Oh, What Just One High Fat Meal Can Do!

It really is shocking how much fat/calories/salt is in some of the restaurant foods we eat. In a recent report titled “Extreme Eating,” Nutrition Action newsletter, published by the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest, targeted the worst of the worst, like:

• The Cheesecake Factory’s Fried Macaroni and Cheese, an appetizer (yes, it’s only an appetizer!) with more artery–clogging saturated fat (69 grams) than an entire stick of butter.
• Applebee’s Quesadilla Burger with fries, which ratchets up three day’s worth of sodium – 4,410 milligrams.
• Chicago Grill’s Deep Dish Sundae, a dessert with more calories (2,800) than most of us should have in an entire day, plus 72 grams of saturated fat (the equivalent of five – yes, five! – McDonald’s Quarter Pounders with Cheese.)

ABC World News

We all know that eating gut–busters like these year after year can take a toll on our arteries, causing heart disease, strokes, and diabetes, but a report on ABC World News on Monday night showed, graphically so, that they have an immediate impact on our arteries as well.

One High Fat Meal

To see the ABC news segment, just click on the link in the callbox below. In summary, two ABC journalists went to the University of Maryland where they met cardiologist Dr. Robert Vogel, professor of medicine. Dr. Vogel is co–author of the recently published book The Pritikin Edge: 10 Essential Ingredients For a Long and Delicious Life.

Pre–Testing, Then the High Fat Meal

Dr. Robert Vogel and colleague Dr. Michael Miller took blood samples and assessed the health of the arteries of ABC’s Jon Garcia and Yunji De Nies via ultrasounds, all of which came out perfectly fine.

But then the journalists sat down to one high fat meal – a three–course monster. They ate Cheesecake Factory’s mac and cheese appetizer, Applebee’s quesadilla burger, and Chicago Grill’s mega–sundae – in total, 6,190 calories and 187 grams of saturated fat. Said ABC’s Yunji De Nies: “Our single meal packed more than three times the daily recommended calories, and nearly 10 times the saturated fat suggested by federal guidelines.”

Immediate Impact

Now, for the really nasty part. Two hours after their massive meals, Drs. Vogel and Miller re–tested the ABC reporters’ blood, and what they saw was downright disgusting. Jon Garcia’s blood had turned into cloudy, yellowish, pus–like fluid – “you could literally see the fat that was now flooding the system,” reported Mr. Garcia.

Yunji De Nies’ arteries had narrowed so much that “my ultrasound revealed a startling change.” Her heart was now working much, much harder to pump blood through her arteries. You hear the fast and furious POUNDING of her beleaguered heart. And you think: Is it any wonder that 90% of America ends up with high blood pressure?

“It’s the poisoning of America.”

Summed up Dr. Robert Vogel in the ABC World News report, and echoing many of the key messages in his book The Pritikin Edge: “It’s the poisoning of America. There’s just no question about it. We have the best country on Earth, and we have a lousy lifestyle. We really do, and it starts with food.”

As this TV news report compellingly shows, we’ve got to start taking care of ourselves – not five years down the road, not 10 years – but today, because every meal counts.

Nutrition Classes at Pritikin

“What I tell people in my classes at the Pritikin Longevity Center,” says Pritikin’s Director of Nutrition, “is this: Just as each cigarette you smoke damages your lungs, so does each high–fat meal damage the inside “skin,” or endothelium, of your arteries. And while the crippling effects [lung cancer or cardiovascular disease] from each cigarette or fatty meal may not be apparent for many years, the daily assaults to our lungs and blood vessels can be measured – and last for several hours – every time we light up or eat a fatty meal.”

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