As you may be wondering what the parameters are for the Esselstyn diet, here are the things you need to know. If you are serious about reversing your heart disease symptoms, i would urge you to read the book for all of the information about the study, the diet and the results of the 20 year experiment.
His website is here and his book is available on Amazon
The Esselstyn diet is a strict one. You have to be totally committed to sticking with it and know that the rule of ‘everything in moderation’ is not for those people who want to reverse their heart disease and angina symptoms. There is a chapter in the book by Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., M.D. called ‘Moderation Kills’.
The avoid list:
Written by Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., M.D.
1 – Any food with a face or a mother. This is meat, poultry, fish and eggs. You maybe aware that arginine and omega -3 fatty acids are essential to the endothelial health are plentiful in fish. But there are other , healthier sources of these substances such as flax seeds and chia seeds.
2 – Diary products. Meaning butter, cheese, cream, ice cream, yoghurt and all milk from animals.
3 – Oils. Avoid ALL oils, including olive oil and canola oil. All oil contains saturated fat which is artery clogging, every bit as aggressive in promoting heart disease as the saturated fat in roast beef. As an example olive oil includes anywhere between 14-17% saturated fat.
4 – Refined grains. These unlike whole grains have been stripped of much of their fibre and nutrients and will raise your triglyceride levels. Avoid white bread, rice, pasta and flour.
5 – Nuts. People who have heart disease should avoid all nuts. I am extremely wary of nuts. Although there have some short term studies funded by nut companies showing that they may positively affect good and bad cholesterol, i know of no long term studies that they can arrest and reverse heart disease. They are high in fat and you may over ingest them, elevating your cholesterol levels
6 – Avocados. This is the only veggie not on the GOOD list. They carry an unusually high fat content for a vegetable.
The good to go list.
1 – Vegetables. Almost every veggie you can think of, apart from avocados as mentioned above.
2 – Legumes. Beans, peas and lentils of all kinds. This is a wide ranging family of plants proven to reduce the risk and help reverse the affects of heart disease.
3 – Whole grains. Whole wheat, whole rye, bulgar wheat, whole oats, barley, buckwheat, wholemeal cous cous, quiona, spelt, whole grain pasta to name a few. Just look for the word WHOLE. Bread needs to be whole grain too, but, BE CAREFUL TO CHECK THE INGREDIENTS FOR OIL, most shop bought bread has oil in, see my simple, quick bread recipe here: https://oilfreefoodie.com/2021/04/16/easy-no-need-to-knead-bread/ ).
4 – Fruit. Fruits are permitted, however be careful of not over consuming. Limit yourself to 3 pieces of fruit per day. When you have heart disease, you need to avoid high sugar content, which will raise your blood sugar levels. With this in mind, it is best to avoid fruit juice, which is especially high. If your blood sugar levels are raised, your body compensates to the sugar high with a surge of insulin, and in turn, stimulates the liver to make more cholesterol.
5 – Beverages. Drink water, tea and coffee and use soya milk, and oat milk IF you can find an oat milk without added oil. I am yet to find one here in the UK, so soya milk is my go to in tea and coffee. Alcohol is fine in moderation.
Essential supplements
By eating a full ranging plant based diet, you will not require supplemental calcium or multivitamins apart from the following advised by the Esselstyn Foundation.
1 – Vitamin B12. At least 1000mcg (micrograms) per day
2 – Omega 3 fatty acids. You can get the levels of omega 3 needed by having 1 -2 tablespoons of ground flax seed or chia seeds every day. They go well with cereal, especially porridge.
3 – Vitamin D3. This is a tricky one to monitor, unless you can check your blood levels without a doctors appointment. If they are below normal you will need to supplement around 1000-2000 IU (international Units) daily. 10 micrograms is equivalent to 400 IU, so, 1000 IU is 30mg. If you have had a test and know the levels needed to be supplemented, as instructed by your GP, use a supplement and adjust accordingly as levels normalise.
A few more things…
When shopping, most of the food here will be whole, fresh produce, however when products are processed, be vigilant of the ingredients and check and double check them. I stick to mainly whole foods, but some of my recipes do have sauces or jarred vegetables in. ALWAYS check the ingredients and try to avoid (or use very sparingly)products with lots and lots of ingredients and preservatives.
Eating out will be difficult, if you do, plan ahead and check with the restaurants for oil free dishes or see if they can prepare an oil free meal for you. At time of writing i have yet to eat out, but i would always opt for something easy for the establishment to prepare like a baked potato, brown rice or pasta with a simple sauce with a simple green leaf side salad and oil free dressing using only balsamic vinegar.
I really hope this helps, if you do have more queries about the Esselstyn diet, purchase the book or go to the FAQ section on the Dr Esselstyn’s website here: https://www.dresselstyn.com/site/faq/
OilFreeFoodie 