Joan was a friend, not a patient. Still, I tried to warn her of the danger of her diet. “I know what I’m eating isn’t good for me,” she said. “I’ve read your books and know about fat and heart disease, and about how fat causes cancers. But I love good food.”
When Joan was 45, she discovered a lump in her breast. It was a cancer many feel is related to rich eating—one of the “cancers of affluence.” She went through surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. She suffered terribly before becoming another death statistic linking fat to cancer.
Soon after Joan died, a young man came to see me at my office for treatment of a minor ailment. Like many of my patients, he also became a friend. Bob was the type of guy everyone loves to be with. A hard-working, energetic businessman, he was a never-ending source of jokes and stories. He laughed a lot and he ate a lot. Through him, I became acquainted with many of the restaurants between Beverly Hills and the beach. All the maitre d’s and waiters knew him: a big spender, a big tipper and a big eater with an appetite for nothing but the richest foods.
Having recently watched my friend Joan die of cancer, I cautioned Bob: “Go easy on the fat. Too much can cause a heart attack, or perhaps cancer.”
“You only go around once, Arn,” he’d answer with a hearty laugh.
His “go-around” almost came to an abrupt end one night when he woke up gasping for breath, with an incredibly painful sensation spreading across his chest, up his neck and down his left arm. Luckily, his wife knew CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) and kept him alive until the paramedics arrived.
Having survived the heart attack, Bob was fortunate enough to have a second chance—but not wise enough to take advantage of it. I showed him pictures of arteries clogged by the fat and cholesterol he ate so much of. I described how the fat he consumed made his red blood cells sticky and sluggish. I explained that switching to a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet would add years to his life and life to his years,
But Bob wouldn’t change his eating habits. Since the heart attack, he’s had two coronary artery bypass surgeries and has developed cancer of the colon. After all that he still stubbornly refuses to give up his rich foods. “You only go around once, Arn,” he keeps telling me. True, you do only go around once. But that go-around is meant to be lived. I don’t call having a heart attack, two heart surgeries and cancer, living. I call that a slow, painful death.
*13\80\8*
