This book is not intended as a substitute for the medical advice of
physicians. The reader should regularly consult a physician in all matters
relating to his or her health, and particularly with respect to any symptoms
that may require diagnosis or medical attention. Copyright © 2009 by Rip Esselstyn
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of
1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval
system, without the prior written permission of the publisher . Wellness Central
Hachette Book Group
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New York, NY  10017
Visit our Web site at www .HachetteBookGroup.com . Wellness Central is an imprint of Grand Central Publishing. The Wellness Central name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book
Group, Inc.
First eBook Edition: February 2009
ISBN: 978-0-446-54368-2
OceanofPDF .comContents
Copyright Page
FOREWORD
PART I: THE E2 DIET
1: ENGINE 2
2: MY  STORY
3: THE ENGINE 2 DIET
4: CRAZY  MYTHS ABOUT  FOOD
5: THE MEDICAL  PROOF BEHIND THE ENGINE 2 DIET
6: THE E2 EXERCISE PROGRAM
PART II: MAKING IT  WORK
1: THE E2 ATTITUDE
2: E2 VITAL SIGNS
3: LABEL  READING
4 : MAKING IT  WORK FOR LIFE! PART III: RECIPES AND MEAL  PLANS
INTRODUCTION
1: GETTING YOUR KITCHEN IN E2 SHAPE
2: E2 EASY  WEEKL Y PLANNER3: E2 RECIPES
BONUS RECIPES
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
OceanofPDF .comFor my wife, Jill, and my son, Kole
OceanofPDF .comDear Reader:
I’m Rip Esselstyn and I want to thank you for picking up my book. I
hope that once you’ve read it, you will choose to embark on the
Engine 2 Diet in what will be a spectacular health makeover . Think
about it: In just twenty-eight days, you will plant the seeds of a long-
lasting, healthy life. I know that if I didn’ t follow this diet, I would
never have had the ener gy to be a world-class triathlete, or just as
grueling, a firefighter . The Engine 2 Diet is a snap to follow . Depending on which of two
programs you select, you will spend either two or four weeks eating
nothing but the most colorful nutrient-packed foods Mother Nature
provides: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds. During this time period you will push to the back burner all meats and
dairy products, as well as refined and processed foods—including
extracted oils—while feasting on jillions of plant-diverse foods. That’ s the Engine 2 Diet in a healthy nutshell! To assist you on your quest for great health, I have also included
more than one hundred recipes that will make your mouth water , your
friends envious, and your body happy . I wish you only the best as you start what I hope will be a lifelong
love af fair with plant-beautiful foods. Remember , this isn’ t just a diet,
it’s an adventure in perfect health. Eat Plant-Strong! OceanofPDF .comForeword
The evidence is now in. What our grandmothers always told us to do
—eat your vegetables and have an apple a day to keep the doctor away—is
borne out by modern science. Increasingly , medical research is showing that
we should consume a plant-based diet for optimal health. But do people take this message seriously? I wish they did, but most do
not. Part of the reason is our cultural tradition. For too long we have been
accustomed, taste-wise, to animal foods or foods and food supplements
derived from the wrong parts of plants, like their sugars, their oils (some of
which we solidify and convert to trans fats! ), and their refined flours
without their outer bran layers. Then we add salt to produce unhealthy
products that find their way to store shelves as convenience foods. As a result, we’ve been getting fatter and suf fering from an ever -
increasing number and variety of ailments and life-threatening diseases. America now has the highest per capita health care costs in the world, while
ignoring its 48 million citizens who lack medical insurance. Consuming the
right kind of plant-based foods can go a long way toward solving not only
our own personal health concerns, but our society’ s ills as well. There is
simply nothing that can so profoundly af fect our healing as eating fruits and
vegetables. How can we drive this message home? That is where Rip Esselstyn
comes in. What a story he has to tell! It’ s personal, it’ s inspiring, and it’ s
lifesaving. A world-class athlete and a firefighter , Rip managed to convert a
firehouse full of committed meat eaters to a plant-based diet, and in the
process improved everything from their weight to their blood pressure and
cholesterol. From there he branched out to a pilot group of fifty-eight
volunteers, all of whom achieved the same stunning results as the
firefighters—an average weight loss of ten pounds and a dramatic decline in
cholesterol—in a mere four weeks.Best of all, those who completed the program reported feeling so much
better—with improvements to conditions such as kidney stones,
constipation, and low ener gy—that few felt tempted to resume their old way
of eating. I am not surprised by Rip’ s accomplishments and motivations. He comes
from an extraordinary line of medical men and women. The Esselstyns and
the Criles (his mother ’s side) have served the public good for generations,
and they know as much about medicine as any family in America. I find it
fascinating that Rip, representing the first generation of the mer ger of these
two brilliant medical families, has chosen to share his experiences in what I
believe to be the most important health message to come upon the public
horizon in many years. I first met Rip in 1991 at a medical conference or ganized and hosted by
his famous father , Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr ., who was sharing for the
first time his dramatic results on reversing and curing heart disease. He
boldly named the conference “The First National Conference on the
Elimination of Coronary Heart Disease” and had invited other researchers
to present our own findings. Rip was only able to attend part of the
conference, because of a prior commitment to compete in the Escape from
Alcatraz Triathlon, but he had stopped by to get a sense of what his father
and others were doing. I met Rip on three other occasions while I was
lecturing in Austin, Texas. On one of those occasions, he introduced me to
his Engine 2 firehouse buddies, and I sensed a remarkable story emer ging
that is now being told in these pages. I have spent five decades working as an experimental research scientist
in the field of diet and health. I believe in the message that Rip Esslestyn is
advocating and that his father and other clinicians have been adopting with
great success in their clinics. I was not drawn to this view by any particular
ideology but because of the experimental research done in my laboratory
(mostly at Cornell University). Our findings were often challenging, even
difficult to accept at times, because my background, both personally and
professionally , ran counter to what I was seeing. I was raised on a dairy
farm, milking cows, and my family lived of f the land. As our evidence accumulated, it became ever more impressive. John
McDougall, MD, for years has been treating people, with great success, for
a variety of illnesses with the plant-based diet that Rip recommends in this
book. Recently , he and other physicians have cured most Type 2 diabeticsand, in many cases, have greatly reduced insulin needs even for Type 1
patients. Rip’ s father , Caldwell B. Esslestyn, Jr ., MD, reverses and even
cures advanced heart disease with this diet. Roy Swank, MD, followed
multiple sclerosis patients for thirty-four years, using very much this same
type of diet, and concluded that “about 95 percent of MS patients
[diagnosed early], remained only mildly disabled for about thirty years.”
I have been lecturing extensively around the country and have heard
from many cancer patients that they believe that they are cured or at least
are in remission because of using a plant-based diet. This belief is borne out
by the findings in our extensive experimental animal studies, in which we
could turn on and of f cancer development by relatively modest nutritional
means, using a model of this same diet. Obesity can be controlled, migraine
headaches reduced, arthritic conditions alleviated—the list goes on and on. The idea that Rip Esselstyn elaborates in this book is “spot-on,” as my
associates across the big pond say . I predict that this book will be as ef fective as any on the market in
conveying an exceptionally important health message in a most personal
way. Just read it, and you will see what I mean. T. Colin Campbell, PhD
Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry
Cornell University , Ithaca, New York
Co-author (with Thomas M. Campbell II) of The China
Study  (2005)
OceanofPDF .comPART I
The E2 Diet
OceanofPDF .com1
ENGINE 2
The evening of January 5, 2000, was bitterly cold, a night no one in
the Austin, Texas, Fire Department will soon for get. At the time I was
working at Central Station, the city’ s largest. Central was called “The
Animal House” because we firefighters were notorious for our bizarre
antics, from launching water balloons at passersby from the second-story
rooftop to breaking rookies down until they burst into tears. There were no
barriers and no boundaries. The weather was bad when we went to bed in the firehouse dorm that
night, but by early morning it was worse: A freezing rain was falling, and
temperatures were heading toward record lows. Then, at 4:20 a.m., a heavy
box alarm sounded. (The word “box” refers to a home; a regular box alarm
signals that a single-family house is on fire, but when a heavy box alarm
sounds, it means a fire at a lar ger building, such as an apartment complex.) Just as at the start of an athletic competition, all my senses went into
overdrive—my heart rate jumped, my stomach churned, my mind raced. Normally I’d leap right out of bed, jump into my bunker pants, and pull up
my suspenders, but because I was going to be driving this shift, I had only
enough time to stumble into my station pants and cotton shirt before sliding
down the eighteen-foot brass fire pole. I was also preparing for the worst. The real burners generally occur
between midnight and 6 a.m., when people have gone to sleep but a
stovetop is left burning, an electrical wire shorts out, or a smoldering
cigarette butt ignites. The fire turned out to be at the Lake Shore Apartments, two-and-a-half
miles from the station. Sirens blaring, we pulled up to the scene, the thirdengine in. (Each arriving engine has a specific duty . The first engine attacks
the fire, the second backs up the first, and the third hooks up to a hydrant to
bring an unlimited supply of water to the first.) Just as we were arriving, we heard a radio message from Engine 22,
announcing that they had put out the fire. For a moment we relaxed, and
from where we stood, looking up at the building’ s second-floor balcony , the
problem seemed to be nothing more than a little hibachi fire. Then my good friend, fellow Engine 1 firefighter Josh Miller , said, “Rip,
put your bunker gear on.” I didn’ t understand why he’d told me that,
because things seemed to be under control. Perhaps he’d had a premonition
—all firefighters have them—so I listened, scuttled around to the driver ’s
side compartment, and donned my full gear . Sure enough, moments later that little fire exploded into enormous
flames—lar ger than I had ever seen. They climbed up the side of the
building, curled onto its top, and engulfed the roof. Scared and nervous, I approached the fire, my pulse pounding. The next
few minutes were a blur; time warps under severe pressure. I remember that
a firefighter named Alphonso Dellert, known as Ax, stepped in front of me,
and as he did, I heard the kind of bloodcurdling screams you hear only in
movies: “Help me, I’m burning up!” I wasn’ t sure I’d heard correctly , but
then the cry came again: “Help me, I’m burning!”
I sensed this scream was coming from the apartment with the balcony—
but how could someone still be alive inside that inferno? The flames were
rising even higher and their radiant heat was overwhelming, even from two
hundred feet away . Ax and I were the only ones who heard the screams. Ax sprang into
action. He put on his face piece, went on air (we all carry bottles supplying
forty-five minutes of air so we can breathe during the worst fires), grabbed
a rack line (a preconnected two-hundred-foot hose), and scrambled up a
ladder . Right behind Ax, I also went on air , then steadied the ladder for him,
although he was too preoccupied to realize I was watching his every move. Ax reached the window’ s edge, opened the hose, and sprayed torrents of
water into the left side of the apartment, the heart of the flames. Then he
hung the hose’ s nozzle on the ladder ’s top rung and entered the window ,
disappearing into the inferno. All I could think was: I have to protect him. So I climbed the ladder and
looked in the window . It felt as if I were peering at a secret passage intoHell. A friend of mine once served as the medical director at Yosemite
National Park, where, a few years ago, a lunatic had beheaded several
women. My friend went out to locate the victims, but all he found was one
headless body . At that point his reality changed; he’d come to believe in
true evil. That’ s how I felt then, seeing the fiery monster raging, laughing at
us: “I’m loving this, and you guys are screwed.”
Because it was dif ficult to see, I had no idea who was trapped inside the
apartment. Later we discovered it was Fire Captain John Butz. John
belonged to the first-arriving ladder company , which was responsible for
search and rescue. John had entered the apartment with his crew , but as they
had for gotten to bring a fan along to ventilate the room, he’d sent them back
to get it and had gone in alone—even though we’re always supposed to
bring a partner and a char ged hose line (one that holds water at the
appropriate pressure). Before John had had time to exit the room he was investigating, the
living room next door flashed (anything reaching 1,000 degrees or higher
will burst into flames). If John had been inside, he would have died on the
spot. Instead, the explosion threw him to the ground, where he lay
paralyzed and could only scream for help. The flames and smoke were so
dense that Ax couldn’ t find John until he spotted his flashlight at the end of
the bed. Ax knelt down and asked, “Can you make it to the window?” John
whispered, “I’ll do what I can.”
Ax turned around, trying to orient himself amid the smoke and flames. At that moment I entered through the window , waving my arms—Ax saw
my silhouette and headed for it. Later he called me his angel. The distance from the floor to the bottom edge of the window was four
feet, so the two of us began struggling to raise John’ s limp 300 pounds up
and over the sill. (John weighed about 225 pounds, but was also wearing 75
pounds of equipment.) Meanwhile, the freezing rain was still falling, and the smoke was
impairing our vision. I slipped on the ladder , John’ s helmet fell of f, and we
still couldn’ t pull his limp body past the windowsill. Finally , we got the front half of his body to dangle over the sill. Ax
yelled, “Do you have him?”
“I got him,” I yelled back, yanking John as best I could out and over the
window so I could lower him. At this point I wasn’ t sure if he was stillalive. I bear -hugged the ladder with my left arm, lowering John until my
right arm was fully extended, and then let him fall. He dropped eighteen
feet to the ground, missing an enormous air -conditioning unit by inches. Next, I climbed back up the ladder looking for Ax, who, in the
confusion, I mistook for my friend Josh Miller—at this point I was so
befuddled I didn’ t know who was who. But I was not going anywhere
without the other firefighter , and because I was convinced he was inside, I
was about to reenter the room. Then something inside me said, “Look down
and see what’ s on the ground.”
I did, and lying eighteen feet below were both John Butz and Ax. Their
bodies were smoking. At this point I had no idea how Ax had landed there. I later learned that
he was so hot, and suf fering from such severe injuries, that to save his own
life he had dived over the ladder and fallen to the ground. I had been so
busy wrestling with John’ s body that I didn’ t see him. I made my way down the ladder to Ax and John. Incredibly , both were
still conscious. Ax had third-degree burns to his calf, hands, and neck. John
was not as lucky; third-degree burns covered close to 70 percent of his
body . People seldom live if more than 65 percent of the body is burned. Finally , the fire was contained. John was taken by ambulance to
Brackenridge Hospital, then airlifted to Brooks Army Burn Center in San
Antonio, where he spent almost a year in recovery . Shortly afterward, he
was promoted from captain to battalion chief. He is lucky to be alive, and
he knows it. Although two later sweeps of the apartment revealed no other victims,
the third sweep found a man dead in the bathtub. The shower curtain had
melted over his body , which was barely recognizable as human. The
apartment had been his, and his little hibachi had caused the deadly blaze. That fire’ s fury spooked me to the core. In the short time all these events
took place, I realized how fleeting our time on earth is. Since that night,
I’ve appreciated the importance of my job, as well as the other firefighters
with whom I work, more than ever before. I never take a single shift for
granted—and after twenty-four hours, when we’re relieved by the next
crew , I heave a sigh of relief knowing that we’ll all go home safely . That terrible fire also confirmed my belief that we can’ t take anything
for granted—especially our health. Obviously , preventing and staying away
from fire is one way to stay healthy . But the most basic, profound, andpowerful way to take care of your health on a day-to-day basis is to eat a
healthy , plant-based diet. This regimen is the best way to fight the
dangerous fires raging inside us—fires that create all the chronic Western
ailments including heart attack, stroke, cancer , Alzheimer ’s disease, and
diabetes. That’ s why I created the Engine 2 Diet, and why I wrote this book. OceanofPDF .com2
MY STORY
All my life I’ve been intrigued by health, performance, and diet. As
long as I can remember a chin-up bar hung on the door of my bedroom,
where I worked out religiously several times a day . In the sixth grade, I set
the school record with twenty-two. At the age of twelve, after watching the
movie Rocky , I immediately came home and downed a glass filled with raw
eggs. At thirteen, my father bought free weights, dumbbells, and a
Universal weight-lifting machine for the family playroom. They were well
worn within a few years. While in school, athletics were my stage. I set many high school
swimming records (and still hold a national record in the 200-meter medley
relay); I was the top player on my high school tennis team and co-captain of
the water polo team. As a young athlete, I lived on bacon, steaks, and triple cheesebur gers,
thinking that such a diet was good for me and my performance. But that all
changed in 1986, once I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin
(where I was a three-time All-American swimmer and an Olympic trials
qualifier in the 100- and 200-meter backstroke and freestyle events). Within
six months I was competing as a professional triathlete and fueling my body
with healthy foods that were a far cry from what I had known. This shift was inspired by my father ’s groundbreaking research on plant-
based diets, about which you will soon be reading, as well as by many great
athletes who relied on a vegetarian diet for optimum performance, including
six-time Hawaii Ironman champion Dave Scott, famed 400-meter hurdler
Edwin Moses, and tennis great Martina Navratilova.As a professional triathlete, I competed around the world in the Olympic
distance triathlon (a 1-mile swim, 24.8-mile bike ride, and 6.2-mile run),
and for many years was ranked as one of the country’ s top ten triathletes—
and for most of that time, the sport’ s preeminent swimmer . Throughout this
period I maintained a plant-strong diet in order to enhance my recovery
between two and three daily workouts, and to give me an edge on race day . The diet worked: I took first place in many major events, including the
world’ s largest athletic competition, the Police and Fire World Games, in
2001. I’ve also won the Capital of Texas triathlon eight times, and have
been the leader or top-three finisher at many televised events, including the
Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon, where I was first out of the frigid, shark-
infested waters six years in a row . In 1997, knowing I couldn’ t be a professional athlete forever , I looked
around for something new , and when several triathlete/firefighter friends
suggested I consider firefighting, I listened. They described the job as
twenty-four hours of adrenaline-pumping excitement, with no two shifts
ever the same—a career in which you never had to sit behind a desk or take
paperwork home on weekends. And there was the chance to help people as
well. It was an easy decision. Fighting fires and racing triathlons are animals of a dif ferent color:
Training for and competing in triathlons is predictable; firefighting is not. There is no telling when the next alarm will sound and what the nature of
the call will be, from a fire in a Dumpster or a high-rise to a medical call or
an accident. The best way to stay on top of your game is to consistently fuel
your body with clean-burning, artery-scrubbing, disease-reversing, and
energy-giving plant-powered foods. And so I always do, and still manage to compete as a world-class
triathlete as well—in 2005, I participated in the Xterra World
Championships on the Hawaiian island of Maui; the next year , at the age of
forty-three, I was named one of Austin’ s ten fittest people. In May 2008, I
set the national record at the U.S. Masters Swimming Championships in the
200-yard backstroke. My commitment to a healthy plant-based life has resulted in many
people asking me to help them with their diets. So in 2007, I devised a six-
week study and put more than sixty people through a gauntlet of before-
and-after tests to quantify the results, which were spectacular!Then, in 2008, I initiated a four -week study and got more great results. It’s one thing to say the diet works; it’ s another when you have tangible data
that confirms the benefits of a plant-based diet. (Y ou can read more about
these studies in The Medical Proof Behind the Engine 2 Diet, page 41.) One of the reasons I came up with these tests is that I come from a long
line of trail-blazing physicians. In fact, I was bred to be healthy—there
aren’ t many families in America more dedicated to well-being than mine. My father , Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr ., MD, has always been my hero. He
was also the son of a great doctor , Caldwell Esselstyn, Sr ., who was
baseball star Lou Gehrig’ s personal physician as well as founder of the Rip
Van Winkle Clinic in upstate New York, where people such as Eleanor
Roosevelt sought medical help. After graduating from Yale and winning a gold medal in rowing at the
1956 Summer Olympic Games, my father attended Case Western Reserve
Medical School, then did his internship and residency at the Cleveland
Clinic. One of the world’ s finest medical facilities, the clinic was founded
by my mother ’s great-grandfather , Geor ge Crile, Sr . During my father ’s
tenure there, he was honored with numerous awards and held many of fices,
including president of the clinic’ s medical staf f, member of its Board of
Governors, and chairman of its Breast Cancer Task Force. Most relevant to this book was the study my father initiated on the arrest
and reversal of heart disease through diet—research that is still ongoing
after twenty-one years. Frustrated with sur gery as a means of treating disease, my father became
convinced there was a better way to address the problem rather than simply
treating its symptoms. By examining data from other cultures and countries,
he had come to realize that diet must play a crucial role in human health—
although at that time few doctors believed that health and nutrition were
closely related. My father ’s study began after he asked the Cleveland Clinic’ s cardiology
department to send him patients af flicted with serious heart disease—people
who had failed their bypass operations or their angioplasties, or who were
too sick for these procedures, or who had refused these interventions
entirely . He ended up working with eighteen people who had suf fered forty-
nine coronary events over the previous eight years. Theorizing that a healthier diet would improve the patients’  heart health,
my father put them on a plant-based eating plan similar to the Engine 2Diet. He eventually published the results in more than seven peer -reviewed
medical journals including The American Journal of Cardiology , later
updating his findings for his book Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease
(Avery, 2007). (The patients were also given very low doses of a cholesterol-lowering
statin because, as my father said, he wanted to make sure they “were not
only wearing a belt but also suspenders.”)
These findings showed that of the patients reviewed after a dozen years,
all but one suf fered no further coronary events—and that single patient who
did had strayed from my father ’s diet. Moreover , these people stopped the disease dead in its tracks, and all of
them lived long lives. (Those who have since died succumbed to non-heart-
related conditions.) Furthermore, every single participant’ s health markers improved as well. Their overall cholesterol level dropped below 150 mg/dl, a magic number
as studies have repeatedly shown that heart disease is exceedingly rare
among people with total cholesterol levels under 150. Note: Cholesterol is measured in milligrams per deciliter , which is
abbreviated “mg/dl.” For ease of reading I have taken out the unit of
measurement “mg/dl” after many of the cholesterol levels. One of the most intriguing cases from my father ’s study is that of Dr . Joseph Crow , a fellow general sur geon who had taken over my father ’s
position as chairman of the Cleveland Clinic’ s Breast Cancer Task Force. One day , forty-four -year -old Joe had just finished operating when he
suffered a full-blown heart attack. Joe didn’ t smoke and wasn’ t overweight,
had no prior history—nor family history—of heart disease, and his total
cholesterol was a respectable 156. But his heart was a mess. Owing to the nature of Joe’ s arterial blockage, he was not a candidate for
surgery or stents, and he refused to take cholesterol-lowering drugs. So he
knocked on my father ’s office door , and soon became a faithful plant-based
eater . Over the span of the next two-and-a-half years, Joe completely reversed
the blockages in the portion of his heart known as the left anterior
descending coronary artery . He also brought his total cholesterol down from
156 to 89, and reduced his lethal LDL  cholesterol from 98 to 38. All of this
with one course of treatment—a hard-core, plant-strong diet!Now that my father had become convinced that so many people were
becoming sick because of their diet, he decided that if he were going to
make his patients eat a certain way , his family was going to do so, too. We
had always eaten the usual American diet of roast beef, cheese, and eggs,
but soon enough, our whole family was eating a healthy , plant-based diet. My mother jumped on board because she was not only the wife of a
great doctor but also the daughter of one—Geor ge (Barney) Crile, one of
the most influential physicians of his generation. After graduating summa
cum laude from Harvard Medical School in 1933, Barney eventually went
to work at the Cleveland Clinic. Often called “The Savior of the American Breast,” Barney was the first
American sur geon to perform the breast-conserving partial mastectomy
operation, rather than the routine practice of the total mastectomy , on
women with breast cancer . E2 POP QUIZ
Q: What are the magic numbers you want your total and LDL
cholesterol levels to be so your body starts clearing away existing
plaque formations? A: You want a total cholesterol level below 150 and an LDL
cholesterol level below 80. Barney’ s father , Geor ge Crile, Sr ., who, as mentioned, founded the
Cleveland Clinic, was considered one of the great sur geons of the twentieth
century . He was responsible for many firsts, including the first human-to-
human blood transfusion, and was a co-founder of the American Red Cross. He and Barney are the only American father and son ever to be inducted
into England’ s Royal College of Sur geons. IT’S NOW  2009, AND I’VE BEEN  a firefighter for a dozen years. I’m more in love
with this job and with helping people than ever , but it’ s not enough. I yearn
for more. I want to take saving people to the next level, and that involves
helping them in a more fundamental way . In my mind, dragging you away from your disease-promoting diet to a
better way of living will have just as powerful an impact as dragging you
out of a raging fire.OceanofPDF .com3
THE ENGINE 2 DIET
How It All Began
There’ s no ar gument that the Engine 2 Diet can protect you from
disease while making you feel and look terrific. But the diet might actually
never have been created if it weren’ t for an ar gument. Although we are often harried, there is still occasional downtime
between calls at the firehouse known as Engine 2, which is nestled on the
outskirts of the university campus (I transferred here from downtown
Austin’ s Central Station in January 2002). So we’re constantly coming up
with ways to keep ourselves busy . The competitions are endless: Who can
climb the fire pole hand over hand without using his feet? Who rules the
roost when it comes to Ping-Pong? Who can collect the most money in his
firefighter boot for Jerry’ s Kids, our annual muscular dystrophy fund-
raiser? Who can hoist the 180-pound dummy over his shoulder , carry it up
the back stairs, through the dormitory , and down the front stairs in the
shortest amount of time? So one day in 2003, when James Rae (aka JR), Josh Miller , and I were
sitting on the station’ s front porch, we started talking about health and
cholesterol levels, and as always, the discussion soon became a squabble
over whose cholesterol level was lowest. I was sure mine was, but so was
Josh. JR, who had no idea, wanted to play along, so the next morning the
three of us drove over to the People’ s Pharmacy and had our cholesterol
levels checked. Josh’ s level turned out to be 168, mine was 199, but JR’ s
was a whopping 344. My level, much higher than I had expected, caused me to lose the bet. But I had an excuse: The day before, I had raced in the Dirty Duathlon (a 5-
kilometer trail run, followed by a 25-kilometer mountain bike ride, endingwith another 5-kilometer trail run), competing against my ex-triathlon
competitor and friend Lance Armstrong and a slew of others (I came in
third, Lance was first). As a reward, I let myself eat my once-a-year
cheesebur ger with all the trimmings—not something you want to do just
before a cholesterol test and not something I’ve ever done again. But because JR’ s cholesterol was so high, it took all the heat of f me. It turned out that all the males in the Rae family had died of heart disease
before the age of fifty-two, except JR’ s father , who had under gone triple
bypass sur gery at fifty-four . As one of the fire department lieutenants said
when he heard about JR’ s tests: “The man’ s a walking heart attack.”
Furthermore, JR was married, the father of two young children, and only
thirty-three years old. So rather than pulling JR out of a fire someday , we decided to rescue
him through a healthy diet. I had always eaten well at the station. Sometimes JR and Josh would join
me in dining on my plant-based creations. But now we made a concerted
effort to start a healthy lunch wagon. (A  wagon is a family-style meal in
which we help each other prep, cook, and then clean up; it’ s a cultural
tradition at firehouses throughout the world.) Every day we prepared
wholesome sandwiches, tacos, veggie bur gers, and wraps with hummus and
vegetables on whole wheat or corn tortillas. A few months later , when the Austin Fire Department held a contest for
the healthiest lunch wagon, Engine 2 entered and won—another notch in
our competitive belts. Over the next year and a half, given our tendency to do everything to its
fullest extent, and to support JR on his quest to buck the Rae family
tradition, we developed a full-blown, plant-based eating schedule around
our twenty-four -hour shift: lunch when we arrived at noon, dinner that
evening, breakfast the next morning, and lunch before we left for home
again at noon. A year later , JR had his cholesterol checked again. It had only come
down to the 270s. I suspected he needed to commit to our eating lifestyle at
home as well as at the fire house, so I asked JR to eat all plant-based for just
three weeks, then have his cholesterol level checked once more. The results? His cholesterol had plummeted to an impressive 196—a
drop of 146 points (or 57 percent) from his high of 344!Since that time, JR and Josh were promoted to the rank of driver and left
Engine 2 for other firehouses, and new firefighters have joined us. Today
we have a fresh stable of plant-powered eaters here at Engine 2. We’re more
passionate than ever about our diet. What’ s more, several other Austin
firefighters, lieutenants, captains, battalion chiefs, and the doctor of the fire
department wellness center have made the switch to plant-eating—and all
with eye-popping results. E2 POP  QUIZ
Q: What percentage of heart attacks occur with people who have
supposedly heart-healthy cholesterol levels? A: Thirty-five percent of all heart attacks occur in people with a total
cholesterol between 150 and 199 mg/dl, numbers most physicians
and the American Heart Association consider desirable. THE ENGINE 2 PILOT  STUDY
Truly my father ’s son, I decided at this point that it was necessary to
complete a more formal study to prove the ef fectiveness of the Engine 2
Diet. I wanted to bring more people on board to show the dramatic impact
of an all-out, plant-based diet on a wide cross-section of people, from
professional athletes to working moms and dads, from couples to singles,
from meat eaters to vegetarians, from the very healthy to the not-so-healthy . By the winter of 2006, armed with a medical director (a doctor for the
Travis County Sherif f’s Department), a community Web site, and a lab to
test lipid profiles, I was ready . Now all I needed were participants to make
the Engine 2 Pilot Study a reality . I put out the word, hoping to find two dozen volunteers. Within two
weeks, I had to cap the number at sixty-five. Far more people than I’d
expected were ready and willing to clean up their diets and their lives. Among my volunteers were my thirteen-year -old next-door neighbor ,
grandparents, vegans, cancer survivors, world-class triathletes, multiple
sclerosis patients, lawyers, business owners, and doctors. Also included
were a few additional firefighters (male and female), a storm chaser , and the
director of advancement for the Lance Armstrong Foundation.Several people had to drop out, and some people joined in a few days
late, but all in all, fifty-eight people finished the six-week program. And they got results! The study was a raging success. The level of that success can be measured by the before-and-after
markers I used to track changes in participants’  health. Before starting the
diet, everyone in the study took medical tests to obtain benchmarks for
everything from weight and blood pressure to a full lipid profile, which
includes total cholesterol level, LDL  cholesterol, HDL  cholesterol, risk ratio
(LDL/HDL), and triglycerides. After finishing the program, these markers were checked again. (In Engine 2 Vital Signs, page 97, I will explain in more detail what
these markers mean, and ask you to have them checked so you can track
your own magnificent success. But for those of you who have trouble
remembering: LDL  is your bad, or lethal, cholesterol, and HDL  is your
good, or healthy , cholesterol.) The most impressive result was the decrease in the group’ s average
overall cholesterol level from 181 mg/dl to 142 mg/dl, an average drop of
39 points, bringing them well below the magic number of 150, which
makes you heart attack proof. The average LDL  cholesterol fell from 109 to 77, a drop of 32 points,
also bringing them below the second magic number , 80, which not only
makes you heart attack proof, but also helps you to become resistant to
other chronic diseases. The greatest total cholesterol drop for an individual was 91 points (from
216 to 125), and the greatest LDL  drop, 78 points (from 189 to 1 11). We
also saw a total mean weight loss of 10 pounds, and our group average
weight fell from 172 to 162 pounds. The average weight loss for men was
15.0 pounds, and for women, 8.5 pounds. THE SECOND STUDY
On June 5, 2008, fifteen people (thirteen firefighters and two
civilians) embarked on a second, twenty-eight-day Engine 2 Pilot
Study . As with the first study , the results were mind-boggling! The
group started with an average total cholesterol of 197 mg/dl. Twenty-
eight days later , this number had dropped to 135, or 62 points (30
percent). The group started with an average LDL  cholesterol of 124mg/dl; this dropped to 74 mg/dl, or 50 points (40 percent). And the
group’ s average weight went from 203 to 189 pounds, or an average
loss of 14 pounds per person. This hard-core evidence shows the
powerful results that are within the grasp of each and every one of
you. This means you! The significant weight loss was particularly startling because not
everyone in the Pilot Study had wanted to lose weight—many became
involved solely for the health benefits. Still, the women lost between 2 and
26 pounds, and the men lost between 2 and 31 pounds. Furthermore, the participants noted that other conditions—from kidney
stones to acne, from constipation to low ener gy—also began clearing up. Here are some of their stories:
One man said that his sister , a vascular sur geon at a major Dallas
hospital, found it hard to believe his total cholesterol level could drop from
214 to 135 in just a few weeks and wanted to make sure that he was firingon all cylinders. Because he’d had other health issues besides high
cholesterol, she gave him a treadmill stress test to assess his overall fitness,
which he aced. After that, and after reading several articles about my
father ’s research on reversing heart disease, she asked her brother to send
her photocopies of as many Engine 2 recipes as possible. Another man, who lost 20 pounds and whose cholesterol dropped from
216 to 125, told me that he’d always imagined that little green men were
working inside his body to repair all the damage he’d caused. But now that
he’d been eating the Engine 2 way , he imagined them sitting around like the
Maytag Repairman, bored and waiting for the phone to ring. Several people talked about how their tastes had changed over the six
weeks. “Y ou don’ t need butter or cheese for food to taste good,” one
woman said, “and I never knew that before.” Another woman said, “Y ou
actually taste the real food and not what it’ s covered with.”
A physician participant said that he thought plant-based eating would be
harsh on his taste buds, but after just a few weeks he noticed that his palate
was changing: He no longer craved any of his old favorites, and found just
the thought of eating meat, cheese, or eggs unpleasant. A number of participants mentioned how they’d never realized what a
wide array of food is available to plant eaters. They’d thought it was all
about carrots and lettuce. Now they’ve learned that it’ s not called the plant
kingdom for nothing. Another subject that came up repeatedly was a change in bathroom
habits. Every single participant said he or she was pooping at least twice a
day—and sometimes up to four times—even though before the study many
had only been going a few times a week. One of the women’ s doctors had
told her that pooping twice a week was a normal condition called lazy
bowel syndrome. But once on the Engine 2 Diet, within one week she
started pooping once a day and twice a day thereafter . Bowel movement improvement is one of the greatest rewards of a plant-
based diet, so it became a hot topic of conversation. My own term for the
act has always been “pooping,” but my participants came up with some
great phrases, such as “I now release hostages two to three times a day ,” “I
drop the kids of f at the pool more than ever ,” or from one of the triathletes:
“I am spending far less time in the men’ s library .”
The Pilot Study results were impressive, but the most important lesson I
took from them was that it wasn’ t just firefighters who can profit from theE2 Diet. It’ s everyone and anyone who can fog a mirror or think a thought. Colin J. Wallis,  37
Director of Advancement, Lance Armstr ong Foundation
Think of it as a science project. Pay close attention to the inputs and
outputs. Monitor your sleep, exercise, ener gy, strength, mood, and
compare them with how you were on the traditional American diet. This creates a bit of a game, and makes it easy to have fun and see the
results. THE ENGINE 2 DIET
The Engine 2 Diet is a simple, easy-to-follow four -week program that
will enable you to reach whatever goal you choose, whether it’ s losing
weight, becoming physically fit, or reducing the precursors to disease, such
as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity , blockage of the arteries,
high blood sugar , insulin resistance, or all of the above. When you follow the Engine 2 Plan, you will:
• Lose weight
• Lose body fat
• Increase lean muscle mass
• Improve your cardiovascular health
• Free yourself from the shackles of chronic Western diseases
• Have fun learning how to make new , smart, and delicious food
choices
• Improve self-esteem and confidence
• Be instilled with a sense of personal power , because you, and you
alone, are in control of your health
• Absolutely love how you feel
The reason the program will help you lose weight is not because you will
be painstakingly measuring your portions or warily watching your calories,
but because you will be eating only satisfying, whole foods that are nutrient
dense as well as naturally low in calories and high in fiber .This kind of pure diet will also grant you clarity of mind and increased
energy. Ask the firefighters at Engine 2: Derick Zwerneman said, “I feel
clean and light.” Josh Miller told me he felt as though his “whole system
has been rebooted.” And Steve Martinez commented, “My whole body and
mind feel like your teeth do after a cleaning from the dental hygienist.”
So let’ s begin! THE TWO ENGINE 2 DIET  PLANS
You have a choice of two plans—the Fire Cadet and the Firefighter . For the most part, firefighters don’ t know how to do anything half-assed. So when I ask people to start the diet, I seldom seek moderation. I ask
people to start at the highest possible level of commitment. But for some, the diet can appear daunting, so I of fer the Fire Cadet
option for those who prefer a more gradual approach. Others can char ge right in with the Firefighter plan—which I
recommend, because you’ll be setting yourself on a course to achieve better
results in terms of everything from weight loss to lowered cholesterol
levels. And isn’ t that worth two extra weeks of work? But if you do start with the Cadet plan, you can always change your
mind and go full bore later . At the start of the E2 Pilot Study , the
participants were divided almost evenly between the Firefighter and the
Fire Cadet options. After the first week, however , almost 80 percent of the
Fire Cadets called me to say they wanted to join the Firefighter plan. Fire Cadet
The Fire Cadet option is for those who don’ t like rushing into things, yet
still want to find that pot of health at the end of the rainbow . Over the first
two weeks, the fire cadet will wean him- or herself of f unfriendly foods
while eating an abundance of healthy , delicious ones. Week One: No dairy of any kind. This includes all dairy—milk, cheese,
creams, yogurt, butter , ice cream, and sour cream. Also, no processed or refined foods—and that means white rice, white
flour , white pasta, white bread, and anything else that is processed: cakes,
cookies, unhealthy chips, sodas, etc. Week Two: Now you stop eating meat, chicken, eggs, and fish, and
continue to avoid dairy and refined foods. In other words, no pork, noturkey , no buf falo, no venison. Nothing that paws a hoof or flaps a wing. Nothing with a face and nothing with a mother , on land or in water . Week Three: Keep the lid on all oils. Yes, I want you to stop eating all
added or extracted oils, whether they’re olive, canola, coconut, or any other . We don’ t eat baked goods with added oils, we don’ t use salad dressings
with added oils, and we don’ t cook with added oils. Now you’re doing the whole shebang: no dairy , no refined foods, no
meat, and no oils. Week Four: You’re still on the total E2 diet. You are digging in with both
heels and consuming only whole foods. You are living the dream! You are
nourishing yourself with only the best and brightest foods on earth: fruits,
vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds. Please check out Part III of this book to see some of the excellent meals
you’ll be enjoying—breakfasts, lunches, and dinners that include delicacies
such as blueberry pancakes, French toast, pizzas, shepherd’ s pie, vegetable
curries, mushroom bur gers with sweet potato fries, orange mousse, and fruit
pie. Firefighter
Starting on Day One, the Firefighter will jump in with both feet, eating a
diet filled with healthy whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and legumes, while
abstaining from all animal-based products and refined foods. What the Fire
Cadet will be practicing in Weeks Three and Four , the Firefighter will be
practicing for all four weeks—and happily so! THIS IS THE SIMPLEST  PROGRAM  you can imagine. And to make it even
simpler , check out Part III’ s tips that make all this as easy as a healthy date
nut crust pie. And speaking of pies, you’ll also be able to eat delectable
cookies, casseroles, breads, soups, and so much more. After a while, you
won’ t even miss the foods you’ll be avoiding—which we’ll now talk about
in a little more detail. Week One—Dairy and Processed Foods
I think of dairy products as meat, only in a liquid, cream, or solid form. After all, they contain just as many concentrated, disease-promoting, and
nutritionally compromised calories.Dairy is ubiquitous in the American diet. The milk and dairy industries
have done an amazing job of propagating and maintaining the myth that we
need three servings of milk, cheese, and/or yogurt a day to maintain healthy
bones and overall health. We don’ t. In fact, the opposite is true—see page
35. So instead of reaching for a glass of milk, sample the many wonderful
milk substitutes found in most supermarkets: soy , rice, almond, and oat
milk, for example. Use any one of these in recipes calling for milk. Also remember to avoid all cheeses. Cheese is, simply put, a disease-
promoting, nutritionally vacant, calorie-dense food. It’ s loaded with
saturated fat and animal protein. Cheese also contains casomorphines (i.e.,
low levels of morphine), which is why so many people have such a hard
time kicking the cheese habit. No compromising here! No cheese for you! And be wary of soy cheese substitutes, too, because they generally
contain casein, which is not only the main protein found in dairy foods but
also, according to many studies, is a major promoter of tumors and cancer . Please pat the butter good-bye as well. Rather than disguising food with
butter , why not appreciate vegetables and grains for their authentic and
natural taste? Open up your spice cabinet, sprinkle some on, and discover
an entirely new world of flavors. Use a spray like Pam (but only a very
little, as it’ s all fat) to grease skillets, casseroles, baking sheets, and pans. Think about it: When you eliminate all forms of dairy , you’ll have
neither aller gens, nor lactose intolerance, nor animal protein, nor saturated
fat to deal with, and a host of new foods and flavors to enjoy . It’s a win-win
choice. Americans currently consume a staggering 50 percent of their calories
from refined and processed foods. With no fiber and scant amounts of
vitamins and minerals, these empty calories will be replaced immediately
by whole foods. Whole foods are stocked with fiber , vitamins and minerals,
and calories that count. Without cakes, cookies, soda pop, unhealthy chips,
white rice, white flour , white pasta, white bread, you will blossom, you’ll
avoid blood sugar and insulin spikes, your ener gy levels will even out,
you’ll prevent excessive fat storage, and your weight will drop. Matthew Liebowitz, 14
High School StudentI think other teenagers could do it easily . There’ s always something to
eat. If you like turkey sandwiches, you can eat hummus instead. If
you like milk, you can have almond or rice milk. If you like sweets,
you eat dark chocolate. If you like bur gers, you get a Boca Bur ger. If
you like pizza, you get a cheeseless pizza with veggies. There are a few things you have to be prepared for , like your
friends will make fun of you. But I just make fun of them back. They
say, “You can’ t eat like this every day , can you?” So I tell them,
“Well, you can’ t eat meat every day , can you?” It’ s the same thing. Week Two—Meat and Eggs
If it has a face or a mother , it has muscle, which always contains fat and
cholesterol. Although red meat has more fat than chicken, most people
don’t know that they both contain about the same amount of cholesterol. Fish, meanwhile, which everyone is fond of for its healthy omega-3 fatty
acids, can contain more cholesterol than either red meat or chicken. Steeped
in saturated fat, cholesterol, and unhealthy animal protein, meat is left
behind on the E2 Diet. Don’ t bother looking back. Instead, explore the wonderful world of whole grains and legumes. Shop
for rice, millet, oats, beans, barley , quinoa, wheat berries, whole wheat
pasta, and whole wheat couscous. Or try meat substitutes. Look into tofu (hard, medium, and soft), tempeh
(a tasty fermented tofu), wheat gluten (aka seitan), TVP (textured vegetable
protein), veggie hot dogs and bur gers, and countless other options. The E2
recipes (see Part III) will assist you in discovering and preparing new
favorites. TWO THINGS ARE WRONG  with eggs: the yolk and the white. The yolk
contains 212 milligrams of cholesterol and 5 grams of fat per egg. The
white is almost pure animal protein, which is harsh on the kidneys and
leeches calcium from your bones. Be careful of using egg substitutes, too. Most of them contain egg white,
or some other dairy product. Week Three—OilUnlike most other plant-based diets, E2 asks you to do without added
oils for the full four weeks—or at least a portion of them. When these
weeks are over , you can reconsider oil, but I find that nearly everyone who
goes oil-free likes it, and although they may add some oil back into their
food, they discover that less is better . Why is oil of f-limits? Because the Engine 2 Diet is based on a whole
food, nutrient-rich diet. Oil is certainly plant-based, whether it comes from
olives, sunflowers, or corn, but it’ s not a whole food. The oil you buy in
stores is extracted, meaning that the manufacturers take, say , a bunch of
beautiful olives and, instead of leaving that oil in its wonderful natural
package, squeeze out the good parts (healthy fiber , vitamins, and minerals). All that’ s left is the most refined and concentrated doses of calories on the
planet—olive oil contains close to 4,100 calories per 16 ounces, or 120
calories per tablespoon! Oil’ s nutrient content is low , its saturated fat level
is high, and all that fat goes straight to your waist and eventually clogs up
your arteries. Yes, olive oil is better than pure saturated fat because a lar ge percentage
of it is monounsaturated fat, which does seem to have health benefits. But
15 percent of olive oil is the saturated, artery-clogging kind. There are much
better ways to get the healthier forms of fats than from refined and
concentrated oils; instead, eat walnuts, ground flaxseed meal, soybeans, and
green leafy vegetables. WHY  FOUR WEEKS? Although the original Engine 2 Pilot Study lasted six weeks, I later
discovered that its health benefits could often be achieved in as little as two. The wonderful cholesterol results achieved by the participants at the
three-week mark during the original Pilot Study inspired me to conduct a
series of smaller studies, in which participants ate an all plant-based diet for
only two weeks. These people achieved results comparable with those of
the six-week study in every category except weight loss—naturally , the
longer you are on this diet, the more weight you will lose. Obviously , I am a big believer that the Engine 2 Diet is the best way to
eat for life. However , my goal during the next four weeks is simply to let
you experience how good it tastes to gain control of your palate, your
weight, your lipids, and your health destiny . I know that you canaccomplish all this in just four weeks while developing the skills, habits,
and knowledge you’ll need to increase your hunger to do even more. And at the end of those four weeks, you’ll find your body is a nutrient
paradise. You will feel clean and light, ener getic, and optimistic. And you
will have accomplished this in less than a month! Once those four weeks are over , you will face a big decision: Are you
ready to commit to this lifestyle for additional weeks—or for the long term? All the Engine 2 Pilot Study participants have decided to bring the
Engine 2 Diet into their lives for good—but at dif ferent levels. Some are
living it at 100 percent, some 95 percent, some 75 percent—and others are
simply remembering to eat the healthy E2 way as often as possible. BAD CHOICES/GOOD CHOICES
BAD GOOD
Milk chocolate 70 percent dark chocolate (sparingly)
Chips and salsa Toasted pita bread cut into pieces with salsa
Ice cream Fruit sorbet
Mayonnaise Homemade hummus spread or guacamole
Soda Seltzer with a slice of fresh lemon or lime
Meat Grilled marinated tofu, seitan, or tempeh
Hambur ger/hot
dogVeggie bur gers/hot dogs with all the trimmings
Cheese pizzaNutritional yeast on whole grain pizza, ground-up nuts,
sliced avocado—but go easy! CookiesHealthy fruit newtons, bananas rolled in finely chopped
nuts
What will you do? Will you be a 100 percenter? The more you continue
living and eating this way , the easier it will get, making it dif ficult to return
to your old dietary habits. Or for lifestyle and personal reasons, maybe you will find it unrealistic
to continue at the peak of the Engine 2 Diet, and will back of f some of the
time. Yet with even, say , a 75 percent commitment to the E2 Diet, you will
still reap many of the benefits of living and eating this way .Marisa Pondo, 32
Child Car etaker
I used to buy nothing but meat and cheese. If I bought fruit, it was for
margaritas. If I bought vegetables, it was for salsa. My idea of a good
lunch was deep-frying a cheese sandwich. Then I decided to eat
healthier , and to do that, I went E2. It changed my life. It’ s
astonishing how much better I feel. At first I was worried about money , but I’ve learned that I’m
actually saving so much by doing this—$120 a month! Or perhaps you will take a more flexitarian approach and simply make
smart choices when pressed. Now that you know and understand the Engine
2 gold standard, you will bring a new awareness to your dietary choices:
When you do eat meat or fish, you will choose wild salmon or skinless
chicken breast; when you do eat dairy , you’ll pick skim milk or nonfat
yogurt/cheese. When you add oils, you’ll go sparingly and avoid those high
in saturated fats. And you’ll eat primarily from the four healthy food
groups: fruits, whole grains, vegetables, and beans. If at any point you feel as though your new eating habits and health are
starting to slip away , find true north again. Repeat as much of the four -week
diet as you can to recover your bearings. (The end-of-the-year holidays
might be all it takes to throw you of f-kilter . I know , I’ve been there.) Experiment with what works best for you over the course of a year or
two, and you’ll be set for life. E2 POP  QUIZ
Q: If there are 4 grams of sugar in 1 teaspoon, and 39 grams of sugar
in a 12-ounce can of Coca-Cola, how many teaspoons of sugar are
in one can? A: Each can of Coke contains 39 grams of sugar , or about 10
teaspoons full. VICES AND VIRTUES
A good friend’ s father , a prominent neurosur geon, always used to tell
me, “If you have your health, you have everything.” As a ten-year -old, I was clueless about that. It meant about as much as “the check is
in the mail.”
Now that I’m in my mid-forties, his words make sense. Your health
is one of your greatest assets. That is why , during your four weeks on
the E2 Diet, I encourage you to go the extra mile and give up your
unhealthy vices. It’ s worth it. Go whole hog. Jump in with both feet. If you drink cof fee, give it up, or switch to decaf. Same with tea. And if you don’ t give them up, remember not to add milk or cream. Instead, go for soy milk (look for the vitamin-fortified or the nonfat
versions), or try various other nondairy substitutes, such as almond,
oat, or rice milks. You should restrict rich desserts, but you don’ t have to avoid
sweets entirely . If you have a serious sweet tooth, try any of the
Engine 2 dessert recipes or indulge in 70 percent or more dark
chocolate. But avoid those egg- and cream-filled cakes! I also encourage you to try giving up alcohol, at least for the full
four weeks. Alcohol possesses no nutritional value, it inhibits your
body’ s ability to burn fat by more than 30 percent, and it’ s loaded
with empty calories. However , if you just can’ t go without, keep it
down to one serving a day . Some recent evidence suggests that one
glass of wine a day may even benefit your health—if you can limit it
to one. Remember , I am only talking about four weeks. The extent to
which you stick with the program will determine your success at
losing weight, lowering your cholesterol level, improving your
gastrointestinal tract, and perfecting your overall health—as well as
losing your cravings for the foods you thought you couldn’ t live
without. At the end of the four -week period, you can return to your
old habits if you wish. But my bet is the majority of you will continue
down the pure path of healthy eating because you love the newfound
you too much. OceanofPDF .com4
CRAZY  MYTHS ABOUT  FOOD
Jack LaLanne, the ninety-five-year -old vegetarian and fitness guru,
recalls that when he started lifting weights in the 1930s, “The doctors were
against me—they said that working out with weights would give people
heart attacks and they would lose their sex drive.”
Similarly , doctors didn’ t think smoking was bad for our health until the
1960s; in fact, they actually endorsed it until the 1950s. And there have
been times when medical professionals thought cocaine was a legitimate
medicine, when drilling a hole in the skull was considered a remedy for
many diseases, and when a frontal lobotomy was thought to be sound
therapy . In many ways, things haven’ t changed. There’ s still a ton of
misinformation out there, and much of it concerns plant-based eating. To
make matters worse, doctors are seldom schooled in nutrition, and the ones
who are tend to follow the antiquated food pyramid created by lobbyists
and special-interest groups that are less interested in your health than in
keeping their jobs and taking your money . I can’ t believe all the incredible things I hear about diet and nutrition,
spoken by people who don’ t have a clue but who talk as if they did. An all-
protein diet is good for you! All carbs are terrible! God put animals on the
planet for people to eat! Alcohol is a health tonic! Vegetarians are weak
wusses who can’ t play sports! So beware: Once you start eating the healthy , plant-based E2 way ,
people will begin to tell you all kinds of ridiculous “facts” about food. One
course of action is to ignore them. But if you feel like getting into a debate,
here’ s some information to help you shut ’em down.Myth 1
You can’ t get enough pr otein eating a plant-based diet. Reality:  Not only will you get all the protein you need, for the first time
in your life you won’ t suffer from an excess of it. Ample amounts of protein are thriving in whole, natural plant-based
foods. For example, spinach is 51 percent protein; mushrooms, 35 percent;
beans, 26 percent; oatmeal, 16 percent; whole wheat pasta, 15 percent; corn,
12 percent; and potatoes, 1 1 percent. What’ s more, our body needs less protein than you may think. According
to the World Health Or ganization (WHO), the average 150-pound male
requires only 22.5 grams of protein daily based on a 2,000 calorie a day
diet, which means about 4.5 percent of calories should come from protein. (WHO recommends pregnant women get 6 percent of calories from
protein.) Other nutritional or ganizations recommend as little as 2.5 percent
of daily calories come from protein while the U.S. Food and Nutrition
Board’ s recommended daily allowance is 6 percent after a built-in safety
margin; most Americans, however , are taking in 20 percent or more. Doctors from my father to Dean Ornish to Joel Fuhrman, author of the
bestselling Eat to Live: The Revolutionary Formula for Fast and Sustained
Weight Loss (Little, Brown), all suggest that getting an adequate amount of
protein should be the least of your worries. Look around you and tell me the last time you saw someone who was
hospitalized for a protein deficiency . Or look around in nature, where you
will notice that the lar gest and strongest animals, such as elephants, gorillas,
hippos, and bison, are all plant eaters. Also, the type of protein you consume is as important as the amount. If
you are taking in most of your protein from animal-based foods, you’re
getting not only too much protein, but also an acid-producing form that
wreaks havoc on your system. Why is protein so potentially harmful? Because your body can store
carbohydrates and fats, but not protein. So if the protein content of your diet
exceeds the amount you need, not only will your liver and kidneys become
overburdened, but you will start leaching calcium from your bones to
neutralize the excess animal protein that becomes acidic in the human body . That’ s why , in the case of protein, the adage “less is more” definitely
applies. The average American consumes well over 100 grams daily—adangerous amount. But if you eat a plant-strong diet, you’ll be getting
neither too much nor too little protein, but an amount that’ s just right. Myth 2
Plant pr oteins ar en’t complete pr oteins. Reality:  Plant proteins are as complete as complete can be. The myth that they’re not, or are of a lesser quality than animal proteins,
dates back to experiments performed on rats in the early 1900s. For get the
fact that rats aren’ t humans, have dif ferent nutritional requirements, and
need more protein than humans to support their furry little bodies. The
meat, dairy , and egg industries have marketed the hell out of this ancient
research, and even in the year 2009 most every Dick, Tom, and Jane thinks
the only way to get complete protein is through meat, eggs, or dairy . In reality , proteins are composed of chains of roughly twenty dif ferent
amino acids. Of those, eight are found outside our body and must be
absorbed from our food. These eight are the “essential” amino acids. The
remaining acids are “nonessential” because they can be synthesized by our
bodies themselves. Plants supply all the essential and nonessential amino acids. All of them. While some plants may be low in (not missing) one amino acid and other
plants may be higher in another , your brilliant body sorts it all out and, at
the end of the day , complements your amino-acid profile so it is perfectly
balanced. In so doing, it creates a high-quality protein that is healthier ,
safer , and better than animal protein. Thus, there is absolutely no need to combine certain plant proteins at
each meal in an attempt to achieve an optimal amino acid balance. Unfortunately , the protein-combination myth continues to be perpetuated
by any number of respected or ganizations. But the American Dietetic
Association gets it right. Its position statement reads: “Plant sources of
protein alone can provide adequate amounts of the essential and non-
essential amino acids, assuming that dietary protein sources from plants are
reasonably varied and that caloric intake is suf ficient to meet ener gy needs. Whole grains, legumes, vegetables, seeds, and nuts all contain essential and
non-essential amino acids.”
Scream it from the mountaintops: Plant proteins are 100 percent
complete!Myth 3
Carbohydrates make us fat.
_OceanofPDF.com_The_Engine_2_Diet_-_Rip_Esselstyn.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        This book is not intended as a substitute for the medical advice of
physicians. The reader should regularly consult a physician in all matters
relating to his or her health, and particularly with respect to any symptoms
that may require diagnosis or medical attention. Copyright © 2009 by Rip Esselstyn
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U. S. Copyright Act of
1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval
system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Wellness Central
Hachette Book Group
237 Park Avenue
New York, NY  10017
Visit our Web site at www. HachetteBookGroup. com. Wellness Central is an imprint of Grand Central Publishing. The Wellness Central name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book
Group, Inc. First eBook Edition: February 2009
ISBN: 978-0-446-54368-2
OceanofPDF. comContents
Copyright Page
FOREWORD
PART I: THE E2 DIET
1: ENGINE 2
2: MY  STORY
3: THE ENGINE 2 DIET
4: CRAZY  MYTHS ABOUT  FOOD
5: THE MEDICAL  PROOF BEHIND THE ENGINE 2 DIET
6: THE E2 EXERCISE PROGRAM
PART II: MAKING IT  WORK
1: THE E2 ATTITUDE
2: E2 VITAL SIGNS
3: LABEL  READING
4 : MAKING IT  WORK FOR LIFE. PART III: RECIPES AND MEAL  PLANS
INTRODUCTION
1: GETTING YOUR KITCHEN IN E2 SHAPE
2: E2 EASY  WEEKL Y PLANNER3: E2 RECIPES
BONUS RECIPES
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
OceanofPDF. comFor my wife, Jill, and my son, Kole
OceanofPDF. comDear Reader:
I’m Rip Esselstyn and I want to thank you for picking up my book. I
hope that once you’ve read it, you will choose to embark on the
Engine 2 Diet in what will be a spectacular health makeover. Think
about it: In just twenty-eight days, you will plant the seeds of a long-
lasting, healthy life. I know that if I didn’ t follow this diet, I would
never have had the ener gy to be a world-class triathlete, or just as
grueling, a firefighter. The Engine 2 Diet is a snap to follow. Depending on which of two
programs you select, you will spend either two or four weeks eating
nothing but the most colorful nutrient-packed foods Mother Nature
provides: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds. During this time period you will push to the back burner all meats and
dairy products, as well as refined and processed foods—including
extracted oils—while feasting on jillions of plant-diverse foods. That’ s the Engine 2 Diet in a healthy nutshell. To assist you on your quest for great health, I have also included
more than one hundred recipes that will make your mouth water, your
friends envious, and your body happy. I wish you only the best as you start what I hope will be a lifelong
love af fair with plant-beautiful foods. Remember, this isn’ t just a diet,
it’s an adventure in perfect health. Eat Plant-Strong. OceanofPDF. comForeword
The evidence is now in. What our grandmothers always told us to do
—eat your vegetables and have an apple a day to keep the doctor away—is
borne out by modern science. Increasingly, medical research is showing that
we should consume a plant-based diet for optimal health. But do people take this message seriously. I wish they did, but most do
not. Part of the reason is our cultural tradition. For too long we have been
accustomed, taste-wise, to animal foods or foods and food supplements
derived from the wrong parts of plants, like their sugars, their oils (some of
which we solidify and convert to trans fats. ), and their refined flours
without their outer bran layers. Then we add salt to produce unhealthy
products that find their way to store shelves as convenience foods. As a result, we’ve been getting fatter and suf fering from an ever -
increasing number and variety of ailments and life-threatening diseases. America now has the highest per capita health care costs in the world, while
ignoring its 48 million citizens who lack medical insurance. Consuming the
right kind of plant-based foods can go a long way toward solving not only
our own personal health concerns, but our society’ s ills as well. There is
simply nothing that can so profoundly af fect our healing as eating fruits and
vegetables. How can we drive this message home. That is where Rip Esselstyn
comes in. What a story he has to tell. It’ s personal, it’ s inspiring, and it’ s
lifesaving. A world-class athlete and a firefighter, Rip managed to convert a
firehouse full of committed meat eaters to a plant-based diet, and in the
process improved everything from their weight to their blood pressure and
cholesterol. From there he branched out to a pilot group of fifty-eight
volunteers, all of whom achieved the same stunning results as the
firefighters—an average weight loss of ten pounds and a dramatic decline in
cholesterol—in a mere four weeks. Best of all, those who completed the program reported feeling so much
better—with improvements to conditions such as kidney stones,
constipation, and low ener gy—that few felt tempted to resume their old way
of eating. I am not surprised by Rip’ s accomplishments and motivations. He comes
from an extraordinary line of medical men and women. The Esselstyns and
the Criles (his mother ’s side) have served the public good for generations,
and they know as much about medicine as any family in America. I find it
fascinating that Rip, representing the first generation of the mer ger of these
two brilliant medical families, has chosen to share his experiences in what I
believe to be the most important health message to come upon the public
horizon in many years. I first met Rip in 1991 at a medical conference or ganized and hosted by
his famous father, Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr. , who was sharing for the
first time his dramatic results on reversing and curing heart disease. He
boldly named the conference “The First National Conference on the
Elimination of Coronary Heart Disease” and had invited other researchers
to present our own findings. Rip was only able to attend part of the
conference, because of a prior commitment to compete in the Escape from
Alcatraz Triathlon, but he had stopped by to get a sense of what his father
and others were doing. I met Rip on three other occasions while I was
lecturing in Austin, Texas. On one of those occasions, he introduced me to
his Engine 2 firehouse buddies, and I sensed a remarkable story emer ging
that is now being told in these pages. I have spent five decades working as an experimental research scientist
in the field of diet and health. I believe in the message that Rip Esslestyn is
advocating and that his father and other clinicians have been adopting with
great success in their clinics. I was not drawn to this view by any particular
ideology but because of the experimental research done in my laboratory
(mostly at Cornell University). Our findings were often challenging, even
difficult to accept at times, because my background, both personally and
professionally, ran counter to what I was seeing. I was raised on a dairy
farm, milking cows, and my family lived of f the land. As our evidence accumulated, it became ever more impressive. John
McDougall, MD, for years has been treating people, with great success, for
a variety of illnesses with the plant-based diet that Rip recommends in this
book. Recently, he and other physicians have cured most Type 2 diabeticsand, in many cases, have greatly reduced insulin needs even for Type 1
patients. Rip’ s father, Caldwell B. Esslestyn, Jr. , MD, reverses and even
cures advanced heart disease with this diet. Roy Swank, MD, followed
multiple sclerosis patients for thirty-four years, using very much this same
type of diet, and concluded that “about 95 percent of MS patients
[diagnosed early], remained only mildly disabled for about thirty years. ”
I have been lecturing extensively around the country and have heard
from many cancer patients that they believe that they are cured or at least
are in remission because of using a plant-based diet. This belief is borne out
by the findings in our extensive experimental animal studies, in which we
could turn on and of f cancer development by relatively modest nutritional
means, using a model of this same diet. Obesity can be controlled, migraine
headaches reduced, arthritic conditions alleviated—the list goes on and on. The idea that Rip Esselstyn elaborates in this book is “spot-on,” as my
associates across the big pond say. I predict that this book will be as ef fective as any on the market in
conveying an exceptionally important health message in a most personal
way. Just read it, and you will see what I mean. T. Colin Campbell, PhD
Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
Co-author (with Thomas M. Campbell II) of The China
Study  (2005)
OceanofPDF. comPART I
The E2 Diet
OceanofPDF. com1
ENGINE 2
The evening of January 5, 2000, was bitterly cold, a night no one in
the Austin, Texas, Fire Department will soon for get. At the time I was
working at Central Station, the city’ s largest. Central was called “The
Animal House” because we firefighters were notorious for our bizarre
antics, from launching water balloons at passersby from the second-story
rooftop to breaking rookies down until they burst into tears. There were no
barriers and no boundaries. The weather was bad when we went to bed in the firehouse dorm that
night, but by early morning it was worse: A freezing rain was falling, and
temperatures were heading toward record lows. Then, at 4:20 a. m. , a heavy
box alarm sounded. (The word “box” refers to a home; a regular box alarm
signals that a single-family house is on fire, but when a heavy box alarm
sounds, it means a fire at a lar ger building, such as an apartment complex. ) Just as at the start of an athletic competition, all my senses went into
overdrive—my heart rate jumped, my stomach churned, my mind raced. Normally I’d leap right out of bed, jump into my bunker pants, and pull up
my suspenders, but because I was going to be driving this shift, I had only
enough time to stumble into my station pants and cotton shirt before sliding
down the eighteen-foot brass fire pole. I was also preparing for the worst. The real burners generally occur
between midnight and 6 a.
What are the magic numbers you want your total and LDL
What percentage of heart attacks occur with people who have
If there are 4 grams of sugar in 1 teaspoon, and 39 grams of sugar
The purpose of the book is to provide a healthy and sustainable lifestyle, emphasizing the importance of a plant-based diet.
What is the purpose of the book?
The author, Rip Esselstyn, wants to help people make a positive change in their lives and improve their health.
What is the author's motivation for writing this book?
The diet is based on eating a plant-based diet, avoiding meats, dairy products, and refined foods, and focusing on nutrient-dense, whole foods.
What is the main idea of the Engine 2 Diet?
The study showed that the participants' cholesterol levels dropped significantly, with an average decrease of 39 points.
What is the significance of the cholesterol levels in the pilot study?
The author emphasizes the importance of a plant-based diet for optimal health, citing the research and results of his father's studies and the benefits he has seen in his own life and in the lives of others.
What is the author's message to the readers?