Pritikin Edge (eBook)

1
Lifestyle and Heart Disease

You know Bill. At 58 years old, a strapping six feet two inches tall and 220 pounds with a full head of silver hair, he was outwardly the picture of power and health. He received great medical care. He jogged and golfed frequently. But just like most Americans, Bill loved food -- especially fatty, spicy, salty food. His typical American extra pounds pushed his blood pressure, sugar, and LDL (bad) cholesterol too high and dropped his HDL (good) cholesterol too low. He lived with chronic stress, big time. None of his numbers were awful, but every warning sign was there.

One day Bill had chest pain. The next week, his quadruple coronary bypass was all over the news, because Bill is President Bill Clinton. Yes, even American presidents can get heart disease. Since his wake-up call, Mr. Clinton has changed his lifestyle quite a bit. He is now off the ribs and fries and is working hard to do his part to prevent heart disease in this country.

Improving your lifestyle after a heart attack or bypass surgery is certainly a step in the right direction, but wouldn't it be so much better to do so before you end up in the coronary care unit or surgical suite? Or worse, the morgue? Our guests at the Pritikin Longevity Center sometimes complain that they don't have enough time to exercise. We remind them that they will have plenty of time to exercise, but not much inclination after they are dead.

Heart disease is a great barometer of a lousy lifestyle. Wherever heart disease is epidemic, so are obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, stroke, and diabetes. Obviously, few people are heeding the early warning signs, because I don't know any fellow cardiologists looking for more work. We live in fear of cancer, but heart disease is still the number-one killer in America. I wish I could tell you how to avoid most cancers. Sadly, I can't. But I can tell you how to prevent most heart disease simply by changing your lifestyle. Some cancers may even be avoided by these same lifestyle changes. What you eat, how often you exercise, how you manage your stress...it all matters, and it's all easier to improve than you might think.

THE 10 ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS OF THE PRITIKIN PROGRAM

In this book, you will learn the 10 essential ingredients of the Pritikin Program. These 10 Pritikin essentials deal with diet, exercise, and emotional wellness. By adopting these lifestyle practices, as thousands of our patients and participants have, you will get back the seven years of life you might otherwise lose to heart disease. (By the way, if seven years doesn't seem important to you right now, imagine how much more important they will seem to you when you're 75.) You will learn how to lose weight permanently without feeling hungry, to cook really tasty, heart-healthy food, the best ways to be physically active, and how to sidestep stress. You will learn the real science of lifestyle and heart health, so that you are able to make choices every single day that will contribute to your wellness and enable you to live a long, delicious life.

You'll learn much more in Part Two about the specifics of the 10 essential ingredients of the Pritikin Program, but here is a quick glance:

1. Healthy, satisfying eating starts with super salads, soups, whole grains, and fruit.
2. Eliminate high-calorie beverages.
3. Trim portions of calorie-dense foods.
4. Snack smarter.
5. Forget fast food, dine unrefined.
6. Watch less, walk more.
7. Go lean on meat, but catch a fish.
8. Shake your salt habit.
9. Don't smoke your life away.
10. Step around stress.

Adopting one or two of...