Eat More, Weigh Less

Rating:
Summary: A fascinating book about diet and health.
Review: A cool book about nutrition, health, and losing weight. This book is what actually motivated me to become a vegetarian four years ago and so far I've not had an ounce of meat since. Though I do eat fish, so some may not consider me a true vegetarian. I have recently picked this book up to review it and am finding it just as interesting as I remember. Ornish quotes scores of studies including his own which back up his philosophy about eating and health. In a nutshell, if you don't eat meat, and limit yourself to 10% of your calories as fat, exercise moderately, and "pay attention" you will avoid heart disease and other ailments, lose weight, and generally feel great. To be more specific, he concurs with Merkin in that you can eat as much grains, beans, fruits, and vegetables as you wants, but aslo warns that you should never stuff yourself. In fact, he concentrates somewhat on "paying attention" in the sense that if you concentrate more on what you eat as you eat it and not simply gulp a meal down while you watch TV, you are much more likely to hear the natural cue's your body puts out that tell you when you should stop eating. He also recommends getting rid of salt from your diet as this hides the flavor of food, and claims that after about two weeks your tastebuds will readjust to the lack of salt, sugar, and fat that is in the normal American diet, and which he claims hides the real flavor of foods, and after your tastebuds readjust, everything will taste much better then they ever did. Finally, when it comes to exercise, he has a very interesting viewpoint that moderate exercise such as walking is the best kind. The benefits he lists are that it is less stressful to your body, so you are less prone to injury, walking is a lot easier to do than other more vigorous exercises which may require special equipment, and finally, it aids much more in losing weight. This is because, according to Ornish, when the body detects that it is exerting a lot of energy in strenuous exercise, it slows the metabolism down in order to counteract this - it's trying to maintain the store of energy so that you don't starve. When you walk, your body does not get the same message, and so your metabolism stays the same and you burn calories without having to work as hard. Ornish does seem to get a little flakey towards the end of the first part of the book, where he talks about stress. If you are more scientifically minded, you can get beyond the psychobable/new-agey stuff and just retreave the main point that stress is bad. The second half of the book is a bunch of recipes by Ornish, but as stated by other reviewers here, these are somewhat ridiculous. Sure perhaps a wealthy diet-doctor or someone else with either a lot of money or time on their hands or both can make these recipes, but for the majority of us working stiffs, forget it! So I just ignored this part of the book. Don't even attempt it unless you have the qualities described above, and/or have a real love for cooking.

Rating:
Summary: Abundant variety not boring deprivation!
Review: Eat More, Weigh Less will speak directly to all those folks who have been struggling to feel better, achieve a healthful weight and gain more energy while trying to sort through the conflicting, confusing onslaught of dietbook information. Dr. Dean Ornish suggests an eating lifestyle not a diet, based on whole, unprocessed grains, vegetables, fruits, legumes including soy, and nonfat dairy foods that is easy to follow, abundant in variety, and packed with nutrients. The book contains great recipes and cooking tips from nationaly known chefs, that are easy to follow and include nutrient information so that you know exactly what you are eating. While fat is not used in the recipes, wonderful flavor is created from the garlic, herbs, spices and combinations of ingredients. One is able to eat well and feel satisfied without indulging in high fat, high calorie foods, and without feeling deprived or hungry. The only limiting factor to enjoying this type of eating would be one's imagination! This is a wonderful resource for anyone who is pursuing good health, an increased sense of energy and well being, and an expanded repetoire of delicious recipes!

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Summary: Sorry to Say, A Book Not Really for Humans :(
Review: Eat More, Weigh Less. In logic, it is difficult at best to prove a negative proposition, yet Dr. Ornish believes that eating more of certain foods will cause someone to weigh less. Of the 425 pages in this book, 345 of them are vegetarian recipes. The first 80 pages are assorted essays and anecdotes about the doctor's personal beliefs for changing the American Diet.

A prominent doctor at the University of Washington division of metabolism, endocrinology and nutrition commented in his seminar in 2003 that diets that are high in protein, such as Dr. Ornish's, are "not palatable," and that dieters usually are never able to endure such foods for more than two months. He and other medical doctors who specialize in nutrition continually state that a balanced diet, consisting of all three of the macronutrients (carbohydrates, fats, and protein) is the only consistent manner in which to lose weight and keep it off while the body's biological defenses against weight loss "fight" the attempt to lower the basal metabolism setpoint. There are no categorically 'bad' foods, only bad quantities. When the body is in a ketogenic state, where necessary carbohydrates are removed from the diet and the body is dipping into skeletal tissue for survival (since the body jealously defends its fat stores), it puts the person in a state of continual apprehension borderline on the primal hunter-gather mode. And that is the kind of person I would not want to be around--nor become, based on the kind of diet presented in Dr. Ornish's book. The U of W doctor said going on a diet such as this is like holding one's breath: it can be done only for so long, then the instincts kick in and override personal willpower. When you're fighting biology, biology wins every time--no matter how long it takes.

At the beginning of this book, Dr. Ornish summarily dumps a list of over one hundred names on us, an over-the-top list of contributors and "people I'd like to thank." Professional writers are never this obsequious; they pick a few people that were most helpful during composition, and that's all; otherwise, the author is revealing a fear that he won't be taken seriously. No one would actually _read_ through such a cumbersome list!

Basically, "Eat more..." is a subtle attempt to convert those who enjoy a regular diet to vegetarians, instantly dismissing all the foods that have proven themselves capable of providing delicious, satisfying meals for centuries (p. 33): all kinds of meats including chicken and fish(!), oils (including olive oil, a supplement known to be the highest source of monounsaturated fat, and known for preserving the heart), avocados, olives(!), nuts and seeds (get out of town!), all dairy products, all sugar derivatives, alcohol, or "any commercially available product with more than two grams of fat per serving." After following such a diet, I would look like a victim of Stalag 13, a skeleton, miserable and malnourished, devoid of any desire to live. Hardly a subject to instill happiness, let alone good health. I wish that books like this would just quit being written!

I understand that many authors have their own ideas of how we should eat, but they are just not realistic. No one is really capable of building a consistent lifestyle around these diets for very simple reasons: 1) The recipes take too long to make. 2) The ingredients are hard to find in the local supermarket, and if found 3) cost just as much or more than a delicious frozen meal, fully prepared, and 4) cleanup time is increased over a ready-to-eat meal. I must heartily agree with all the lowest rated reviews of this book, for I admire their courage to speak their minds and tell the truth about the real world.

All that aside, my strongest disagreement with the author is that we are supposed to do nothing while we eat--no TV, no books, no conversations with the family. What? How is this supposed to make a meal enjoyable as the author claims? I like to read while I eat, or watch TV or a movie, or have intelligent conversation with family and friends. The author says that we are incapable of enjoying eating and doing something else at the same time. What? Sounds like "Dr." Ornish is used to solitary confinement. Okay, if that's his thing, it's certainly not the rest of us.

Food science and technology has advanced tenfold since this book was first printed. Today's prepared meals, both in boxes for supplementation with vegetables, meat, fish or chicken, and frozen foods have never tasted so good and at the same time providing necessary carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Face it, without proper balances of all the macronutrients, and not removal of fats or carbohydrates, the human diet will not be provided with the nutritional requirements capable of sustaining human life--let alone a truly satisfying dietary regimen. "Eat more..." basically eliminates the highest sources of protein from red meat or poultry or fish, even nuts, thereby throwing the body's precise hormonal and neurotransmitter balances out of whack. These crucial substances--hormones and neurotransmitters--come from the very foods we eat, so if we eliminate the foods we need to survive and feel good--well, does that explain why certain people are extremely moody, irritable, depressed or suffering from insomnia or other seemingly unexplained health problems? The book fails to mention the other side of the story, which is not only unfair to its readers, but violates the silent oath that authors and publishers have taken to present fair, unbiased and _complete_ information.

I wonder how many people are actually living off a diet like this because they truly enjoy it, and not because they only want to lose weight so they can appear more attractive to the opposite sex. What is the real motivation to lose weight, besides the dangers of morbid obesity?

For me, personally, the regular Joe, there is simply no way that I'm going to spend an hour or two after a busy day to make one meal. I'm a bachelor, and for single people this book is totally preposterous. Not to mention that the ingredients required for the recipes in this book spoil after only a few days, while the prepared meals available today have a shelf life of months or even years. The foods we buy now that the food service industry and the FDA have ensured are the safest, most nutritious and delicious foods in the world. They are even prepared so as to preserve the enzymes we need to digest them--and again, our author fails to mention anything related to this subject, so the cause for the omission is obvious. Anyone who marks that as "unhelpful" is clearly marking their own bias and ignorance, since I have absolutely no motivation to lie--nor have I found any scientific evidence to support the author's vegetarian lifestyle as genuinely beneficial to complete health.

If I were to abandon what I know is a sound diet (okay, so I eat junk food once in a while--because I like the TASTE), I would never again have a day of fun in my whole life. Give up hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, and delicious salmon dinners? Lobster? Holiday treats during the Christmas season? Eggnog? Ice cream? "Not a chance, Mr. Ornish!" (sounds like a great title for a book I may write). Any impurities in my diet are purged by eating oats and grains, namely from today's delicious breakfast cereals. So when I'm 80 or 90 or 100 and still going off a red meat/sugar/processed foods diet and the vegetarians have died from improper nutrition, I will have irrefutably rejected the book's underlying premise without a word. And I'll be smiling the whole time. :)

If you look at the list of the hundreds of second-hand copies of this book that are available for a penny, that gives an accurate measure of the book's worth in the real world.


Rating:
Summary: Too many false statements in these reviews
Review: For one, animal protien is no better than plant protien, and there is nothing unique in it. In fact, despite what that reviewer said, soy beans contain all of the amino acids in comparable proportions to meat. Not that anyone is lacking in protien. The world health organization set the RDA for protien at 5% of your calories, and they'd doubled it to allow for absorbtion discrepencies based on genetics and source. You know, "just in case". Even iceburg lettuce has over 20% of it's calories from protien. And per calorie broccoli has more protien than steak. Honestly unless you only eat potatoes, you should be getting well over what you need, and actually I think if you still ate adequate calories that there's enough protien in potatoes too..

Second, vitamin B12 is not "only found in animal products". Animal products are not a reliable source of B12. Nothing is. B12 is only produced by a certain bacteria. You have to have a supplement of some sort, but so many things are fortified with B12 it shouldn't be a problem. Shouldn't, but of course it still happens. But it's in every multivitamin, you don't need much, and your body stores it for later use. And iron is much easily absorbed from plants than from animal sources anyway. So claiming vegetarianism (or even veganism) causes anemia is an out and out lie. People are genetically predisposed to anemia, and need to be careful to eat more iron than those not predisposed to it. Spinach is good, kale too, think dark and green. And if you still have a problem (which is highly unlikely if you're eating a varied diet) iron supplements are a lot healthier than eating meat, and cholesterol free.

And I don't see why the american society thinks sawing open peoples ribs and moving a piece of a leg artery up to their heart is perfectly acceptable, but not eating meat is radical.

Any gas you get, from eating more vegetables, is quite temporary. When I first started eating more vegetables, I had that problem, but it was because my body wasn't used to eating them. Eating raw vegetables helps too, because they're easier to digest. There's no reason to throw away your health and go to a low carb diet (it'll get you to lose weight, but won't stop you from having a heart attack or a stroke, or getting cancer like a plant based diet will) just because of gas. And a side note, nothing "ferments" in the digestive process.

There are some unique ingredients, some you'll like, some you won't but you have to be willing to try, or you will end up just eating potatoes. Quinoa is a grain, it's quite good. Saffron and mace are spices, if you're grocery store doesn't sell them, I know you can get saffron at an Indian market (East Indian, not Native), though mace is harder to find.

The reviewer who claimed that by going vegan means it "rules out about half the foods there are" obviously hasn't experienced the true variety of plant foods out there. There are hundreds of edible mushrooms, 10 different types of apples (that I can think of off the top of my head), at least that many types of peppers, and they all have a different taste. And those are just foods people don't generally describe. It's a pepper, or an apple, or a mushroom. There are litterally millions of edible plants out there. And most people only eat 3 animals, 2 types of cheese, milk, and ice cream. You aren't losing half as much as you're gaining, that is if you have an open mind, and are willing to try them.

When your health is on the line, you should really try this "radical" diet to avoid having to take heart medications, and all those fun things, and probably eventually die of a heart attack anyway. Or cancer. Cancer I'm sure is more fun than a heart attack.

Now on to the actual review :)

I liked that there were so many recipies. Because the more options you're given the more likely you are to find something you like. The transition is going to be hard, you just can't give up because of a few recipies you don't like. But they are all pretty time consuming. So once you figure out which ones you like, you should make lots on your days off, and freeze the leftovers into "microwave dinners" for when you don't want to cook.

I personally lost 123 pounds (which halved my weight) following his "plan" which is more like the common sense guidelines, people like to ignore: Eat more vegetables, cut your fat intake, excercise, cut your fat intake more, eat more fruit, and more vegetables.

If you aren't sure if you can handle this "radical" change (it just doesn't seem that radical to me and lots of people called it that), take the book out from the library, and make the commitment to do it for two weeks, no cheating. Don't say you'll try either, because we all know when you say you're going to try you're just giving yourself an excuse to fail. You'll say "I tried" when really, you were just going through the motions.

I have this feeling this review sounds condescending, which isn't what I meant at all. It just seriously bothers me when people state falsehoods as the truth, or make assumptions that aren't really based on fact. So, I didn't mean to offend.

But I think everyone should make an honest effort at developping a plant based diet, even if you still eat turkey for thanksgiving. It's not an all or nothing game. The closer you get to veganism, the healthier you'll be. And this book is a good stepping stool in getting you there.

If you want to save money, just buy a Vegan cookbook, make sure it has some quick recipies in it, because you'll really like to have something easy to make after a long day at work. And you'll probably end up buying one eventually anyway. I recently bought "The Garden of Vegan" by Sarah Kramer and Tanya Bernard, and while it isn't as low fat as Dr Ornish recomends, it has some quite tasty recipies, and I'm quite glad I bought it. And besides, I'm half the woman I used to be, I can induldge a little.

Rating:
Summary: Listen to this man
Review: I have been using this book for about 3 years, and have just ordered a copy for my brother. If I could, I would give a copy to everyone I know who has a weight and health issue, if only because of his concept of "meditative eating".

When I reflect on this book, the element that impresses me the most is the compassion with which the book is written. Ornish clearly wants to help people be healthy, and be happy in their lives. He does not promote extreme goals or unattainable body images- he talks about real people who want to feel better, have more energy and be able to do the things in life that they want to do. He encourages the reader to be mindful of what they are eating and doing, to eat with joy and pleasure, to savor and meditate upon the experience of nourishing themselves in a healthy manner.

Many people looking for a make-over book look for not just a diet plan, but an exercise plan, an journaling plan, a food log, and a lot of rules. Ornish is not presenting a weight-loss, get fit fast plan, to remodel your outer body by Christmas. This book is about remodelling your inner self so you want to make better choices about what you eat and do. He recommends a healthy diet, and a moderate amount of exercise, things that you will do ALL your life. This is not a short-term project, it's a life-style retraining guide that treats you gently.

I love to cook, and I'm partial to the vegetarian life choice, so I found the recipes not only delicious, but inspiring. Over time, I have been able to convert almost my old fat-laden favorites to his guidelines. Also found that my tastes changed over time, and I desired less fat and salt and sugar in foods. This has been a slow process, as Ornish no doubt intended, a gentle metamorphosis into a more mindful life.

In addition to the excellent recipes, which are fun to make, there are simple and helpful hints that you can use in your everyday cooking, hints that don't add any more prep time to your cooking but add flavor and cut down on fats. And what I really love are his simply stated general guidelines about what you can eat, and how much. With those guidelines in mind, you don't need to diet or follow a food plan, just remember what you're eating.

For those who regret the absence of meat in this eating style, well, I don't think Ornish intends for you to give up every single thing you love. I dearly love avocados- and have them now and then. You learn to have those things less often, but to enjoy them so much more. Far from giving up the things you love, following Ornish's advice allows you to make room for them in a way that does you no harm. It's all about balance and paying attention to yourself.

Rating:
Summary: Listen to this man
Review: I myself think Dr. Ornish is the greatest. I recently became a vegetarian, sometimes I eat fish, so I guess I am only a semi-vegetarian. Dr. Atkins diet put me in the hospital literally for a week, my cholestrol was sky high, I had no energy and was fat as a pig. I have been following Dr. Ornish plan for 1 month and have already lost 12 pounds and feel great. I have no more migraine headaches, or any of the other ailments that used to bother me. Follow this book and it will help you to.

Rating:
Summary: Too extreme for me
Review: I'm sorry, this book is not for those how still like to get their protien by the source of meat. This book is not geered toward tracking weight loss and fitness. Its a complete book on extravagant veggie meals to make without using meat. I guess if I wanted to eat vegetable soup almost everyday, it would work for me. For those of you who want to eat like a "normal person", do not buy this book for weight loss. If you are not committed to becoming a vegetarian, this book is not for you.

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Summary: This program changed my life
Review: I've tried lots of diets over the years and succeeded with some of them but after a mild heart attack last summer I really did not want to go on any diet that promised short-term results but obviously was not good for my health long-term. I really only wanted to invest my time and energy in a life-program that would build good health for the rest of my life. I began Dr. Ornish's program (a very low-fat, plant-based diet, moderate exercise, meditation and yoga) and within two weeks I began to feel like a different person -- more energetic, healthy and well. It took some time to get good at cooking this way but now I've got my shopping and cooking system set up so it works -- I cook double batches of things on Sundays and have my little repertoire of things I can fix quickly on weeknights. I also bought Dr. Ornish's book "Everyday Cooking" which has additional recipes, and that's great, too. Even my husband likes the food. I am looking and feeling better every day and am completely satisfied that I am not only losing weight but doing absolutely the best that I can do for my long-term health.

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Summary: Nothing New
Review: There has been a spree for fitness these days-health food stores flooded with people wanting to eat healthy and lose pounds, gym packed 24/7, an incredible outburt of fitness book + programs like the "Power 90", "Body for Life", "8-Minute in the Morning to Fitness" and yada yada yada. Now we have "Eat More, Weigh Less". The title is sound and appealing-it's almost like too good to be true. But there's really nothing new here. It's the same-old same old trick that many have failed to keep up-change the diet, emphasize on high-fiber and abstain from fast food.

EAT MORE, WEIGH LESS shouldn't even be taken as a fitness program. It provides no plan for you to follow and track the progress. It is more like a vegetarian + vegan cookbook tailored for those who want to eat healthy and read food label at the grocery store. Roughly one-fourth of the book devotes to talking about fitness and losing weights, while the remaining three quarters are all recipes. And there is nothing secret or tricky about how to rid the belly: stick with high-fiber, low-fat diets, while completely abstain from high-fat, high-cholesterol items. The reason behind is simple: high-fiber and low fat food actually clean out our bodies. Oatmeals, 12-grain bread, vegetables, fruits are high in proteins but low in carbohydrates and fats. Oatmeals simmered in skim milk (NOT condensed milk) can help lower cholesterol. I disagree, though, to completely abstain from meat. Red meat and white meat provide unique proteins to our bodies that NO supllements can substitute. Not even soy milk or tofu. Protein, afterall, is a very general term. We need the specific proteins from red meat. Processed food like sugars, white rice should be minimized in portion. EAT MORE, WEIGH LESS lays out the general priciples in formulating a healthy eating habit. The recipes, though, are pretty difficult and time-consuming. I personally would not recommend trying the recipes unless you're like a mother staying at home all day venturing with various recipes and concoction. Stick with the eating habit and you will see result. Again, EAT MORE, WEIGH LESS is NOT a fitness program. It's meant to help people to change their diets via some underlying principles. For those who look for fitness program, search somewhere else.

Rating:
Summary: An interesting look at health & nutrition.
Review: This book is what actually motivated me to become a vegetarian over three years ago. I have recently picked this book up to review it and am finding it just as interesting as I remember. Ornish quotes scores of studies including his own which back up his philosophy about eating and health. In a nutshell, if you don't eat meat, and limit yourself to 10% of your calories as fat, exercise moderately, and "pay attention" you will avoid heart disease and other ailments, lose weight, and generally feel great. To be more specific, you can eat as much grains, beans, fruits, and vegetables as you wants, but aslo warns that you should never stuff yourself. In fact, he concentrates somewhat on "paying attention" in the sense that if you concentrate more on what you eat as you eat it and not simply gulp a meal down while you watch TV, you are much more likely to hear the natural cue's your body puts out that tell you when you should stop eating. He also recommends getting rid of salt from your diet as this hides the flavor of food, and claims that after about two weeks your tastebuds will readjust to the lack of salt, sugar, and fat that is in the normal American diet, and everything will taste much better than before you removed these from your diet.

When it comes to exercise, Ornish has an interesting viewpoint that seems to contradict the common wisdom - that moderate exercise such as walking is the best kind. The benefits he lists are that it is less stressful to your body, so you are less prone to injury, walking is a lot easier to do than other more vigorous exercises which may require special equipment, and finally, it aids much more in losing weight. This is because, according to Ornish, when the body detects that it is exerting a lot of energy in strenuous exercise, it slows the metabolism down in order to counteract this - it's trying to maintain the store of energy so that you don't starve. When you walk, your body does not get the same message, and so your metabolism stays the same and you burn calories without having to work as hard. I suspect this may be true for those who haven't exercised in a long time or are very obese, but for most, though walking may be healthy, it is not a very efficient exercise for those trying to lose weight, and so those who are impatient may give up altogether because they are only a hundred calories or so an hour.

Half of the book is taken up by low-fat recipies of Ornish which I've never tried as I'm not a cook, but a friend who has this book and who has a bit more culinary skill told me they are way to complicated (to many ingrediants and take too long to prepare). Also, towards the end of the first half, Ornish gets a bit too touchy-feely for me, getting into the psychology of why we eat, and includes meditation exercises and so on. But I'm sure there are many for whom this approach would be attractive...