As I keep reading his book I am more and more depressed. In his book he says people should not take omega 3 supplements as they raise your cholesterol , not lower it. He also says that people should not take an aspirin a day as even though it is shown in studies that people who do this have less of a chance of heart attack they have more of a chance of hemmoragic stroke and the same amount of people died in the studies just they died of the strokes instead of the heart attacks. He says no meat at all , not even chicken without the skin or turkey. I am eating a lot of beans and fruit and veggies my god its almost impossible to take in no fats at all...now this guy has me afraid of even eating stuff with the good fats in them. There are too many experts saying the exact opposite of each other. I don't know whether to stay on this diet or do a low low carb diet instead. This stinks. Sorry for venting but I need a more definitive answer.

Ornish... aaaug! I need a barf emoticon...


I did Atkins for a year and my numbers inproved a bit. I did a Ornish style diet for 9 months and my numbers sky-rocketed...


I'd read Atkins and decide if that is do-able. Atkins also reduces your appitite. My eventual downfall on Atkins is that I like to drink cocktails on the weekend evenings...

Why do you think your numbers got worse doing the ornish diet? Supposedly it helps to reverse CAD...how could eating almost no fat make your cholesterol numbers worse?

Why do you think your numbers got worse doing the ornish diet? Supposedly it helps to reverse CAD...how could eating almost no fat make your cholesterol numbers worse?

...I don't know exactly how but when we eat too many carbs, the carbs are eventually turned into fat. Corn is king when it comes to fattening livestock so somehow carbs are turned into fat. So I know that's at least how the triglycerides are raised by carbs and how I lowered my tri's by following the glycemic index and Triglycerides are part of TC.
Rick

Damn and I love corn , oh well another food down the drain..I am sticking to brown rice and beans of all kinds and green veggies and fruits and i dont care what ornish says I am still having grilled chicken without the skin and roasted turkey slices!! I just bought the non flush niacin to help me with raising HDL along with my 20mg lipitor (which ornish also says to not use..)

About 10 years ago, my doctor put me on a very strict low fat diet. I gained weight, my lipid profile went out of control, I was miserable.

I read Protein Power by Mary and Michael Eades; made sense; fired doctor; lost 20 pounds on their low carb diet, cholesterol numbers went down.

i have been on balanced diet ever since, ~30% protein, carbs, fat; maintained my weight

IMHO, life is too short to waste on a miserable Ornish style diet.

As I keep reading his book I am more and more depressed. In his book he says people should not take omega 3 supplements as they raise your cholesterol , not lower it. He also says that people should not take an aspirin a day as even though it is shown in studies that people who do this have less of a chance of heart attack they have more of a chance of hemmoragic stroke and the same amount of people died in the studies just they died of the strokes instead of the heart attacks. He says no meat at all , not even chicken without the skin or turkey. I am eating a lot of beans and fruit and veggies my god its almost impossible to take in no fats at all...now this guy has me afraid of even eating stuff with the good fats in them. There are too many experts saying the exact opposite of each other. I don't know whether to stay on this diet or do a low low carb diet instead. This stinks. Sorry for venting but I need a more definitive answer.


Lutheran, since Ornish wrote that book he's changed his thinking a lot. He now promotes fish, omega 3's, olive oil, canola oil and aspirin. See, even the great Ornish can change!:D Corn and white potatos are killlers for raising triglycerides. Sweet potatos are okay.Lower fat, higher protein diets - modified DASH or the Mediterranean diet-, with monounsaturated fats work great and taste good too.

Why do you think your numbers got worse doing the ornish diet?


The short answer is carbs... usually you replace meat with carbs and sugar. You have to be a real label reader and decerner to do that kind of diet.

You really need to ask youself if you could do the Ornish diet the rest of your life. It's very hard balancing pleasure with something as unpleasant as the Ornish diet. Not saying Ornish can't be done for a lifetime... but at what cost. I'd rather take my chances with CAD.

Best of luck. :)

I agree to stick totally to that diet would be hard , but to be honest I like eating fruit and veggies now where I never bothered before. I also like not going to fast food places and diners...i have saved a lot of money in the past 17 days or so doing this diet. And like I said , I try and go by most of his advice but I also add in the grilled chicken and turkey to go along with the fish and beans and good stuff he recommends. I also take lipitor which he says we shouldn't do so I think I will be able to change my numbers in a positive way and also not be miserable..I want to try and reverse CAD and the statin , the supplements like niacin and eating good stuff is a good way to go about it...not to mention the exercise which is getting easier by the day.

Lutheran- This diet is so way out. We need fat, we can´t survive without it. When I started eating more fat, my HDL went up a great deal and I felt much better. Just keep away from trans fats, margarines, fast carbs, sugars and stick to what is natural. Statins is tolerated for some people and some have become very ill from them. Muscle weakness, kidney problems, memory loss etc. I stopped taking them over a year ago. Cholesterol does not worry me any more. I feel healthy and eat a healthy diet of meat, fish, greeens. Cholesterol has been so hyped up and the food and drug companies are very very happy about it. The more worried we get the more they earn.

Well I have CAD at 42 so maybe you can live a life without worrying about cholesterol but unfortunately I can't. I won't take that chance and I am still getting the good fats in me from the omega 3 supplements , the fish and the almonds and olive oil I have each day ( 8 almonds and 2 teaspoons of olive oil ). Plus there is some fat in everything , the brown rice and beans and all the other foods i eat have some fats but good fats...Hey I will see what my next blood test tells me and post it here for you all to either laugh at me or to congratulate me :D ;)

Hope your tests will come out o.k. Best of luck.

....The GI diet doesn't require a person to eliminate any food. It just gives the carbs a ranking based on fast to slow, so that we can balance our meals so that we don't spike our insulin and blood sugar levels. Since following this diet, not only did it drop my Tri's from 350 to 97, it dropped my blood pressure from 135/80 to 118/75.
...As far as cholesterol goes, I'm still working on that. I need to go have myTC rechecked since it's been a year now to see if what I am doing is helping. I increased my fiber intake to 20g to 30g per day (metamusil). the theory behind the fiber is that our bodies make 80% of cholesterol and store it in the gallbladder for the digestion of fats. If there is no fiber, the cholesterol is reabsorbed back into the blood stream in the intestines. If fiber is present, it will bind to the cholesterol and allow it to be eliminated.
...With the GI and high fiber diet, my TC had dropped form 250 to 206 (or close to those numbers) but my LDL is still on the high side but it's also been a year since I had it checked, so when I do, I'll let you know if the fiber is helping.
Rick

If you have CAD, I hope you are doing what your cardiologist recommends re: aspirin, and not what you read in a book or on a message board.

I agree Ornish is impossible for most people, long term. You will be fine with lots of fruit, veggies, moderate amounts of LEAN meat (e.g. the skinless chicken you mentioned), and moderate of amounts of WHOLE grain. Avoid the white carbs, not all carbs, meaning avoid/minimize things made with sugar and white flour.

His books have some tasty vegan recipes, but I do veggie days, not veggie weeks or months.

If you want to read a book that has a diet that is heart healthy AND easy to stick to, try South Beach diet. Avoid Atkins like the plague.