Heart disease is the biggest killer in Ireland and the Uk and accounts for 48% of all deaths in Europe. According to the Survey of Lifestyle and Nutrition conducted in Ireland in 2007 – 82% of the Irish adult population had high cholesterol and 60% high blood pressure.

Heart disease has touched everyone’s life in some form – we all know someone who has died of a heart attack or stroke. But there is good news. Leading science has now conclusively proved that good diet and a healthy lifestyle not only prevents heart disease but actually reverses it. So just to break that down for you, heart disease is the biggest killer in Ireland than all other diseases combined.

Cholesterol levels are the main means of measuring whether someone has heart disease. Our Happy Heart course is designed to lower your cholesterol without drugs through simple diet changes.

We have had more than 200 people through our Happy Heart course so far. It’s a 4 week course that lowers peoples cholesterol naturally without drugs. The average drop in total cholesterol we’ve seen on our courses is 20% (in less than a month).The program is aimed to help people develop effective diet and lifestyle routines that help prevent and reverse heart disease (and other degenerative diseases.) There are no drugs involved; this is simply about good diet and a healthy lifestyle.

On the first evening, and the last, a nurse will test the blood cholesterol of attendees using a simple pinprick blood test. We will use the results to show how diet and lifestyle can lessen the dangers of heart disease. Classes will last about 90 minutes. They will take place upstairs in The Happy Pear and involve short but very entertaining lectures, some video clips, tasters and food demos.

What participants can expect:

• a fall in their cholesterol levels (total cholesterol, LDL and triglycerides)
• to lose excess weight
• increased energy levels
• increased sense of wellbeing
• to learn about the foods that help lower your cholesterol and how to cook and prepare these foods
• the lifestyle choices that support a happy heart and
• Participants usually learn lots about food, it’s a very practical course with food demo’s and tastings each week and new healthy recipes that you try out on the program!

Who should attend?

• anyone with high cholesterol
• anyone worried about heart disease, strokes or angina
• anyone concerned by a loved one’s health or lifestyle
• anyone with heart disease who wants to arrest it

Who is presenting the course? The Flynn Twins – Stephen and David! They have run more than 50 health education nights. Both are chefs and walk their talk and practice what they preach, that ‘you are what you eat’. Both have been studying the links between diet, lifestyle and health for the past seven years. David has a Certificate in Plant-based Nutrition from leading US institution Cornell University. If interested in the program please email education@thehappypear.ie with your name and contact number and we will contact you.