I called a wise and well-known vegan friend late last night, one whom I've learned a lot from over the years... I was emotionally upset over hearing that my father had another "heart-related event" last night (shortly after finishing Rip Esselstyn's new book). Two years ago January, Dad had his first, coincidentally enough while I was in the middle of reading Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn's "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease" in preparation for an interview in mid-February. Two years ago the next week, I began following Essy's "no added fat" vegan diet recommendations, lost some 15+ lbs., as well as my desire for added fat/oil in my diet. Dad read the book and was influenced, but he's slipped somewhat from that time. Since then I've written about Essy's/Ornish's research and related matters often on this blog (and, aside from the many positive e-mails, taken a lot of heat).
I whined to my friend that my father just wasn't paying enough attention, and as a former test pilot, one would think he had enough discipline to do so. My friend noted that I've done all that I can: setting an example, providing information about diet and health, and trying to encourage him to go low-fat vegan. He also said essentially that I was on "Suicide Watch" of sorts. I took this phrase as providing perspective and not being "ghoulish" or mean. Simply that the best thing I could do was to pay attention, listen, provide support, and not lecture. Just watch, wait, and hope...
This all got me thinking about what really is the hardest part of being a "low-fat" vegan. It isn't the lack of meat or dairy. It isn't the lack of fat or oil. It's not the occasional ridicule. It is the watching someone you love, with a potentially fatal biological condition that could most likely be reversed through proper diet, not follow that diet. I am surprised by the depth of frustration within me over this situation. I KNOW there's nothing more I can do, and it's like watching someone walking towards the edge of the Grand Canyon and he's not hearing you yell, "Hey! Turn around and walk the other way!" Some of my closest friends are very overweight, and it's clear that their chances of experiencing high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and other obesity-related disorders are increasing every month. Still, they eat meat, cheese, and added oils.
And yet, Drs. Esselstyn and Ornish have clearly shown/proven that a no-added fat diet can reverse heart disease and prevent the formation of plaque which causes 90% of strokes that can kill without warning. It's not theory, it's fact. I've even put together a list of "15 reasons to avoid added vegetable oils" in your diet (which I sent to Dad).
...and still people don't change, adapt, evolve. Yes, Dad and Mom are eating more fruit and vegetables, but they can't handle giving up the oil (a non-food), the cheese, and the meat. It's just something I have to accept... and one of my brothers, I found out a few weeks ago, is being advised to use statins for high cholesterol... taking the first step on a slippery slope... another candidate for the "Suicide Watch."
How amazingly ironic that people often ask me the stupid "What about protein?" question, or the "Why give up milk?" query, or the "What do you eat?" curiosity, yet the real serious, insightful, and penultimate question would be: "How do you handle watching your friends and family suffer and possibly die from diseases that they needn't from if they just ate right?"
"Suicide Watch..." it's not fun. You want to scream. You want to yell. You want to point out in no uncertain terms that what they are going through, the pain, and the introduction of modern medicine's "miracle drugs" with those often "pesky" fatal or complex side affects are NOT necessary or normal. The solution has been identified and proven. All ya gotta do is get with the program.
This is not a matter of "belief," but instead, the knowledge that the proof and the science are solid. The physical measurements of what happens to your circulatory system from just ONE fatty meal (constriction of the endothelium and inflammation of your blood vessels) isn't subject to debate. For me, arguing against added oil or fat in your diet is likened to insisting gravity doesn't exist or that the Sun revolves around the Earth. There are facts, there are theories. Fact: added fat/oil, dairy, and meat in your diet will, regardless of exercise, increase your risks for a host of disease, predominant amongst them being heart disease and strokes. Stop with the added fat (plus meat and dairy) and you will lower your cholesterol as well as your risk of heart disease/stroke. No guesswork involved.
So, how unfortunate it is that those of us who understand this, and follow a diet incorporating this awareness, in decreasing our own odds of developing and succumbing to these diseases, are at the same time increasing the odds that in our later life, we will be on the same "Suicide Watch" for those we love who haven't understood or figured it out. Watching, waiting, hoping, offering advice and help when solicited, and wishing it weren't so, knowing it doesn't have to be.
... tick tock tick tock tick tock... praying they pay attention before it's too late, and that the next alarm bell isn't the final knell.
