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It is an occupational hazard as a health professional to weave science and examples of healthy living into my books. As authors, we often write about the things that interest and inspire us. When I redeveloped the Shadow Creek series in 2021, it was an obvious choice for me to rewrite Natalia as a vegan based on her father’s cardiac history. While most cases of high cholesterol are passed through families not by genetics but by learning unhealthy eating habits, familial hypercholesterolemia is a real chromosomal condition. Slim, active people as young as their higher teens have been diagnosed with elevated cholesterol levels through little fault of their own. Diet is the only conservative way to control blood cholesterol levels and in Natalia’s case, she chose the plant-based diet to manage her health and reduce her risk of sudden cardiac death like her father.
Nathan Pritikin, an American nutritionist, was one of the first scientists to promote high carbohydrate, low fat diets filled with unrefined grains, fruits, and vegetables to reverse heart disease. His research was based on studies indicating that people in primitive cultures who observed a primarily vegetarian diet showed little prevalence of heart disease. Pritikin developed an institute that helped people with death sentences live decades longer on this earth simply by changing their diets and encouraging regular exercise. In the 1980s, The China Study was a groundbreaking research project that examined the link between the consumption of animal products and chronic disease. By studying people who lived in rural China, scientists concluded that whole-food vegan diets reduce and reverse the development of numerous diseases. Scientific studies continue to prove this fact today.
When I’m not writing, I work as an exercise physiologist in cardiac rehabilitation. This involves helping people recover from heart attacks, stent insertions, valve replacements, and coronary bypass surgery by administering a graded aerobic exercise program. I monitor their aerobic and cardiac response to exercise and promote healthy living in the hope of reducing their risk of further cardiac complications. Yet, exercise is not the key to reducing the prevalence of heart disease and if only people adhered to the basics of nutrition, I would be out of a job. So I do not share this knowledge with an agenda. I enjoy my work, but I’d rather that people didn’t suffer from heart disease. If this were the case, I could sit back and write romance novels all day long.
However, I am grateful to have discovered the power of plant-based nutrition as it has enhanced my skills as a clinician, improved my own health, and the health of some dear friends. I am in no way affiliated with these associations, but I would recommend nutritionfacts.org and Dr Michael Greger’s book How Not to Die for more nutritional information.
Ana does not carry the same chromosomal abnormality as her sister and therefore isn’t as strict with her animal protein. However, she continues to observe a vegetarian diet for improved health outcomes and won’t say no to baked goods made with cow’s milk and enjoys it when Liam brings home ice cream.