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The heart of the matter Dr. Adam Brook, fellow in Cardiac Surgery at Yale, graduated from Harvard College magna cum laude with high honors in biology. With his name followed by a string of acronyms, M.D. from Harvard Medical School and Ph.D. in genetics from Harvard University, Brook went on to teach and conduct cancer research. After working as chief surgical resident and later attending general surgeon, Brook practiced surgery here in San Francisco. Throughout his work he noticed a pattern in the patients he treated — those who had problems losing weight or maintaining normal weight had higher rates of cancer and heart disease. This is not news to anyone, we have been told for decades to lose weight. We have been sold scads of quick fixes and of miracle diets that miraculously worked for a week or two. Then real life sets in and you don’t have time to weigh the boiled skinned chicken chunks for your snack that you are supposed to eat after breakfast but before lunch and not anything else in between. Dr. Brook’s observations led him to write a very gripping book based on his own heart-health experiences, The Golden Gate Diet (Midsummer Press; $24.95). The story made even more compelling in that he has never had a weight problem. For the millions of Americans out there who think that their health problems would be solved if they just dropped 50 pounds, or the other millions who don’t think they are at risk because they fall in the normal weight range, he will give you food for thought. Skinny people have heart attacks too. After seeing a picture of an aorta during his first year in medical school, and after he had received the results of his cholesterol test, he began to rethink his carnivore diet. When he dropped the steaks and hamburgers from his daily fare, his serum level dropped from 233 to 211 in six months. When he dropped milk and cheese, it dropped to 149. The Golden Gate Diet will give you plenty of food for thought, whether or not you need to lose the weight. He covers not only what to eat and what not to eat, meal plans and recipes, but beyond into topics for how to keep the weight off. There are chapters on the psychology of overeating, eating disorders, behavioral therapy, drug therapy, and how fast you should lose weight. He offers good, sensible advice, and yes, you can eat bread.
Reprinted with the permission of San Francisco Downtown magazine |
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