red lentils, a cut up red potato.
No red potatoes so used a Yukon Gold.

Add the lima beans. Cover the pressure cooker and cook at pressure for 9 minutes.
That's the easy part, now that I have an Instant Pot that I can set and forget. After it cooked then cooled for a half hour I released the remaining pressure.

After it's cooked, add some balsamic vinegar.
This part she just said, not showed, so I estimated about a tablespoon of vinegar. It's so little it doesn't add to the flavor.

The final result:

Well, I have to say, it does taste pretty good. The lima beans are nice and soft and taste like beans, not something dry and wood-like. But this is mostly a pot of beans, not really a pot of soup. Most of the broth got absorbed by the beans and lentils (which vanished - I couldn't find a red lentil to save my life!). I wish I could eat bread - what little broth there is in this dish is very tasty.

I still have a few more bags of lima beans, from big limas, baby limas, Christmas limas, as well as more of these big cassoulette beans. With winter rapidly approaching, this will make a nice cold weather lunch.

I wonder how many of the recipes in the Clear Skin Diet book are also Sabrina's and not concoctions tossed together by the girls. I copied a few using the "Look Inside" feature on Amazon or their YouTube channel, but not too many looked all that interesting. I was hoping Jeff Nelson himself would post a few of his wife's creations to his channel. Maybe I'll make that suggestion on his VegSource Facebook page. :)

Ann and Jane - Plant Perfect Potato Salad

Someone posted the recipe to Pinterest, too

My husband recently asked about potato salad, but most of the vegan ones I've found rely heavily on tofu, including Mary McDougall's, or are vinegar-based, which just isn't the kind of potato salad we were brought up on. I have a few bags of those tiny potatoes in the refrigerator, so maybe I'll surprise him and make this tomorrow morning so he can have it with his lunches over the weekend. A perfect topper to a pretty crappy vacation week.

More from Ann & Jane Esselstyn - Lovely Collard Sushi

Dr. Esselstyn Explains why Greens are Important, and Ann Essesltyn Strips Again

Jane Esselstyn posted this to the followers of the Engine 2 Seven Day Recipe Rescue Facebook community yesterday for day 3 of the current challenge, then later it appeared on Facebook so all the world can see it.

As the title of this blog post says, once again Dr. Esselstyn explains why he recommends greens 6 times a day for his heart patients - and everyone - for endothelial health and is proud that he can still recite the "Greens Mantra" in rapid fire. After his talk, Ann takes over and shows how she strips and cooks the kale, how quickly it all goes, and how easy it is to add greens to all your meals.




Even if you're not participating in any of the challenges or even follow the Seven Day Rescue version of the Engine 2 or Dr. Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease food plan, this is a good FB community to belong to. A number of quick and easy recipes that are all within Dr. McDougall's parameters, and many of the recipes and meal suggestions (They're big on "bowl" meals and batch cooking) can even be made MWLP compatible. Oh, and these appearances by the Esselstyn family are certainly a great bonus! There are a number of files in the Video section featuring one or more of them.

Potatoes!!

If you love potatoes - and what McDougaller doesn't? - the you NEED to buy Jeanine Elder's newly release ebook, The Potato Reset.

Sure, she has a load of potato recipes on her YouTube channel, like:



or




or even




but the book has all those AND MORE!! French Toast potatoes? Yum! Over a dozen different sauces and dips? Salt-free spice mixtures to make? Almost everything here is even MWLP safe, too!

Really, everyone needs to get this e-book!

And you may as well grab it this holiday weekend while she's having a half-price Launch Weekend sale!! You can't beat it for the price of $12.50 if you want easy, low-cost, healthy potato recipes! Whether you love white, red, Gold, russets, or any of the varieties of sweet potatoes, this book is for you!

Oh, and she outlines her Potato Reset weight loss plan, too, an added bonus. :) You could already get the free 3-day version of that on her website, but the book goes into a little more detail. 

I'm sure a lot of you probably already spent over $60 to get Jill McKeever's Soy Curls books, so why not shell out just a little bit more money to get even healthier potato recipes.

Dr. Esselstyn's Greens Mantra

More by Jeff on That CVD Study

Jeff Novick does a follow-up on the study I mentioned in that previous post, and promises even more about it in the future. As it turns out, once you read the entire study you see what was really concluded.

I suggest you read  the entire thread, but here's a snippet from one of his posts:

I agree 100% with most all of it including... 
no to - - juicing- - (most) supplements- - coconut oil- - eggs- - hi fat diets
and 
yes to..- -veggies, - - protein from plant foods- - (fruits)/berries.  

The question is on nuts, which we do allow in moderation but they are not recommended for weight loss, which is exactly what the paper recommends, limiting intake to one ounce a day (30 gm) and that "Moderate quantities are required to prevent caloric excess." No argument there. 
The real question is liquid vegetable oils like corn, olive & canola oils which I have addressed in this forum in detail and in my talk. I would recommend reading the paper on this issue. It says they found that when substituting these vegetable oils for saturated fat, there was a decrease in the numbers but no evidence on better CVD outcomes.That is exactly what I say in the fats talk and in this forum.  

It says olive has some more evidence from some MED studies and PREDIMED Trial, which I discuss in this forum and in my talk. They also say there are no studies comparing the MED to the Okinawan which uses virtually no nuts or oils and has great outcomes too. 
Most of what they are discussing is the impact of these oils on those on the SAD moving in our direction or on a current unhealthy MED diet. They are not discussing what happens when someone is on our diet and lifestyle and then adds the oil to them. These are all the same points I make in my writing/talks. Olive oil may be shown to decrease LDL or LDL oxidation when someone is not on a very healthy diet, but it is not going to decrease LDL or LDL oxidation even more when someone is strictly adhering to our recommendations.  

It's like the example I use on the nuts studies that show that adding nuts to a typical diet may lower TC 4.5% and LDL 6.5%. Yet, changing ones whole diet to the one we recommend without the use of nuts, lowered TC and LDL 25-30%, Will adding nuts now to that diet lower TC and LDL even more?

New Cardio-Vascular Disease Study Results

Jeff Novick posted this over on the McDougall forums. He has the thread locked so nobody can reply, so here it is in its entirety.

(Edited to add:)
Looks like Dr. Fuhrman was right all along. Maybe his program deserves another look.

Trending Cardiovascular Nutrition Controversies- Nuts, Oil..

Just published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

The authors include Dr Barnard, Dr Esselstyn, Dr Ornish & Dr Williams

Trending Cardiovascular Nutrition Controversies
(J Am Coll Cardiol 2017;69:1172–87)

Andrew M. Freeman, MD,a Pamela B. Morris, MD,b Neal Barnard, MD,c Caldwell B. Esselstyn, MD,d, Emilio Ros, MD, PHD,e Arthur Agatston, MD,f Stephen Devries, MD,g,h James O’Keefe, MD,i Michael Miller, MD,j Dean Ornish, MD,k Kim Williams, MD,l Penny Kris-Etherton, PHDm

Full text

http://www.onlinejacc.org/content/69/9/1172

Abstract

The potential cardiovascular benefits of several trending foods and dietary patterns are still incompletely understood, and nutritional science continues to evolve. However, in the meantime, a number of controversial dietary patterns, foods, and nutrients have received significant media exposure and are mired by hype. This review addresses some of the more popular foods and dietary patterns that are promoted for cardiovascular health to provide clinicians with accurate information for patient discussions in the clinical setting. 

A Look to the Future

In summary, the future health of the global population largely depends on a shift to healthier dietary patterns (Central Illustration). However, in the search for the perfect dietary pattern and foods that provide miraculous benefits, consumers are vulnerable to unsubstantiated health benefit claims. As clinicians, it is important to stay abreast of the current scientific evidence to provide meaningful and effective nutrition guidance to patients for ASCVD risk reduction. In this brief review, just a few of the current trends in nutrition have been highlighted to serve as a starting point for the patient-clinician discussion. Available evidence supports CV benefits of nuts, olive oil and other liquid vegetable oils, plant-based diets and plant-based proteins, green leafy vegetables, and antioxidant-rich foods (Central Illustration). Although juicing may be of benefit for individuals who would otherwise not consume adequate amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables, caution must be exercised to avoid excessive calorie intake. There is currently no evidence to supplement regular intake of antioxidant dietary supplements. Gluten is an issue for those with GRDs, and it is important to be mindful of this in routine clinical practice; however, there is no evidence for CV or weight loss benefits, apart from the potential caloric restriction associated with a gluten-free diet.

Summary Chart

Looks like Dr Esselstyn just put his name on a published paper endorsing nuts & oils

In Health
Jeff

McDougall Webinar - Hypertension

And don't forget to download the book chapter and newsletter article that were reading material for this session from Dr. McDougall's website.

BTW, the webinar web page for this says a closed caption version of this is available on YouTube. Don't believe it. 1) This particular video, as of 10/21/2016 @ 12:45pm EDT, is NOT caption-enabled, and 2) When his videos are captioned, it's the YouTube voice-to-text software translation, not a real "someone listened and typed it out" closed captioning. 9 times out of 10 these are totally useless and instead of being informative, are either frustrating or entertaining, depending on your mood. I'm sure you all know of some TV closed captioning occasions where the text on the screen bears little resemblance to what's being said, and many times aren't even showing real words. Well, YouTube captioning is like that. Believe me, with my 60+ year history of being hard of hearing, I know bad captioning when I see it!

McDougall Webinar - Heart Disease; Gustavo's Cooking Demo

Lima Bean Stew

I decided to make something different for today, and with some of Dr, McDougall's recent webinars focused on heart health, I decided to pull out The McDougall Program for A Healthy Heart and look around. The book is currently out of print, but you can get used copies of it from many on-line book stores, and Dr. McDougall is also selling a PDF version of it on his web site. The 20% off all digital books sale is still going on so you can grab this for only $8.

Lima Bean Stew looked good, but before I started a new post here about it I searched and saw I did a quickie post about it back in 2008. Unfortunately, the link to the recipe itself died along with Geocities, so I guess I better share it again:

Lima Bean Stew
Serving Size: 8     
Preparation Time 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 1 hour

  1             medium  onion -- chopped
  1             medium  green pepper -- or red, chopped
  2             stalks  celery -- sliced
  2             medium  carrots -- sliced
  8               cups  water
  3               cups  frozen lima beans
  16            ounces  tomato sauce -- canned
     3/4           cup  barley -- uncooked
     3/4           cup  brown rice -- uncooked
  2        tablespoons  soy sauce, low sodium
  1         tablespoon  parsley, freeze-dried
  1           teaspoon  dried basil
     1/2      teaspoon  paprika
     1/2      teaspoon  dried oregano
                        fresh ground black pepper -- to taste

Combine all ingredients in a large soup pot. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 60 minutes.

The McDougall Program for A Healthy Heart (page 350)
McDougall Quick and Easy Cookbook (page 90)
John McDougall, MD and Mary McDougall

NOTES : This may also be made in a slow cooker. Add all ingredients at once and cook on low for 4 to 6 hours. We have let this cook as long as 8 hours with no adverse results except for softer vegetables.

Instead of chopping up a bunch of fresh veggies, I used a container of mirepoix - a carrot, onion, and celery pre-chopped mix from the grocery store - and added some frozen onions, because we love onions in this house.

The tomato sauce is Hunt's no-salt added version. I was so happy when I saw our grocery store decided to stock not only the small 8 ounce size cans of this but also the 15 ounce and 28 ounce cans. It makes it so easy now to make home made, no salt added pasta sauces.

Since the ingredients read green or red pepper, I opened a small jar of sliced pimientos and used that. No pepper skins glueing themselves to my upper palate to worry about.

The lima beans. I had belonged to the Rancho Gordo Bean Club for a year and a half. I didn't immediately renew after the first year and missed one shipment while on the waiting list, then renewed for another quarter and dropped it again. Why? First off, the beans are delicious and definitely fresher than you would ever find in grocery stores. I quit twice because of lima beans. I'm not that big a fan of them, but in the 5 shipments from Rancho Gordo I had gotten 6 bags of lima beans. There aren't the cute little baby limas, either, but honking, gigantic creamy white ones, with skin so thick you can use them to make shoes out of. OK, slight exaggeration. I still had 4 bags of lima beans left in my pantry and figured I better start eating them before they become as old and hard as grocery store beans, so last night I set a bag of Royal Coronas out to soak overnight, and this morning cooked them up in the Instant Pot. It made up 6 cups of beans, so 3 were set aside for this recipe, the others I split in half, put into freezer bags, and when cool, put into the freezer for the next time I need lima beans for anything. If I plan on making more recipies from this book, they'll get used, because Mary does seem to like using lima beans in her older recipes.

Everything got popped back into the cleaned Instant Pot and put on Low for 6 hours. I can never remember if the vent stays open or closed when slow-cooking in this thing. When I used the 6-quart as my primary pot I didn't have any problem - I had purchased the accessories package had had the glass lid that I used. But the 8-quart doesn't have a glass lid, and none of my other pot lids really fit it, so I'm stuck with the regular lid. Even with the valve closed, the house smells great. I can't wait until dinner time!

Here's a photo at the 4 hour point, fluffed up so you can see the ingredients and not just tomato sauce:

I apologize for the fuzziness of the photo. My son said the steam kept clouding his iPod lens.

I really should use these older books more. Some of these recipes are fantastic!

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