Cliff's cholesterol (soapbox) - Part 1 (written by Cliff)

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)!