Heal Your Heart , livre ebook

H EAL Y OUR H EART
The New Rice Diet Program for Reversing Heart Disease Through Nutrition, Exercise, and Spiritual Renewal
Kitty Gurkin Rosati
This text is printed on acid-free paper.

Copyright 1997 by Kitty Gurkin Rosati
Published by John Wiley Sons, Inc.
All rights reserved. Published simultaneously in Canada.
Reproduction or translation of any part of this work beyond that permitted by Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act without the permission of the copyright owner is unlawful. Requests for permission or further information should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley Sons, Inc.
The information contained in this book is not intended to serve as a replacement for professional medical advice. Any use of the information in this book is at the reader s discretion. The author and publisher specifically disclaim any and all liability arising directly or indirectly from the use or application of any information contained in this book. A health care professional should be consulted regarding your specific situation.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rosati, Kitty Gurkin
Heal your heart : the new rice diet program for reversing heart disease through nutrition, exercise, and spiritual renewal / Kitty Gurkin Rosati.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-471-15702-3
1. Heart-Diseases-Diet therapy. 2. Heart-Diseases-Patients-
Rehabilitation. 3. Cookery (Rice) 4. High-carbohydrate diet.
5. Salt-free diet. I. Title RC684.D5R67 1997
616.1 20654-dc20 96-42087
Printed in the United States of America
10 9
C ONTENTS


Foreword
Introduction
PART ONE L IVING A H EART -H EALTHY L IFE
Chapter 1
Reversing the Risks of Heart Disease
What Are Your Risk Factors?
How the Rice Diet Program Reverses Risk Factors
The Heal Your Heart Program
Chapter 2
Lowering Your Risk of High Cholesterol
Cholesterol and Your Heart
Fat and Your Cholesterol Levels
Nutrition and Your Cholesterol
Exercise and Your Cholesterol
Spirituality and Your Health
Chapter 3
Lowering Your Risk of Excess Weight and Diabetes
How Much Is Too Much Weight?
Nutrition and Your Weight
Exercise and Your Weight
Inner Healing for Weight Control and Diabetes
It Can Work This Time
Chapter 4
Lowering Your Risk of High Blood Pressure
Normal vs. Ideal Blood Pressure
The Original Rice Diet and Blood Pressure
Your Blood Pressure and Your Diet
Exercise and Your Blood Pressure
Spirituality and Your Blood Pressure
Stress Management Strategies to Try or Explore
PART TWO Y OUR P ERSONAL H EAL Y OUR H EART P ROGRAM
Chapter 5
Assessing Your Heart s Health
Your Heart Health Profile
Age and Your Heart
If You Have a Family History of Heart Disease
Race, Gender, and Other Factors
How to Tailor the Program to Your Risk Factors
Chapter 6
Designing Your Personal Heal Your Heart Program
Heal Your Heart Nutrition Guidelines
Heal Your Heart Exercise Guidelines
Your Inner Healing Plan
PART THREE H EALING Y OUR H EART
Chapter 7
Healing Your Heart Through Nutrition
Your Food Group Allowances
Nutritional Balance on the Plan
Chapter 8
Deciphering the New Food Labels
The Positive Side of the New Label Laws
The Many Loopholes to Look Out For
How to Read Food Labels
Chapter 9
Healing Your Heart Through Exercise
Quick Health and Safety Tips
Exercises for Specific Muscle Groups
Stretching
Where to Find Help and Support
Chapter 10
Healing Your Heart Through Emotional and Spiritual Renewal
Choosing a Healer
Paths to Emotional and Spiritual Recovery
PART FOUR H EAL Y OUR H EART F OODS AND R ECIPES
Chapter 11
Selecting Heart-Healthy Foods
Stocking the Heart-Healthy Pantry
Diminishing the Dining-Out Dilemma
Chapter 12
Cooking Heart-Healthy Rice, Grains, and Beans
All You Need to Know About Rice
Cooking Whole Grains
Cooking Dried Beans and Peas
Chapter 13
Flavoring Your Heart-Healthy Foods with Herbs and Spices
Are Herbs and Spices Safe for Everyone?
Herbs and Their Uses
Herb and Spice Delights
Saltless Seasoning Blends
Chapter 14
Recipes with Results
About Ingredients
Breakfasts and Breads
Appetizers
Soups
Salads, Dressings, Condiments, and Sauces
Vegetables
15-Minute Meals
Main Dishes
Seafood
International Flavors
Chinese
Desserts and Beverages
Appendix A
Mail Order Sources for Health Foods
Appendix B
Sources for More Information
Appendix C
Food Journal with Allowances
Appendix D
Food Journal with Feelings
Selected References
Index
F OREWORD

Your health is your most important asset. Never has it been clearer that you have the ability to prevent or reverse many of the chronic diseases that afflict most of us. Coronary heart disease and its risk factors-high blood sugar, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity-have received the most attention; others include arthritis, kidney failure, sleep apnea, and psoriasis.
In 400 B.C ., Hippocrates advocated building health through diet. In the twelfth century, Maimonides said that no disease which could be treated by diet should be treated by any other means. And, as the present century began, Thomas Edison predicted that the doctor of the future would use no medicines but would instruct his patients in diet, and so on. Now, as the century comes to a close, we know that the Rice Diet-a low-fat, low-salt diet used since the 1940s to treat high blood pressure, kidney disease, diabetes, and heart disease-is the diet of choice. The diet is uniquely appealing for physicians as well, because it allows them to tell if their patients are following it by measuring the amount of sodium in their urine.
Nowhere on earth can you experience a diet that more dramatically alleviates a greater variety of illnesses. And now the going home plan is available to those who cannot find a way to come and enjoy it first-hand. At last here is a book that combines low fat with low salt and makes it taste good. No one can deny the importance of low fat, because heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States. In our experience, low salt is equally important. Eighty percent of our patients with high blood pressure can stop their medications and have lower blood pressures than they did on medication. Another 10 percent are able to decrease their medications with lower blood pressures. Even patients with normal blood pressures benefit from low salt. They have lower blood pressures and therefore lower cardiovascular risk, they feel better and they eat less, since there is so little salt to stimulate their appetites.
I first met Kitty in 1985 when she was a dietitian at Duke University s cardiac rehabilitation program. I had heard she was a vegetarian, so I asked her if she knew that tofu had as much or more fat than hamburger. She said she didn t, but would check it out. And she did. She knew about low fat, but was skeptical about low salt, so she tried it, with the beneficial effects that she will describe herself. This interest and willingness to continue to observe and to learn have put her in a unique position as a therapeutic nutritionist. The depth and breadth of her knowledge of nutrition are evident in the pages which follow.
The essentials of good health are proper diet, exercise, and rest. These elements are thoroughly and entertainingly presented with many interesting stories of actual patients. The composition, rationale for and results of the low-fat, low-salt diet are carefully described. The recipes are delicious and can easily be prepared by novice cooks like you and me.
-Robert Rosati, M.D. Medical Director The Rice Diet Program
I NTRODUCTION

My goal in writing this book is three-fold. First, to provide you with practical nutritional information for implementing and embracing a very low fat, no-salt-added nutrition plan for reversing heart disease-or even better, preventing it from occurring in the first place. Second, to share the benefits of exercise and get you started on a healthy regimen. Third, to provide some emotional and spiritual pathways that can not only improve the quality of your life but can greatly enhance your odds of adhering to the physical challenges of this plan for the long haul. As I, and many of those whom I have counseled, have discovered, our physical problems often have emotional and spiritual underpinnings. So I wanted to share my practical learning experiences with those of you who are struggling with heart disease and those who want to prevent it.
From this three-part mission, the Heal Your Heart Program was born. All three components are essential to the success of this program. The physical aspects, such as diet and exercise, and the emotional and spiritual needs, such as meditation, prayer, and community, can be equally important for maintaining or pursuing health.
This book has had a long gestational period: it has been in process for approximately half of my life. My interest in heart disease began during my freshman year in college when my father died of a heart attack at age 50. His death was a shock to me and was a pivotal point in my life. Like many who die prematurely of heart disease, he had never been sick a day in his life. Yet he worked all the time, rarely took a vacation, smoked cigarettes, ate a typical American diet high in protein, fat, and salt, never exercised, and was going through a divorce. Although my mother was a registered nurse, she succeeded in getting him to a doctor only once. He did not like what the doctor said or did, so he canceled his follow-up appointment. Although I now know his body was waving many red flags, back then few people were talking about their cholesterol levels, and fewer still were sharing from their broken hearts in divorce support groups . . . and he seemed so normal.
It was then that I developed an aversion to settling for normal health. A friend introduced me to vegetarianism,