Review: Dean Ornish’s “The Spectrum”
“On The Spectrum plan, you can eat anything you want — to a degree. If you want to lose weight, lower blood sugar, or prevent chronic diseases, you’ll need to choose more healthy foods and fewer less healthy ones.
Foods are ranked from the healthiest (group 1), to the least healthy (group 5). Here are some examples:
- Group 1: Fruits, fresh vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nonfat dairy, egg whites, soy products.
- Group 2: Avocados, seeds, nuts, oils, canned vegetables, low-fat dairy, decaffeinated beverages.
- Group 3: Seafood, refined carbs, concentrated sweets, oils higher in saturated fats, margarine.
- Group 4: High-fat animal products, whole-fat dairy, mayonnaise, pastries, cookies, pies.
- Group 5: Red meat, egg yolks, fried foods, hot dogs, organ meats, butter, cream, tropical oils.
The closer you move toward group 1, the more likely you are to gain health benefits. If you’re already healthy, you may want to make only a few small changes. But if you’re eating mostly foods from group 5, you may want to go for bigger changes.”
No understanding that a diet high in grains may facilitate the onset of diabetes and disease as it ”creates sugar while fat does not.” CHECK
No understanding that a highcarb/lowfat diet stimulates hunger and promotes weight gain? CHECK.
No understanding that encouraging nonfat or lowfat dairy consumption is the same as encouraging eating processed food. CHECK. (by the way, I personally mostly avoid dairy… but there are many paleo adherents that have other views. When I do drink milk though it’s whole milk)
No understanding that the grains, legumes, dairy and most fruits recommended in Group 1 actually will increase your blood sugar while the foods from Group 5 (except for fried foods and perhaps processed hot dogs) actually have very little affect on blood sugar. CHECK.
No understanding that the paradigm of encouraging a nonhuman diet of HealthyWholeGrains and soy while avoiding meat is doomed to fail in the presence of a high carb=>high glucose=>high insulin environment? CHECK! CHECK! CHECK! 