50 Ways to a Healthy Heart

Bernard certainly can cash in on his success as a cardiac surgeon. He can also help us all step back and take a look at our diet and lifestyle. This book has been the best I have read so far on over all health/heart health. Any book on "diets" make fantastic claims...Christiaan Bernard cools the jets on these approaches, tells people not to go on diets, but to simply eat less. He also tells us to enjoy life and all it has to offer, including food. "A burger won't kill you..." and "There are no such things as a bad food, just too much of certain foods..." (paraphrases)is a new look at food in today's panic stricken approach to eating. I believe he also quipped (paraphrase)- "People do more to harm their health when the worry about what they eat than if they just eat..." He adds exercise, good stress, and no smoking to the list to heart improvement. This is an excellent book, well written and in alanguage anyone can unserstand. It addresses many of us who have punished ourselves over the years, dieting for fat loss or heart health, and let's us know just to relax, eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, and well balanced diet.

One of the world's most famous heart specialists indicates that diet, stress control and nutrition are important conditions precedent for a healthy heart. Conquering obesity involves burning fat efficiently and building muscle. Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids are important nutritional supplements , in addition to, Mg., K, Ca., Se, and Zinc. Increased stress levels lead to death and divorce. Music can be a good health tonic to manage stress. Transfats are dangerous to the body. These are found in red meat, frozen foods and sweets. The greatest danger is that the transfats may be carcinogenic. The author cautions us to eat slowly and chew the food thoroughly. Red wine is cited as a good health tonic for the blood and protection against arteriosclerosis. Grape and elderberry juice can be substitutes for red wine. Overall, this acquisition is worth the price paid for the extraordinary level of research scholarship employed in the health and dietary sciences.

The publication date of this book on September 1, 2001 preceded the author's death with only one day, at the age of 79. The author's age is relevant to the tone of the book, which involved too much emphasis on the value of wine, sex, stress, and walking, which occupy the center of mind of old people. In many instances in the book, the author addresses readers of age 60 and older. Most of the author's advices are very personal and reflect the nature of well disciplined and educated person, despite few imperfections. Some of the chapters' titles reflect the odd nature of an aloof professional, such as "Learn Greek", "Create your own stress", "Take Viagra", "Sleep at the office", "Bare your teeth", "Don't give in to your mobile", and "Phone your way to fitness". The 50 ways for healthy heart are equally split into five segments on nutrition, stress, environment, activity, and attitude. In the "Introduction", this renowned heart surgeon reveals his humble way of dignified living. He lives on a monthly $700 pension; never accepted money from those he tended medical attention, and turned down offers to make millions of dollars. The 10 chapters on NUTRITION address these issues: 1- A prophecy that obesity will be the epidemic of the 21st century. He contends that diets make people fat, sick, and depressed and a simple mechanism is to burn fat and build muscles. He sets 22% body fat as an upper limit for women and 17% for men. 2- Eating the right fat (such as monounsaturated ones in the olive oil, rapeseed oil, hemp oil, peanut, and avocado) is the true winner in reducing bad cholesterol. Yet, he stress on the need for moderation even with god fats. 3- "Drink Red Wine" is one of his poor advices, since he admits that grape and elderly berry juices are almost as good as red wine and that wine could be your enemy if taken in excess. In addition, his advocacy for red wine neglects the negative impact on reducing activity. 4- Proper chewing, walking with groceries for exercise, concentration during eating, eating with passion, relaxing while eating, and shopping frequently in order to maintain fresh vegetables with untainted vitamin content. 5- Eating vitamins for combating the free radicals that cause cancer, disease, and aging. 6- Using Crete Island, Greek, as a role model for cutting heart attacks by consuming more vegetables, fruits, and red wine and less meat (32% less tham northern Europe) and sausage (54% less). (The author died in Cyprus, across from Greece in the Mediterranean). 7- Eating the most important minerals (potassium, magnesium, and selenium) that greatly impact the heart function. 8- Criticizing Cholesterol testing before the age of 35 for men, 45 for women, and over 75, as unnecessary. 9- Emphasizing the need for natural living with moderation on eating saturated fats, drinking wine, and using chocolate as an example for its very high content of poly-phenols compared to tomato The 10 chapters on STRESS address the following