A healthy high-calorie diet is high in fiber, has a moderate amount of salt and sugar and is very low in fat, saturated fat and cholesterol. Some foods in such a diet are high in calories, while others are low. Many nutritionists have formulated healthy diets that focus on these types of foods and consider caloric intake irrelevant.
Reversing Diseases
Healthy diets can reverse heart disease and should not be restricted by calories, wrote Dean Ornish in "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease." In the Reversal Diet that he recommends, 10 percent of calories comes from fat, 70 to 75 percent from carbohydrates and 15 to 20 percent from protein.
Ornish even encourages snacks between meals if the munchies are healthy. "Even though (the dieters) are eating more often, they still lose excess weight, and their cholesterol decreases substantially," he wrote.
Healthy Foods
Healthy diets should consist primarily of complex carbohydrates, wrote Ornish. Complex carbohydrates include grains, beans, vegetables and fruits.
Many of these foods are also high-calorie foods. In "Controlling Cholesterol," author Dr. Kenneth Cooper lists the calories, fat and cholesterol in hundreds of foods. Many beans have more than 100 calories per serving, but virtually no fat or cholesterol. They include green lima beans, red kidney beans and white beans.
Many cereals fall into the same category, including corn flakes, puffed rice, rice flakes and wheat flakes.
Myths
High-calorie diets can be healthy because there is "virtually no correlation between calorie intake and body weight," wrote Ornish in his book. Body fat, he added, is directly related to the percentage of calories that come from fat.
Ornish cites extensive research in explaining how he reached his conclusion, including medical studies by the Harvard Medical School and Stanford University. He wrote that how specific foods are digested accounts for this apparent anomaly. "Very little of the complex carbohydrates a person eats is converted into body fat," he wrote.
Controlling Cholesterol
Healthy high-calorie diets usually don't have a negative impact on cholesterol, which is a significant factor in heart disease and premature death. In fact, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services doesn't cite cutting calories as one of its five cholesterol-reduction recommendations, according to ""Nutripoints: A New Guide to Simple, Healthy Eating."
The recommendations include eating less high-fat food, replacing saturated fat with unsaturated fat, eating fewer high-cholesterol foods and eating more complex carbohydrates.
Expert Insight
High-calorie diets are often healthier than low-calorie diets, wrote "Nutripoints" author Dr. Roy Vartabedian. "I think the best thing you can do for yourself is to forget about calories," he wrote. "I've found that the people who are the most knowledgeable about calories are also those with the most finely developed ability to 'cheat' on a diet."
References
- "Controlling Cholesterol"; Dr. Kenneth Cooper; 1989
- "Nutripoints: A New Guide To Simple, Healthy Eating"; Dr. Roy Vartabedian and Kathy Matthews; 1991
- "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program For Reversing Heart Disease"; Dr. Dean Ornish; 1996
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