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Says Terry Mason, the chief medical officer of the Cook County Health and Hospitals system in Illinois, about a discussion at a 2010 joint meeting of cardiologists and urologists at the National Medical Association convention, “We found [a] strong relationship [between erectile dysfunction and a fatty diet]… due to damage to the endothelial cells. The endothelium is the thin layer of cells that line the interior surface of blood vessels. Now, the penis has more endothelial cells per unit volume than any other organ in the body. So anything that would affect endothelial cell function would be a problem in the penis.”

That’s where meat comes in. Obesity, heart disease, atherosclerosis, and high blood pressure caused by diets high in saturated fats, cholesterol, animal protein, and processed foods are the major causes of impotence in the United States. According to a recent article in the
New York Times
, more than 40 percent of impotent men suffer from hypertension. If your arteries are blocked from too much crap, the amount of blood flowing through your body is reduced, meaning there isn’t enough to pick you up when you want to get down.

To help you understand why the artery to the penis tends to block up first and foremost, let’s take a look at the diameter of two arteries. The coronary artery that flows to the heart is about 5 mm wide, or the size of a normal drinking straw. The artery to the penis is a mere 1 mm wide, or the size of a little coffee-stirring straw.

Which one do you think would clog up quicker? Makes you think, doesn’t it, guys?

A study of 3,000 men by the National Institute on Aging found that men with higher blood pressure had double the risk of developing a useless tool between their legs than those with lower blood pressure.

These discoveries have also debunked the old impotence myth that men lose their sex drive as they age. In 2007, the
New England Journal of Medicine
published a report on the largest sex study of seniors ever conducted; it showed that healthy old timers often feel as frisky as anyone else. It’s the sick ones who need a little pill. Doctors now believe that older men lose their mojo because they are more likely to have diseases that compromise their blood circulation, like heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure, all results of eating too much meat.

In other words, going flaccid is not a natural part of the aging process.

All this is good news for plant-strong eaters because if a food is heart healthy, it is also pants healthy. So if you want to keep raising the flag, snuggle up to libido-friendly fruits and veggies. Foods that come from animals just clog your arteries and keep blood from flowing to the place you need it most: your Eiffel Tower.

N
ot long ago I received this testimonial from a new adapter to the plant-strong life who happens to be sixty-nine years old. “Dear Rip: Sorry to make this R rated. But I have to tell you I have been on plant-based eating for about 11 months now. I am 100 pounds lighter. I am 69 years old and I have not had sex for years with my husband. The last month I just can’t get enough of him. I am convinced the blood flow has reached new and exciting places, thanks to the Esselstyns’ books and DVDs. It’s like getting married all over again.”

It’s true for women as well as men! Plants improve your enjoyment of sex. To prove it, I have handed over the reins for this chapter to my sister, Jane Esselstyn. Jane has been teaching sex education to middle-school boys and girls for more than eighteen years using an open, humorous, and approachable style. She’s also a mother of three, writes a blog called
Puberty from Head to Toe
, and is a plant-strong cooking genius. Take it away, Jane!

For women, the term “sexual health” could simply refer to a rocking, healthy sex life, but it also refers to her body and the systems associated with her gender: breasts, uterus, endometrium, body fat, and vascular system. Most people don’t realize that applying a plant-strong diet to the complicated equation of women, sex, and health engenders exciting results.

As discussed in the previous chapter, a major benefit of eating a plant-based diet is blood flow. Blood flow is essential for a penis to achieve an erection. Similarly, blood flow helps women in different areas, in different ways.

Front and center in this blood-flow discussion is the clitoris. In GPS terms, this little bundle of eight thousand nerves, this doorbell of desire, resides just south of the pubic bone, just ahead of the vaginal and urethral openings, and is housed between the genital labia (lips).

The clitoris is only the beginning of the story. This external button is literally only about one-tenth the size of the equipment within. When a woman is aroused, the external clitoris, also known as the glans, engorges with blood. Not as much as a penis, but more than you’d imagine, for as the romantic mood and physical stimulus continue, the
internal
clitoris starts to engorge, as well.

This tissue, called the
corpus cavernosa
, is the same engorgeable tissue found within the penis shaft. Blood flow into the internal clitoris causes engorgement and deeper arousal. Blood flow here is not insignificant, because the full range of the internal clitoral tissues, the
corpus cavernosa
, is intriguing: This tissue lassos around the vaginal space. In other words, when engorged with blood from well-dilated vessels, the arm-like clitoral
corpus cavernosa
tissues reach around the vagina like a snug hug.

At the same time, the brain’s arousing messages trigger the vaginal walls to lubricate. Where does this lascivious lube come from? Blood flow. Vessels carrying blood to the vaginal walls literally seep plasma through the vessel walls, creating friction-free vaginal lubrication. This critical blood flow can only be ensured by a plant-strong, meat-free diet.

Blood flow aside, I would think that some of this woman’s sexual behavior may well stem from her weight loss and empowerment now that she feels better about who she is and how she appears to herself and others. Body image is a big deal when it comes to sexuality. If you feel good in your body, you feel comfortable being sexual with your partner.

If you do not feel comfortable with your sexual self, you can create barriers. Some people tend to judge themselves in a critical way during a sexual experience. This behavior, identified by sex researchers Masters and Johnson decades ago, is called “spectatoring.” It’s as if one is a critical audience of oneself. This behavior prevents the mind from “getting into it.” The brain has to send signals from up above in order for things to get flowing down below, and without the blood flowing, tissues engorging, cuffing outside of and lubricating within the vagina, the encounter is not going to feel like a positive, healthy, sexual experience.

So eliminate spectatoring and delight in what your body can do. Eating plant-strong will make you feel great within your body, and you’ll be bombarded with compliments on your fine new plant-strong figure. All of which allows blood to flow full steam ahead!

And they say broccoli isn’t sexy!

I
first met eighty-year-old Darrell Williams when he wrote me a letter after one of his friends heard me speak to a Boy Scout troop. I thought Darrell would enjoy my plant-strong message, so not long afterward he and I drove to Southwest Texas State University, where I spoke to a hundred college students. Along the way Darrell told me his story.

For most of his life, Darrell knew and cared little about nutrition, even though he taught physical education at the University of Texas. He ate the average American diet: pizzas, burgers, dairy, and processed foods. His weight ballooned from 163 in college to about 230 by the time he was age sixty. He never felt well, suffering from ulcerated colitis, elevated blood pressure, severe allergies, hemorrhoids, irritable bowel syndrome, kidney stones, and severe backaches.

Then, in his late sixties, Darrell saw a doctor who suggested he stop eating dairy. He did, and the allergies disappeared. Darrell became more interested in the relationship between diet and health, eventually reading many books on the subject. That’s when he looked me up.

Today Darrell eats the Engine 2 way: fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains. His weight is down to 170. His blood pressure is excellent. He no longer suffers from all his ailments. He feels great, but the best part, he says, is actually what he
doesn’t
feel anymore: the aches, the pains, and the cramps. “All my life I felt like my body was getting in my way. Now, it feels invisible—it’s never in my way.”

Darrell is a true Renaissance man who not only has done a 180 with his diet, but also has taught himself how to play the piano and guitar, and he is an avid reader on all topics. Darrell’s zest for living is the how
and why behind the change he made in his diet and lifestyle. And it is also why he has become one of Jill’s and my closest friends and a surrogate grandfather to our kids!

Darrell also proves that it’s never too late to start a plant-based lifestyle! A rich diet of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains can even reverse the onset of chronic diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease.

That’s important, because according to the American Heart Association, 82 percent of all fatal heart attacks occur in people older than age sixty-five. Consistent meat-munching and milk-guzzling leads to the accumulation of plaque in the arteries, as well as those dangerous little gel plaques leading to the heart and brain that cause heart attack and stroke.

Moreover, many seniors erroneously believe that their cancer risk isn’t affected by age. But the truth is that nearly four out of five cancers are diagnosed after age fifty-five, and by sixty-five an individual’s cancer risk is ten times greater than in his or her youth.

However, as the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) has noted, “You can’t control your age, but you can control your cancer risk.” In fact, the AICR recently launched an awareness campaign called “It’s Never Too Late to Lower Your Risk.” The campaign encourages seniors to exercise regularly and, most importantly, to adopt a plant-based diet.

The excess weight we tend to carry in our later years can actually increase our cancer risk. Fat cells—both the unsightly belly kind as well as the visceral fat that lies deep in the abdominal cavity and pads the spaces between our abdominal organs—cause an imbalance in our hormones that can lead to insulin resistance, low-level chronic inflammation, and excessive production of estrogen, which in turn promotes cell growth. The faster turnover rate of cells increases the chances that cancerous mutations can occur. As the AICR notes, “maintaining a healthy weight may be the single most important way to protect against cancer.”

For seniors, the AICR advises that all meals be based on plant-based foods. A consistent diet of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains will “protect against a range of cancers, including mouth, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, stomach, lung, pancreas, and prostate.” Apart from providing all the vitamins and minerals our body needs, a plant-based
diet is an excellent source of glorious little chemicals called phytochemicals, which discourage cell mutations and, therefore, lower our cancer risk. Think of antioxidants and phytochemicals as little fire extinguishers that activate over free radicals and neutralize them from doing damage and instigating cancers. Or as Dr. William Li (president, medical director, and co-founder of the Angiogenesis Foundation) put it, fruits, vegetables, and whole plant foods are nature’s anti-cancer foods, our “culinary medicine.” Nature’s own form of chemotherapy and radiation!

Y
ou’ve just read about the benefits of starting a plant-based diet in your later years. But why wait for all that meat and dairy to beat up the body before making the switch? Why not start as early as possible?

No doubt about it: Kids who are raised on a proper plant-based diet will be setting themselves up for a lifetime of sensational health. As the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) notes, “Children raised on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes grow up to be slimmer and healthier and even live longer than their meat-eating friends,” while “children who acquire a taste for chicken nuggets, roast beef, and French fries today are the cancer patients, heart patients, and diabetes patients of tomorrow.”

An interesting tidbit: Back in 1924 at Yale Medical School, the cadaver-dissecting partner of my grandfather, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn Sr., happened to be none other than Benjamin Spock, who’d eventually write
The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care
, one of the seven top-selling books of all time. In the last edition of his world-famous book, produced while he was alive, Dr. Spock says: “We now know that there are harmful effects of a meaty diet… Children can get plenty of protein and iron from vegetables, beans, and other plant foods that avoid the fat and cholesterol that are in animal products.” As for dairy foods, Dr. Spock writes, “I no longer recommend dairy products after the age of two years. Other calcium sources offer many advantages that dairy products do not have.”

Parents don’t knowingly put the health of their children in jeopardy, but the sad effects of an animal-centric diet are not immediately
apparent. We know that prolonged consumption of saturated fats and cholesterol promotes heart disease, diabetes, and countless other chronic diseases. We know certain cancers are directly linked with animal-based diets. Yet far too many children are being raised on an unhealthy lifestyle that becomes increasingly difficult to kick, and will one day jeopardize their health.

In fact, nutrition expert Dr. Joel Fuhrman asserts, “When the data is reviewed with completeness and integrity, one has no choice but to recognize that the diets most people are feeding their children today must be seen as child abuse. They destine their child to a lifetime of compromised health and a premature death from cancer.”