Book Review: The Carbohydrate Addict's Healthy Heart Program

Title: The Carbohydrate Addict’s Healthy Heart Program

Author: Richard F. Heller, Rachael F. Heller, Frederic J. Vagnini

Date: 1999

Publisher: Ballantine Books

ISBN: 0-345-42610-X

Length: 314 pages plus 25 pages of references and index

Quote: “When compared to other risk factors, insulin levels were the most statistically significant predictor of heart attack risk.”

Do non-diabetics need to think about insulin and blood sugar? Increasingly, research suggests that they do. Blood sugar reactions can produce emotional mood swings. Insulin can interact with other hormones to affect people’s ability to have children. Insulin reactions may create predispositions to weight gain and cardiovascular disease. Adult-onset diabetes is part of some people’s cardiovascular disease pattern and not others’, but in the long run the same lifestyle choices determine whether people are likely to develop diabetes or a stroke or heart attack first.

People who have diabetes need a more precise regimen of diet, exercise, and medication than the simple program this book presents for people who are not currently diabetic,. The Carbohydrate Addict’s Healthy Heart Program may help prevent diabetes, but won’t cure it.

The bad news is that we haven’t placed all the pieces in the puzzle yet. Different doctors have taken different approaches to treating cardiovascular disease through diet. Each program seems to be working for some people who had been at risk for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other bad things. Each program seems to be a viable approach for those who want to enjoy as many “mature years” as possible, but how do you know which one’s best for you? The Hellers suggest that genetic factors may determine which cardiovascular program will be most helpful for you, but DNA testing has not reached the stage where the question can be answered before you’ve tried one that may not work.

The Hellers offer a short test to help readers determine whether we can benefit from their system. The test isn’t perfect. Basically, if you’re middle-aged and not skinny and hyperactive, the test will suggest that you could be a carbohydrate addict.

If you are not yet middle-aged and are already concerned about your health, you might also be sensitive to some of the proteins the Hellers recommend you eat more of. Probably two thirds of humankind can benefit from using more whole wheat, oats, and barley. The rest of us feel worse, and some of us will develop stubborn, debilitating, even deadly chronic diseases, if we don’t avoid whole wheat, oats, and barley. Any of the cardiovascular health programs can be adjusted for people with food intolerance. Since the Heller program involves a higher-protein diet, tweaking the Heller program may be harder than tweaking the others if you need to avoid gluten, casein, or other proteins.

The good news is that Doctors Heller, McDougall, Pritikin, Sinatra, and even Adams agree on several points that are likely to do almost any body some good. Even if you’re genetically predisposed to get better results from one approach than from another, you’ll probably get better results from working any of their programs than you would from the unenlightened “junkfood, beer, and TV” lifestyle. All cardiovascular health programs basically involve eating more fresh fruit and vegetables, eating complex carbs instead of simple carbs, getting more exercise, and getting less “excitement” or “comfort” from drugs and drama.

Working the Hellers’ program may be easier than working the others. The Hellers don’t prescribe menus. To minimize blood sugar swings, you eat high-carb foods during one hour of the day, along with fibre and protein foods; you get to choose at which meal the carbo-load will be, and it doesn’t have to be the same time every day. During the rest of the day you eat high-fibre, low-fat, low-carb foods. If you are a true carbohydrate addict, they predict you’ll feel better and start to lose weight in days.