I'm sitting here watching NBC's tribute to Tim Russert tonight. Although he was famous for being the biggest political guru of his generation, he was also the author of two books, both about fatherhood.

He died today of a heart attack. He was only 58.

I would have liked to have asked my dad what to do to minimize the risk of heart attack. Being a doctor, he should know. But I can't. He died of a heart attack in 1994, age 51.

I think I know what Dad would say, although he would say it with a whole lot more authority, having four degrees and the title "D.O." to his name.

I'm sure Dad would point out that not all of the factors are within our control. The best we can do is control the factors that we can control. (Not that he did, sadly.)

I don't know much about medicine (Dad didn't want me to be a doctor, and honestly, I never had much interest), but I know plenty about controlling the factors we can, in hopes of minimizing the factors we can't.

But diet is a big factor, and we can control it. We can (and should) eat foods lower in cholesterol. We can (and should) avoid hydrogenated oils as much as possible. And we can (and should) eat foods that seem to lower cholesterol, such as oatmeal. Soy is also rumored to lower cholesterol, but the question is whether it actually lowers cholesterol, or if it merely replaces lots of foods that are high in cholesterol.

So, here's the gift I want fathers to give their families this week. Start eating oatmeal for breakfast at least a couple of times a week. And if you're really ambitious, eat fake soy meat a couple of times a week instead of the real thing.

Trust me on this one. I'm a red-blooded, beef-eating Kansas City native. I grew up on the stuff. Eight years ago I gave up meat for Lent, mostly because it was something that seemed possible but extremely difficult to do. I wanted to see if I could do it. So I did it--barely. Then I went out for BBQ afterward.

Back then, I tried soy burgers. I wasn't impressed. Trust me. They're better now. If you don't like one brand, try another, but my favorites are the Boca Flame Grilled. Soy bacon is good too. It doesn't look a thing like the real stuff, but it tastes fine.

If there's a relatively minor and tolerable adjustment that we can make to potentially increase the number of our years, and almost certainly increase the quality of those years, shouldn't we do it?