1. You Probably Underestimate The Amount of Fat in Your Diet
The Ornish diet recommends that only 10% of your calories come from fat. In a five-year follow-up study on Ornish diet participants, they reduced the fat content from an average of 35% to 30%. This probably happens because fat is more than twice as calorie dense, at 9 calories per gram versus only 4 calories per gram of carbohydrate. That means that an ounce of olive oil has more than twice as many calories as an ounce of fresh fruit. So it's easy to overeat the fats on the Ornish diet.
2. The Ornish Diet Can Be Tough to Follow Long-Term
For the reason mentioned above, plus the fact that western society is built around an industrial agribusiness food system, it can be very challenging to stick to the diet. The people who have the most success sticking to the diet seem to be those who have the most to gain, such as patients who face heart bypass surgery if they don't clean up their diets immediately.
3. The Ornish Diet is the Only Major Diet Shown Effective For Long-Term Weight Loss and Maintenance
Many diets designed by physicians have been studied to see how effective they are at helping people lose weight and keep it off over many years. Only the Ornish diet performs well in this department so far. After 5 years, people had lost an average of 24 pounds, and most had managed to keep off the weight. No other major diet systems have managed to match this feat.
4. The Ornish Diet Will Help Maintain Your Bones
Because it's low in acid-forming foods such as dairy and animal flesh, and high in mineral-rich, alkalinizing fruits & vegetables, the Ornish diet will help you stave off osteoporosis. In large studies, vegetarian and vegan women consistently show better, stronger bones than meat-eating women.
Osteoporosis causes significant pain and suffering from fractures that are tough to heal, so be sure to get your bone density checked regularly. More men suffer from osteoporosis than ever before, thanks to western diets.
5. Plant-Based Ornish Type Diets Help Terminal Heart Disease Patients
A lengthy study on a diet virtually identical to the Ornish model was conducted on patients with severe arterial blockages. Some of these patients were facing triple-bypass surgery and were given less than a year to live. Over 20 years later, many of these patients are still alive, and their heart disease has been reduced or eliminated. Sydney Baker MacDonald, MD, has called the plant-based Ornish diet the "100 horses diet," because chronic disease is like having your cart stuck in the mud. When your health is mired in the muck, plant-based diets can pull you to safety
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