 In the end, my grandma's miraculous recovery from terminal heart disease through diet and exercise, remarkable as it was, is just one anecdote among many. Though it inspired me to pursue a career in medicine, I've always had a skeptical streak and just wasn't convinced until Ornish's landmark study in 1990 clobbered me over the head with enough science to change my own diet forever. Pritikin had been reversing heart disease with the plant-based diet for years before Ornish came along, but here it was, in black and white, in one of the most prestigious medical journals in the world. Ornish proved you cannot just slow heart disease, our number one killer, not just stop heart disease in its tracks, but actually reverse heart disease, open up clogged arteries, and without drugs, without surgery. Since then, millions upon millions have died totally unnecessary deaths. If my grandma didn't have to die like that, no one's grandmother has to die. We have the miracle cure, yet hardly anyone knows about it. Wait a second, though. If we can reverse heart disease without drugs, without surgery, then great! Doesn't that mean we can eat whatever the heck we want, and then, as soon as we start feeling a little chest pain, we can get with the program, eat as healthy as we need to, and open our arteries back up, getting to enjoy not only our grand-children, but also happy memories of years of bacon and eggs, cheese, and fried chicken. Here's the problem with the plan. Sudden cardiac death. Our first symptom may be our last.