The New Good Fat, Bad Fat: Lower Your Cholesterol and Reduce Your Odds of a Heart Attack

Easy-to-use tables for all popular foods help you identify and control your intake of saturated fat and cholesterol.

"A book to help everyone set limits on bad fat while choosing good-tasting foods." Stephen R. Covey, Author of The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People

You can greatly reduce your risk of developing heart disease or having a heart attack by keeping track of how much bad fatsaturated fatyou eat everyday. Bad fat causes your body to manufacture cholesterol, which plugs your coronary arteries with fatty deposits and causes heart attacks.

Most of us eat too much bad fat. And so do our children and grandchildren. But if you can count to 10, you can follow a simple plan to reduce the risk of heart attacks in your family.

Drs. Castelli and Griffin have filled this book with helpful tips and encouraging advice that will help you make the change to healthier eating. For those whose cholesterol levels aren't moved by changes in diet alone, the doctors discuss the pros and cons of cholesterol-lowering medications.

As part of my work, I visited the clinic several times. I observed not only Dr. Castelli's but also his team members' warm and nurturing relationships with the patients. Each practitioner, for instance, including Dr. Castelli, walked patients to the office of the next person they were to see during their visit. All of their practices, those of Dr. Castelli, the nurse-practitioner, nutritionists and social worker, were based on the most recent and rigorous research findings on heart disease and reduction in risk.

That same information and tone is a part of this book. There is both the perspective that reduction in risk is altogether possible and that surgery can not only be avoided but is not necessary when adherence to a sound diet and exercise is used to reduce blockage in clogged coronary vessels. While acknowledging that staying with the diet and exercise prescriptions is not easy, knowing that one is making progress through asking one's physician to share changes in lab values and other signs helps tremendously. This principle (they call it "Knowing Your Number") is a regular part of treatment at the Clinic.

There is one factor with which I am especially impressed. In other books on disease and reduction of risk, I have been frustrated in noting that the recipes, provided as assistance, sometimes do not really conform to the principles espoused in the more technical parts of texts. It has almost seemed that the recipe section was written by a totally different person or entity. In this text, it is clear that the recipes are those used in the practice and probably have come from the nutritionists' daily work with patients.

In summary, I am impressed with the book and know that many people worried about their own risk for disease would find it useful. I realize that my remarks relate as much to the practice of one of the authors as the book itself. Knowing, however, that he actually applies the principles in the book with the patients who whom he works (and I have no reason to doubt that Dr. Griffin does not also share the same commitment) gives the book extra validity and credibility.


Healthy Tips for Those Statistically at Risk of Heart Attack   August 18, 2000
Professor Donald Mitchell (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 93,000 Helpful Votes Globally)
27 out of 28 found this review helpful

This book is a good companion to Dean Ornish's wonderful book on Reversing Heart Disease. In that pioneering work, Dr. Ornish portrayed how going to extemely low levels of fat consumption along with other helpful lifestyle changes can unblock arteries and recreate coronary health for those with problems.

In Good Fat Bad Fat, Drs. Castelli and Griffin show how those who are at statistical risk of heart disease can change their habits to stay healthy, and not have to reverse heart disease.

The book is filled with valuable advice about what all of those ratios mean that your doctor will describe to you (cholesterol levels, HDL/LDL ratio, triglycerides, etc.), how you can tell if you are at risk of having heart disease, and simple steps you can take to avoid developing heart disease.

Unlike many books I read, this one gives you a simple formula for changing your diet (10 or 20 grams of bad fat intake a day, depending on your risk of heart disease). Bad fat is saturated fat and trans-fatty acids. You get to pick your poison. There's lots of information on what the amounts of these fats are in various foods, and suggested menus and items with low levels. I'm not very handy in the kitchen, so I cannot tell you how easy or hard these recipes are to prepare. You'll have to size them up yourself.

I think you could eat very well and stay in this diet. You just won't be eating many double cheeseburgers with large fries and a milkshake at the local fast food stand.

There's also important advice about smoking, alcohol, exercise, diet, aspirin, and drugs for reducing cholesterol.

The main things that I thought were missing related to some research that I read shows that those who have taken tetracycline have fewer heart attacks (suggesting that bacteria play a role in arterial plaque formation), that you have to watch the type and timing of sugars (see Sugar Busters! and Eating Well for Optimum Health) if you want to keep your weight at the right level, and the role of relationships (outlined by Dean Ornish in Love and Survival) in extending life and avoiding heart disease. But you can read those books and add their perspectives to this one, and be even healthier.

Now let me give you the personal part of how I came to read this book. My internist for many decades just retired, and I had a physical today. The new man told me bluntly that I was at risk of heart disease and needed to do something about it if I wanted to keep writing all those books I want to write. He outlined a program and told me I would be measuring my blood cholesterol as often as every 3 months, and suggested a stress test. I can tell you that I changed my diet in a heart beat. I had a little turkey with mustard and lettuce and tomato for dinner. I hit my goal on bad fat for today, and plan to do it every day from now on.

As he said to me, "You're a smart guy. Tell me what advice you would give you if you were me." I got the message. I hope you will, too. Over half the population needs to make the same changes. Overcome your disbelief stall that it cannot happen to you. By changing your behavior, you can turn your hope into reality in this area.

Live long and prosper! Health must precede happiness, peace and prosperity for the best results!

Easy - And it works!!   May 25, 2001
28 out of 32 found this review helpful

I had very bad eating habits and in March of this year participated in a cholesterol screening at work. I found out that my cholesterol readings put me in the "high-risk" category for heart disease. So I decided I would attempt to make a change in the way I eat. I spent a short time researching on the internet when I ran across this book. After reading the reviews, I decided to give it a shot. I found the book to be very well written, easy to understand and it seemed to make a lot of sense. Plus the authors appeared credible. I began to monitor my intake of "bad" fat, sticking to the "high-risk" recommendation of 10 grams of "bad" fat/day. Two months later I had my cholesterol checked again. My improvement was evident. I went from: Overall Cholesterol: 229 to 210 LDL (Lousy Cholesterol): 176 to 150 HDL (Healthy Cholesterol - higher is better): 26 to 39 Ratio (Under 4.5 considered healthy): 8.8 to 5.4 Weight: 224lbs. to 211lbs.

This in only 2 months! If I keep this up who knows????????????? Buy the book if you are concerned about your cholesterol and heart disease. It's cheap and it makes sense.


Best book on the shelf about controlling cholesterol.   December 11, 1999
Debbie Lewis (California)
11 out of 11 found this review helpful

I looked a a lot of books before buying Good Fat, Bad Fat and I made the right choice. It is easy to understand and very informative. In addition, Drs. Castelli and Griffin briefly share their personal experiences with high cholesterol. They explain that there is no cure for high cholesterol, but there are many ways to control it. This book will show you how.