Open Your Heart to others!
Help get the word out! Please cut & post the meeting announcement on this page for others to see at your doctor's office, library, supermarket, etc.
OSGGR
c/o Abby Stern
4 Sand Brook Road
Pittsford, NY 14534
OSGGR will be meeting in the Auditorium
at the Monroe Community Hospital
on East Henrietta Road on November 10th.
The next Tony Grana Night. . .
• • • will be on Wednesday, November 12th
4:30 - 6:30 P.M.
Bring a friend. Taste special dishes from Ornish
Cookbooks. Try Ornish Desserts & Appetizers.
Sit with and meet other Ornish members.
Call for reservations at 467-4360
Located in the Rubino Plaza
1292 E. Ridge Rd., Irondequoit
OSGGR is a nonprofit organization based on Dr. Dean Ornish's book Reversing Heart Disease by diet, exercise, stress reduction and psychosocial methods. Please join us at the OSSGR meetings.
Ted Barnett, M.D.
Radiologist
Topic:
"High Tech Doc - Low Tech Solutions!"
Monday, November 10, 1997
7:30 p.m. at Monroe Community Hospital
Monroe Community Hospital. (Directions - From 390 go North on East Henrietta Road. Left to MCH. Right to Parking Lot #1. Enter through the "Hope Entrance Center for Lifetime Wellness." Walk straight to end of corridor. Right at end of corridor. Auditorium is on the right.
Meetings are held on the second Monday of the month at Monroe Community Hospital.
Members - Free Guests -$3.00 For additional information, call Ed Ehlers at 336-9847,
or visit our web page at http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/2435/
RECYCLE ORNISH STYLE---
By Ed Ehlers
At our meetings, we have a display of empty off-the-shelf items of foods that meet the Ornish diet criteria. To make this display even more useful, I would like to encourage all our members to bring in their empty containers. As we accumulate doubles and triples, members can take them and they will act as reminders when they shop. There are some great tasting products out there, such as, Fantastic Soups, Yves Veggie Pizza Pepperoni, Pizsoy Pizza, etc, etc, etc.
To help people understand the products, we will have a senior Ornish member by the display to answer questions and help you learn where to buy the products, etc.
RENEW YOUR
MEMBERSHIP
...Your membership dues extend for one year from the month you joined. When it is time to renew your membership, your newsletter will have a "It's Time to Renew Your Dues" stamp as a reminder. Please consider the value of our informative meetings and newsletters. Then, just mail your check and the Membership Application below to Abby Stern. Feel free to include any success you have had during this past year, or make any suggestions or ask any questions you may have.
Membership Application
Membership in the Ornish Support Group is open to anyone who has an interest in improved health through diet, exercise, stress reduction and group interaction. Membership in this nonprofit group entitles you to a monthly newsletter and invitations to monthly meetings and group events. The Rochester Ornish Support Group was initially formed by heart patients who had read Dr. Dean Ornish's book "Reversing Heart Disease Without Drugs or Surgery." We believe heart patients including people who want to lose weight and reduce their risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, etc. can benefit from our healthy programs and approaches to becoming responsible for their own health.
The following survey is optional (the intent is to understand our membership and document the beneficial benefits of the Ornish Program):
Name(s)_________________________________
Address__________________________________
City ___________________ State ____ Zip _____
Telephone number ________________________
Individual Membership $15/year
Joint Membership (one address) $20/year
Renewal
Please return your completed application
and check to: The Ornish Support Group
c/o Abby Stern
4 Sand Brook Road
Pittsford, NY 14534
Do You Have Heart Disease? Yes ___ No ___
If yes, your name:_________________________________
When was Heart Disease detected? ___________________
Type of Heart Disease? ____________________________
Operations & dates? _______________________________
Please provide information on the following if you are already
on the Ornish diet:
% of days that you completely follow diet _____%
Exercise: Hours/week ___________
Stress Reduction: Avg. Minutes daily _____
Avg Days/weekly_______
Group interaction: Avg. Hours/wk ________
Have you found the Ornish Program beneficial: Yes ___ No ___
Please explain: ____________________________________
________________________________________________
If you are not already on the Ornish Program, what do you hope
to accomplish? ______________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
Ed Ehlers' Corner
Eating Ugly, Eating Pretty, and the
Vegetarian Meeting on November 16th.
Eating ugly, to me, means eating something where I may not like the taste at first but I eat it anyway to stay on the Ornish diet. An example, was my first raw "Gimme Lean" sandwich. "Gimme Lean" is a refrigerated vegetarian product that has a sausage or hamburger taste and can be lightly fried in Pam. It is packaged in a sausage shape container which looks like liverwurst, my former favorite sandwich meat. I tasted Gimme Lean raw and decided to make a sandwich of it with zero fat cheese, zero fat mayo, lettuce and tomato. It wasn't bad. It was great eating a sandwich again, even though it seemed strange and I wondered what am I eating versus good old fashion liverwurst. Hence, the expression Eating Ugly. However we know the main ingredient of liverwurst is liver and one function of the liver is to act as a filter. Therefore, when we eat liverwurst we are really eating a dead animal's toxic dump, plus other parts which is even less of a bargain.
I think of Eating Pretty as eating food, some of which I have no idea what it is or how it was prepared but meets the Ornish criteria and tastes great even to people who pay no attention to their diets.
As a member of the Rochester Area Vegetarian Society, RAVS, we have monthly Share-A-Dish meetings the third Sunday of every month where you can sample very tasty vegan (no animal products) food. The only problem is they usually have no restrictions on oil nor nuts. However, on November 16, RAVS will be encouraging their members to prepare dishes Vegan-Ornish style. Hence, there will be plenty of "Eating Pretty Selections."
If the Veggie group with their share-a-meal format, did not exist we would want to invent it to have people try different tasty meals and desserts.
Please give serious thought to coming to the November 16th meeting at 5:30 p.m. at Brighton Town Park which has a cabin with cooking facilities and overlooks an attractive pond. It will be a nice opportunity to socialize with OSGGR and RAVS people. The main speakers at 7:30 p.m. will be myself and Allyson Prace talking about our experiences at the one week Ornish retreat in California.
Our Next Meeting...
...is on Monday, November 10th. Our speaker is Dr. Ted Barnett who is a radiologist. He and his wife, Carol, are the coordinators of the Rochester Area Vegetarian Society which is a local branch of an international organization. Ted whose specialty is vascular and intervention studies sees the results first hand of the typical American diet and he will show us some of these overheads. He calls his talk "High Tech Doc - Low Tech Solutions." Most of us become vegetarians or reduce our intake of meat to improve our health.
Ted will explore this and other reasons that help reinforce vegetarian eating. He will also give us an overview of RAVS next event on Sunday, November 16 which will be a RAVS-Ornish pre-Thanksgiving Get- Together. There will be time for questions and answers.
CALENDAR
November 10 Dr. Ted Barnett,
Radiologist,
"High Tech Doc - Low Tech Solutions"
Medicine & Vegetarianism
November 12 Tony Grana
Get Together Dinner
November 16 Vegetarian Picnic
Share an Ornish-Vegan Dish
Brighton Town Park Lodge
No guest fee for the picnic.
5:30 pm Share-a-Dish
7:30 pm Speaker
December 8 Dr. Bob Klein
"Can We Talk"
December 10 Tony Grana
Get Together Dinner
Trips to Mecca!
At the Sunday, November 16 RAVS meeting, Allyson Prace, our nurse-nutritionist and myself are the featured speakers. Our topic will be our respective trips to the Dean Ornish PMRI one week California retreat. I have been there twice. It was a difficult decision to go the first time because it is expensive. I read Dean's book three times and I wondered why spend $3,000 plus air fare to get something that is in a sixteen dollar book. The answer lies in the difference between living something versus reading about it.
Bob Klein coined the retreat "Mecca" and I like the analogy. It is easier for me to share how it influenced me than what it felt like. After the first retreat I went from following the diet from 70% to 100% of the days and a desire to help form a support group. Going the second time was an easier decision than the first because I remembered how good it felt during and after the retreat.
The first time I went I expected to learn more about heart disease and enjoy the food. What I did not expect was the impact of the group sessions, how great the stress reduction sessions were and how caring and capable the staff were. There were so many positive surprises that are hard to convey. When Allyson came back, she said the "retreat just blew me away," so I am glad there are two of us talking.
The retreats are nonprofit and I plan to go again in July of 1998 and I hope some of our Rochester members will be tempted to come along. If you do, you will not be disappointed.
For more background come to our RAVS talk at 7:30 pm, November 16 at the Brighton Town Lodge, 777 Westfall Road. Or better yet, come at 5:30 pm for the Share-A-Dish Ornish-Vegan. If you don't cook, bring fruit or steamed vegetables.
The RAVS group will not be charging a guest fee for this meeting. So, do take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to share an Ornish-Vegan friendly feast.
P.S.Audio tapes from three retreats are in our library.
Heart Healthy Thanksgiving Feast
and a talk about the Ornish Retreat in California
at the Brighton Town Lodge located on Westfall Rd
on Sun., November 16th
OSGGR Steering Committee:
Ed Ehlers, President
Robert F. Klein, M.D., Medical Advisor
Abby Stern, Treasurer
David Stern, M.D., Website
Allyson Prace, RN/RD, Nutrition Advisor
Melissa Cadregari, Exercise Specialist
Dolly Dickson, Advisor
Richard Ludgate, Advocate
Mark B. Sandler, Yoga Instructor
Carrie Gaynor, RN/BSN, Ass't Yoga Teacher
Sylvia Schwartzman, Group Therapist/RN/MS
Barb Kozel, Membership
Lucretia Davie, Publicity
Dale Petschke, Librarian
Gita Chandra, Cooking Instructor
Florence Kaplow, Newsletter
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UPDATES!! |
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NEWS YOU CAN USE by David F.J. Aldrich At our September 8 meeting at Monroe Community Hospital, we had a personal tour of their Lifetime Fitness Center by MCH Director, William J. Hall, M.D. This state-of-the-art 'wellness center' specializes in meeting the needs of active older adults. Their equipment includes: Trotter strength machines and treadmills, Ergo resistant recumbent and upright bikes, Bodyguard steppers, Concept II rowing machines and a Nordic Track. A customized fitness program will be developed for your particular situation. An assessment will measure body composition, cardiovascular capacity, muscle strength and flexibility. Instructors are assigned to you for each visit until you feel comfortable with the equipment. They even fax your doctor for his/her initial approval. There are other programs available including: high cholesterol, high blood pressure, nutrition, diabetes, weight management, osteoporosis, arthritis, low impact aerobics, body sculpting, Tai Chi and Yoga. Hours are from 6am--7pm Monday to Friday. No weekends at this time. Special OSGGR rates may be forthcoming. Two (2) week trial is free. For more info, call 292-4000. Try it! It's fun!! It works!!! Editor's note: Be aware that all the programs the Lifetime Wellness Center offers, i.e. nutrition, do not necessarily follow the Ornish guidelines. You will need to check.
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If you do, I will have some for sale at the November 10th meeting. They are a regular restaurant item from the Corn Hill Cookery, 321 Exchange Boulevard in the Corn Hill section of Rochester. The vegetable cakes are a delicious fat-free meal that, when requested, they will grill on a dry pan. I am planning to bring 30 vegetable cakes with me in an ice chest. They will sell for $3.00/each so try come early and bring the right change. There are several reasons I am experimenting with selling food. I want to give people another good reason to attend our meetings by encouraging people to go to restaurants that have Ornish items on their regular menus. You will find another tasty meal which helps to prove again and again that there are hundreds of delicious items that meet the Ornish criteria. | |||||||||||||
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XEROX WELLNESS EXPO '97 by Gita Chandra
Xerox showed interest in my cookbook "Spicy Fat-Free Cooking Secrets" and extended an invitation to share some techniques on no fat cooking and vegetarianism at their annual Wellness Expo. I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to introduce OSGGR to the Xerox employees, retirees and their family members. Food samples from my book as well as Ornish's book and other books were presented for a taste test. Needless to say, our table was mobbed and people were pleasantly surprised at how good fat-free vegetarian food could taste! I am very grateful to Dolly and Walter Dickson for helping out with the food preparation as well as manning the food table. Ed Ehlers, Dick Ludgate and John Holtz represented the Ornish table and my thanks to them for taking time out on Saturday for this worthwhile cause. A very special thanks to Dale Petschke for his unique and eye-catching OSGGR poster, and also for preparing the leaflets, which will come in handy for other events around town. Thank you all for doing a wonderful job!! | |||||||||||||
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Heart Beats:
Ž Left on their own, patients find it hard to break old habits. But, a review in the Archives of Family Medicine indicates that in their research studies when heart patients were asked to cut the fat intake in their diet, the factors that helped make the switch were family involvement, group support, and providing vegetarian foods with strict limits of fat. All these factors are a part of the Ornish Program.
Ž A recent finding in the The New England Journal of Medicine indicates that a major cause from some cardiac problems is elevated level of homocysteine that is converted from an amino acid contained in protein-rich foods. Excess amounts of homocysteine damages the linings of the arteries causing cholesterol to build on the scarred tissue. Although its not know what causes some people to overproduce homecysteine, evidence points to shortage of Vitamin B6, B12, and folic acid. The good news, if you follow the diet of the Ornish Program, is that you'll get very little homocysteine since meat is the primary source. | |||||||||||||
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Ornish Friendly Restaurants By Dolly Dickson Walter and I found a great place to go for a special night out--Park 54. It is exactly where the name implies, 54 Park Avenue not far from Alexander. There is a vegetarian dish on the menu. Just tell the waiter what your restrictions are and the chef will prepare a great entree for you. It was a generous portion and came with a crusty loaf of exceptionally good bread. ($14.00) We talked with the waiter and also the owner. Both were courteous and quite willing to accommodate our diet. We thought it was a real find. Another day, we tried an old favorite in the same area, Charlie's Frog Pond. They have a special low fat menu. We each had an omelet made out of egg whites. Mine was made with spinach and Walter's with artichoke hearts. The fillings were quite generous and the lunch came with toast. The next time we try it, I would ask that the grill be wiped off. Other than that, the lunch fit right in with our diet. |
FABULOUS FIBER by Allyson Prace, RD, RN OSGGR Nutrition Advisor (Part 2 of 3) continued from the October Newsletter
"Factoring in Fiber"
® Easy does it! The body adjusts more easily when fiber is gradually added in over several weeks.
® Drink more fluids (at least eight 8 oz. glasses per day) as fiber is added in. Fluids help to move that increased fiber along to prevent the dreaded abdominal bloating and gas.
® More is not better. Excessively high fiber diets (50-60 grams per day) can pull out valuable vitamins and minerals from the body.
® Look for "100% whole wheat" or "whole grain" breads. Compare the fiber number of the food label. Dark breads aren't always whole grain -- "whole grain" needs to be the first listing on the ingredients list.
® Choose romaine or fresh spinach over iceberg lettuce for salads and sandwich stuffers.
® Beans, beans and more beans - probably the richest source of fiber! Keep your pantry stocked with all kinds: canned, dehydrated bean flakes, canned vegetarian chili, bean soups, vegetarian baked beans.
® Mix in high-fiber, whole grain breakfast cereal (at least 5 grams of fiber per serving) with your regular brand. The old standbys (Cheerios, Wheaties, Grape-Nuts, Raisin Bran, Shredded Wheat, Total, oatmeal, oatbran, Wheatena, Roman Meal) are all whole grain.
® Give brown rice a whirl. Throw in some wild rice for a fiber boost and you have a pilaf.
® Eat those skins - potatoes, fruits and veggies.
® Choose the whole food over its juice counterpart.
® Berry good! Berries are excellent sources of fiber.
® Don't forget snack crackers - many new varieties are appearing that are whole grain (look for at least 2 grams of fiber per ounce).
® At meals, include a steamed veggie and a tossed salad. To be continued in the December Newsletter. | ||||||
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Ornish Friendly Restaurants (Be sure to let your server know the requirements of the Ornish Diet)
Charlie's Frog Pond Eggwhite omelets with spinach or artichoke hearts Ciao Zero Fat cheese on pizza is available Little Theatre Vegetarian Chile Mamacita's Black Bean Sweet Potato Burritto - hold the cheese Mamasan's Vegetable Soup Park 54 No fat vegetarian dish The King and I Vegetable Clay Pot Tony Grana's Vegetable Rice Risotto - option side Marinara sauce Beans and Greens over pasta | |||||||