Now all go over to the discussion forums at vegsource.com and watch  
Dean Ornish spin his way around this one (again)




On Jul 16, 2008, at 7:54 PM, Paleo Phil wrote:

Once again, an Atkins-type diet beat a more Ornish-type diet (see  
article
links below). Here's some things I noticed after skimming these  
articles...

Last time Ornish essentially admitted Atkins won but said the  
differences
were small and that people wouldn't be able to stick to Atkins for  
more than
a year, claiming that his diet was therefore the more practical  
choice. This
time the participants did stick to Atkins for 2 years, but Ornish  
says the
study was fatally flawed and that low HDL may actually be better than  
high
HDL. Ornish also downplays the importance of weight loss for health (not
surprising given his own visible weight gain). Ornish concludes by  
saying
that a "healthy" low-fat diet should be "served with love." <sarcasm>  
Yeah,
real scientific, Dean. </sarcasm> Ornish brags about having been "a lead
investigator on numerous peer-reviewed studies" and criticizes this  
study
for not being sufficiently scientific, but I'm guessing that some  
scientists
may have problems with Ornish's implications that high HDL is a bad  
sign and
weight loss is not that important, as well as his talk of a diet "served
with love."

On the bright side, Ornish admits that refined carbohydrates are  
unhealthy
and adopts a more conciliatory tone than last time: "It's time to call a
truce in the diet wars." Of course, people do tend to call for a  
truce when
they're losing a war, but it's still a welcome change. Unfortunately,  
Ornish
falsely claims that a "convergence" is emerging around his misguided  
views
that an "An optimal diet is one that is low in fat," contains plenty  
of bran
from whole grains and includes "soy products." In other words, "You  
claim
you support a low carb diet, but you actually like my extremely low-fat,
high-carb diet," or "I know what you support better than you do." Ornish
mentions again that fatty fish like salmon are healthy food, which
contradicts nearly everything else he says.

Atkins-type diets are not optimal (and I know of at least one person who
reportedly developed gout while on an Atkins diet), but they certainly
appear less unhealthy for most people than the extreme Ornish guru- 
diet fad.

Low-carb beats low-fat in diet duel
Those eating fewer carbs also had lower cholesterol, surprising study  
finds
The Associated Press
updated 6:48 p.m. ET, Wed., July. 16, 2008
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25708495

The Never-Ending Diet Wars
A new study reports that the Atkins diet can be just as healthy as a  
low-fat
diet. But don't start buying bacon yet. This research has some serious
flaws.
Dean Ornish M.D.
Newsweek Web Exclusive
Updated: 6:29 PM ET Jul 16, 2008
http://www.newsweek.com/id/146641