along albany road
Strength of Heart Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn ’52 Receives the Heritage Award No oils, no fish, no fowl, no meat, no dairy, and no caffeine. That’s a lot to give up, but according to this year’s Heritage Award recipient, Caldwell Esselstyn ’52, if we cut these foods from our diets, we’ll be a lot less likely to go under the knife for cardiovascular disease and a host of other aliments. Dr. Esselstyn advocates a strictly plant-based diet and says that most chronic diseases can be controlled or reversed by following his recommendations. After Deerfield Dr. Esselstyn attended Yale University, and immediately following his graduation in 1956 he competed in the Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, winning a gold medal with the American crew team. He earned his MD from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in 1961; served as an Army surgeon in Vietnam; and subsequently had a lengthy career at the Cleveland Clinic. In 2007 Dr. Esselstyn wrote Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, which featured his patients’ reversals of atherosclerosis by following a whole-foods, plant-based diet. In 2011 Dr. Esselstyn was himself featured in the documentary Forks Over Knives in which he famously said, “Heart disease, as far as I’m concerned, is an absolutely toothless paper tiger that need never exist . . .” He added that plaque (in arteries) does not develop until the lining of the arteries is injured, and “it is injured every time people eat meat, dairy, fish, and chicken.” During his presentation at Deerfield, Dr. Esselstyn shared success stories from his research, which he began in 1978 while head of the Breast Cancer Task Force at the Cleveland Clinic, and the decades-long study on the effect of a plantbased diet on coronary artery disease that he began in the mid-80s. He urged students “on the cusp of adulthood” to think about what lifestyle would empower them—both mentally and physically. In addition to the Heritage Award (which is presented annually to an alumnus whose professional and personal achievements have contributed to the betterment of society— someone whose life exemplifies the Academy’s motto: “Be worthy of your heritage”), Dr. Esselstyn received the first Benjamin Spock Award for Compassion in Medicine in 2005, a Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Cleveland Clinic Alumni Association, and the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame Award. He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Nutrition Action magazine. For more information on Dr. Esselstyn and his work, visit heartattackproof.com.
16
Winter 2014
Brent M. Hale
by Jessica Day