The Dean Ornish study that Dr. Williams references is not a whole lot more convincing. The study, published in 1998, starts with less than fifty patients who had a coronary artery disease documented by coronary angiography. Twenty-eight of them were randomized to his program which included a 10% fat vegetarian diet, smoking cessation, stress management, exercise and meditation.
Twenty of the twenty-eight patients in the treatment group completed the five year study; a 40% dropout rate. Those in the treatment group did experience significantly less cardiac events; about a 50% reduction. However, angiography revealed that the blockages in their arteries had improved by a paltry 3.1%. The important take away is that this was a very small study which involved a lifestyle change, not simply a dietary intervention. The important caveat is that the results of this study have not been reproduced. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Ornish, he is a wonderful man, a gentleman and a scholar, and has left a legacy demonstrating that lifestyle modifications can make a difference. Diet is one variable in a very complex equation.
Dr. Williams’s diet before his conversion was one he believed to be healthy; “no red meat, no fried foods, little dairy, just chicken breast and fish.” I can agree with the reduction in fried foods. The modern Western diet contains a significant amount of fried food which alters the nutritional value and can introduce significant amounts of unwanted fats in the form of omega-six rich polyunsaturated plant oils.
But no red meat, why is that healthy? Almost 50 years ago were told that it was the cholesterol and saturated fat red meat that was responsible for all our ills, especially with respect to heart disease. Since that time Americans have reduced the consumption of fat, saturated fat and cholesterol. Cardiovascular disease still remains the number one cause of death in United States.
In the interim, a number of scientific publications have revised our understanding of the role of fat consumption in our diet, nutrition and health. Study after study has debunked the relationship between saturated fat in the development of cardiovascular disease. More specifically, these have been large studies involving millions of patients worldwide,-not just twenty patients undergo multiple simultaneous interventions- that have shown no association between the consumption of fresh red meat and the development of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer or increased mortality.
The same studies however, have shown a highly significant and direct correlation between the consumption of processed red meat and the incidence and prevalence of such diseases and an increased risk of death. The danger, perhaps, lies not in the consumption or avoidance of particular food groups but what manipulations, extractions and additions we perform upon them.
Dr. Williams makes no distinction when he lists chicken and fish as his animal proteins of choice. Is it farmed tilapia from China, or wild caught Alaskan salmon he consumes? Is it an organic, free range heritage breed chicken breast or a fast food drive-through hockey puck with so many additives, even the FDA doesn’t know whether it’s safe or not. After all these years, I am still afraid of what part of the chicken a nugget actually comes from. [Part 3 to follow]
