Several kind people have e-mailed about including books in my care package.
The first thing I did was haul out my whole vlf library and skim. The
book I am taking him first is Neal Pinckney's Healthy Heart Handbook,
because it is so unintimidating, written by someone who has had occluded
arteries, and does such a good job of describing the actual physical
problem and various treatments. Launching from that viewpoint into the
dietary changes will make the whole idea more palatable to a
non-vegetarian who has never even thought about this stuff before, I think.
I plan to follow that with Dean Ornish's Program For Reversing Heart
Disease, and then with the McDougall books. While I greatly admire John
McDougall and agree with his recommendations, I have learned from my
non-vegetarian friends that he is the most likely to offend them - just
something subtle in his style, I guess, he doesn't have that effect on me.
I loan McDougall to people who are already strongly interested, but
choose Ornish for the mildly curious or Pinckney for the people with heart
disease.
Just my opinion, of course, but something to think about if you find
yourself in a similar situation.
Thanks for all of the good thoughts and ideas. Anne Cox
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