Watch the full CNN show "The Last Heart Attack" with Sanjay Gupta, Bill Clinton, and Caldwell Esselstyn. Save Lives.

Finally, "The Last Heart Attack" show played on CNN!! It was only because I am on 4 gazillion healthy living "lists" that I actually knew when it was going to appear. Although I have always liked Sanjay (who doesn't?), I never really was super excited about  him just because he seems afraid to "test" the waters too much. But I think when an ex-prez tries to save his life with diet, when a meat & potatoes guy who used to jog to McDonald's, is eating quinoa & chickpeas now- it's hard to "ignore" anymore. This special comes at a time when more Americans then ever are losing their health insurance. I remember hearing years ago, that when Cuba was cut off from receiving a lot of financial help & foodstuffs, that their health actually got better.  They had to eat a mostly plant based diet and their heart disease rates plummeted.   While it is terrible that we are losing health insurance, I wonder if there will be some sort of movement to become proactive in our health (if we have no other choice). I am all for diagnostic testing, using the technology to see what issues we have. However, when regular doctors say it's radical to ask Americans to change their diet, they have lost my faith. These are the same doctors that are doing open heart surgeries on a daily basis! What about heart surgery isn't radical? And when you really start looking into people who have had bypass surgery, that usually isn't the end of their heart issues. It won't "fix" the problem unless you fix the cause. The cause? The food the government subsidizes. According to Esselstyn, Campbell, and countless others, it's the meat and dairy that are killing us. Esselstyn suggests to make ourselves "heart attack proof" that we eat a low-fat, whole foods, plant based diet. Do you douse everything with olive oil? Don't!! Yep. Olive oil is only helpful to you if you are using it instead of butter. But to someone eating a wholefoods, plant based diet, olive oil doesn't help you a bit! The "Forks Over Knives", "Engine 2 diet", and Esselstyn, and Campbell's diet promotes avocados & raw nuts for your oils, and Esselstyn is even stingy with those, suggesting that if you are at risk for heart disease-skip even the nuts.

Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease: The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven, Nutrition-Based Cure

Forks Over Knives: The Plant-Based Way to Health

The Engine 2 Diet: The Texas Firefighter's 28-Day Save-Your-Life Plan that Lowers Cholesterol and 

Burns Away the Pound

s

The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted And the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, And Long-term Health

Radical? Well, if you are a mother or father, and you are trying to stay alive to see your kids get married and hang out with your grandkids-I don't think eating differently is "radical". I feel like fruit loops, McDonalds, heart surgery, countless drugs, and the entire country getting diabetes by 2020 (if we don't make any changes) is a whole lot more radical than eating foods in their natural form.

Like I said in my last post, my early years were spent on a primarily plant based diet because my folks got married at 19 and 20. They had nothing! They used a plant based diet because it was the cheapest way to nourish themselves. White Rice was basically not allowed in our home. Although I would come home begging my mom for "Minute Rice" after I was at my Bolivian friend's house (she is still up for grabs by the way), my mum wouldn't cave. And I am very grateful for that. Fast Food french fries?? Not after my dad saw in a science zine, over twenty years ago, that they were cooked in BEEF tallow!! Plant based is old school. White bread, Hostess, Little Debbie, packaged lunch meats are wonder products from the late 40's and we are still paying for their convenience. Yep, convenient at the time, but when you watch a relative take a last breath because of an accumulation of this type of food, ya might change your mind.

Crazy Sexy Diet: Eat Your Veggies, Ignite Your Spark, and Live Like You Mean It!

(Kris Carr and her holistic way of dealing with a rare cancer.  Lifestyle tips for everyone!!)

The great thing is this diet is ultra cheap. No, don't go to Whole Foods and buy packaged foods!! Then it is expensive!!! BUT, you can go to Whole Foods, and hit the bulk aisle. You can find endless beans & grains, organic, for very little money.  That is what Whole Foods started out as, it wasn't always a mega store with every type of "boxed", frozen, processed food!! It was "built" on beans, grains, veggies, and YOU can still used it like that!  A co-op is great too, but we don't all have that.   Quinoa cooks up in just a few minutes. If you eat wheat, well, bulgur wheat also is a super quick meal. Beans & Greens offer a ton of protein. And if you eat organic tofu or tempeh, just throw some on a bed of a whole grain or in a salad. And beans & grains if you don't buy organic-even cheaper! Although at WF, most beans and grains (dried) run about 1.70 to 3.00 a pound. Cheap kitchen tools to make your life easier are rice cookers and slow cookers. I have a Miracle Rice Cooker, which makes a stellar batch of Brown Basmati Rice (yes, you can buy organic BROWN basmati!). The Miracle has a stainless interior. But you can pick up other brands of rice cookers for next to nothing in nearly any "box" store, or of course online. Crockpots are a very inexpensive, unscary way to cook dried beans.

Stainless Steel Rice Cooker Model ME81 (Formerly ME8) - by Miracle Exclusives

This is what I bought when my other rice cooker broke.  It is pricer than others,  but we don't go out to eat much and we use it all the time!  But any rice cooker will do.  I bought this brand because it was stainless on the inside and I try to avoid plastics.

Crock-Pot 3060-W 6-Quart Round Slow Cooker, White

Read Sanjay Gupta's shocking letter on Becoming Heart Attack Proof.

What's so "shocking"?  That if we have the knowledge to end heart attacks, that we aren't actually promoting that knowledge and using it.  I just wish that the grandfather that I never got to meet because he died at 42 from a heart attack, well, I wish that he would have gotten to use it.  It really is a difference between life or death.  

I know cholesterol has become a real hot button issue these days.  Many people say now it doesn't matter.  In my opinion, it is because we are doing an incomplete cholesterol test.  It seems that the plant based docs say if you are below 150 then you are safe.  But we also need to do an actual cholesterol test that matters.  That tells us the size of our particles.  One name for this type of test is the VAP test-a very comprehensive test.  If you have small dense particles, you are in trouble. (But you can still change!).  You want big fluffy pretty particles.  Even if you want to take medicine, apparently this test will help navigate which medicine would actually work for the type of cholesterol you are trying to treat.  I went to a preventive doctor, who ordered this test when I became a new patient, and it's awesome!  If your doctor writes the script for it, and you have just "normal" insurance, it should be covered.  But check!  I have had several friends & family members have a difficult time getting tests written, because doctors don't ever want to put up a red flag to their insurance, so either go to a different doctor and ask or go to Any Lab Test Now.  Any Lab Test Now doesn't deal with insurance at all but you can get tests done for very cheap.  So you pay out of pocket, but this may allow you to take tests that your insurance won't cover, or if you don't have insurance.  And ya know what, you don't even need a doctor to write a script if you use Any Lab Test Now.   Remember, you are a consumer of the health care industry.  Doctors aren't Gods and don't really want to be Gods.  But you are the customer.  There are good doctors out there, so if you are not "being heard" then make an appointment with someone else.  If you have insurance, you are only out your co-pay.  But it's important to find doctors that you feel like you can trust.  If you don't have a good relationship with your doctor, then you just may blow off ever going-so find doctors what will work with you.  You are the customer and it is ultimately up to you to be your own advocate.

Kale Greens from "Forks Over Knives" Book

Green Goddess Dressing post from "Forks Over Knives" book.

Super Beans.  Getting ready to be made into one of Anupy's Awesome  3 note dal.

Black Eyed Peas infused with Cilantro.

Kala Chana.  Black Chickpea Curry.  From Indian Slow Cooker Book.

Sunflower Power Balls



Raw Vegan Poppyseed Pastry.

Raw Vegan Spinach Dip.


**The entire "The Last Heart Attack" show with Sanjay Gupta will be REPLAYED on CNN this Saturday Night, twice.  Please check your local listings.  I believe it will be 8:00 pm and 11:00 CENTRAL time.  But check and just set your DVRs for the whole night!!