Caldwell Esselstyn

Caldwell Esselstyn is an American general surgeon who spent his career at the Cleveland Clinic, where he led its breast cancer task force before turning to heart disease. Before medicine he won an Olympic gold medal in rowing in 1956. Since the 1980s he has taught people with coronary artery disease to eat whole plant foods with no oil, and his wife Ann and daughter Jane write the recipes that go with his program.

Best known for

His long follow-up of a group of heart patients, published in medical journals, who stopped and in several cases reversed their coronary artery disease on a plant based diet with no added oil. His 2007 book Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease brought the program to a wide audience.

Approach

A vegan diet of whole grains, beans and lentils, vegetables and fruit, with about a tenth of calories from fat and no oil of any kind. For people who already have heart disease he also leaves out nuts and avocado, and he asks for cooked leafy greens several times a day.

Main talking points

• No oil at all, olive oil included: he teaches that oil injures the inner lining of the arteries.
• Leafy greens up to six times a day, which he links to healthier blood vessel linings through nitric oxide.
• People with heart disease should skip nuts and avocado as well.
• He calls coronary disease a food-borne illness that is rare where people eat mostly whole plants.
• Stents and bypass surgery treat the symptoms; he sees diet as the way to treat the cause.

Books

• The Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook2014
• Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease2007