Kathy Freston & Dean Ornish: A High Protein Diet Won't Make You Lose Weight Long Term: In Fact, It May Make You Fatter

March 11, 2010

Kathy Freston

Author, Health and Wellness Expert

Posted: March 10, 2010 09:13 AM

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A High Protein Diet Won't Make You Lose Weight Long Term: In Fact, It May Make You Fatter

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathy-freston/a-high-protein-diet-wont_b_492203.html

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In

this series of interviews I've conducted with extraordinary nutritional

researchers and medical doctors, I've sought to understand the link

between diet and health. The common refrain is resoundingly clear in

that a plant-based diet is both preventive and healing, whereas a diet

high in animal protein is destructive to our health. And now it's

become abundantly evident that a high protein diet is not only making

us sick, but it also makes us fat.

There is no one who has more peer reviewed research on the subject

of weight loss and overall health than Dean Ornish, M.D. He has sparked

a revolution in cardiology with his studies which show that heart

disease can be reversed through comprehensive lifestyle changes. His

current research is showing that those very changes also affect gene

expression -- that you can turn on or turn off genes that affect

cancer, heart disease and longevity. He is the founder and President of

the non-profit Preventive Medicine Research Institute and is a Clinical

Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

Here's what he says about losing weight the healthy way, and keeping it

off.

KF: It's widely believed that people lose weight fastest on a high protein diet. True?

DO: Initially, they may lose more weight because they are losing

water weight. But by the end the year, the weight usually returns. In

general, slower weight loss by eating more healthfully is more

sustainable. Slow but steady wins the race.

KF: Why do some people have such a hard time losing weight and keeping it off?

DO: It's not enough to focus only on what we eat and other

behaviors; we need to work at a deeper level. The real epidemic in our

country is not only obesity but also depression, isolation, and

loneliness. As one patient told me, "When I feel lonely and depressed,

I eat a lot of fat. It fills the void. Fat coats my nerves and numbs

the pain." People often overeat when they're feeling stressed, lonely,

and depressed --"comfort foods."

Everyone knows that diet and exercise play a role in how much we

weigh, but many are surprised to learn what a powerful role emotional

stress has in causing us to gain weight and how stress management

techniques can help us to lose it and keep it off.

Chronic emotional stress causes us to gain weight in several important ways:

â€¢ Many people overeat to cope with feeling stressed, and they often

tend to eat foods that are high in fat, salt and sugar as well.

â€¢ Chronic emotional stress stimulates your brain to release hormones

that cause you to gain weight, especially around your belly where it's

most harmful and least attractive. Chronic stress also causes

stimulation of hormones such as cytokines that promote inflammation.

Also, obesity itself causes a low-grade inflammation which, in turn,

tends to promote more obesity in a vicious cycle.

â€¢ Since chronic emotional stress promotes weight gain, stress

management techniques may play a powerful role in helping you to lose

weight and keep it off. The psychosocial, emotional and spiritual

issues are as important to address if you want to lose weight and keep

it off as the nutrition and exercise ones.

Most Americans eat too many refined carbohydrates. When they go on a

typical high-protein diet, they reduce their intake of all

carbohydrates, which for most Americans means they primarily reduce

their intake of simple carbohydrates. This helps them to lose weight.

Whenever I debated Dr. Atkins before he died, he was usually

described as the "low carb" doctor and I was the "low fat" doctor. But

that was never accurate. I have always advocated that an optimal diet

is lower in total fat, very low in "bad fats" (saturated fat,

hydrogenated fats, and trans fatty acids), high in "good carbs"

(fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and soy products), low in

"bad carbs" (sugar, white flour, processed foods) and with enough of

the "good fats" (omega 3 fatty acids) and high-quality proteins.

There are clear benefits to reducing the intake of refined

carbohydrates, especially in people who are sensitive to them. The

solution is not to go from refined carbohydrates like pasta to pork

rinds and from sugar to sausage, but to substitute refined bad carbs

with unrefined good carbs.

KF: Tell me more about a good carb vs a bad carb.

DO: Good carbs are whole foods. These include fruits, vegetables,

whole grains, legumes, nuts, and soy products in their natural,

unrefined, unprocessed forms.

Because these good carbs are unrefined, they are naturally high in

fiber as well. The fiber fills you up before you eat too much. For

example, it's hard to get too many calories from eating apples or whole

grains, because apples are naturally low in calories and high in fiber,

which causes you to feel full before you consume too many calories.

Also, the fiber in good carbs causes your food to be digested and

absorbed into your bloodstream more slowly. This helps to regulate your

blood sugar into a normal range without getting too high or too low.

For example, when whole wheat flour is processed into white flour,

or brown rice into white rice, the fiber and bran are removed. This

turns a "good carb" into a "bad carb."

Why? Because when the fiber and bran are removed, you get a quadruple-whammy:

â€¢ You can eat large amounts of "bad carbs" without getting full.

Fiber fills you up before you consume too many calories. Removing fiber

allows you to consume virtually unlimited amounts of sugar without

causing you to feel like you're full.

â€¢ When you eat a lot of "bad carbs," they get absorbed quickly,

causing your blood sugar to rise too rapidly. When your blood sugar

gets too high, your pancreas secretes insulin to bring it back down.

However, it may go down below where it started, causing low blood sugar

(hypoglycemia). By analogy, when you pull a pendulum to one side and

let it go, it doesn't stop at the mid-point; it continues an equal

distance to the other side.

When your blood sugar gets too low, you feel tired, lethargic and a

little crabby. There's a good temporary fix for those bad

feelings--more bad carbs! This creates a craving for more "bad carbs"

to raise your blood sugar in a vicious cycle.

â€¢ When your body secretes too much insulin, it accelerates the

conversion of calories into triglycerides, which is how your body

stores fat. Thus, when you eat a lot of "bad carbs," you consume an

excessive number of calories that don't fill you up, and you're more

likely to convert these extra calories to body fat. Insulin may also

cause your body to produce more of an enzyme called lipoprotein lipase,

which increases the uptake of fat into cells, leading to weight gain.

â€¢ When your body secretes too much insulin, it may lead to insulin

resistance and even diabetes. Insulin binds to what are called insulin

receptors on your cells. When your body makes repeated surges of

insulin in response to too many "bad carbs," the receptors become less

sensitive--a little like Aesop's fable of the boy who cried wolf--as if

the insulin receptors were saying, "Oh, not more insulin again, just

ignore it." Like a heroin addict who requires more and more of the drug

to get the same feeling, insulin resistance causes your body to make

more and more insulin just to maintain the same effect on your blood

sugar. Over time, this may lead to type 2 diabetes. Too much insulin

also enhances the growth and proliferation of arterial smooth muscle

cells, promoting atherosclerosis and clogging your arteries.

This doesn't mean you should never eat bad carbs. I do, in

moderation. When I eat bad carbs, I try to consume them along with good

carbs and other high-fiber foods. That way, the fiber in the good carbs

will also slow the absorption of the bad carbs.

KF: Does it make a difference if the protein in our diet is vegetarian or animal?

DO: Yes. To paraphrase Gertrude Stein, a calorie is a calorie is a

calorie in its effects on weight but not on health. Interestingly,

there have been a few "vegetarian Atkins diet" studies published

recently, which is a little like putting lipstick on a pork rind...

KF: What's the danger in a high animal protein diet? Is animal fat any different than vegetable fat (like oils or avocado)?

DO: Diets that are high in animal protein are usually high in

saturated fat, which promotes both heart disease and cancer. A recent

study reviewed by Dr. Steven A. Smith in The New England Journal of Medicine

found that high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets accelerate

atherosclerosis (blockage in arteries) through mechanisms other than

traditional risk factors such as changes in cholesterol and

triglycerides.

Fat (from any source) has nine calories per gram, whereas protein

and carbohydrates have only four calories per gram. Thus, when you eat

less fat, you consume fewer calories even if you eat the same amount of

food--because the food is less dense in calories.

Also, too much protein, especially animal protein, puts a strain on

your liver and kidneys and promotes osteoporosis. When your body

excretes too much protein, it excretes too much calcium along with it.

Too much animal protein, especially red meat, has been linked with

significantly increased risks of heart disease, prostate cancer, breast

cancer and colon cancer.

For example, a study published last year in the Archives of Internal Medicine

reported the findings from a half-million people in the NIH-AARP study

that consumption of red meat was significantly associated with

increases in total mortality, cardiovascular mortality and cancer

mortality.

Studies show that measures of cardiovascular disease rather than

just risk factors show that people on average become worse on an Atkins

diet. For example, a recent study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association

by Miller et al showed that flow-mediated vasodilation (a measure of

heart disease), LDL-cholesterol and inflammation worsened on a

high-animal-protein diet but improved significantly on a low-fat, whole

foods, plant-based diet.

KF: How should one eat in order to lose weight?

DO: Mindfully. It's not just what you eat, but also how you eat that

matters. Have you ever eaten a bag of popcorn while watching an intense

movie? All of your attention is focused on the movie--so you may look

down and see that the bag of popcorn is empty. You got all the calories

but little of the pleasure. In contrast, if you really pay attention to

your food, savoring it as you would a fine wine, you have greatly

enhanced pleasure with fewer calories. And pleasure is sustainable.

KF: What should be avoided?

DO: As described above, avoid refined carbohydrates, too much fat

(especially trans fats which cause weight gain), and processed foods.

KF: Should we count calories? Fat grams? Carbs?

DO: In my experience, if you eat predominantly a whole foods,

plant-based diet that is naturally high in fiber and low in fat and in

refined carbohydrates, and if you eat it mindfully, you don't have to

count anything to lose weight. You feel full before you consume too

many calories.

KF: What are some of the health concerns of being overweight?

DO: Being overweight significantly increases the risk of virtually

every chronic disease. Some authorities have said that obesity is now

overtaking smoking as the most preventable cause of premature death.

KF: How do you break through cravings for unhealthy food, because they really do have a hold on most of us!?

DO: As you begin to eat more healthfully, your taste preferences

change. You begin to prefer foods that are more healthful. And you

connect the dots between what you eat and how you feel. Because these

mechanisms are so dynamic, most people find that the feel so much

better, so quickly, it reframes the reason for changing from living

longer to feeling better. And feeling better is sustainable; risk

factor modification is not.

KF: What is a reasonable rate of weight loss?

DO: In most cases, no more than three pounds/week.

KF: What if we want to lose weight faster; is there a healthy way to do it?

DO: Do more exercise and meditation and eat smaller amounts of

healthy foods and less salt. Regular exercise not only burns calories,

it also raises your basal metabolic rate, the number of calories you

burn while at rest. Thus, exercise helps you lose weight even when

you're not exercising. Do some strength training as well as aerobic

exercise. Walking a mile burns even more calories than running a mile.

Exercise in ways that you enjoy, then you're more likely to do it. If

it's fun, it's sustainable.

KF: If someone is too busy to cook, and is in a big hurry, what is the best and most affordable approach?

DO: There are more and more healthy prepared and frozen meals on the

market. Eat with your friends and take turns shopping and cooking--not

only does it save time, but when you fill your heart with the love of

friends and family in a shared meal, you have less need to overfill

your belly.

For more information: www.pmri.org

March 11, 2010

Posted: March 10, 2010 09:13 AM

AHigh Protein Diet Won't Make You Lose Weight Long Term: In

Fact, It May Make You Fatter

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathy-freston/a-high-protein-diet-wont_b_492203.html

In this

series of interviews I've conducted with extraordinary nutritional

researchers and medical doctors, I've sought to understand the link

between diet and health. The common refrain is resoundingly clear in

that a plant-based diet is both preventive and healing, whereas a diet

high in animal protein is destructive to our health. And now it's

become abundantly evident that a high protein diet is not only making

us sick, but it also makes us fat.

There is no one who has more peer reviewed research on the

subject of weight loss and overall health than Dean Ornish, M.D. He

has sparked a revolution in cardiology with his studies which show

that heart disease can be reversed through comprehensive lifestyle

changes. His current research is showing that those very changes also

affect gene expression -- that you can turn on or turn off genes that

affect cancer, heart disease and longevity. He is the founder and

President of the non-profit Preventive Medicine Research Institute and

is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California,

San Francisco. Here's what he says about losing weight the healthy

way, and keeping it off.

KF: It's widely believed that people lose weight fastest on a

high protein diet. True?

DO: Initially, they may lose more weight because they are losing

water weight. But by the end the year, the weight usually returns. In

general, slower weight loss by eating more healthfully is more

sustainable. Slow but steady wins the race.

KF: Why do some people have such a hard time losing weight and

keeping it off?

DO: It's not enough to focus only on what we eat and other

behaviors; we need to work at a deeper level. The real epidemic in our

country is not only obesity but also depression, isolation, and

loneliness. As one patient told me, " When I feel lonely and

depressed, I eat a lot of fat. It fills the void. Fat coats my nerves

and numbs the pain. " People often overeat when they're feeling

stressed, lonely, and depressed -- " comfort foods. "

Everyone knows that diet and exercise play a role in how much we

weigh, but many are surprised to learn what a powerful role emotional

stress has in causing us to gain weight and how stress management

techniques can help us to lose it and keep it off.

Chronic emotional stress causes us to gain weight in several

important ways:

* Many people overeat to cope with feeling stressed, and they

often tend to eat foods that are high in fat, salt and sugar as

well.

* Chronic emotional stress stimulates your brain to release

hormones that cause you to gain weight, especially around your belly

where it's most harmful and least attractive. Chronic stress also

causes stimulation of hormones such as cytokines that promote

inflammation. Also, obesity itself causes a low-grade inflammation

which, in turn, tends to promote more obesity in a vicious cycle.

* Since chronic emotional stress promotes weight gain, stress

management techniques may play a powerful role in helping you to lose

weight and keep it off. The psychosocial, emotional and spiritual

issues are as important to address if you want to lose weight and keep

it off as the nutrition and exercise ones.

Most Americans eat too many refined carbohydrates. When they go

on a typical high-protein diet, they reduce their intake of all

carbohydrates, which for most Americans means they primarily reduce

their intake of simple carbohydrates. This helps them to lose

weight.

Whenever I debated Dr. Atkins before he died, he was usually

described as the " low carb " doctor and I was the " low

fat " doctor. But that was never accurate. I have always advocated

that an optimal diet is lower in total fat, very low in " bad

fats " (saturated fat, hydrogenated fats, and trans fatty acids),

high in " good carbs " (fruits, vegetables, whole grains,

legumes, and soy products), low in " bad carbs " (sugar, white

flour, processed foods) and with enough of the " good fats "

(omega 3 fatty acids) and high-quality proteins.

There are clear benefits to reducing the intake of refined

carbohydrates, especially in people who are sensitive to them. The

solution is not to go from refined carbohydrates like pasta to pork

rinds and from sugar to sausage, but to substitute refined bad carbs

with unrefined good carbs.

KF: Tell me more about a good carb vs a bad carb.

DO: Good carbs are whole foods. These include fruits, vegetables,

whole grains, legumes, nuts, and soy products in their natural,

unrefined, unprocessed forms.

Because these good carbs are unrefined, they are naturally high

in fiber as well. The fiber fills you up before you eat too much. For

example, it's hard to get too many calories from eating apples or

whole grains, because apples are naturally low in calories and high in

fiber, which causes you to feel full before you consume too many

calories.

Also, the fiber in good carbs causes your food to be digested and

absorbed into your bloodstream more slowly. This helps to regulate

your blood sugar into a normal range without getting too high or too

low.

For example, when whole wheat flour is processed into white

flour, or brown rice into white rice, the fiber and bran are removed.

This turns a " good carb " into a " bad carb. "

Why? Because when the fiber and bran are removed, you get a

quadruple-whammy:

* You can eat large amounts of " bad carbs " without

getting full. Fiber fills you up before you consume too many calories.

Removing fiber allows you to consume virtually unlimited amounts of

sugar without causing you to feel like you're full.

* When you eat a lot of " bad carbs, " they get

absorbed quickly, causing your blood sugar to rise too rapidly. When

your blood sugar gets too high, your pancreas secretes insulin to

bring it back down. However, it may go down below where it started,

causing low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). By analogy, when you pull a

pendulum to one side and let it go, it doesn't stop at the mid-point;

it continues an equal distance to the other side.

When your blood sugar gets too low, you feel tired, lethargic and a

little crabby. There's a good temporary fix for those bad

feelings--more bad carbs! This creates a craving for more " bad

carbs " to raise your blood sugar in a vicious cycle.

* When your body secretes too much insulin, it accelerates the

conversion of calories into triglycerides, which is how your body

stores fat. Thus, when you eat a lot of " bad carbs, " you

consume an excessive number of calories that don't fill you up, and

you're more likely to convert these extra calories to body fat.

Insulin may also cause your body to produce more of an enzyme called

lipoprotein lipase, which increases the uptake of fat into cells,

leading to weight gain.

* When your body secretes too much insulin, it may lead to

insulin resistance and even diabetes. Insulin binds to what are called

insulin receptors on your cells. When your body makes repeated surges

of insulin in response to too many " bad carbs, " the

receptors become less sensitive--a little like Aesop's fable of the

boy who cried wolf--as if the insulin receptors were saying, " Oh,

not more insulin again, just ignore it. " Like a heroin addict who

requires more and more of the drug to get the same feeling, insulin

resistance causes your body to make more and more insulin just to

maintain the same effect on your blood sugar. Over time, this may lead

to type 2 diabetes. Too much insulin also enhances the growth and

proliferation of arterial smooth muscle cells, promoting

atherosclerosis and clogging your arteries.

This doesn't mean you should never eat bad carbs. I do, in

moderation. When I eat bad carbs, I try to consume them along with

good carbs and other high-fiber foods. That way, the fiber in the good

carbs will also slow the absorption of the bad carbs.

KF: Does it make a difference if the protein in our diet is

vegetarian or animal?

DO: Yes. To paraphrase Gertrude Stein, a calorie is a calorie is

a calorie in its effects on weight but not on health. Interestingly,

there have been a few " vegetarian Atkins diet " studies

published recently, which is a little like putting lipstick on a pork

rind...

KF: What's the danger in a high animal protein diet? Is animal

fat any different than vegetable fat (like oils or avocado)?

DO: Diets that are high in animal protein are usually high in

saturated fat, which promotes both heart disease and cancer. A recent

study reviewed by Dr. Steven A. Smith in The New England Journal of

Medicine found that high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets accelerate

atherosclerosis (blockage in arteries) through mechanisms other than

traditional risk factors such as changes in cholesterol and

triglycerides.

Fat (from any source) has nine calories per gram, whereas protein

and carbohydrates have only four calories per gram. Thus, when you eat

less fat, you consume fewer calories even if you eat the same amount

of food--because the food is less dense in calories.

Also, too much protein, especially animal protein, puts a strain

on your liver and kidneys and promotes osteoporosis. When your body

excretes too much protein, it excretes too much calcium along with it.

Too much animal protein, especially red meat, has been linked with

significantly increased risks of heart disease, prostate cancer,

breast cancer and colon cancer.

For example, a study published last year in the Archives of

Internal Medicine reported the findings from a half-million people in

the NIH-AARP study that consumption of red meat was significantly

associated with increases in total mortality, cardiovascular mortality

and cancer mortality.

Studies show that measures of cardiovascular disease rather than

just risk factors show that people on average become worse on an

Atkins diet. For example, a recent study published in the Journal of

the American Dietetic Association by Miller et al showed that

flow-mediated vasodilation (a measure of heart disease),

LDL-cholesterol and inflammation worsened on a high-animal-protein

diet but improved significantly on a low-fat, whole foods, plant-based

diet.

KF: How should one eat in order to lose weight?

DO: Mindfully. It's not just what you eat, but also how you eat

that matters. Have you ever eaten a bag of popcorn while watching an

intense movie? All of your attention is focused on the movie--so you

may look down and see that the bag of popcorn is empty. You got all

the calories but little of the pleasure. In contrast, if you really

pay attention to your food, savoring it as you would a fine wine, you

have greatly enhanced pleasure with fewer calories. And pleasure is

sustainable.

KF: What should be avoided?

DO: As described above, avoid refined carbohydrates, too much fat

(especially trans fats which cause weight gain), and processed

foods.

KF: Should we count calories? Fat grams? Carbs?

DO: In my experience, if you eat predominantly a whole foods,

plant-based diet that is naturally high in fiber and low in fat and in

refined carbohydrates, and if you eat it mindfully, you don't have to

count anything to lose weight. You feel full before you consume too

many calories.

KF: What are some of the health concerns of being overweight?

DO: Being overweight significantly increases the risk of

virtually every chronic disease. Some authorities have said that

obesity is now overtaking smoking as the most preventable cause of

premature death.

KF: How do you break through cravings for unhealthy food, because

they really do have a hold on most of us!?

DO: As you begin to eat more healthfully, your taste preferences

change. You begin to prefer foods that are more healthful. And you

connect the dots between what you eat and how you feel. Because these

mechanisms are so dynamic, most people find that the feel so much

better, so quickly, it reframes the reason for changing from living

longer to feeling better. And feeling better is sustainable; risk

factor modification is not.

KF: What is a reasonable rate of weight loss?

DO: In most cases, no more than three pounds/week.

KF: What if we want to lose weight faster; is there a healthy way

to do it?

DO: Do more exercise and meditation and eat smaller amounts of

healthy foods and less salt. Regular exercise not only burns calories,

it also raises your basal metabolic rate, the number of calories you

burn while at rest. Thus, exercise helps you lose weight even when

you're not exercising. Do some strength training as well as aerobic

exercise. Walking a mile burns even more calories than running a mile.

Exercise in ways that you enjoy, then you're more likely to do it. If

it's fun, it's sustainable.

KF: If someone is too busy to cook, and is in a big hurry, what

is the best and most affordable approach?

DO: There are more and more healthy prepared and frozen meals on

the market. Eat with your friends and take turns shopping and

cooking--not only does it save time, but when you fill your heart with

the love of friends and family in a shared meal, you have less need to

overfill your belly.

For more information: www.pmri.org

March 11, 2010

Thanks for the interview. Has anyone else read Kathy Freston's books? "Life is as dear to a mute creature as it is to a man. Just as one wants happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not to die, so do other creatures."-Dalai Lama of Tibet, His Holiness, The XIV "yarrow" <yarrow Sent: Thu, March 11, 2010 2:20:00 PM Fwd: Kathy Freston & Dean Ornish: A High Protein Diet Won't Make You Lose Weight Long Term: In Fact, It May Make You Fatter

Posted: March 10, 2010 09:13 AM

AHigh Protein Diet Won't Make You Lose Weight Long Term: In

Fact, It May Make You Fatter

http://www.huffingt onpost.com/ kathy-freston/ a-high-protein- diet-wont_b_492203.html