In this series of interviews I've conducted with extraordinary nutritional researchers and medical doctors, I've sought to understand the link between diet and health. The common refrain is resoundingly clear in that a plant-based diet is both preventive and healing, whereas a diet high in animal protein is destructive to our health. And now it's become abundantly evident that a high protein diet is not only making us sick, but it also makes us fat.
There is no one who has more peer reviewed research on the subject of weight loss and overall health than Dean Ornish, M.D. He has sparked a revolution in cardiology with his studies which show that heart disease can be reversed through comprehensive lifestyle changes. His current research is showing that those very changes also affect gene expression -- that you can turn on or turn off genes that affect cancer, heart disease and longevity. He is the founder and President of the non-profit Preventive Medicine Research Institute and is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Here's what he says about losing weight the healthy way, and keeping it off.
KF: It's widely believed that people lose weight fastest on a high protein diet. True?
DO: Initially, they may lose more weight because they are losing water weight. But by the end the year, the weight usually returns. In general, slower weight loss by eating more healthfully is more sustainable. Slow but steady wins the race.
KF: Why do some people have such a hard time losing weight and keeping it off?
DO: It's not enough to focus only on what we eat and other behaviors; we need to work at a deeper level. The real epidemic in our country is not only obesity but also depression, isolation, and loneliness. As one patient told me, "When I feel lonely and depressed, I eat a lot of fat. It fills the void. Fat coats my nerves and numbs the pain." People often overeat when they're feeling stressed, lonely, and depressed --"comfort foods."
Everyone knows that diet and exercise play a role in how much we weigh, but many are surprised to learn what a powerful role emotional stress has in causing us to gain weight and how stress management techniques can help us to lose it and keep it off.
Chronic emotional stress causes us to gain weight in several important ways:
• Many people overeat to cope with feeling stressed, and they often tend to eat foods that are high in fat, salt and sugar as well.
• Chronic emotional stress stimulates your brain to release hormones that cause you to gain weight, especially around your belly where it's most harmful and least attractive. Chronic stress also causes stimulation of hormones such as cytokines that promote inflammation. Also, obesity itself causes a low-grade inflammation which, in turn, tends to promote more obesity in a vicious cycle.
• Since chronic emotional stress promotes weight gain, stress management techniques may play a powerful role in helping you to lose weight and keep it off. The psychosocial, emotional and spiritual issues are as important to address if you want to lose weight and keep it off as the nutrition and exercise ones.
Most Americans eat too many refined carbohydrates. When they go on a typical high-protein diet, they reduce their intake of all carbohydrates, which for most Americans means they primarily reduce their intake of simple carbohydrates. This helps them to lose weight.
Whenever I debated Dr. Atkins before he died, he was usually described as the "low carb" doctor and I was the "low fat" doctor. But that was never accurate. I have always advocated that an optimal diet is lower in total fat, very low in "bad fats" (saturated fat, hydrogenated fats, and trans fatty acids), high in "good carbs" (fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and soy products), low in "bad carbs" (sugar, white flour, processed foods) and with enough of the "good fats" (omega 3 fatty acids) and high-quality proteins.
There are clear benefits to reducing the intake of refined carbohydrates, especially in people who are sensitive to them. The solution is not to go from refined carbohydrates like pasta to pork rinds and from sugar to sausage, but to substitute refined bad carbs with unrefined good carbs.
KF: Tell me more about a good carb vs a bad carb.
DO: Good carbs are whole foods. These include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and soy products in their natural, unrefined, unprocessed forms.
Because these good carbs are unrefined, they are naturally high in fiber as well. The fiber fills you up before you eat too much. For example, it's hard to get too many calories from eating apples or whole grains, because apples are naturally low in calories and high in fiber, which causes you to feel full before you consume too many calories.
Also, the fiber in good carbs causes your food to be digested and absorbed into your bloodstream more slowly. This helps to regulate your blood sugar into a normal range without getting too high or too low.
For example, when whole wheat flour is processed into white flour, or brown rice into white rice, the fiber and bran are removed. This turns a "good carb" into a "bad carb."
Why? Because when the fiber and bran are removed, you get a quadruple-whammy:
• You can eat large amounts of "bad carbs" without getting full. Fiber fills you up before you consume too many calories. Removing fiber allows you to consume virtually unlimited amounts of sugar without causing you to feel like you're full.
• When you eat a lot of "bad carbs," they get absorbed quickly, causing your blood sugar to rise too rapidly. When your blood sugar gets too high, your pancreas secretes insulin to bring it back down. However, it may go down below where it started, causing low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). By analogy, when you pull a pendulum to one side and let it go, it doesn't stop at the mid-point; it continues an equal distance to the other side.
When your blood sugar gets too low, you feel tired, lethargic and a little crabby. There's a good temporary fix for those bad feelings--more bad carbs! This creates a craving for more "bad carbs" to raise your blood sugar in a vicious cycle.
• When your body secretes too much insulin, it accelerates the conversion of calories into triglycerides, which is how your body stores fat. Thus, when you eat a lot of "bad carbs," you consume an excessive number of calories that don't fill you up, and you're more likely to convert these extra calories to body fat. Insulin may also cause your body to produce more of an enzyme called lipoprotein lipase, which increases the uptake of fat into cells, leading to weight gain.
• When your body secretes too much insulin, it may lead to insulin resistance and even diabetes. Insulin binds to what are called insulin receptors on your cells. When your body makes repeated surges of insulin in response to too many "bad carbs," the receptors become less sensitive--a little like Aesop's fable of the boy who cried wolf--as if the insulin receptors were saying, "Oh, not more insulin again, just ignore it." Like a heroin addict who requires more and more of the drug to get the same feeling, insulin resistance causes your body to make more and more insulin just to maintain the same effect on your blood sugar. Over time, this may lead to type 2 diabetes. Too much insulin also enhances the growth and proliferation of arterial smooth muscle cells, promoting atherosclerosis and clogging your arteries.
This doesn't mean you should never eat bad carbs. I do, in moderation. When I eat bad carbs, I try to consume them along with good carbs and other high-fiber foods. That way, the fiber in the good carbs will also slow the absorption of the bad carbs.
KF: Does it make a difference if the protein in our diet is vegetarian or animal?
DO: Yes. To paraphrase Gertrude Stein, a calorie is a calorie is a calorie in its effects on weight but not on health. Interestingly, there have been a few "vegetarian Atkins diet" studies published recently, which is a little like putting lipstick on a pork rind...
KF: What's the danger in a high animal protein diet? Is animal fat any different than vegetable fat (like oils or avocado)?
DO: Diets that are high in animal protein are usually high in saturated fat, which promotes both heart disease and cancer. A recent study reviewed by Dr. Steven A. Smith in The New England Journal of Medicine found that high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets accelerate atherosclerosis (blockage in arteries) through mechanisms other than traditional risk factors such as changes in cholesterol and triglycerides.
Fat (from any source) has nine calories per gram, whereas protein and carbohydrates have only four calories per gram. Thus, when you eat less fat, you consume fewer calories even if you eat the same amount of food--because the food is less dense in calories.
Also, too much protein, especially animal protein, puts a strain on your liver and kidneys and promotes osteoporosis. When your body excretes too much protein, it excretes too much calcium along with it. Too much animal protein, especially red meat, has been linked with significantly increased risks of heart disease, prostate cancer, breast cancer and colon cancer.
For example, a study published last year in the Archives of Internal Medicine reported the findings from a half-million people in the NIH-AARP study that consumption of red meat was significantly associated with increases in total mortality, cardiovascular mortality and cancer mortality.
Studies show that measures of cardiovascular disease rather than just risk factors show that people on average become worse on an Atkins diet. For example, a recent study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association by Miller et al showed that flow-mediated vasodilation (a measure of heart disease), LDL-cholesterol and inflammation worsened on a high-animal-protein diet but improved significantly on a low-fat, whole foods, plant-based diet.
KF: How should one eat in order to lose weight?
DO: Mindfully. It's not just what you eat, but also how you eat that matters. Have you ever eaten a bag of popcorn while watching an intense movie? All of your attention is focused on the movie--so you may look down and see that the bag of popcorn is empty. You got all the calories but little of the pleasure. In contrast, if you really pay attention to your food, savoring it as you would a fine wine, you have greatly enhanced pleasure with fewer calories. And pleasure is sustainable.
KF: What should be avoided?
DO: As described above, avoid refined carbohydrates, too much fat (especially trans fats which cause weight gain), and processed foods.
KF: Should we count calories? Fat grams? Carbs?
DO: In my experience, if you eat predominantly a whole foods, plant-based diet that is naturally high in fiber and low in fat and in refined carbohydrates, and if you eat it mindfully, you don't have to count anything to lose weight. You feel full before you consume too many calories.
KF: What are some of the health concerns of being overweight?
DO: Being overweight significantly increases the risk of virtually every chronic disease. Some authorities have said that obesity is now overtaking smoking as the most preventable cause of premature death.
KF: How do you break through cravings for unhealthy food, because they really do have a hold on most of us!?
DO: As you begin to eat more healthfully, your taste preferences change. You begin to prefer foods that are more healthful. And you connect the dots between what you eat and how you feel. Because these mechanisms are so dynamic, most people find that the feel so much better, so quickly, it reframes the reason for changing from living longer to feeling better. And feeling better is sustainable; risk factor modification is not.
KF: What is a reasonable rate of weight loss?
DO: In most cases, no more than three pounds/week.
KF: What if we want to lose weight faster; is there a healthy way to do it?
DO: Do more exercise and meditation and eat smaller amounts of healthy foods and less salt. Regular exercise not only burns calories, it also raises your basal metabolic rate, the number of calories you burn while at rest. Thus, exercise helps you lose weight even when you're not exercising. Do some strength training as well as aerobic exercise. Walking a mile burns even more calories than running a mile. Exercise in ways that you enjoy, then you're more likely to do it. If it's fun, it's sustainable.
KF: If someone is too busy to cook, and is in a big hurry, what is the best and most affordable approach?
DO: There are more and more healthy prepared and frozen meals on the market. Eat with your friends and take turns shopping and cooking--not only does it save time, but when you fill your heart with the love of friends and family in a shared meal, you have less need to overfill your belly.
For more information: www.pmri.org
Susan Yager: Why the New Atkins Diet Won't Work Any Better Than the Old One
Tara Stiles: The Master Cleanse That Lasts
Connie Bennett: Fell Off The Diet Wagon? 10 Tips To Pick Yourself Up
Sandy Henson Corso: Kale Juice: My Miracle Tonic! (VIDEO)
Loading comments… 
Does one think areas of the world in the middle of famines have these discussion
Diet
Most carcinogen
Heavy consumptio
Nitrites and nitrates are used in meat because they bind to myoglobin, inhibiting botulinum exotoxin production
Grass fed beef is high in CLA. The kind found in beef has been found to fight cancer, especially breast cancer.
Your quote talks about the nitrates and poisons in meat. Man added those and they are not found in natural products such as grass fed beef.
Ironic that humans have been eating meat for millennia with no obesity problems, until recently when large amounts of soy and grain are added to everything sold at the grocer.
No one here is arguing that fruits and veg are bad or not necessary. But I will argue that a balanced, sustainabl
http://www
"And a balanced diet of naturally raised grass fed meat is healthier than a vegan or vegetarian diet." - Your opinion, not fact. See above and below.
"Any diet that requires chemical supplement
As to CLA and is anti-cance
I really don't think any science says it's unhealthy to eat LEAN meat, raised on farms where they are raised organicall
Are you a beef farmer by chance?
http://www
http://www
Vegetables
Steinmetz KA, Potter JD.
World Cancer Research Fund, London, England.
In this review of the scientific literature on the relationsh
http://www
Quotes from Kreiger:
"Low carb diets ARE effective for causing weight loss"
On why people can't stick to Ornish type diets:
"This is more due to the low protein intake rather than the carbohydra
On the difficulty of studying people on Ornish/McD
"This especially becomes an issue when one considers that a low carb, high protein diet creates greater satiety than a low fat, high carb diet. Given that the high carb diet is more difficult to adhere to, the people on this diet will likely be more prone to underrepor
Krieger published one paper, a meta-study
"CONCLUSIO
You just assumed that because he was critical of Gary Taubes, he supported Ornish and McDougall'
To Entopticon
1) Saturated fats do NOT cause heart disease.
http://www
2) High fat diets do not cause obesity.
3) All problems associated with fats are caused by two types: trans fats and excessive omega 6.
"1) Saturated fats do NOT cause heart disease.
http://www
In the authors' list of support near the top, you will find:
"4) Supported by the National Dairy Council (PWS-T and RMK)..."
Now, this does not necessaril
Replacemen
High protein, high fat, carbs when needed for energy is the way to go. Take the politics out of this; corn, wheat, rice... all cereal grains: these are not human food. If you want to be healthy, eat the way we were designed to eat. Lots of animal fat and protein, fruits, roots, leafy-gree
You can choose whatever food based diet you want, but if you are drinking sodas on a regular basis - this will cause you the most harm in my opinion. If you make one change in your diet - drop the sodas and drink plain unfiltered WATER!
FACT, Atkins, South Beach and the Zone (if you can figure out what it is!) are much superior to Ornish.
MAYBE FACT?? High dose fish oil and vitamin D3 may really help. Sure works for my wife and I.
http://www
Read it. Please. For God's sake, read it yourself. Ornish, although better than no diet, was far inferior to Atkins at not just weight loss, but blood pressure AND lipids.
Please, Kathy, read it yourself! This was not anecdotal. It was VERY careful and thorough. Ornish is better than nothing, but Atkins is better than Ornish. For the good doctor to make disparagin
more people are fat from twinkies than bacon!!
d
Saturated fats does not cause heart disease.
Low carb, high fat, high protein diets promote weight loss.
http://www
A calorie is measured by burning the food in question and seeing how much heat it produces.
But there are lots of things in food that burn but won't cause you to gain weight. For example, many foods contain cellulose. Celluslose is what newspapers are mode of and if you burn newspaper, it gives off lots of heat, so it has lots of calories. However, humans don't digest cellulose, so you could eat all the news paper you want, and still not gain a pound. In fact, you would starve to death. Maybe it would be a problem for cows, horses and rabbits which do digest cellulose.
The other thing that raises questions about this article is the fact that Eskimos have high protien, high fat diets and have low rates of heart disease. They only start having health problems when they add refined sugar to their diets. I suspect that refined sugar is much more of a problem than high protein, high fat diets.