reverse heart disease in 4 steps

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corporate challenge

Ornish, who has written five best-selling books on preventive medicine, including Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease, Eat More Weigh Less, and Love and Survival, was pivotal in influencing several giant food corporations (PepsiCo, McDonald’s, and Safeway) to consider offering healthful alternatives. Those corporate changes didn’t happen quickly.
           
“It’s like turning an airplane carrier,” he says, jokingly, “but it’s happening.”
           
Gaining the menu buy-in of major food companies makes it easier for children to eat more healthfully. “We all want our kids to grow up happy and healthy; that’s universal,” Ornish says. “Kids learn their taste preferences from grown-ups. My son, Lucas, who’s 5, enjoys eating what we eat.”
           
Getting started is the most important step, Ornish says, whether it’s cutting back on meat or walking around the block. There are two ways to begin, he says: One is to make small, deliberate changes, which is easy and has gradual benefits. The other is to make big changes all at once, which is more difficult but brings immediate rewards. It’s helpful to find a physician who’s supportive, Ornish says, one who can act as quarterback for the participant’s health team, which may include exercise therapists, yoga teachers, psychologists, and others who provide the information and motivation to make and maintain changes.
           
“It’s all about the joy of living, not the fear of dying,” Ornish says.