Heart disease is absolutely, hands down, the number one
killer of human beings on planet Earth.
More than terrorism, more than smoking, more than car accidents, more
than cancer, more than…anything. Think
of all the things people are terrified of: ISIS, meth addicts, Hells Angels,
Trump, or the boogie man under the bed.
The realistic chance of any of that actually killing you is so
infinitesimally small, and yet folks will waste a lot of time, money and stress
worrying about it. When the real killer
is already upon them, as close as their next breath.
Thanks to autopsy reports on US Soldiers, we know for a fact
that cholesterol deposits are already well entrenched in American men by the
age of eighteen to twenty. Streaks of
cholesterol are already appearing in the arteries of two and three-year-old
children. These are not statistics from
a crazy vegan website, this is data from the CDC, NIH, and such. Google it.
I dare you.
1 in 4 Americans will die from a heart attack. Think of that the next time you and three
buddies are driving somewhere. (Better
hope it’s not the driver)
So, Cliff, why are you going into all of this? All we wanted was a peek at your labs so we
can make some snap judgments and get on with our lives.
I hopped on my soapbox because heart disease kills so many
of us, we just accept it. We feel it is
inevitable. Everyone swallowed the idea
of certain genetic doom and accepted it.
And now we use the idea to justify anything that we do, or don’t
do. We might as well have the ½ pound
burger with 12 pieces of bacon, 5 different kinds of cheese, a fried egg and a
pat of butter on top. Then we make it
into a joke, like at the Heart
Attack Grill. Actually, that place
should be its own blog post, as more and more people drop dead in the
restaurant, including two of their spokespersons. But I digress.
Heart disease runs in my family. No secret there. The real trick these days is finding a family
with no history of heart disease. That
means I’m doomed, right?
No. Genetics figure
into about 20% of my heart disease risk.
A big number to be sure. The
other 80% are factors I can control.
80%!!! In my control.
When I learned that I can control more than ¾’s of my risk
of developing heart disease, it was very empowering. I used to think I could maybe jiggle a few
percentage points here and there, maybe work really hard and knock a couple of
percentage points off if I’m lucky. But
I could lower my risk so low that a Vegas odds maker would grant me a better
chance of being strangled by Donald Trump than dying of a heart attack.
That’s worth eating some vegetables and laying off animal
products.
And when you learn that just by controlling what you put in
your mouth, your chances of getting diabetes, having a stroke, getting cancer,
COPD, Alzheimer’s will also drop to near nothing, that’s worth trying some new
things. Even wacky things like a Raw
Vegan Challenge.
If you want to see the evidence of how animal products are
affecting heart disease and how a whole food plant based diet is literally
curing that disease check out Forks over Knives. If you have Netflix, it’s there. If you don’t, ask a family member who has it
to share their login with you so you can see it. It will be worth your time!
Now my cholesterol numbers did improve over the 21 days so
tune in to part 2 coming this week to see just how much. Thanks
for getting through my rant (part 1)!
