Prevent a Second Heart Attack: 8 Foods, 8 Weeks to Reverse Heart Disease

This was the best of 6 books on preventing or reversing heart disease I read to help a friend who had a heart attack. I am an MD who practiced Internal Medicine. I found much of the data in this book invaluable and new to me. It is quite readable, practical, science based and thoroughly referenced (267 references) with data from about 200 individual studies. As a prior reviewer noted, many of the studies are based on epidemiologically based research which show association but cannot prove causation. I agree that the author would have done well to emphasize this more frequently. None the less, the kind of tightly controlled studies we might wish for are expensive, very difficult to arrange and often unethical in human populations. The type of study Brill cites are currently the only thing we have. Another plus for this book is that it is based on data relevant to survival rather than an ideology about plant based food. Brill explains the physiology and pathology of heart disease in a thorough manner which contributes to understanding the rationale of the suggested dietary choices.There is so much good and current information in the book that I am on my third reading. A goodie I missed that first two times: Among 23,000 Greeks studied prospectively for an average of 8.5 years the dietary items most associated with longevity were in order: 1) moderate red wine intake, 2) low consumption of meat, 3) high consumption of vegetables, 4) high consumption of fruits and nuts, 5) high consumption of olive oil and 6) high consumption of legumes. I woud never have guessed that moderate red wine intake would be the most highly predictive factor for longevity.She makes a good case for including fish in your diet. A shocker to me was the DART study in which the mere suggestion to heart attack survivors that they include two to three portions fish per week in their diet cut their risk of death by 29% in the following two years compared to patients not given the advise. Now there is a cheap and potent intervention.I read this book to help a friend who had just suffered a heart attack. I ended up changing my diet dramatically and suggesting the book to many of my friends who also have not had a heart attack and would just as soon not have one.

Most everything I needed to know in the few months after my heart attack. I had to wonder though if she got paid by the wine industry.

After my heart attack, I started reading everything I could get my hands on about how to use diet to improve my prognosis/reverse my cardiovascular disease: Ornish, Fuhrman, Campbell, Esselstyn, McDougall . . . . You name it, I've read it.I learned a lot, and I determined that I would force myself to renounce my ways and adopt their no-animal-protein, super-low-fat eating regimens, because I don't want to die any time soon. I made a lot of changes, and became much healthier. But between my busy life and my food cravings, I just couldn't get to the level of compliance I wanted to with those other eating plans.Then I got this book. At last, I have reached the Promised Land of healthy eating. Much of what I learned from the other authors I am still putting into practice: I still eat tons of fresh produce, mostly avoid meat and dairy products, etc. But Brill's guidelines include a few changes from those other plans, which make it easier to stick with in terms of both food satisfaction and convenience.That's the first thing I love about this book: it tells you how you can eat a radically heart-healthy diet and still make it delicious and do-able. The second thing I love about it is that it provides an astonishingly detailed, yet readable, description of the many processes that happen in your body to produce coronary artery disease, and the specific ways that each of the recommended foods fights each step of the development of the disease. I came away from this book marveling at the wonders of nature. There are so many healing ingredients in food if we just eat it the way it grows naturally, instead of distorting and corrupting it the way we've been doing for the past century or so. It is really amazing.Wonderful book. Highly, highly recommended.

My review is written from the perspective of a physician and clinical epidemiologist and researcher.This is a well researched and written book with generally mainstream conclusions regarding secondary dietary prevention of heart disease based on current research. Her book will provide sound practical advice and hope to individuals with newly diagnosed coronary artery disease and their families. Readers would be well advised however, to supplement this book with resources from other sources such as the American Heart Association regarding other risk factors and lifestyle interventions not emphasized in this book.Ms. Brill, as a registered dietician, focuses primarily on diet. Most authorities have adopted the basic principles she advocates such as a Mediterranean diet, exercise, and moderate alcohol intake. Furthermore, she makes a good effort to summarize complex biochemical principles and epidemiological research into an accessible format for lay readers.Readers should be cautioned, however, that such conclusions are largely based on non-experimental, epidemiological research. Such research can only show a statistical association; it cannot prove causation and, thus, conclusions based on it are likely to change over time (as it has in the past) as the scientific database grows. I was concerned that she repeatedly makes claims of causation based on such epidemiological data.My other major concern is that her recommended diet is relatively high in fat. If one were to follow her advice literally regarding liberal consumption of olive oil and nuts in the quantities she recommends, these two items alone amount to nearly 500 calories per day. It would be difficult to do this and not gain weight over time, which would obviously have an unintended and adverse effect on one's lipid (cholesterol) profile.

Thanks

This is the fourth book I have purchasd and read on the subject of preventing/reversing heart disease. They all have good advice based on proven research. The problem arises when you commit to a raw plant food diet and find it very time consuming, and an onerous departure from typical daily menu advocated by other responsible nutritionists. In my opinion Dr. Brill's advice on the same topic is commonly in accord with the "fruit and vegetable regimen" but makes provision for modest inclusion of the Mediterranean diet which is easier and pleasanter to follow. I have adopted her dietary program; it is easier, more flexible and enjoyable. I recommend the book, it is the right one for me a survivor of heart attacks and a quintuple by-pass.

Very annoyed when I followed the recipe on p 328 for Flourless Dark Chocolate brownies: wasted way too many ingredients and time when misprint read 3.25 cups of Extra virgin olive oil instead of .25 cups. How did this get by editors??? I found the print copy, and discovered it. Not happy!