While he didn't follow this specific diet, what he follows is pretty close and I really do think his diet choices are why he has lived as long as he has, at least for his particular situation.
He has been practically obsessive about eating organic and most of it is home-grown (which is where he gets a lot of his exercise as well). Again he has done his research and takes a boatload of quite effective dietary supplements in addition to a good diet.
However, it's not an infinite cure. There is a hard limit to what diet can do.
This advice can be very helpful for someone just starting to have a heart problem, as it can significantly improve and lengthen life.
But he is way beyond that now. Many of those stories are from people who had a particularly poor diet, and turned the situation around by changing the diet. There isn't much he can change at this point, he's always tweaking, and experimenting (he's been at this for 25+ years!) but it's about as close to optimal as he can get.
I don't know anything about your situation, but eating organic is not really what Dr. Esselstyn's diet is about.
Note: If you already know everything below, I am not talking down to you. I'm just writing it in case you haven't heard all of the information before. You can decide if it's valid information or not, I cannot say either way since I'm not a doctor.
The theory behind the diet is that if you eat a plant based diet, your Endothelial cells in your bloodline will activate and start removing plaque.
I don't think you can be on a diet that is "pretty close" to this diet and still be on this diet. You have to remove all of the banned foods in order for the Endothelial cells to start reversing the damage.
You could also try a Raw Food Diet, but a Raw Food Diet is essentially also a Plant Based Diet.
I'm not a doctor. I have no idea if this actually reverse heart disease or would work for your father-in-law. But it's the only thing I've ever found on the internet that sounds like it might actually reverse heart disease.
He has been practically obsessive about eating organic and most of it is home-grown (which is where he gets a lot of his exercise as well). Again he has done his research and takes a boatload of quite effective dietary supplements in addition to a good diet.
However, it's not an infinite cure. There is a hard limit to what diet can do.
This advice can be very helpful for someone just starting to have a heart problem, as it can significantly improve and lengthen life.
But he is way beyond that now. Many of those stories are from people who had a particularly poor diet, and turned the situation around by changing the diet. There isn't much he can change at this point, he's always tweaking, and experimenting (he's been at this for 25+ years!) but it's about as close to optimal as he can get.