201 Diet Tips for Heart Patients

By Dr. Bimal Chhajer

In this book, you will find all the queries that you could think of about diet, answered in a very simple language. You must have asked such questions many times but you wouldn’t have got such simple answers. But this book is simple and the answers are clear- cut. I hope you will like it. SAAOL Heart Program which I and my colleagues developed in the last ten years or so have been extensively training people on diet, the diet which will help to prevent and reverse the heart disease, the diet which does not use any oil for cooking food. We found that just telling that do not put any oil is not sufficient. The patients must know why and why not. They must understand cholesterol and triglycerides and what are the differences between the two. To put them into practice we involved the lady members of the family and developed cooking classes for them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Diamond Books
• Release date: Apr 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9789385975387

Book preview

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Section - I

THE PRESENT DAY TREATMENT OF

HEART DISEASE

The number of heart patients in India has increased at a very high speed in the last three decades basically because of worsening lifestyle. Some of the major causes are high fat content of Indian diet (e.g. Excessive use of oil, cream, milk and milk products), increased mechanization and lack of physical activity (e.g. cars, telephones, washing machines, gadgets, lack of time to do exercise and so on) and increased stress (e.g. competition due to increased population, breaking down of joint family structure, increased expenditure at the face of stagnant income). These causes alongwith the lack of education about heart disease and smaller factors have created blockages of Cholesterol and Triglycerides inside the heart arteries of millions of people. The result is enormous loss of life, increased medical expenditure of millions of families and loss of livelihood for those suffering from this fatal disease.

Frankly speaking, the doctors dealing with heart disease (the Cardiologists and Cardiac surgeons) have remained silent spectators in this worsening scenario. Without seriously working on the causes of heart disease (correction of food habits, education of heart patients on causes of heart disease) they found out temporary measures, which might help themselves economically. Hospitals started CCUs(coronary care units), increased the number of Angioplasties and Bypass surgeries and patients were given the idea that these are the only ways to solve their heart disease. The result was that the number of patients grew. The number of heart hospitals gradually also increased. A vicious cycle gradually came into existence.

The process of Angioplasty actually involves clearing of the heart tubes by pressing the fatty materials on the sides by using balloons and protecting the collapse by using stents (which are nothing but perforated hollow tubes). The real cause of the blockages the ongoing deposit of fatty materials and the reactions of the body to the stents rebuild the blockages within the span of few months to years. The cost of these procedures have increased enormously by three to five folds in the last few years without really adding much of benefit.

The Bypass surgery on the other hand is a mutilating operation, which leaves two to three big scars in the body besides hosts of complications. The additional tubes stitched to the heart make a temporary channel which flows blood to the heart muscles. The food habits remaining same, bad lifestyle prevailing the new channels start closing the day it was stitched to the heart. Usually it takes five years to close these tubes to the extent that it causes the problems again. The third option is to continue the medicines, which give a relief to the patient from chest pain and symptoms. The causes of the disease remaining same the blockage gradually grows and soon the patient suffers from a heart attack. The heart hospitals keep the ICCUs ready for these people to get admitted.

The gist is that the medical science/cardiology science is heading towards a doom. The real solution for heart disease will never come in this way. We have to look for a new approach. An approach, which is rational, based on simple common sense. And this approach should analyze the causes of heart disease and guide the patients to get rid of the causative factors. This will stop the disease from growing. The medical science is now agreeing that it is possible to even reverse the heart disease and the blockages if the causes are taken care of in a very accurate way. Thanks to recent research studies by Dean Ornish and other medical scientists.

SAAOL (Science and art of Living) Heart Programme is aimed exactly to do the reversal of heart disease. We developed this heart care programme where the treatment of heart disease is originating from the rectification of the underlying causes of heart disease. The training programme educates the heart disease on diet; yoga, meditation, exercise programme, stress management; control of cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes, weight and all the possible ways to help the heart to heal itself. These training programmes are held regularly all over the country (Delhi in North, Mumbai in West, Kolkata in East and Bangalore in