Well, did you eat to live? Or did you live to eat?

Since Labor Day is usually cook-out time,for most that meant skewering up some pork or beef over the grill.

Hope you remembered that the No.1 killer in America is heart disease.

According to the U.S. government, there’s more death related to cardiovascular disease than the combined rates of all other causes of death. That’s more than cancer, suicide, accidents, pneumonia/flu, diabetes, liver or kidney disease.

Of course, that’s never stopped anyone, especially my particular subgroup of Asian America–Filipino Americans–from devouring their BBQ and lechon.

Sound like you?  Then I suggest you watch the recent CNN special , “The Last Heart Attack,” with Dr. Sanjay Gupta.  

See it via this link:

The Last Heart Attack– Sanjay Gupta\’s CNN special

The special will give you everything you need to know to save your life, including giving up meat and moving toward a plant-based diet.

The program illustrates the difference between the good (HDL) and the lousy (LDL) cholesterol , and how the lousy cholesterol gets trapped in your arteries as plaque.

Turns out it matters how big the cholesterol chunks are. Bigger ones tend to flow through. Smaller ones tend to get stuck, solidify with other small chunks and cause blockages that result in heart attacks.

To find out whether you have big or small cholesterol coursing through your arteries requires a heart scan.

In the program, Gupta ups the ante by featuring the progress of former President Bill Clinton.  Check out how he went from chili dog chomper to veganism. And he did it all to save his heart.

You can too.

Don’t be fooled by stats released last year. The U.S. Office for Minority Health actually said Asian Americans were doing pretty well with a lower percentage of us with high cholesterol  and high blood pressure vs. the general population.

But that’s no reason to celebrate with some crispy pata.

Break down the numbers ethnically and Filipinos were exposed as among the worse for cholesterol, high blood pressure and hypertension. That’s not a winning trifecta.

Joining us were Native Hawaiians and Japanese.

But ahead of all of us are Asian Indians.  The Asian Indian men were found to have the highest prevalence of heart attacks compared to all, with a heart disease rate three times higher than the U.S. rate. Some doctors say it could mean that the spread of heart disease among Asian Indians is genetic.

In that sense, Gupta’s report is a tad self-serving.  But he does talk to experts who say heart disease doesn’t have to be a fait accompli.  The effects of all that bad eating can actually be reversed—by some timely and healthy eating.

The recommendation: Don’t eat anything that has a face or comes from a mother.

Cow, pig, chicken, fish, aso. OUT.  Whole grains, vegetables, fruits , beans, IN. 

Change your life? Change your food. Heart disease is a preventable, food-born illness.  

You just have to dare not to eat Filipino.

Since 1989, despite a few lapses, I’ve been pretty much vegetarian for selfish reasons. I want to live.

Last week, my sister had this revelation for me.

“I’m taking the same pills as mama,” she said.

I was shocked. She’s just a year older than me, and apparently is on course to mirror my mother and father, health-wise. Both died of heart disease.

My sister, like you, need to watch the aforementioned CNN special.

By eating to live, you can save your life.