Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Book
  • Careers
  • Podcast
  • Recommended
  • Speaking
  • All
  • Physician
  • Practice
  • Policy
  • Finance
  • Conditions
  • .edu
  • Patient
  • Meds
  • Tech
  • Social
  • Video
    • All
    • Physician
    • Practice
    • Policy
    • Finance
    • Conditions
    • .edu
    • Patient
    • Meds
    • Tech
    • Social
    • Video
    • About
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • Book
    • Careers
    • Podcast
    • Recommended
    • Speaking

Becoming vegetarian can help fight high cholesterol

John Schumann, MD
Physician
March 5, 2010
Share
Tweet
Share

I made a New Year’s resolution to become a vegetarian. Or a mostly vegetarian.

I’ve been thinking about it for a long time, but with young children who love meat and don’t have the broadest palates, I think it’s important to feed them protein any way I can get it in them.

Having passed 40, I’ve finally realized that I can no longer eat what I want with impunity. Further, as a doctor, I believe in practicing what I preach, and my legs could no longer straddle the gap between action and rhetoric.

That, and I hit 192 lbs. on the gym scale.

I calculated my own BMI at 26, edging toward 27. I was officially overweight, just like two-thirds of Americans.

I have a sweet tooth. I’ve been known to polish off a whole plate of cookies, a la Ziggy, just so they won’t be there tempting me.

Another rude awakening was my cholesterol. Total 254, LDL 177 (!).

I was in disbelief. When I thought about how I would treat a patient with my numbers, I’d reach right for a prescription pad and start a statin drug (like simvastatin [Zocor] or atorvastatin [Lipitor]).

But like a lot of doctors, I’ve long felt impervious to the maladies that I treat.

No more.

Over the holidays I read a New Yorker profile of John Mackey, founder & CEO of Whole Foods, in which he mentioned a book called “The Engine 2 Diet,” by a Texas firefighter and former pro triathlete named Rip Esselstyn.

Since I grew up in the same Cleveland suburb as Esselstyn’s family, I was intrigued enough to buy the book.

For the last four weeks, I changed my eating habits accordingly:

1. No meat (surprising: no fish or poultry, either. Strictly vegetarian. ”Nothing with a face or a mother.” Eggs are out, too. Esselstyn does permit tapering down the meat habit, allowing small portions of chicken or fish the first couple of weeks to acclimate. I went cold tofu, though.).

ADVERTISEMENT

2. No dairy (even yogurt, which I frequently tout to patients as a healthy food).

3. All the fruit and vegetables I want.

4. No oils (this surprised me, given all the attention to olive oil and things like flax seed oil that are high in unsaturated fats).

5. No refined grains (whole grain is ok, high in fiber!)

6. Sweets: only acceptables are fruits (“nature’s candy”), a little bit of sorbet, and a small amount of Dark (>70% cocoa) chocolate (avoid milk!).

The book promises much to those that follow its contents: more vigor, lower weight, lower cholesterol, and by inference (and looking at the exercise photographs near the middle) greater accomplishment and happiness.

Esselstyn is bursting with optimism that his diet can prevent (and even reverse) heart disease. He bases his ideas on the work of luminaries like Dean Ornish at UCSF, who has shown in the medical literature that extremely low fat diets (less than 12% of total calories from fat) improve symptoms, longevity (reducing heart attacks) and cause coronary plaques to actually regress. Esselstyn’s own father, a longtime Cleveland Clinic surgeon, published his own similarly themed book, “Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease.”

Esselstyn says that his data shows that total and LDL cholesterol can be significantly lowered, with a weight loss in the range of ten pounds in four weeks.

Staying on the diet requires planning. I needed to change the way I shop for groceries, and scour nutrition labels more carefully than I ever used to. By planning ahead, you have a small nutritious snack (e.g. a handful of healthy nuts) at the ready so that you don’t resort to junk food or quick, easy thought-free eating.

How’d I do?

After exactly four weeks of following the Engine 2 diet (with only a bit of cheating–a splash of non-fat milk in my coffee, occasional cheese on a whole wheat sandwich, a cupcake for my sister-in-law’s birthday), I was astonished:

I’ve dropped ten pounds. I feel remarkably different: More energetic. I sleep better. I have few dips in energy throughout the day. Aside from one day each of the first two weeks (where to satisfy my sweet tooth I overindulged in peanut butter or almond butter), I find I’m no longer craving any of the junkier things that I used to. I feel much more in control of my eating–both what I eat and the quantity. I’m reminded how as a culture we habitually overeat. We could all get by on so much less.

Here’s the stunner: Remember my total cholesterol of 254, LDL 177? After four weeks, the new numbers are total cholesterol 160, LDL 103. I think I’m going to keep this up.

John Schumann is an internal medicine physician at the University of Chicago who blogs at GlassHospital.

Submit a guest post and be heard.

Prev

Young doctors gathered around the beer machine

March 5, 2010 Kevin 20
…
Next

How doctors allow bias to affect patient care

March 5, 2010 Kevin 3
…

Tagged as: Cardiology, Primary Care

Post navigation

< Previous Post
Young doctors gathered around the beer machine
Next Post >
How doctors allow bias to affect patient care

ADVERTISEMENT

More by John Schumann, MD

  • Doctors as the gatekeepers of marijuana is a race to the bottom

    John Schumann, MD
  • Rallying at the end of life

    John Schumann, MD
  • The evolution of a hospital admission

    John Schumann, MD

More in Physician

  • Why more doctors are choosing direct care over traditional health care

    Grace Torres-Hodges, DPM, MBA
  • How to handle chronically late patients in your medical practice

    Neil Baum, MD
  • How early meetings and after-hours events penalize physician-mothers

    Samira Jeimy, MD, PhD and Menaka Pai, MD
  • Why medicine must evolve to support modern physicians

    Ryan Nadelson, MD
  • Why listening to parents’ intuition can save lives in pediatric care

    Tokunbo Akande, MD, MPH
  • Finding balance and meaning in medical practice: a holistic approach to professional fulfillment

    Dr. Saad S. Alshohaib
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Forced voicemail and diagnosis codes are endangering patient access to medications

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Meds
    • How President Biden’s cognitive health shapes political and legal trust

      Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD | Conditions
    • The One Big Beautiful Bill and the fragile heart of rural health care

      Holland Haynie, MD | Policy
    • America’s ER crisis: Why the system is collapsing from within

      Kristen Cline, BSN, RN | Conditions
    • Why timing, not surgery, determines patient survival

      Michael Karch, MD | Conditions
    • How early meetings and after-hours events penalize physician-mothers

      Samira Jeimy, MD, PhD and Menaka Pai, MD | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • Forced voicemail and diagnosis codes are endangering patient access to medications

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Meds
    • How President Biden’s cognitive health shapes political and legal trust

      Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD | Conditions
    • Why are medical students turning away from primary care? [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • The One Big Beautiful Bill and the fragile heart of rural health care

      Holland Haynie, MD | Policy
    • Why “do no harm” might be harming modern medicine

      Sabooh S. Mubbashar, MD | Physician
    • The hidden health risks in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act

      Trevor Lyford, MPH | Policy
  • Recent Posts

    • Beyond burnout: Understanding the triangle of exhaustion [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Facing terminal cancer as a doctor and mother

      Kelly Curtin-Hallinan, DO | Conditions
    • Online eye exams spark legal battle over health care access

      Joshua Windham, JD and Daryl James | Policy
    • FDA delays could end vital treatment for rare disease patients

      G. van Londen, MD | Meds
    • Pharmacists are key to expanding Medicaid access to digital therapeutics

      Amanda Matter | Meds
    • Why ADHD in women requires a new approach [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.


Find jobs at
Careers by KevinMD.com

Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.

Learn more

View 12 Comments >

Founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, KevinMD.com is the web’s leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients share their insight and tell their stories.

Social

  • Like on Facebook
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Connect on Linkedin
  • Subscribe on Youtube
  • Instagram

ADVERTISEMENT

  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Forced voicemail and diagnosis codes are endangering patient access to medications

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Meds
    • How President Biden’s cognitive health shapes political and legal trust

      Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD | Conditions
    • The One Big Beautiful Bill and the fragile heart of rural health care

      Holland Haynie, MD | Policy
    • America’s ER crisis: Why the system is collapsing from within

      Kristen Cline, BSN, RN | Conditions
    • Why timing, not surgery, determines patient survival

      Michael Karch, MD | Conditions
    • How early meetings and after-hours events penalize physician-mothers

      Samira Jeimy, MD, PhD and Menaka Pai, MD | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • Forced voicemail and diagnosis codes are endangering patient access to medications

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Meds
    • How President Biden’s cognitive health shapes political and legal trust

      Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD | Conditions
    • Why are medical students turning away from primary care? [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • The One Big Beautiful Bill and the fragile heart of rural health care

      Holland Haynie, MD | Policy
    • Why “do no harm” might be harming modern medicine

      Sabooh S. Mubbashar, MD | Physician
    • The hidden health risks in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act

      Trevor Lyford, MPH | Policy
  • Recent Posts

    • Beyond burnout: Understanding the triangle of exhaustion [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Facing terminal cancer as a doctor and mother

      Kelly Curtin-Hallinan, DO | Conditions
    • Online eye exams spark legal battle over health care access

      Joshua Windham, JD and Daryl James | Policy
    • FDA delays could end vital treatment for rare disease patients

      G. van Londen, MD | Meds
    • Pharmacists are key to expanding Medicaid access to digital therapeutics

      Amanda Matter | Meds
    • Why ADHD in women requires a new approach [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast

MedPage Today Professional

An Everyday Health Property Medpage Today
  • Terms of Use | Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA Policy
All Content © KevinMD, LLC
Site by Outthink Group

Becoming vegetarian can help fight high cholesterol
12 comments

Comments are moderated before they are published. Please read the comment policy.

Loading Comments...