Fwd: Star McDougaller Ellen Jaffe Jones - Beating the Genetic Odds

[Guest guest]

Read this McDougall report at

http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2007star/sep/starellen.html

 

 

Ellen Jaffe Jones - Anna Maria Island, FL

Beating the Genetic Odds

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Dr. McDougall's Comments

 

“Why doesn’t everyone do this?” is a question I have pondered

for 30 years. The results are consistently

 

 

 

excellent. The food is delicious. I believe the

largest stumbling blocks are: people do not believe they can regain

their lost health and appearance, and they believe they are incapable

of changing. Amazing, how much life is lost for invalid

reasons.

 

Yesterday, Mary and I were enjoying vegan tamales with black

beans at a bayside table at Guaymas Mexican/Seafood restaurant in

Tiburon (north of San Francisco). To my right sat three plump

women (upper arms as big as my thighs), eating fried clams, fried

shrimp, and fried vegetables. The odors from their dishes

almost

 

 

 

spoiled our meal. I watched all three hobble with great

effort to their table. They appeared well-dressed and sounded

well-educated. I kept looking at Mary and thinking these women are at

least a decade younger than you are and they are disabled because of

their health and appearance. For what? Grease, salt, and

sea-animal proteins? It was all I could do to keep from asking them to

try some of my tamale, or at least a bite of black beans, and hand

them a business card. As I looked across our table, and I

whispered to young- and fit-looking Mary, “Thank you,” she had no

idea what I was talking about.

Where have all the pretty women and handsome men gone? Over to

the dark side of dining. They have sacrificed central parts of

their life for yellow and brown food that tastes oily and salty, and

smells repugnant. However, these potentially beautiful people are not

in this state of unsightliness for a lack of interest in themselves.

They care enough about their appearance to spend thousands of dollars

on clothes, cars, makeup and perfumes in hopes of enhancing their

attractiveness. They simply fail to see the connection of good health

to good eating.

 

 

 

 

 

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When I was

five years old my aunt died of breast cancer in our home. My mother

and sister also had breast cancer. My mother later died of

Alzheimer’s, but she also had diabetes, osteoporosis, and had had

several open-heart procedures. Both of my sisters have heart disease,

and my sister who hasn’t had cancer has diabetes. In addition, both

of my parents and their parents had diabetes.

Given my history, shock and awe transform my doctors’ faces

when they discover that I am 54 and am on no medications. All of these

diseases, they told me, are genetic and there is nothing I can do

about them. But they are wrong. This is my story of how I found great

health and beat the genetic odds that were working against me.

In 1981 when I was 28 and working as a TV reporter, I suffered a

life-threatening colon blockage; the fast food of a fast-paced career

had caught up with me. I became so doubled over in excruciating pain

that two of my co-workers had to carry me to the car and drive me to

the emergency room. The doctors said they had never seen a colon

blockage that large in someone so young. They said I could avoid

surgery this time but I would need to be on medication for the rest of

my life (they had to manually remove the blockage, a pain that was

worse than going through natural childbirth).

I felt I was too young to be on medication for the rest of my

life, so I began reading every book I could find on fiber, including

Don’t Forget Fibre in Your Diet by Denis Burkitt and Diet for a

Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe. The relief was almost immediate.

I started out by adding bran to my food and then slowly revamped my

diet completely. I ate an almost completely plant-based, macrobiotic

diet for a year, and when my busy lifestyle began to overwhelm me, I

discovered The McDougall Plan.

During my first pregnancy I was told that I needed more protein,

so I started eating dairy again. When my daughter (who was breastfed)

had screaming colic at six weeks old, and nothing else worked, I

decided to stop the dairy. As a result, the colic vanished. I also

noticed that when I gave up dairy, my sinus issues resolved (I often

couldn’t get through a news story without sniffing or clearing my

throat).

Looking back over the years, my cholesterol numbers tell me

exactly how well I was adhering to a good diet (I saved all my test

records). From 1999 to 2000, my cholesterol climbed from 135 to 203,

which reflected my straying: that was the year the Atkins Diet was in

high fashion (for a second time). I foolishly thought maybe the

science had changed; that’s what the news stories were saying (the

only thing that had changed, however, was the marketing of

high-protein diets). I was now working as a financial consultant for a

Wall Street brokerage firm. When I saw that people in the office were

losing lots of weight, I thought to myself, “All these Wall Street

brains couldn’t be wrong, could they?”

Blood Lipid Summary (mg/dL)

Year

LDL

Total

HDL

Timeline of Lifetime

1989

78

146

52

 

1998

87

151

42

 

1999

74

135

52

Low-fat vegan

2000

120

203

65

Atkins

2002

108

183

50

 

2003

95

180

65

Coronary calcification

2004

90

161

56

Fibroids

2005

84

154

44

Low-fat vegan. No more fish

2007

85

152

53

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, I started eating fish again and found myself in the emergency

room for the second time in my life. I was hemorrhaging with painful

fibroid tumors that needed to come out, said the ER doctors, who were

also recommending a hysterectomy and ovary removal (to stop estrogen

production, thereby putting an end to my menopausal symptoms and

hopefully future fibroid growth). At this point my weight was at its

peak: 147 pounds, which was not pretty on a 5’3” frame. My

attitude was to just get it over with, but when I called my

gynecologist that day she said to just sit tight until she could meet

with me.

When we met, she said, “Why don’t you go back to a low-fat,

plant-based diet.” I took her advice, and within a month all my

symptoms (painful fibroids, headaches, symptoms of fibrocystic breast

disease, and even hot flashes) were gone. Previously, my husband would

often remark (as I broke out in profuse sweating), “You’re

flashing again, dear, aren’t you?” He was amazed that the flashes

ended almost overnight and that menopause became a breeze for

me.

This return to a low-fat vegan diet also resulted in a 25-pound

weight loss. I wasn’t trying to lose weight, I was just trying to

keep my uterus. I was never hungry and never counted calories; just

sticking to the McDougall Maximum Weight Loss plan did it. I ate only

sweet potatoes as my main starch, along with lots of raw and cooked

green and yellow vegetables until I reached my goal weight of

122.

Weight Summary

Date

Weight

Timeline of Lifetime

November 1999

130

Before Atkins

December 2001

136

During Atkins

June 2003

136

 

June 2004

141

 

March 2005

142

 

June 2005

150

Begin low-fat vegan return

December 2005

131

 

August 2006

137

 

November 2006

129

Started running

February 2007

122

Running and MWL Program

March 2007

 

Running injury, limits exercises

August 2007

125

 

 

 

 

I also began running again, but only after I took off enough

weight to decrease the inflammation in my joints, and the pain in my

back and knees. In the past year I have placed 2nd and 3rd in my age

group running in 5K races. I used to run in my twenties and thirties,

but never placed in a race. When I started running again, about two

years ago, my goal was simply to finish, so placing has been a real

thrill.

During the last visit to my gynecologist, she laughed and said,

“Look at your tiny waistline!” I had never before thought to put

“tiny waistline” and me in the same sentence. She tells her

overweight patients who say they have no money to buy healthy foods,

“Either you pay the money to buy fruits and veggies now or you’ll

pay later when disease hospitalizes you.”

Discovering how to beat cancer

and other diseases while maintaining a healthy weight has become the

investigative reporting job of my life. However, one of the saddest

things for me is to see others who suffer so much yet refuse to look

at new ideas that might save their lives. My friends are amazed at how

much weight I’ve lost and how in shape I’ve become. I’m always

loaning out books and being supportive when I can. As for my

relatives, they often tell me their diseases are genetic and are a

natural part of aging. My family warned me of the varicose veins

I would succumb to, but not one has appeared. But I

have learned that information about better health cannot be forced or

preached. Listeners have to be receptive and ready. All I can do is

lead my life by example. It is so true what Dr. McDougall says: People

choose a steak over life. When I hear people say, “But eating that

way is difficult,” I wonder if they realize that having their chest

cracked open during surgery would be far more difficult.

As for my doctors, this is a gradual learning process for them. I

now greet them with, “Hi, I’m the broccoli rep.” A 300-pound

cardiologist I saw last year remarked to me, “You have the heart of

a 21-year-old. That diet and exercise thing is really paying off!” I

now seek out doctors who better understand the pathways to true

health.

In addition to working full-time with my husband in his

media-training business, I also teach free nutrition classes (through

the Cancer Project) at hospitals, community centers, and condo

associations. The class evaluations people write are better than any

paycheck or Emmy. The marketing director of a hospital where I held

classes recently wrote, “We will definitely work together

again. What you are teaching is so critical to our population.”

When you can change lives and improve health through such simple

steps, there is nothing like it. Please take a look at this story and online video of me talking about

the Cancer Project on Tampa Bay's 10 News on Sep tember 10,

2007.

Ellen Jaffe Jones

We encourage you to pass this Star McDougaller along to

friends.

2007 John McDougall

McDougall Wellness Center P.O. Box 14039, Santa Rosa, CA

95402

http://www.drmcdougall.com

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