The 'heart attack proof' diet?

Woman trades heart surgery for new diet

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn Jr.'s diet has no meat, eggs, dairy or added oils
• CEO of American Heart Association says there are other key factors to consider
• Esselstyn says his diet works because it keeps the lining of the blood vessels free of plaque

Editor's note: Dr. Sanjay Gupta explores the signs, tests and lifestyle changes that could make cardiac problems a thing of the past on "The Last Heart Attack" at 8 p.m. ET Sunday on CNN.

(CNN) -- Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn Jr. didn't become a doctor to change the way America eats. He was a general surgeon.
But researching cancer, he stumbled on a fact that changed his career: Certain cultures around the world do not suffer from heart disease, the No. 1 killer in the Western world.
Esselstyn's practice took a dramatic turn -- from performing surgery to promoting nutrition. For more than 20 years, the Cleveland Clinic doctor has tried to get Americans to eat like the Papua New Guinea highlanders, rural Chinese, central Africans and the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico.
Follow his dietary prescription, the 77-year-old Esselstyn says, and you will be "heart attack proof" -- regardless of your family history.
"It's a foodborne illness, and we're never going to end the epidemic with stents, with bypasses, with the drugs, because none of it is treating causation of the illness," Esselstyn says.