Lifestyle Medicine Dinner at Neerob

The other day, we had our Lifestyle Medicine dinner at Neerob. Varun Ponmudi, the CEO of Aayas Table gave us a presentation about the six person pilot program they offered in October - a month of WFPB instruction in your own home. Some basic biometrics were reported before and after. The mix of dietary habits was interesting, but on the whole the group averaged out on the healthy side of what is unfortunately normal, nevertheless, the results were significant, including a 4.5 lb weight loss during the period.

Results were good, but there were a few lapses.

Varun Ponmudi presenting results of AayasTable pilot program

• Total Cholesterol went down for all six participants, with four out of six reporting ending numbers of below 150, Dr. Esselstyn's definition of "heart-attack-proof."
• Triglycerides were more mixed. Two were up and four were down.
• LDL at 30 days was down across the board.

A few people lapsed with some oil and processed vegan.





Unfortunately, none of the participants could be attend the dinner at this time, but from personal feedback I know that this program made a critical difference for some people. It is an enormous support to have someone help you out in your own home.
 
The high point of the evening in many ways was when Md. "Khokon" Rahman, the owner of Neerob, shared his own experiences. In August when he had a heart-attack, he was hospitalized with TC above 180, and his last bloodwork on 10/12/2019 showed TC at 92, prompting his physician to ask him how he did it.

The result is that Khokon is now a leader in his community in this area, along with the Bangladeshi nurse at Elmhurst, Md. Shariful Islam, who spoke at one of our dinners previously. Mr. Islam is always a shining example to me, because he came all the way from Elmhurst to become the patient of Dr. Ostfeld in the Bronx, purely because Dr. Ostfeld is a plant-based cardiologist. Here is a spectacular report on one of Dr. Ostfeld's patients, who googled his way out of bypass surgery to go and use lifestyle medicine instead, becoming a patient in Dr. Ostfeld's Cardiac Wellness Program at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx.

The whole point of the exercise in a way is that at a point when it is critical, an intervention may be unavoidable, e.g. a stent, or whatever, but as long as it is elective, things can be turned around very quickly on a Whole Foods, Plant-Based diet.

The Food at Neerob

As per usual, Neerob did an outstanding job on the food. A great fresh green salad, a vegetable spaghetti salad, bean soup, a nice dal, brown rice, chinese style veggies, steamed broccoli.
Neerob will become a destination for #WFPB food in the Bronx. They achieved a Plant Pure Communities Restaurant certification in February 2019 and it is getting better all the time.

Cardiac Wellness Program at Montefiore

Patients come in and cry over the progress they are making with a Whole Foods Plant-Based Diet; nobody ever cries tears of joy over a Lipitor prescription.
                                                   Robert J. Ostfeld, MD. MSc.

I just spent my Saturday morning with Dr. Robert Ostfeld, Director of the Cardiac Wellness Program at Montefiore and Lauren Graf, nutritionist to the program. This was a half-day workshop intended for cardiology patients and their significant others, which they teach numerous times during the year. The purpose evidently is to help people adopt their new no-oil Whole Foods Plant-Based (WFPB) lifestyle, and helping the process by involving their household. The general tenet of the program is that, the whole foods plant- based diet of Dr. Esselstyn and T. Coin Campbell, Ph.D. is the way to go and except for in severe cases, a small amount of oil in the form of oil-rich fruit, e.g. nuts, avocado, etc., is healthy, but that it is mostly the added oils that cause harm, so you want to avoid added oils in all forms.


There were perhaps 30-40 people in attendance, and the workshop was both practical, and deeply informative, showing the scientific foundations of the dietary approach/ life style that is being taught in this program, as much as hands-on dietary recommendations. There was a nice lunch catered by Tastee Vegan. Check out their site. They have catered among others for Mike Tyson, who is vegan now too! The meal was an absolutely delicious sampling of vegan dishes, with lots of inspiration for stuff you could try at home.

Good for what ails you

Being that Dr. Ostfeld is a cardiologist, that is his primary focus, but the WFPB lifestyle is about more than that - it is about the whole new nutritional paradigm of eating Whole Foods, and stopping the fallacy that you can make it up with supplements: Whole foods are in, expensive urine is out. Even supplements of vitamin B12 and vitamin D are needed only sporadically and in small amonts, not necessarily every day.
Good for what ails you is the motto here, and besides the massive improvements in heart health that Dr. Ostfeld routinely sees with the WFPB diet, he produced a chart with a list of other health outcomes that are positively impacted by the adoption of a WFPB diet, which - with a little tongue in cheek - he calls the kale scan.

The Kale Scan

Just in case you have trouble reading the slide, here is the list:

• ALS
• Dementia
• Stroke
• Depression
• Skin Appearance (acne is a nutritional deficiency)
• Ear infections
• Periodontal Disease
• Acid Reflux
• Laryngeal Cancer
• Lung Disease
• Breast Cancer
• Heart Disease
• Obesity
• Hypertension
• Diabetes
• Inflammation
• Colon Cancer and Constipation
• Lower Back Pain
• Sexual Function (ED is the canary in the coal mine for CVD - Cardio Vascular Disease)
• Osteoporosis
• Athletic Performance
• Arthritis

 The bottom line is that all or most degenerative diseases that make up 75% of our healthcare spending are preventable and often reversible with a Whole Foods Plant-Based diet.

• This is obviously an area where half-measures are not much help, although Dr. Ostfeld is willing to work with people in steps.
• Added oils of any kind will collapse your veins for upto six hours after the intake, which in practice means you should avoid them at all cost, and all oils and fats are equally bad for heart health.
• At the supermarket, read the label, not the claims on the front of the box. 
• Avoid most sweeteners, including sugar, with the possible exception of Stevia, or some blackstrap molasses.
• Juice is not generally a good idea - getting the sugar without the pulp is a bad idea, while on the other hand eating whole fruits is not a risk factor with Type 2 Diabetes, but instead can be a help.

 Last, not least, there were many useful discussions about foods to buy and not to buy, and mention of a cookware line that is very suitable for the WFPB lifestyle, called 360 Cookware.

What's next: 

 On Friday October 27th, 2017, there will be an all-day conference, the Montefiore Preventative Cardiology Conference (you can register at the link), that is open to the public. Speakers will include:

• Robert J. Ostfeld, MD, MSc, Host
• Paul M. Ridker MD, MPH - Beyond LDL Cholesterol: Does Inflammation Matter?
• Neal D. Barnard, MD - Nutrition in the prevention and Treatment of Diabetes
• Kim A. Williams, MD - Personal evolution towards lifestyle changes for prevention and treatment of CVD (CardioVascular Disease)
• Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr. MD - Nutritional Reversal of Coronary Artery Disease: Fact or Fiction?
• Robert j. Ostfeld, MD: The Impact of Lifestyle Change in Cardiovascular Risk Factors and the Bronx

This is a training for Cardiologists and other doctors, but it is open to members of the public. If you're not a patient of Dr. Robert Ostfeld, send your doctor! It is high time they find out.
The Bronx's #not62 program to improve health outcomes in the Bronx has not (as yet) been very successful, yet this program at Montefiore deserves to be a center piece in the strategy.

Yet Another No-Oil Vegan Dinner at Packsun

My hunch that Bangladeshi cuisine is particularly suitable to be adapted to the no-oil vegan lifestyle, is proving to be amply true. And of course, I was lucky enough to get to know Khokon, the owner of Packsun Halal Chicken, where we had our second no-oil vegan dinner yesterday, Tuesday April 4th, 2017. Conveniently, he also owns Neerob Bazaar on Starling Avenue, and he always cooks for the restaurant with ingredients from his store. And it's all home style food, people come from far and wide, and slowly but surely his clientele is expanding beyond the Bangladeshi people.

Our Dinner Last Night

Last night, we had a beautiful salad of chickpeas, tomatoes, cucumber, with purple onion, cilantro, salt and lemon juice. There was also a dish of daikon radish cooked with some water, turmeric, garlic and cilantro. There was another excellent dish of yellow lentils, and a dish of greens (poi greens) as well. Rice and bread were the foundation.

Khokon is taking ownership of this initiative to such a degree that he is not letting his regular chef come close to the food - he prepares it himself, and he is all excited about the fact that without oil everything tastes better. Everyone at the table was complimentary of the food, and only one person of eight even wondered why there was no meat in it, and when he got the explanation he promptly became very interested in the whole idea. One of the diners will probably go to the Cardiac Wellness Program at Montefiore.

On to Forks Over Knives on April 25th

On April 25th, NYPL Parkchester will be showing Forks Over Knives from 5-7, and at 8 PM there will be a free oil-free vegan dinner sampling menu at Packsun. You do need to make a reservation.

Bronx #not62 and Dr. Robert Ostfeld, cardiologist at Montefiore

If you weren't paying attention, the plant-based lifestyle has gone mainstream at least four years ago, for since that time, Dr. Robert Ostfeld, a cardiologist at Montefiore Hospital, has been teaching plant-based nutrition at Einstein College in the Bronx. I had the pleasure of attending his workshop at the Chappaqua library recently, and if you missed it, don't fret, you can still catch up with a video the library posted, here.

The presentation was impressive, even for me, for to hear this doctor saying how he's never seen any medication achieve such dramatic results as the simple dietary change to a plant-based diet, was music to my ears. Generally speaking, the presentation reinforced everything I needed with my knowledge from Dr. Esselstyn's books, and the documentary Forks over Knives.
At the cost of one visit with Dr. Ostfeld at Montefiore, you can participate in his four-hour Cardiac Wellness Program at Montefiore.

Note the key statements: 

quote

"We have been humbled and awestruck by our results" says Dr. Ostfeld. When asked about why the program, still in its infancy, is meeting with such success, he explains, "Our patients are presented with scientific evidence of this diet's powerful effects during our four-hour Wellness Program. It's harder to get all the information across during a 20 minute patient visit." In addition to the dramatic impact on heart disease, research continues to mount on the effectiveness of a plant-based diet in reducing the risk of many forms of cancer, osteoporosis, chronic kidney disease, many digestive diseases including IBS as well as autoimmune diseases.

unquote


In the aftermath, I have started to organize some more specific activities in the neighborhood:

• NYPL Parkchester will be showing Forks over Knives on April 25th at 5 PM.
• I have set up a Meetup group to work with local restaurants to put oil-free vegan dishes on the menu,
  https://www.meetup.com/Starling-Avenue-Triangle-Vegan-Cuisine/
• And on April 15th, I will be at a health fair from Metro Plus at Devoe Park.

Last, not least on March 25 I met some young people at a meeting at Community Board #9, who are planning a healthy restaurant in the area, probably vegan. In short, inspiration galore.

It all reminds me of a young mother I met at one of our community planning events, who said her number one priority for our neighborhood was to not have another fast-food restaurant. She wanted more healthy food choices for her kids.

The times they are a changing. They sure are! If the Bronx wants to change health outcomes, such as the #not62 campaign seeks to achieve, it should do more to supports programs like this one.