Diet Programs Exposed

There is a new trend of diet plan in the fitness world. This diet captivates the heart of health conscious individuals, mainly because its core goal is to prevent or treat heart disease, sounds great. What is this diet that I’m talking about? Here it is its called Ornish diet.

Ornish diet was named after its founder Dean Ornish, M.D. Ornish was the first physician to demonstrate that heart disease can be reversed by natural methods, including specific dietary and lifestyle changes.

Understanding Ornish Diet

•    Ornish diet has a very stern diet plan.
•    It suggests limited use of food items that have more than a small quantity of cholesterol and saturated fat.
•    Ornish diet stresses the use of complex carbohydrates (fruits, whole grain, etc) and limits the consumption of simple carbohydrates (alcohol, sugar, honey, etc). Simple carbohydrates contain a small amount of fiber and nutrients but are loaded with calories.
•    It is a vegetarian diet. Meats are not allowed from this diet.
•    An Ornish diet is composed mainly of 70% carbohydrates, 20% protein, and 10% fat.
•    Ornish diet is somewhat lesser in protein than that found in a typical diet.
•    Ornish diet teaches methods to ensure a sufficient supply of complete proteins from vegetable sources in the diet. This is done through combining healthy foods.
•    Dieters are allowed to take as much food as they wanted, as long as the 10%-of-calories-from-fat rule is sustained, and as long as only recommended foods are eaten.
•    Eating small meals throughout the day rather than eating 3 big meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner).

The Benefits and the Cons of Ornish Diet

Benefits

The Ornish diet, when used in a treatment plan, has been revealed to reduce blood cholesterol levels and reverse obstruction of the arteries, which makes it a dietary remedy for, strokes, high blood pressure, heart disease and high cholesterol level. The Ornish diet has also been shown to be an effective weight loss program, and is recommended as a preventive measure for heart disease, strokes, diabetes and other conditions related to high fat consumption. The Ornish diet is an easy and inexpensive form of treatment as well as a preventive measure.

Cons
Some experts say that Ornish diet is a bit hard for people to follow. So, there is a higher chance of people to not stay with this program in the long term. It is also argued that Dr. Ornish’s diets are too low in fat, and do not provide a sufficient amount of essential fatty acids. People who follow a very-low-fat diet often feel hungry and unsatisfied. Critics point out that these diets exclude fish, despite a significant body of research that demonstrates a protective effect of fish (and fish oil) consumption against heart disease.

A diet high in carbohydrates increases blood levels of the hormone insulin. High insulin levels are one of the strongest risk factors for heart disease. It should be pointed out, however, that if you stick with complex carbohydrates as recommended by Ornish, the possibility of this happening is pretty slim.