Myth 9: Low-fat diets are futile for weight loss – Dr. Ornish's Heart Reversal Therapy

Misconception

That was in 1988, in San Francisco. I had moved to California in search of a new life.

The city with the fourth highest population density in California. At that time, I had already secured two jobs, one of which was...

One was at a hospital, and the other was at a local television station. Those who have heard my speeches or read my...

Those who read my books know that I'm open to all sorts of viewpoints that aren't part of mainstream medicine. So, when I hear...

A controversial young internist claims he has a way to make heart disease natural and reversible.

The changes, and the fact that I was going to give a speech at a medical conference held in the small town where I had just settled, I picked up...

Pen and notebook went straight to the venue to hear what he had to say.

The tall, thin internist with thick, curly hair first showed us a slideshow.

The presentation began with slides showing doctors busily mopping up a leaking water tank.

The surrounding floor was wet, and no one turned off the tap. This scene conveyed a very strong message.

The information was eye-opening: we doctors treat the symptoms of disease but never the cause.

He continued, "If you treat the cause of the illness, you turn off the tap. But for many people, this tap..."

The key lies in their choices regarding diet and lifestyle. Therefore, this significantly reduces patients' reliance on medication.

The need for medical treatment and the need for surgical treatment.

The next one or two slides showed a patient with a diseased artery: artery

It was already clogged and looked terrible. The next slide, however, showed something quite surprising:

The same person's arteries became smoother and clearer than before. What created this near-miracle?

What changes? A multi-month intensive treatment regimen: a low-fat diet (10% of daily calorie intake).

(From fat), regular exercise, stress-relieving meditation, and of course, not smoking. His conclusion was the mind.

Heart disease is reversible.

This young internist was none other than Dr. Dean Ornish.

It is suggested that if people can completely change their lifestyle and strictly adhere to a healthy diet, they will not need to undergo heart surgery.

Bypass surgery can also maintain cardiovascular health. He is renowned worldwide for this. His dietary prescription is: [The text abruptly ends here, likely due to an incomplete sentence or missing information.]

A vegetarian diet includes minimal or no salt, fat, and cooking oil, and strictly prohibits the consumption of sugar.

Onish not only devised his own health regimen but also strictly adhered to it. In 1972, he was diagnosed with monocytic lymphoma.

He took a leave of absence from Rice University in Houston to recuperate from polydipsia and depression. Dr. Onish...

I met a master at my parents' house. This master was conducting meditation and relaxation for my sister.

Skills guidance. Dr. Onish asked this master for help as well, which meant becoming a vegetarian.

He practiced yoga, meditation, and helped others. Afterward, Dr. Onish felt much better, and his mood became more peaceful.

It became much quieter. In fact, what this master taught was the main content of the later Onish therapy.

Although coronary artery bypass surgery was part of Dr. Onish's orthodox medical training, and the surgery...

The patient's progress impressed him, but one thing troubled him: when the patient was discharged after surgery...

They might believe that surgery, rather than lifestyle changes, cured their heart disease, and thus continue their unhealthy habits.

They forget that these very habits are what landed them in the hospital. They'll continue smoking, eating...

They consume foods high in saturated fat, lead stressful lives, and don't exercise regularly.

After analysis, this young medical student concluded that: if you find a heart...

If the cause of the disease is identified, patients will no longer need to undergo expensive and potentially life-threatening surgeries.

Dr. Onish was eager to know whether the treatment he had learned from the master could cause heart disease.

A reversal. He gathered 10 heart disease patients and selected 5 of them to be treated according to his own method.

The other five did not follow his treatment method. He taught them about nutrition and how...

He practiced yoga. He formed these patients into a support group. In this group, the patients helped each other.

Sharing the pain. Ultimately, the cholesterol levels of those patients treated with his method decreased.

The chest pain decreased, and heart function improved. Following this study, he also studied 48 patients...

Volunteers with severe heart disease participated in a year-long study. Half of the patients received O'Neill.

Dr. Shi's treatment was strict, while the other half was treated in a more traditional and lenient manner.

Make moderate dietary changes, engage in light exercise, and quit smoking.

The two groups of patients showed significantly different outcomes. Patients receiving Dr. Onish's treatment felt much better very quickly.

Their cholesterol levels and weight decreased significantly, and the frequency of angina (chest pain) attacks decreased dramatically.

Few. Coronary angiography images showed that the previously blocked arteries in these patients were beginning to become clear.

In contrast, during the same period, the condition of most patients in the control group deteriorated significantly.

The result was alarming.

The following findings are equally exciting. Dr. Onish originally thought that only young people with mild heart disease...

Only mild cases show reversible reactions, but then I realized my assumption was wrong. Thank goodness!

Whether a patient's condition improves does not depend on their age or the severity of their condition.

It depends on the extent to which they have changed their diet and lifestyle. In other words, patients

Whether their condition improves depends on whether they strictly adhere to his treatment plan. In fact, the biggest

The heart disease reversal occurred in an 83-year-old patient. Many patients follow Dr. Onish's advice.

They undergo health therapies and, under the guidance of their own doctors, reduce or even completely eliminate the need for medication.

Treatment.

Dr. Ornish still believes that the American Heart Association's recommendation to gradually reduce fat intake is effective.

The suggestion to reduce your daily calorie intake to 30% is too lenient. His viewpoint is bold.

Many in the medical community considered him unorthodox, but he persisted in his views: if one insists on consuming low-sodium diets...

A low-fat diet and lifestyle changes can reverse heart disease in patients.

The story goes back to 1988. After listening to his speech, I decided to try his low-energy method myself.

Fat-rich diet. Dean kindly sent me the same diet his patients ate to my home.

I ate a very low-fat diet for three consecutive months, and I maintained it throughout. (But I was definitely...)

(Trying to cut corners!) This kind of food was truly hard to swallow, but it definitely worked. I felt much better.

And he lost about 8 pounds.

In today's society, we consume too much fat and too little fiber, and our lifestyle is...

A sedentary lifestyle. But we haven't always lived this way. Over the past few decades, we...

Their lifestyles have changed, and now it's time to pay the price. Dr. Onish's patients are examples of this.

Living evidence that the food you put in your mouth has a direct impact on your heart and body.

Influence.

When you look up nutritional information about fats, have you ever felt like giving up?

People's understanding of fat is very simple: butter is bad; margarine is good; vegetable oil is healthy; regardless of...

Excessive intake of any type of fat is detrimental to health. However, some dietary instructions are contradictory and perplexing.

It's confusing: salads with a little olive oil are okay to eat; but candies made with coconut oil are not.

Fish oil is safe to eat; margarine is banned, and butter is making a comeback in our diet.

In the early 1990s, our understanding was that all fats were bad for health, and all carbohydrates...

Carbohydrates are generally good for health. Americans have started adopting low-fat diets in pursuit of better health.

They replaced fat with carbohydrates. Everyone was eating large amounts of foods with added sugar and refined starch.

The food, which provided almost no nutrition other than calories, was what Americans at the time...

They believe that if a food contains no fat, they can eat as much as they want, without any problem.

It is recognized that many low-fat or fat-free foods have almost the same calorie content as full-fat foods.

As a result, Americans are getting fatter and fatter.

Then came a complete 180-degree turn. Some researchers say we should eat more carbohydrates.

Food and diet. This is completely contrary to what we previously knew.

In 2006, an article published in the *Journal of the American Medical Association* opposed a low-fat diet.

This has led to the further neglect of this diet. A large-scale study funded by the U.S. federal government (part of the "Women's Health" program)

As part of the "Health Plan" project, it has been shown that a low-fat diet, despite long being considered a healthy diet by Americans, is still effective.

A healthy diet, but it has almost no effect on people's health. A study of approximately 50,000 postmenopausal women...

After observing individuals with an average age of 62, the study concluded that consuming a low-fat diet for eight consecutive years...

A high-fat diet offers no health benefits-it does not reduce the risk of heart disease, colon cancer, or breast cancer.

These findings have shaken traditional beliefs and the place that standard medical advice holds in people's minds.

However, as has often happened in the past, this message was misinterpreted. You must

Read between the lines to understand the meaning. Indeed, after an eight-year follow-up study, researchers found that...

There are clear statistics showing that women who eat a low-fat diet have a lower incidence of breast cancer compared to women who do not change their diet.

There was no difference in the risk of adenocarcinoma. However, this is not the key point. Those who were at the start of the trial...

The woman who had a high fat intake but later successfully reduced it to 20% of her total intake and maintained this regimen for the longest period of time.

Their risk of developing breast cancer was 22% lower than that of women in the control group. This is a significant difference. Scientists...

These observations of women will continue until 2010, so let's look forward to further research on the benefits of a low-fat diet.

News.

In addition, women in the intervention group had a higher incidence of digestive tract polyps and other precancerous growths.

The incidence rate was 9% lower than the other group. Because the latency period for colorectal cancer is over 10 years, it is now necessary to...

It may be too early to determine whether cancer incidence will decrease accordingly. As for heart disease, these studies...

Researchers only tracked the participants' total fat intake, but not their saturated fat and anti-chain triglyceride intake.

Fat intake (both are "bad fats"). Both types of fat are known to be detrimental to arterial health.

Even so, low-fat diets are not popular.

But is using a low-fat diet to lose weight a waste of time?

No. This is a serious misconception, and it has grown increasingly prevalent over the decades. There is a great deal of evidence to support this.

It is clear that reducing fat intake, especially reducing the intake of certain types of "bad fats," can indeed lower blood sugar levels.

Lower risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer, and other illnesses. We should all reduce our fat intake.

(I will provide you with recommended intake), exercise regularly, and eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, and fiber-rich whole grains.

food.

Facts

You might try the following method: reduce the portion size of your meal, leaving some warmth for dessert.

Measure space. Reduce the amount of dessert, for example, reduce two tablespoons of ice cream to one tablespoon, or share it with one person.

Share your dessert with friends. Make your dessert more nutritious, for example, by using whole grains and fresh ingredients.

Fresh fruit and applesauce are ingredients for desserts. Often, you can reduce the amount of ingredients listed in a recipe.

The goal is to reduce sugar and fat intake without compromising the flavor and texture of desserts.