Customer Reviews

Cholesterol Protection for Life

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Don't believe anybody who says aggressive nutritional therapy can't work miracles - it can! If you've been told that you need to take cholesterol lowering medications for the rest of your life, even if you have already tried "dietary intervention", read Cholesterol Protection for Life (CPFL). You have the right to know that there is an effective option besides statin drugs; your doctor probably has not mentioned it. The patients of the author, Dr. Joel Fuhrman, routinely see their cholesterol plummet within weeks of adopting the eating style outlined in CPFL and expanded upon in the "mother" volume, Eat to Live (ETL).

The advice on the web site of the National Cholesterol Education Panel (NCEP) is a disgrace. According to NCEP's "Be Heart Smart!" page, we should eat meat with some fat cut off, skim fat off our gravy, make biscuits by glopping vegetable oil into them instead of lard, and use low-fat cheese to make macaroni and cheese. - i.e., tweak the fat but continue eating the junk that contributed to our heart disease to begin with!

CPFL, instead, talks about the foods we should eat to reverse CVD: vegetables, raw nuts, beans, oats, and pomegranates and their wondrous heart-healing micronutrients. CPFL provides the dietary framework and some recipes that exemplify how to make vegetables, fruits, and beans taste so great that you won't miss NCEP's biscuits and gravy much. CPFL also discusses the dangers of statin drugs; salt and stroke risk; homocysteine and folate absorption; the persistence of high cholesterol levels in some people (like me), despite nutritional excellence.

Seven months after starting CPFL's recommendations, my LDL was 136, HDL was 46, and I was still 15 pounds from my ideal weight. I then started adding 100% safe cholesterol lowering supplements to my nutritional regime. Two months after that baseline I reached my ideal weight. Ten months after the baseline my LDL fell below 100 and my HDL rose to 77 - using only food and nutritional supplements!

EXcellent book written to given alternatives to taking the normal cholesteral lowering drugs. He is very motivational, informative yet balanced in his view. I just got my blood test back and my cholesterol has lowered by 99 points. He also gives lots of ideas on things to eat that are helpfu.

First, I should say that I believe that his diet is vastly superior to the standard american diet. However I think that both "The Mcdougall Program for a Healthy Heart" by John Mcdougall,MD and "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease" by Caldwell Esselstyn are both much better books for a number of reasons.

Fuhrman uses the native population of rural China where heart disease is rare to justify his program. However, he then recommends that you limit consumption of starches such as rice even though rice is the primary component in rural chinese diet. While Dr Mcdougal's program uses the same justification citing not only rural china(rice),but parts of mexico(corn), eastern Europe(potatoes), New Guinea(yams),etc, he recommends that you base your diet on these foods. Following Mcdougalls plan, my weight dropped to 155lbs and on my 1st blood test since starting this plan my cholesterol dropped to 167 from its typical 220-250 range after only a few weeks. A Whole grain based diet is both more satisfying and a lot less expensive than a vegetable based diet unless you are growing it yourself.

Dr. Fuhrman also recommends and sells policosanol. When I first found out that I had high cholesterol, I tried policosanol. After 6 months, my cholesterol went up 20 points. To the best of my knowledge, no studies outside of the cuban studies (funded by a company with a financial stake) have replicated the Cuban findings. If you cannot get your cholesterol low enough with diet and exercise and you do not want to take statins, then you should read "Reverse Heart Disease Now" by Stephen Sinatra,md. for advice on supplements.

I think that any low fat vegan diet (including Dr. Furhmans) will result in weight loss, low cholesterol and protection from heart disease. This book conveys that message far less convincingly than the books I cited above.

I found this book so easy to read and understand. It is a lifesaver if you are suffering from high cholesterol levels or heart disease or if you want to ensure you never do! Dr. Fuhrman gives you delicious recipes and easy to follow nutritional advice. He also tells you exactly what supplements to take if needed. There really are other options besides statin drugs and their unwanted side effects. It is sad that more doctors don't give advice and information like this to their patients.. I admire Dr. Fuhrman so much for the tireless effort he puts into helping us learn ways to cure illness and live longer, healthier lives. This book gives you the knowledge you need to find your own way back to a healthy life free from drugs and heart disease.

Great book! Just letting people who are interested know that they can purchase it online at www.drfuhrman.com, since it is currently unavailable here. As a testment to this way of eating, I can say that it works wonders and should you buy it and follow Dr. F's suggestions, be rest assured that your cholesterol will return to a normal range. Right now I can tell you that Dr. Fuhrman recommends eating large amounts of vegetables, esp. green ones like kale, spinach, bok choy, broccoli, brussel sprouts and lettuce, as well as fruits, and small amounts of beans, nuts and seeds. If this does not sound appealing to you, I would definitely give it a shot anyway. It is not as if you will be eating these foods on their own. Dr. F provides delicious recipes in the book and has many more delicious ones on his website. Also, this is your health we are talking about. I think it would be worth trying new or unfamiliar foods in the quest to regain your health. Also, as a follower of Dr. F myself, I would like to say that he has mentioned that taste buds can actually change over time. I am learning that in myself now. I used to despise brussel sprouts and now I am not repulsed and will eat them on occasion. Quite a shocker, I know. But if you are a skeptic, read Dr. F's books, try his diet and then tell me I am wrong.
Best of luck in lowering your cholesterol! I know you will be able to do it with this diet :)

Got this book when hubby's cardiologist wanted to put him on Crestor. Instead, he committed to follow the guidelines set forth in this book. By changing his diet (yep, it's a pretty radical change), in 6 weeks his cholesterol went from 227 down to 190. His LDLs went from 168 to 123. He lost twenty pounds over the course of the six weeks and has now lost and maintained a loss of thirty pounds and is at an ideal weight. His cardiologist said that she was "thrilled" with the results and wants to try this approach with more patients. If you switch over to this diet, you'll actually be eating "food" and not the processed ingredients that often get passed off as "food". Highly recommend if you are highly motivated to be healthy.

My husband followed the advice in this book to lower his elevated LDL cholesterol score. He dropped it from 135 to 98. We have since recommended the book to several people, many of whom have followed its advice with similar results. It works!

This book is available at Fuhrman's website for 14.95. I have no idea why anyone is trying to rip people off by asking 90+ dollars for a copy! Good grief. YOu can buy a hardcover, signed by the dr, for 25 bucks. I only hope this absurd price is a typo...

Furhman's eating plans are superb, backed by scientific study, and long term proof that eating a healthy, whole foods vegetarian diet can reverse disease. It will save your life.

I purchased this book for my dad when he discovered his cholesterol and blood pressure were a little high. I tried to find a lifestyle book rather than a "recipe" book. This has some great recipe ideas, but is more focused on trading in bad habits for good ones. My recently retired father can't keep his hands out of this book -- he loves it!

Great book on nutrition. It gets a bit redundant by the end, hence the 4 stars. Fuhrman's books are a big eye-opener. He goes into great detail (w/ footnotes on the latest scientific studies) on what you already know - that your fruits and vegetables are the healthiest foods and that sweet, salty and fatty foods are bad for you. He then goes on to tell you what you don't know about nutrition but should. It's as shocking as Campbell's The China Study to the sensitive and obese ears of the American public. This book (or anything authored by Furhman) is not for the weary or those addicted to the Standard American Diet (SAD). What does come through is Furhman's dedication to a diet of nutritional excellence, which he has distilled down to the equation of H=N/C (Health = Nutrients divided by Calories). Definitely worth the read if you're interested in getting healthy.