<http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/hbp/
dash/new_dash.pdf>.
ORGANIZATIONS
American Heart Association. 7272 Greenville Avenue, Dal-
las, TX 7523 USA. Telephone: (800) 242-8721. Website:
<http://www.americanheart.org/>.
American Medical Association. 515 N. State Street, Chicago,
IL 60610 USA. Telephone: (800) 621-8335. Website:
<http://www.ama-assn.org/>.
American Society for Hypertension. 148 Madison Avenue,
Fifth Floor, New York, NY 10016 USA. Telephone:
(212) 696-9099. Website:<http://www.ash-us.org/>.
British Heart Foundation (BHF). 14 Fitzhardinge Street,
London W1H 6DH, UK. Website:<http://www.bhf
.org.uk/>.
British Nutrition Foundation. High Holborn House, 52-54,
High Holborn, London WC1V 6RQ, UK. Telephone: 020
7404 6504. Website:<http://www.nutrition.org.uk/>.
The Cochrane Collaboration. Summertown Pavilion, 18-24
Middle Way, Oxford, Oxfordshire OX2 7LG UK.
Telephone: 44 1865 310138. Website:<http://www.
cochrane.org/>.
Food Standards Agency UK (FSA). Eat well Be well, Healthy
Heart Aviation House, 125 Kingsway, London WC2B
6NH UK. Website:<http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/>.
National Lung, Blood and Heart Institute (NHLBI). health
information centre, PO Box 30105, Bethesda MD
20824-0105. Telephone: (301) 592-8573. USA. Website:
<http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/>.
Salt Institute. 700 N. Fairfax Street, Suite 600 Fairfax Plaza,
Alexandria, VA 22314-2040 USA. Website:<http://
http://www.saltinstitute.org/>.Tracy J. Parker, RDDean Ornish’s Eat More,
Weigh Less
Definition
Dean Ornish’s Eat More, Weigh Less diet focuses
on eating a diet of plant products low in fat, oils, and
simplecarbohydratesto achieve weight loss and better
health without feelings of deprivation and hunger. It
also emphasizes stress reduction techniques and light
exercise. Dean Ornish, M.D. not only recommends this
style of diet for weight loss, but also believes it can
prevent and even reverse some forms of heart disease.Origins
Dean Ornish is a professor of clinical medicine at
the University of California, San Francisco, and a
practicing physician. He received his Bachelor of Artsdegree from the University of Texas, Austin, then
attended Baylor College of Medicine and Harvard
Medical School. He received further medical training
at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is the founder
and president of the Preventive Medicine Research
Institute located in Sausalito, California.
While Dr. Ornish was a medical student he became
interested in heart disease. In 1978 he began doing
research on patients with coronary artery disease (a
common form of heart disease). He created a diet that
was very low in fat and completely vegetarian and
studied its effects on the symptoms experienced by
these patients. The patients also learned a variety of
stress reduction techniques. He discovered that for
many patients this diet caused a significant lessening of
their symptoms. This was the beginning of Dr. Ornish’s
research on the effects of low fat, low or no-meat diets
on weight loss, health, and heart disease. This original
diet is the basis for his Eat More, Weigh Less diet, as
well as his other related diets.
Over the years, Dr. Ornish has published many
different books and articles, and has recommended
diets with many different names. All his diets revolve
around the same basic principles, with additions or
changes in emphasis, based on the goal that the diet
is intended to achieve. For example, Dr. Ornish’s heart
disease prevention diet allows small amounts of lean
meat or fish, while his heart disease reversal diet is
completely vegetarian.Description
Dr. Ornish presents his Eat More, Weigh Less diet
as more of a spectrum of choices than a set of hard and
fast rules. He believes that because people have many
different goals, from moderate weight loss to actual
heart disease reversal, no one set of dietary rules will fit
everyone. He also emphasizes overall lifestyle change,
not just through what a person eats but also through
stress reduction, moderate exercise, and if applicable,
quitting smoking.
The main component of the Dr. Ornish diet is
eating more vegetable products and many fewer meat
products. For people trying to lose moderate amounts
of weight this may mean eating small amounts of lean
chicken or fish as well as some skim milk or egg whites.
For those with more ambitious goals, the diet may be
almost completely vegan (containing no meat or ani-
mal products at all).
The diet is also extremely low in fat, with fewer than
10% of calories coming from fat. The strictest forms of
the diet do not allow any nuts, seeds, or avocados. The
only oil Dr. Ornish allows is a small amount of fish oilDean Ornish’s Eat More, Weigh Less