The Dean Ornish Diet book entitled, Eat More, Weight Less is a well written and simple to follow book that explains how to lose weight with a vegetarian type diet (low-fat and high in fiber). The medial community is well aware of Dr. Ornish because he changed how the medical community looks at heart blockages (he proved you could reverse blockages without resorting to surgery).
The Dr. Ornish diet is a diet that focuses on eating VERY healthy. Actually the focus is on being healthy first, and then losing weight secondly. The theory behind the book is that a combination of eating very healthy and participating in daily exercise will provide you with excellent health and the ideal weight.
The Specifics Of The Dr. Dean Ornish Diet
The Dean Ornish Eat More Weigh Less program is about being aware of the calories that you consume. The Dr. breaks his diet down into the foods that you should eat more of, the foods you should eat fewer of, and the food you shouldn’t eat at all.
These are the foods that you can eat whenever you want and can eat until you are completely satisfied:
1.Beans
2.Legumes
3.Vegetables
4.Grains
5.Fruits
The following foods are the foods that you should eat only some of the time:
1.Skim milk
2.Yogurt (nonfat)
3.cheeses (nonfat)
4.Sour cream (nonfat)
5.Egg whites
6.Nonfat or low-fat foods you can find at the grocery (this covers everything from frozen dinners to desserts).
These foods should be avoided at all costs:
1.Meat (all meats including fish)
2.Any and all oils
3.Avocados
4.Olives (learn about extra virgin olive oil for weight loss)
5.Nuts and seeds
6.Sugar (including regular and artificial sweeteners)
7.Booze
8.Dairy
This is pretty much what the Dr. Ornish diet plan consists of. If you follow these guidelines and only eat the foods laid out above and avoid the foods listed then you’ll consume less than 10% of your overall calories from fat.
The Dr. recommends that you eat frequently throughout the day so that you prevent yourself from getting too hungry. With this diet you will get fuller much faster and you will be able to eat more without consuming a lot of calories.
Also you need to make sure and add about thirty minutes of exercise every day (or at least an hour, 3 times per week). He also recommends incorporating a stress release program of some sorts (Yoga, meditation, massage, etc.)
Ornish Diet Pros And Cons
Mostly this diet get’s a big thumbs up from nutritionists and the medical community. Because of how healthy the diet is and how “rooted in science” his diet is most physicians and nutrition experts agree that this diet is one of the only “popular” diets that really produces the type of results that are long lasting.
The cons that most professionals point out is that most people are not familiar with this type of diet so that switching to it will be a completely new experience. This diet does call for drastic change and most people will be shocked once they do it. However, as experts point out, once you’re on the diet and you stay on it for a couple of weeks, you’ll feel so much better that you won’t want to quit.
The Bottom Line
People who are vegetarians or people who are absolutely willing to change everything about their diets are usually the only people who succeed with this diet. The recommendation that Dr. Ornish makes to eat much smaller meals much more frequently requires that people on the diet change the schedule for when they eat, which is not easy for most people (most people are on a pretty strict eating schedule—whether they realize it or not). However, this is one of the only popular diets that is highly recommended from doctors and nutritionists for losing weight and keeping it off for life.
To learn more you can visit the Dean Ornish website on WebMD
