Caldwell Esselstyn

Caldwell Blakeman Esselstyn Jr. (born December 12, 1933) is an American physician, author and former Olympic rowing champion.
Esselstyn is the author of Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease (2007), in which he argued for a low-fat, whole foods, plant-based diet that avoids all animal products, as well as reducing or avoiding soybeans, nuts, avocados and oils. The diet has been advocated by former U.S. President Bill Clinton.
Some advocates of evidence-based medicine have criticized the promotion of these diets as claiming health benefits beyond what the evidence supports, and that attention to exercise and other lifestyle factors must be considered along with diet.

Esselstyn was born in New York City in 1933. He graduated from Yale University in 1956 where he was a member of Skull and Bones. He also competed in the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, winning a gold medal in the "eights" as a member of the American team.

Esselstyn received his M.D. from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in 1961. During this time he met and married Ann Crile, the granddaughter of George Washington Crile, founder of the Cleveland Clinic. Esselstyn was an intern (1961–62) and resident (1962–66) at that clinic. In 1968 he completed a tour as an Army surgeon in Vietnam where he was awarded the Bronze Star. Upon his return he rejoined the clinic and has served as the President of the Staff and as a member of its Board of Governors. He served as the President of the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons in 1991. In 2000 he gave up his post at the Cleveland Clinic.

Esselstyn has served as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Nutrition Action magazine, published by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Esselstyn is also on the advisory board of Naked Food Magazine, for which he is also a regular contributor of articles espousing a plant-based diet.

In 1985 Esselstyn began to consider ways to better help the patients in his surgical practice, many of whom were already so sick that their early deaths were inevitable; he was also concerned with his own health, as his family had a history of early deaths.:x-xi He turned to the literature and found a growing body of literature At that time there was a growing body of literature by Dean Ornish and others that very low serum cholesterol levels were associated with cardiovascular health, and that very low-fat diets also appeared to improve cardiovascular health. He convinced some of the patients in his practice to go on a diet as follows: "Participants were asked to adhere to a diet that derived less than 10% of its calories from fat. They were to avoid oils, meat, fish, fowl, and dairy products, except for skim milk and nonfat yogurt. Grains, legumes, lentils, vegetables, and fruit comprised the major portion of the diet, which contained adequate amounts of vitamins, minerals, protein, and iron." The Esselstyn family and their four children also went on a plant-based diet at that time.

He tracked the patients he put on that diet and published that work in 1995. That work and subsequent followup studies eventually led to his 2007 book, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease.:x-xi The book advises people to eat the following plant-based diet::5–6

Forbidden

• Meat, poultry, fish
• dairy products
• oil of any kind ("not a drop")
• nuts or avocados

Allowed

• all vegetables
• all legumes
• all whole grains and products (but fat must be avoided)
• all fruits (except avocado)

In the book, Esselstyn writes: "My message is clear and absolute: coronary artery disease need not exist, and if it does, it need not progress. It is my dream that one day we may entirely abolish heart disease, the scourge of the affluent, modern West, along with an impressive roster of other chronic illnesses." (emphasis in the original).:3 He also writes: "The dietary changes that have helped my patients over the past twenty years can help you. They can actually make you immune to heart attacks." and goes on to say that there is "considerable evidence" that the diet can prevent "strokes, hypertension, obesity, osteoporosis, adult-onset diabetes, and possibly senile mental impairment, as well.":7–8

His work received media attention when former U.S. President Bill Clinton cited it, along with work by Ornish and The China Study as the basis for his change of diet in 2010 and yet more in late 2011 when Clinton discussed his diet with CNN and other media outlets.

Esselstyn was also one of the doctors featured in the 2011 documentary, Forks Over Knives.

Mainstream authorities in nutrition agree that a plant-based diet that avoids processed food is a healthy diet.

With regard to Esselstyn's claims, Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association, said: "Diet alone is not going to be the reason that heart attacks are eliminated."

Harriet A. Hall has written that the claims made by Esselstyn are misleading and that the evidence on which it is based is "pretty skimpy". Steven Nissen of the Cleveland Clinic said that his claims are unproven because there isn't data from rigorous clinical trials to support them.

In 2005 Esselstyn received the Benjamin Spock Award for Compassion in Medicine (he was the award's first recipient), and in 2009 the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Cleveland Clinic Alumni Association. In 2010 he received the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame Award.