Ornish diet: principles, cost, advantages and disadvantages

Written By The HealthMeth Team - Updated On Friday, December 25, 2020 9:07 PM

Created in the 1970s by American researcher and doctor Dean Ornish, the Ornish diet would allow its members to "feel better, live longer, lose weight and be in better health". Low fat and based on the vegetarian model, it encourages people to make healthy food choices but also to exercise, manage stress and have strong emotional ties. What is this diet really worth?

What is the Ornish diet?

The Ornish diet was designed in 1977 by Dean Ornish, an American physician and researcher, founder of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute.

Although it allows weight loss, this is not its main objective: it seeks above all to encourage the adoption of good lifestyle habits, with a view to improving or even preventing certain chronic pathologies such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes or prostate cancer. It is also part of the cardiac rehabilitation programs (Dr. Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease) supported by Medicare, the American health insurance system.

Close to the vegetarian model, it favors a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, legumes and complex carbohydrates, and low in fats, especially animal fats.

How does the Ornish diet work?

The goal of the Ornish diet is to improve the quality of life, through lasting lifestyle changes:

  • Diet Changes: In his most flexible program (called The Spectrum), Dr. Ornish classifies foods into five groups, depending on whether they are more or less healthy. Thus, in the first group, we find fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, egg white and skimmed dairy products; In the second group are added products richer in unsaturated fats such as avocados, seeds, nuts and cooking oils; In the third group, fish and seafood as well as semi-skimmed dairy products; In the fourth group, poultry, whole dairy products, pastries and other cookies; In the fifth group, the foods highest in saturated fat and trans fatty acids such as red meat, fried foods and fast foods. While foods from the latter groups are not prohibited, they should be limited. Consumption of foods from the first groups, which have "anti-cancer, anti-cardiovascular and anti-aging properties", is however recommended.
  • Changes in physical activity: The diet strongly recommends the practice of moderate to intense physical activity. Aerobic exercises, to improve endurance, are recommended in particular, for 30 minutes per day or one hour every other day, for a total of 3 to 5 hours per week. Muscle strengthening exercises are also recommended, 2-3 times a week. The benefits: a more efficient heart, lower sugar and triglyceride levels or even better control of stress hormones.
  • Changes in stress management: because stress can be bad for cardiovascular health and lead to chronic mental illnesses such as depression, Dr. Ornish advocates better management, through different techniques such as meditation, deep breathing, relaxation progressive or even visualization.
  • Relationship life changes: According to Dr. Ornish, "there is no other factor in medicine that has such a great impact on quality of life, incidence of disease and premature death from all causes as loneliness and loneliness. 'isolation', which is why he attaches great importance to 'love and intimate ties'. To strengthen emotional ties, the Ornish program recommends spending more time with family and friends, participating in support groups or even starting psychotherapy.

What can I eat?

The Ornish diet favors vegetable proteins, complex carbohydrates and unsaturated fats (the "good fats") at the expense of animal proteins, refined sugars, saturated fats and trans fatty acids (the "bad fats").

Foods in their raw form are recommended, while industrial and processed foods are to be avoided.

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If The Spectrum program allows some small variations, this is not the case with the Reversing Heart Disease program, which lists the recommended foods, to moderate and to ban.

Recommended foods

In detail, among the recommended foods we find:

  • The fruits ;
  • The vegetables ;
  • Whole grain products (brown rice, wholemeal pasta, oats, whole wheat, etc.);
  • Legumes;
  • Skimmed dairy products (no more than two servings per day);
  • Soy products (soybeans, tofu, soy yogurt, etc.);
  • Egg white.

Prohibited foods

Among those prohibited, we find:

  • Red meat ;
  • Poultry ;
  • Fish ;
  • Whole dairy products;
  • Vegetable oils;
  • The lawyer;
  • The coconut ;
  • The olives.

Foods to moderate

Among those to moderate, we find:

  • Seeds and nuts;
  • Refined sugars (white rice, white pasta, etc.);
  • Added sugars (honey, brown and white sugar, etc.);
  • Sweets and pastries;
  • Salt (to be replaced by spices, aromatic herbs, lemon or vinegar);
  • The alcohol ;
  • Coffee and tea.

The Ornish diet does not restrict the number of calories unless weight loss is desired. On the other hand, rather than eating three times a day, he recommends eating several small meals throughout the day.

Is the Ornish diet easy to follow?

Cost of the Ornish diet

While the cost of fruits, vegetables and whole grain products can be high, savings will be made on meats and industrial products, which are not recommended.

In the United States, the Reversing Heart Disease program costs around $ 9,000 per person, or more than € 8,100, partly paid for by Medicare.

Effectiveness of monitoring related to the Ornish diet

The fact of eating often, in small quantities, "helps to avoid the feeling of hunger and to maintain a constant level of energy", underlines the site of Dr. Ornish. On the other hand, due to its low fat intake, the Ornish diet can be restrictive and therefore difficult to follow in the long term.

In the United States, as part of cardiac rehabilitation, the Ornish program offers nine weeks of group monitoring by various health professionals (dietitian, stress management specialist, nurse, etc.). And despite the constraints, 90% of participants would continue to follow it after a year, the benefits being really observed. By comparison, "only 30 to 50% of people on statins continue to take them after six months," says Dr. Ornish.

Dr. Ornish and his colleagues, in collaboration with several academic institutions, have carried out numerous scientific studies showing that an Ornish-type diet indeed slows the progression of certain chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, prostate cancer, in addition to losing weight.

  • Among the oldest and most famous, the one published in 1998 in the journal JAMA Network1 showed that people following the Ornish diet saw their coronary heart disease regress, the diameter of their stenosis having widened (+ 1.75% after one year and + 3.1% after five years) while that of the control group (healthy) shrank (-2.3% after one year and -11.8% after five years). In five years, 25 cardiac accidents were recorded in the experimental group against 45 in the control group. This same study showed that after one year, adherents of the Ornish diet saw their LDL cholesterol level drop by 37.2% (vs. 6% in the control group), and the frequency of angina symptoms fell. breast was reduced by 91% (vs. a 165% increase in the control group). Finally,
  • A 2007 study published in the same journal2 sought to compare the effects of four popular diets on the weight loss of obese women. It has been observed that at 12 months, the Atkins diet allowed an average loss of 4.7 kg; the Zone 1.6 kg diet; the LEARN diet 2.6 kg; and the Ornish diet 2.2 kg.
  • A 2010 study published in the American Journal of Health Promotion3 states that the blood pressure of patients who took the Ornish program as part of cardiac rehabilitation dropped significantly after 12 weeks, which allowed some of them them to reduce the use of antihypertensive drugs. A similar finding was observed with the blood sugar level of people with diabetes in a study published in 20064.
  • A 2005 study published in The Journal of Urology5 explains that in patients with prostate cancer who followed the Ornish diet, the PSA level fell by 4%, while in the control group, it decreased. increased by 6%. In addition, the growth of cancer cells was blocked more significantly in patients in the experimental group.

What type of physical exercise should accompany the Ornish diet?

To observe a beneficial impact on weight and cardiovascular health in particular, the practice of moderate to intense physical activity is recommended. The Ornish diet recommends aerobic exercise, which must meet the following conditions to be effective:

  • Practice them for 30 to 60 minutes, for a total of 3 to 5 hours per week;
  • Do it three to six times a week depending on the intensity;
  • Be between 45 and 80% of your effort capacity (determined by a stress test);
  • Give priority to walking, running, cycling, swimming… sports where you are constantly on the move, compared to basketball for example.

To this are added muscle strengthening exercises, which must:

  • Be done two to three times a week at least, with one day of rest between each session;
  • Allow between 12 and 15 repetitions each time, hence the importance of choosing the right weight;
  • Be varied (8 or 10 exercises) and work the muscles of the upper and lower body.

Be careful, however: according to a report from the National Food Safety Agency (ANSES) 6, in a person not used to playing sports, the practice of a physical activity associated with a slimming diet may cause short-term "cardiovascular risks" and "discomfort (hypoglycaemic, vagal, and / or aggravated by dehydration)".

Is this diet dangerous for health?

In its report on the risks associated with weight loss diets, ANSES explains that, paradoxically, diets low in lipids would also have a negative impact on the lipid profile: "The first studies show that in the absence of weight loss, a hypolipidic diet causes both an increase in triglycerides and a decrease in HDL cholesterol ".

In addition, the Agency affirms that "the practice of slimming diets is deleterious for the integrity of the bone capital (impact on the bone mass and therefore probably on the fracture risk)", and also leads to a loss of muscle mass.

Finally, the Ornish diet being hypolipidic and low in calories, nutritionists warn about the risk of micronutrient deficiencies (trace elements, vitamins) and in particular in essential fatty acids (omega 3 and omega 6). Dr. Ornish also recommends supplementation.

In all cases, you should seek medical advice before starting a diet.

What type of meal does this diet offer?

Example of a typical day

Here is an example of a typical day:

  • Breakfast: 1 vegetable frittata without egg yolk, 1 portion of roasted potatoes with garlic, 1 bowl of strawberries;
  • Morning snack: 1 plain Greek yogurt without fat, 1 half bowl of peaches, 2 tablespoons of Granola;
  • Lunch: 1 green salad with balsamic vinegar, 1 vegetarian chili with lentils, 1 cornbread;
  • Afternoon snack: 1 bowl of chopped cucumber and carrots, 1 small bowl of hummus;
  • Dinner: 1 Italian green salad, 1 part spinach and mushroom lasagna, 1 half bowl of roasted asparagus, 1 chocolate truffle.

Benefits of the Ornish diet

  • Rich in fruits and vegetables, the Ornish diet provides the amount of fiber needed by the body, generally too little consumed.
  • It has been shown to be effective in the prevention and control of cardiovascular disease, and ensures modest weight loss.
  • It encourages an improvement in the overall quality of life, with an emphasis on physical activity and stress management in particular.