Resources

WEBSITES

EDUCATE

http://www.southasianheartcenter.org/why-southasians/theproblem.html
South Asians, people from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka are known to experience coronary artery disease at up to four times the rate of the general world’s population. The South Asian Heart Center site has comprehensive information on Coronary Artery Disease among South Asians. South Asian Heart Center at El Camino Hospital (Mountain View, CA) provides assessment, personalized comprehensive heart health plan, and one-on-one case management through a comprehensive, culturally-appropriate program incorporating education, advanced screening, lifestyle changes, and case management.

http://cardiosmart.org/
This site developed by the American College of Cardiology will help you understand heart function, diseases, the risk factors for developing these diseases, and the tests and procedures commonly used to diagnose the conditions. It also facilitates learning through videos, and has tools to measure factors such as your BMI. One area of this site is devoted to providing information about the medications commonly used to treat heart conditions.

http://efaeducation.nih.gov/sig/story1.ppt
This five minute narrated slide show published by the Office of Supplements (National Institutes of Health) links the metabolism of foods to eicosanoid formation and disease severity. To view this show, you must have PowerPoint on your computer.

http://videocast.nih.gov/ram/crii01c203202000.ram
This videocast has a presentation by Dr. Norman Salem where he defines and explains different fatty acids: saturated, unsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids and their metabolism. It is put together by the Office of Supplements (National Institutes of Health).

http://www.who.int/cardiovascular_diseases/resources/cvd_report.pdf
World Health Organization resource
This downloadable document, explains why heart attacks and strokes happen, and how you can avoid them. It tells you what you should do, to avoid becoming a victim.

http://www.who.int/cardiovascular_diseases/guidelines/Pocket_GL_information/en/index.html
World Health Organization resource
“Prevention of cardiovascular disease: Pocket guidelines for assessment and management of cardiovascular risk.” These documents provide evidence-based guidance on how to reduce the incidence of first and recurrent clinical events due to coronary heart disease (CHD), cerebrovascular disease (CeVD) and peripheral vascular disease in two different categories of people. The categories are: 1. People with risk factors who have not yet developed clinically manifest cardiovascular disease (primary prevention). 2. People with established CHD, CeVD or peripheral vascular disease (secondary prevention).

http://my.clevelandclinic.org/heart/prevention/default.aspx
The Preventive Cardiology and Rehabilitation Program at Cleveland Clinic Miller Family Heart & Vascular Institute
This URL leads to the website maintained by one of the largest cardiac and thoracic specialty groups in the world. It has guidelines for preventing the occurrence, or progression of cardiovascular disease.

http://www.hearthub.org/hc-high-blood-pressure.htm
American Heart Association resource
This website has information, tools and resources about cardiovascular disease and stroke. Each will help you understand your risks and treatment options.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/tutorials/hypertension/htm/index.htm
The National Library of Medicine resource
Has both interactive and self-playing tutorial on hypertension.

http://www.idf.org/webdata/docs/Diabetes_meta_syndrome.pdf
A resource from International Diabetes Federation
Understand how diabetes and metabolic syndrome are driving the cardiovascular disease epidemic.

http://efaeducation.nih.gov/sig/kim.html
Essential fatty acids education - National Institutes of Health resource
A free interactive a computer-aided personal food choice program called KIM-2 ( Keep It Managed, ver.2) contains eicosanoid-related data with the omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acid contents of over 9,000 food servings . KIM sorts and identifies foods with relatively high amounts of omega-3 fatty acids that help produce desired tissue fatty acid compositions as estimated from published metabolic data

http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/foodlab.html
Center for food safety and applied nutrition from the Federal Drug Administration resource
This information will make it easier for you to use nutrition labels to make quick, informed food choices.

Presentations:

http://www.pamf.org/southasian/research/studies/EPCDSAI.pdf
This presentation by Dr. Latha Palaniappam has information about heart disease risk factors specific to South Asians; viewers can also learn what the ideal numbers are, by viewing this presentation. The Palo Alto Medical Foundation's PRANA (PRevention & AwareNess for South Asians) wellness program was developed by the South Asian Wellness Task Force. Internal medicine physician Ronesh Sinha and Dr. Latha Palaniappan chair this task force.

http://www.ciaprochef.com/wohf2009/presentations/FRANK_SACKS_DASH_Diet.pdf
Presentation from Dr. Sacks will help you understand how a DASH study based diet can help in different ways. Slides 7 and 12 will be eye-opening for people who have not read about, or heard of the DASH study before. The later part of the presentation shows the effectiveness of DASH and Omniheart studies - the two studies that have influenced the recipes in Amrit.

http://www.ciaprochef.com/wohf2009/presentations/LAWRENCE_APPEL_Salt_Matters.pdf
Dr. Appel's presentation goes further and shows how proportion of salt in diet is a critical issue in maintaining good heart health. Slides 8 and 9 shows why salt intake matters, most effectively. He also discusses processed foods with examples of specific brand name products to illustrate and emphasize the important facts.

http://www.ciaprochef.com/wohf2009/presentations/RONALD_KRAUSS_Healthy_Metabolism.pdf
This presentation reinforces OmniHeart study findings. Understand healthy metabolism, and metabolic fitness in humans, by viewing this presentation.

http://www.ciaprochef.com/wohf2009/presentations/FRANK_HU_Health_Benefits_of_Nuts.pdf
In this presentation, Dr. Frank Hu shows how nuts can contribute towards improving your heart health. Slide 3 should be especially of interest to the South Asian site visitors. Slide 8 shows particular pathways mediated by diet, which ultimately lead to increased probability of heart disease in individuals. In slides 13 and 14, you will find tables that show specific fat and nutrient compositions of individual nuts.

PURCHASE

http://cspinet.org/nah/archives.html
Center for Science in the Public Interest resource
This URL will lead you to the website subsection of CSPI, a strong advocate for nutrition health, food safety, alcohol policy, and sound science. It has gems of information collected from their award-winning health-letter, about ready-to-eat commercial foods.

http://checkmark.heart.org/
American Heart Association resource
This website lists approximately 800 foods, which are certified by the AHA to be low in saturated fat and cholesterol.

http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/SeafoodWatch/web/sfw_regional.aspx
The Center for the Future of the Oceans - Monterey Bay Aquarium resource
Seafood Watch regional guides contain the latest information on sustainable seafood choices available in different regions of the U.S. The "Best Choices" listed in these guides are abundant, well managed and fished or farmed in environmentally friendly ways. Seafood to "Avoid" are overfished and/or fished or farmed in ways that harm other marine life or the environment. You can view the guides online or download a pocket-size version.

http://www.nutritiondata.com/foods-000140000000000000000.html
Nutrition Data.com company resource
Nutrition Data's database has a list of foods highest in total Omega-3 fatty acids at this URL. It is a user-friendly format for accessing nutrition information which is collected from the USDA's National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference.

http://oracvalues.com/
This website provides a good list of foods and their antioxidant levels.

http://ific.org/publications/factsheets/sterolfs.cfm
International Food Information Council resource
The fact sheet located at this URL provides information about plant Stanols and Sterols.

http://www.healthyfridge.org/healthy.html
Open the Door to a Healthy Heart resource (It is a non-profit national public service campaign organized by the American Medical Women's Association, funded primarily through a grant by the National Association of Margarine Manufacturers)
This website subsection of Open the Door to a Healthy Heart, provides tips on how to organize your refrigerator: for healthier eating practices.

http://ods.od.nih.gov/Health_Information/Information_About_Individual_Dietary_Supplements.aspx
Office of Dietary Supplements - National Institutes of Health resource
This URL has detailed information about commonly used botanical and chemical dietary supplements.

Online Stores for ingredients:

http://healthyheartmarket.com/index.aspx
A unique store conceived and designed for low-sodium diet needs. All of their stocked inventory is low sodium, very low sodium or no sodium. It has over 450 food products.

http://www.adrianascaravan.com
This site has a good collection of items to choose from, in Spices, Herbs, Grains, and Lentils categories.

http://www.thespicehouse.com
A very good site to start your pantry collection to work with the recipes in this book; they have a majority of herbs, spices and seasonings that you may need.

http://www.worldspice.com
They have a good collection spices, spice blends and teas; and a very good selection of ready to use blends of Indian spice blends.

http://www.kalustyans.com
This is an excellent resource for spices, spice blends, teas, fruit pastes/concentrates, dals, grains, oils and cookware.

http://www.ishopindian.com/shop/spices-c-38.html
They carry spices, spice blends, and teas; they are featured here because they have unique Indian items like fresh curry leaves and jaggery, which may be hard-to-find from other Internet vendors

http://www.nutsonline.com
This is an exceptional store with very good quality of nuts, seeds, dried fruit and berry powders.

http://www.latourangelle.com/usa/index.php
They are manufacturers of some of the best quality cooking and flavoring oils that could be used to recreate the recipes described in this book.

PREPARE

http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=9448
US Department of Agriculture - Agriculture Research Service. Nutrient Data Laboratory resource
The PDF document located at this URL contains the factors for calculating retention of 26 vitamins, minerals and alcohol during food preparation. If you have ever wondered about a cooking method or retention of nutrients such as folic acid, food folate, beta carotene, alpha carotene, beta cryptoxanthin, lycopene, lutein/zeaxanthin, and choline after cooking, check and see.

http://www.vrg.org/nutshell/heart.htm
The Vegetarian Resource Group resource
Find heart-healthy diets and heart-healthy cooking principles on this website - information that can help vegetarians choose their food wisely.

http://www.aceee.org/consumerguide/cooking.htm
American Council for an Energy-efficient economy resource
Issues to consider when purchasing new appliances and energy-saving tips for cooking.

Please note that websites are continually updated and rearranged. If the URL given here does not work, go to the homepage of the website and search for the specific information, using the website's internal search function. You can also use a search engine and type in the appropriate service, company and/or product name to locate the information.

BOOKS

INGREDIENTS & METHODS

Cox, Jeff. The Organic cook’s Bible. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2006.
This book is a thorough, well-organized and easy to use food bible, which would become invaluable for anyone who is adopting a healthy lifestyle. It covers everything: fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy, grains, pasta and nuts.

Herbst, Sharon Tyler. Food Lover's Companion, The (Barron's Cooking Guide) 3rd Edition. Hauppauge, NY: Barrons Educational Series, Inc., 2001
This book covers a multitude of food items, cooking techniques, and interesting food lingo from Abalone to Zwieback. It also has other essential information for cooks like ingredient equivalents, substituting ingredients, pan size substitutions, microwave oven conversion chart, safe cooking temperatures, and British and American cooking terms.

Culinary Institute of America. The Techniques of Healthy Cooking.
Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2008
This book contains information about nutrition, ingredients, and preparation; and discussions of dietary recommendations. It helps the reader understand how to meet the recommendations with appropriate preparation techniques and portioning. Chapters 3 and 4 “The techniques of healthy cooking” and “Developing Healthy Recipes & Menus” would be of great help to anyone making lifestyle changes.

Greene, Janet and Ruth Hertzberg, Beatrice Vaughan. Putting Food By.
New York, NY: Penguin Books USA, Inc. 1992
This book contains solid information about proper techniques for food preservation. It covers, a wide range of methods from drying, and root cellaring, to freezing and pressure canning of nearly all foods that could be preserved.

Fine Cooking (Editors). How To Break An Egg: 1,453 Kitchen Tips, Food Fixes, Emergency Substitutions and Handy Techniques
This is a book that would be great fun to read for any culinary amateur. It has many useful hints and techniques some of which are: ingredient information, a substitution guide, equivalent measures, step-by-step preparation techniques (with pictures), and troubleshooting charts. It also includes important information about kitchen safety and sanitation tips in a very readable format.

LIFESTYLE

Sanders, Polin, and Frances Towner Giedt. Cleveland Clinic Healthy Heart Lifestyle Guide and Cookbook. New York, NY: Broadway Books, 2007.
This book is published by one of the largest cardiac and thoracic specialty groups in the world. The Lifestyle section of this book is a great information resource: both, how to avoid and to overcome heart diseases.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: SCIENCE, FOOD ECONOMICS, ETHICS AND PHILOSOPHY

Steinberg, Daniel. The Cholesterol Wars: The Skeptics vs. the Preponderance of Evidence. New York, NY: Academic Press, 2007.
This book chronicles the controversy that swirled around the 'lipid hypothesis' of atherosclerosis for so many years. Dr. Steinberg has spent over 5 decades in this field and he gives the reader a definite, historical overview of this subject matter. The book is written in an authoritative, scholarly, yet readable style, and it gives the reader all the information needed to resolve conflicting claims about cholesterol and heart disease.

Kessler, David, A. The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite. New York, NY: Rodale, Inc., 2009.
This well-researched, informative and well-written book is a fascinating read, of the how and why - the physical as well as psychological aspects of appetite and overeating. It explains the cravings for foods with sugars, fats, and salts in an easy to understand manner. After reading this book one comes away with simple and practical strategies to help him/her regain control over eating.

Singer, Peter, and Jim Mason. The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter. Emmaus, PA: Rodale, Inc., 2006.
The authors follow and analyze the sources of three different families' food shopping choices back to the source of its production. It makes the reader view food as not just something to eat to nourishing the body, but rather as an ethics issue.

Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals New York, NY: The Penguin Group, Inc. 2006
This book discusses the industrial food chain, its vulnerabilities and the hidden costs that consumers pay. It makes a reader want know more about what he or she is eating, and make smarter choices and reconsider fanciful impulses. The book even examines the term organic and researches how good “organic food” really is. If you would like to understand and think about the costs of food-choices, as they relate to the environment, and the people who grow it, this is a good book.

Patel, Raj. Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System. Brooklyn, NY: Melville House, 2008.
A thought-provoking book; simply put, it is a broad case study of food systems. It looks at the micro and macro effects of the agricultural systems that we currently use. The information and the issues discussed, come from different perspectives, and cover food production, distribution, and consumption around the world.

Goetz, Thomas. The Decision Tree: Taking Control of Your Health in the New Era of Personalized Medicine. New York, NY: Rodale Inc., 2010
Here is a book about evidence-based health-care, participative medicine, and a glimpse of the way the doctor-patient relationship will look in the future. If you are interested in reading about visionary ideas, decision tools available now, and in proactively thinking about your health you will enjoy reading this book and pick up interesting nuggets of information.