Day thirtyfour begins

I have been reading more of the The China Study. It is still annoying.

Dr. Campbell talks about a doctor in Cleveland, Ohio, named Esselstyn. His website is here. He was a cardiologist at the top of his game. But he became disenchanted with the results. He did the research and figured out that a plant based, whole foods diet could reverse heart disease. He quietly did the study and got astounding results.

His reward? Instead of being rewarded for his success, he became a pariah. His patients kept going back to their other doctors pissed off that they had spent years suffering and spending huge sums of money on treatments which could have been easily avoided. Eventually, although Dr. Esselstyn practiced in a hospital supported by the Seventh Day Adventists (among the most health conscious of Americans), they eventually drove him out of the practice of medicine in that hospital.

Today, the standard medical practice still revolved around surgery and medication. The patients are told to go on the American Heart Association diet, which is largely animal based and is known to be completely ineffective. The vast majority of these patients get worse, not better, with this course of treatment. The prognosis for the poor patients who go down the path of the standard medical care for heart disease is not good. Not good at all.

Again, even when doctors are confronted with the irrefutable evidence in the scientific literature supporting a plant based diet, they say "Sure, but no one would want to do that. I can't even get my patients to quit smoking."

Yes, it is hard to give up animal products. I have done it. On Friday night, at the dinner at Ray and Debbie's house, my wife brought a rotisserie chicken from Sam's club. How I wanted to tear into that chicken! But I knew if I did that I would take a big step backwards. That is the slippery slope.

So I stayed veg. I am veg today. I will continue to be veg for the rest of my life.

Can they do it? Sure they can! I did it, and so can you.

More later.