As our readers are preparing for Christmas Eve celebrations, we thought it appropriate to share with them a happy story, appropriate for this time of the year. 

It is a true story that we hope will inspire those who are struggling with heart disease to follow the example of the hero in the story: of all people, Bill Clinton, the former President of the United States. During his presidency, Clinton battled with weight problems and high cholesterol, all related to his love for fatty foods.  

He was renowned for relishing French fries and cheeseburgers while on the campaign trail. His wife, Hillary, while in the Oval Office had asked their chefs to serve salads instead and even enlisted the service of Dr Dean Ornish, one of the pioneers of the whole foods plant-based (WFPB) diet, whom we have mentioned often in our weekly columns. 

Dr Ornish would remain a friend of the family and become Clinton’s guardian angel (or shall we say in our more familiar parlance: his ‘Good Samaritan’?) And then in 2004, three years after leaving the White House, the inevitable happened: he developed shortness of breath and chest pains (angina) on exertion. He was rushed to a New York hospital, where they performed a quadruple bypass operation. The doctors found during the surgery that in some places, 90% of the arteries to his heart were blocked.  

Not being advised by his doctors to change his lifestyle, he continued to consume the typical Standard American Diet (SAD) that he so loved…   And then, in 2010 he felt sick again and his cardiologist performed emergency surgery to insert a pair of stents. At the news conference after the operation, the surgeon explained that one of the veins used in his bypass operation in 2004 had clogged up and tried to reassure the audience that ‘this was fairly normal’. Soon after, he received a "blistering" email from his friend, Dr Dean Ornish. 

"Yeah, it's normal," wrote Ornish, "because fools like you don't eat like you should." Prodded into action, Clinton started by rereading Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease, which urges a strict, low-fat, plant-based regimen, along with two books that were, if possible, even more militantly vegan: Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, by Caldwell Esselstyn, M.D., and The China Study, by Cornell biochemist T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D. Accepting his friend, Dean Ornish criticism, Clinton then and there decided to change his lifestyle: he agreed ‘not to want to fool with this anymore’, and further that he ‘wanted to live to be a grandfather’…

Overnight, he gave up animal products including meat, fish, dairy, and eggs, and became a strict vegan. Now, at the age of 77, he is of normal weight and full of energy, traveling and working at a pace that exhausts his staffers, who are two or three decades younger! He has joined the team of Dr Esselstyn (another pioneer of the WFPB diet, whom we have frequently mentioned in our columns). He has now taken on America’s obesity epidemic with the same passionate commitment he showed during his presidency. 

While he strictly follows the WFPB diet, he has occasional weaknesses. He recalls that when Esselstyn spotted a picture of him on the Internet, munching on a dinner roll at a banquet, the renowned doctor dispatched a sharply worded email message: "I'll remind you one more time, I've treated a lot of vegans for heart disease. You’ve got to cut out heavily processed carbohydrates." But the vegetarian diet recommended by his tutors and daily walks is now routine for Clinton, who enjoys good health and is committed to helping others follow his lead. His wife, as the other ‘Good Samaritan’ has joined him in following the WFPB diet. We hope this story inspires you. 

If you or your friends suffer from heart disease or other NCD conditions, make up your mind and follow Bill Clinton’s example! We invite you to visit METI’s Healthy Living Clinic at House No. 51 at Motootua (across from the Kokobanana Restaurant) to become acquainted with METI’s whole food plant-based diet and Lifestyle Change programs. Or call us at 30550. Learning how to follow these Programs might be your ‘game changer’!