PAMELA LEBLANC: FIT CITY

Plant-powered firefighter wants to lower your cholesterol

Rip Esselstyn writes book about meat, dairy and oil-free diet

By Pamela LeBlanc
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, February 13, 2009

How plant strong are you?

Austin firefighter Rip Esselstyn, a former professional triathlete and, most recently, self-dubbed Head Lettuce of a group that tested his Engine 2 Diet, wants to know.

Esselstyn is about to drop a smart bomb of healthy eating into a society that, he says, eats food that ravages our cardiovascular systems and relies too readily on drugs to keep its cholesterol in check.

Five years ago, Esselstyn flipped the meat-munching crew of the Austin fire station where he worked to a plant-powered gang fueled by beans, tofu and leafy greens. Now he's introducing the rest of us to his eating philosophy in his book, "The Engine 2 Diet: The Texas Firefighter's 28-Day Save-Your-Life Plan that Lowers Cholesterol and Burns Away the Pounds."

The premise of the diet is simple: No meat or fish, no dairy, no added oils. Even olive oil — a concentrated source of calories — is spurned. Eliminate as many processed foods as possible. Cut down on sodium. Increase your intake of vegetables, legumes, leafy greens and fruits.

By following his program, Esselstyn says you can lower cholesterol naturally.

The idea is not new. Nutrition researchers Dr. Neal Barnard and Dr. Dean Ornish both promote similar diets, as does Esselstyn's father, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn Jr., a retired Cleveland surgeon and clinician who has studied heart disease for decades.

Get your total cholesterol below 150, and your LDL cholesterol — the bad stuff — below 80, and you are essentially bulletproof, the Esselstyns say. The risk of heart disease, diabetes, certain cancers and other diseases drop significantly.

"As we all know, America's health is in dire straits right now," Rip Esselstyn says. "I want people to start becoming more aware and more conscientious of what they put in their bodies."

How the diet works

On a recent evening, firefighter Steve Martinez is whipping up a batch of corn chowder made with rice milk, green chiles, potatoes and vegetable broth at Fire Station 2, near the University of Texas campus. The chowder will make it onto the dinner table alongside a giant salad and whole wheat bread. There's no meat or butter in sight.

Esselstyn looks on approvingly. "It's hearty, and it's tasty," he says. It's also void of saturated fats, dietary cholesterol and animal protein. "Remove those three culprits and your cholesterol comes down like a rock," Esselstyn says.

Most Americans get 10 percent of their diet from whole, unprocessed foods. About 50 percent comes from processed foods; 40 percent is dairy or meat, Esselstyn says. "If we can turn that upside down, it's so much better."

It boils down to the single-layer of cells called endothelial cells that line our blood vessels. "These cells are magical lifejackets to preserve the health of our vessel," says Dr. Esselstyn, Rip's father. They secrete nitric oxide, a gas that keeps blood flowing smoothly, without becoming sticky. It also protects arteries from inflammation, which can lead to plaque ruptures, the cause of most heart attacks. Think Teflon versus Velcro.

"Every time you eat saturated fats in oil, dairy and meat, you absolutely injure and hamper and assault those endothelial cells and decrease their capacity to make nitric oxide," Dr. Esselstyn says.

Some people blame genes for their high cholesterol. But the doctor disagrees. "Genes load the gun, but lifestyle pulls the trigger," he says, adding that Brussels sprouts, broccoli and kale are more powerful than a gorilla dose of statins, the class of drugs to lower cholesterol, in the fight against heart disease.

His philosophy rubbed off on his son Rip, 45, who swam for the University of Texas in the 1980s. Back then, he ate at the training table with the football and baseball players.

"We lit it up — chicken-fried steak, pizza, chicken," Rip Esselstyn says. "It was endless — breakfast, lunch and dinner."

Esselstyn's cholesterol was more than 200 at age 21. Then he started paying attention to a study his father began in 1985. That ongoing study showed that a plant-based diet can halt — and reverse — heart disease.

The younger Esselstyn cut meat, dairy and oil out of his diet and dove into a sea of leafy greens, tofu and beans. He's been eating that way for 22 years now.

Lest anyone think it's made him a weaker man, consider that he has won the Capital of Texas Triathlon eight times. Last fall, he set a record in his age group in the 200-meter backstroke at the U.S. Masters Swimming National Championship.

It's stressing the muscle and letting it rebuild — not eating meat — that makes a body stronger, Esselstyn says. And contrary to popular belief, he adds, most people get plenty of protein from beans, vegetables and whole grains.

He started his push at the firehouse. About five years ago, Esselstyn and his buddies laid down a challenge to see who had the lowest cholesterol. The alarm sounded when one firefighter reported a total cholesterol of 344. Esselstyn persuaded everyone on his shift at the station to eat according to his plant-strong plan. The Engine 2 Diet was born.

Putting it to the test

I wanted to know what would happen if I followed the diet. I got a baseline cholesterol test, and on Jan. 12 I cut out meat, dairy and oil. My husband and about a dozen others did the experiment at the same time. We met with Esselstyn, who anointed himself the Head Lettuce, once a week for lunch.

I learned a lot.

It was surprisingly easy to eliminate meat and dairy. Oil, though, was a different story. It's in everything from salad dressing to bread to crackers. I became an expert label reader. I found myself craving, of all things, popcorn, cooked in a pan with a little oil. Going out to eat was a real challenge, one that we faced head-on by (gasp!) joining some out-of-town friends for an excursion to the County Line BBQ. (We ate dry baked potatoes while they wiped sauce off their lips.)

But I also learned there's almost always a way to make a healthy substitution, at least at home. Think migas made with tofu, mushrooms and onions on corn tortillas. Or lasagna with layers of sweet potatoes, spinach and broccoli. "Burritos" with homemade hummus inside steamed mustard greens.

"It's the cheapest way to eat on the planet," Esselstyn says. (Unless you are buying Ezekiel bread, a brand made without oil or preservatives, I should add.) "It's environmentally friendly. It's compassionate. Plant foods are loaded with micronutrients, yet they are calorie lean, as opposed to meat and dairy."

And it works. Two weeks in, my total cholesterol dropped 37 points. By the end of the 28-day program, it was down exactly 40 points. My LDL cholesterol — the bad stuff — sank to 71. My risk ratio was 0.95, just about perfect. (My HDL, or good cholesterol, also dropped, but Esselstyn says that's because when your LDL drops you need fewer HDL molecules to clean up after them.)

"You're essentially heart-attack proof," Esselstyn told me. "That's an amazing risk ratio. You hit a home run."

During an earlier six-week pilot study with 62 people who followed the Engine 2 Diet, the average drop in total cholesterol was 40 points; the average LDL drop was 36 points.

Most people also lose weight. In fact, some athletes lose too much weight or see a drop in energy level when they cut out oil. It's an easy fix, the elder Esselstyn says. Eat more rice or whole grains.

Can the average person stick to such a strict diet? It's not easy. But Esselstyn doesn't say you have to, 100 percent. He just wants you to be plant strong. Knowing what they've learned, though, many people find it hard to revert entirely to their old ways.

I won't stick to it completely, but I'll take a lot away. I'll sauté in vegetable broth instead of oil, I'll make my own oil-free hummus, with chickpeas, lemon juice and low-sodium soy sauce. I'll eat tons more leafy greens and sprinkle ground flax and raw oats on my breakfast cereal. I might eat fish or meat or cheese on occasion, but not nearly as often.

"That's why this program is so powerful," Esselstyn says. "People can see just with nutrition what they can do. Afterward, you decide what you want to incorporate."

In the long run, he wants to change the way Americans think and feel about eating this way.

"I became a firefighter to help people and save lives," he says. This is just another way to do that.

pleblanc@statesman.com; 445-3994