Discussion Board

From the Washington Post:

"Bill and Hillary Clinton power-dining Wednesday night at New Heights with longtime pal and Brookings prez Strobe Talbott, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland and her scholar husband Robert Kagan. What’s our gourmand-turned-near-vegan 42nd president eating these days? That night it was lentil soup, butternut squash and swiss chard — but he indulged in the fried apple pie for dessert."

Maybe this was a slip on a special occasion, but it makes one wonder how dedicated President Clinton is to following Dr. Esselstyn's recommendations.

I suposed he's entitled to the occasional indulgence. At least this one only involved food.

How does Esselstyn's diet compare to McDougall's? I don't know anything about it.

I don't think I would slip with the fried apple pie. It doesn't sound that great. I used to love pie, but not fried.

Marie

The Essylstin WOE is pretty much spot on the same as McDougal.

Essylstin allows a little Alcohol on occasion, but really strict on NO OIL of any kind in anything?

And absolutely insists on accepting the fact, that there is no tolerance for thinking this little bit won't hurt me. (PERIOD)!

This is true. If you follow Esselstyn they way he wants you to there is little room for moderation. Of course, he is dealing with people fighting life threatening heart disease. His patients tended to be one event away from an early grave. But his patients also showed excellent progress and remarkable reversal, even at their advanced stage of heart disease. Whether it was crippling angina, heart attacks or stroke, or advanced blockages of vessels, his patients were all at deaths door. His book has convinced many to make the major changes necessary to make progress and it leaves a powerful impact on those that read his book. It's a must read for anyone with heart disease or even a family history of it. Given Mr. Clintons history he would do well to follow the program closely.
f1jim

Maybe he just had a bite or two of the pie. If he ate the whole serving, he likely has Esselstyn's - or Mcdougall's revenge today.

Maybe is's just some newspaper making up stuff to fill their pages with.

Fried Apple Pie can still be vegan! Unless he ate it like a true southerner w a slice of american cheese on it!

Dr. McDougall has always been clear that his is NOT an all or nothing program. If its a special occasion, its OK to have a treat food. Mind you, I said 'food' as in ONE treat not a whole dinner. So if it's a holiday, eat an otherwise all McDougall meal and maybe have a small piece of pumpkin pie. Or a piece of cake on your birthday. So long as the treats are rare occurrences and the rest of the meal is low in fat you can relax and enjoy life. The idea is you don't make a big deal out of the occasional treat. It is NOT an excuse to go all hog wild and pig out for the rest of the week. It looks like Bill's doing fine to me.

Kate

My thoughts too. Unless the reporter was sitting at the table with President Clinton it would be hard to know exactly what and how much he was eating.

My impression has always been that if one is at their ideal weight and if one had no life threatening medical conditions, then yes, an occassional treat is okay. I would think that having had a heart attack, a stroke, by-pass surgery, cancer or other serious conditions would mean that a person would be well-advised to not stray from the program. Watching the videos of what happens to the blood after a single high-fat meal shows the very serious danger a heart patient could face. I agree with Dr. Esselstyn's saying that for his heart patients there can't be any thought that "this little bit can't hurt," because it can.

We are talking about a man that has already had quadruple bypass surgery! Fried apple pie should be off limits to anyone who has had major heart surgery. I have never heard Dr. McDougall's opinion on this subject regarding heart patients but I know Dr. Esselstyn would not feel it was appropriate or on plan.

Lord knows I'd hate to have the press reporting on everything I eat, so I feel for Pres. Clinton here. Everyone has to make their own judgement as to the risk of small indulgences to their health. Dr. Esselstyn certainly makes a strong case that people with advanced heart disease shouldn't push their luck--even with small indulgences. Maybe this is a very infrequent thing for the President; maybe not. Only he knows. After multiple surgeries and with a clearly diseased cardiovascular system, I hope for his sake that it's not a common thing.

The only concern I would have, apart from concern for the man's health, is that if he experiences another event in the near future, he and others may attribute it to a failure of the diet, when it may be nothing of the sort. I've seen some blogs mention how the Ornish diet failed Clinton in past years, even though Clinton clearly did not follow Ornish's advice.

Very good point. Because many media outlets wouldn't be doing very careful research into what the diet entails and whether he was following it to the letter or not.

Dr. E's plan IS all or nothing and anyone who has had bypass surgery needs to be following that closely. This hardly sounds like a "special occasion"--the man goes out to eat w/ fancy people all the time. If each of those is a "special occasion" he's not gonna last long.

I'm disappointed in him. And yes, when he keels over from a heart attack everyone will say, "See, that vegan/plant-based thing didn't work."

I also have to say that as we ALL know, that lentil soup and butternut squash was ALSO not McDougall/Esselstyn legal b/c it was in a restaurant. I'm sure it was all full of oil. Perhaps when you're Bill Clinton you get get restaurants to hold the oil, but I kind of doubt he bothered, since he ate the fried pie.