The Spectrum: A Scientifically Proven Program to Feel Better, Live Longer, Lose Weight, and Gain Health

From the author of the landmark bestseller Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease comes an empowering new program that enables you to customize a healthy way of eating and living based on your own desires, needs, and genetic predispositions. 

Dr. Dean Ornish revolutionized medicine by directing clinical research proving–for the first time–that heart disease and early-stage prostate cancer may be stopped or even reversed by his program of comprehensive lifestyle changes, without drugs or surgery. His newest research was the first to show that changing your lifestyle changes your genes in men with prostate cancer–“turning on” disease-preventing genes, and “turning off” genes that promote breast cancer, heart disease, and other illnesses, and in only three months. This study documented, also for the first time, that these lifestyle changes may significantly increase an enzyme that lengthens telomeres–the ends of your chromosomes that control how long you live. As your telomeres get longer, your life gets longer. Your genes are not your fate.

 The Spectrum features one hundred easy-to-prepare, delicious recipes from award-winning chef Art Smith. Whether you want to lose weight, lower your cholesterol, reverse a major disease, or find a sustainable, joyful lifestyle, The Spectrum can make a powerful difference in your health and well-being. 

Does It Work?

Yes. Ornish based The Spectrum on 35 years of scientific research.

The Spectrum includes examples of how to use the program to lose weight, lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, and help prevent or treat diabetes, heart disease, and other conditions.

The theory:

The more you change your diet, the more health benefits you reap. If you’re only looking to lose a few pounds, a couple of this-for-thats might do the trick. But if you want to reverse heart disease – which research shows may be possible at the rigorous end of this diet’s spectrum of choices – you’re looking at big changes. For most programs, though, you have plenty of room between all and nothing. If you indulged yesterday, make more healthful choices today; if you didn’t have time for a run yesterday, make it a must-do today. What matters most is your overall approach – if it’s doable and pleasurable over the long haul, you’ll stick with it for life.

Pros

• Solid nutritionally
• Your heart will love you

Cons

• Staying the course could be tough
• Not exactly cheap

Will you lose weight?

Perhaps, perhaps not. There are varying degrees of an Ornish diet. But if you’re exercising regularly and have adopted a menu filled with foods from the healthiest three nutrition groups – which emphasize produce, whole grains and fish – it’s likely.

In JAMA study, published in 2005, researchers assigned 160 overweight or obese participants to one of four diets: Atkins, Weight Watchers, Zone and a version of Ornish emphasizing a vegetarian approach with 10 percent of calories from fat. After a year, the Ornish group had lost an average of 7 pounds, which was similar to the range of weight loss (4½ to 7 pounds) in the other groups.

How easy is it to follow?

Well, how much fat will you include? Research shows most dieters have a hard time sticking to a plan that restricts fat to 10 percent of daily calories. If your health doesn’t depend on it (i.e., you don’t have heart disease), working with a slightly higher fat intake may help you keep a firm hold on the wagon.

Convenience:

Recipes are abundant, and eating out is OK, if the chef can improvise. Alcohol is allowed in moderation.