SARASOTA – Evelyn Ross works in the intensive cardiac rehabilitation program at Sarasota Memorial Hospital, called Ornish Lifestyle Medicine.
It aims to reverse heart disease with exercise, stress management, group support and last but not least, nutrition, which Ross, a registered and licensed dietitian, knows a thing or two about.
“It features a whole foods, plant based approach, which is naturally low in fats,” Ross said. “Plant based means perhaps trying some of the legumes. We have some wonderful recipes.”
Ross says avoiding processed foods and refined carbohydrates can help you get to the root cause of heart disease.
“..and not just treat the symptoms,” Ross said. “So if you’re starting to shop healthy, maybe on the outside corners of the grocery store, so that you’re getting in colorful fruits and vegetables, and that you’re picking maybe something like quinoa as opposed to white rice.”
These are helpful tips, since it can be overwhelming trying to find the right foods to put in your body.
“Maybe get back to the basics of just having a ‘Meatless Monday’ or something like that to start, and then trying to also reduce the amount of refined oils we’re getting in too,” Ross said. “Participants in our program, a year from now I want to see that they’re healthier. I don’t want to see that they went on a diet and then went off the diet. This is really more of a lifestyle modification program.”
It teaches participants how to eat to live, not live to eat.
“What’s gratifying about that, is you’re treating food as medicine,” Ross said..
Ross says this is the only program proven to actually reverse heart disease.
