Ornish Diet Analysis Essay

In life, many people participate in various daily events and activities that help them enjoy being who they are. People may enjoy getting together with friends, going to the mall, going to an amusement park or simply finding relaxation in nature. However, a big part of everyone’s life is of course eating and many people find pleasure in doing so. Eating is a very enjoyable and delectable must for everyone but should be done so, like everything in life, in a smart and intelligent way. Being smart and perceptive when eating is a large part of nutrition.

This article was to examine how the US government uses dietary guidelines for Americans and how the guidelines were supposed to help us eat and stay healthy. Diet and chronic diseases are sometimes connected. For example, it is proven that nutrient deficiency disease like scurvy can be cured by consuming the lost nutrients. However, it is also shown that some nutrient exposure can cause chronic illness such as energy, fats, sodium dietary fiber, and food exposures, etc. making it difficult to set dietary guidelines. In addition to some nutrient causing chronic diseases, nondietary factors such as stress, lack of exercise, smoking and other environmental factors are linked to causing chronic illnesses (Slavin, 2012).

Based on a 24 Hour Recall of my diet, results using NutriCalc Plus report that my food intake lacked a healthy balance of all food groups. My Grain intake reached only 60% of the My Plate daily recommendations. My Vegetable intake was a mere 50% of the recommended servings. Additionally, I consumed 84% of the daily recommendations for the Dairy Group. Nonetheless, I did exceed the recommendations for the Fruit Group and Protein Group with intakes of 155% and 107%, respectively.

Nutrition, I have learned plays a big part in our life. To be honest I was clueless about how much nutrition affected our everyday lives. I love going to the gym working out, now that I know what should go into my diet I think I will see a lot more improvement. I occasionally follow the latest diet fads because I believed it would be better for my health, but in turn it really hurt more than it helped! This Diet Analysis project has been extremely useful course because I can personally relate to it and can use much of the information learned to my daily routines. The Diet Analysis project was a real eye opener because it let me see what exactly I was putting into my diet.

Proper nutrition is important in maintaining a long and healthy life. Most Americans are rushed due to their busy work schedules, and do not take the time to plan their diets properly. Like me, most Americans are unaware of the importance of eating a healthy diet and consume too many foods without the proper nutrients. Throughout my life I have been fortunate. I have not had any major health problems, and have been able to consume most foods without having to worry about gaining weight. These last two years, however, I started to gain weight and have become concerned with my diet. Changing my poor eating habits has been difficult for me, however, having this assignment has taught me that it is not as difficult as I previously

The book describes a healthful diet as one that includes: consuming a variety of nutrient-dense foods within the food groups; limiting intake

When I was growing up I was taught how to hunt, fish and trap animals for food as well as being fed an omnivorous diet, but today I have found that I no longer need animals in my diet. The Vegetarian Times recently found that out of the 311 million people in the US, 7.3 million eat a vegetarian based diet and 22.8 million eat a vegetarian inclined diet. Over the past century people have begun looking into the health implications of plant based diets as a way of improving their health and increase their longevity. This research paper is intended

Positing that most of our major health issues, including heart disease, cancer and diabetes, can be prevented (and even in some cases reversed) by following a vegetables-and-whole-grains diet, this dense documentary would rather inform than entertain. Its hale heroes are the nutritional scientist T. Colin Campbell and the surgeon Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr., whose combined decades of research into the harmful effects of animal proteins are summarized, along with an extensive history of our worldwide dietary decline.

In my Diet Journal, I recorded all the food I ate over the weekend with the best accuracy I could attempt to do. But one of the factors that made my food diary inaccurate was that I couldn’t find every detail and percentage of fat, carbohydrates, and proteins in everything I ate. Also, all of the amounts and servings were approximations, not exact amounts. I was able to record everything I ate, but accuracy may have been affected by estimations and sources. The calorie intake I had over the three day period ranged from 1900-2500 calories. This was over my 1800 BMR, due to the food choices and fluctuation in diet.

Please do not use cell phone to text during class as it distracts other students.

The three-day diet analysis was interesting. There were many positive attributes to it and definitely negative ones. Over the course of the three days, which were Friday, Saturday and Sunday: and figured this would give a good depiction of what I was consuming on a regular basis. In some places I was consuming more than I should be and in some I was consuming less than I should be. There were also those places were I was getting just the right amount. It is so interesting to me to be able to find out what I am consuming and how I am consuming it. Being an active male, it was most interesting of what I ate, what my average of the three days were, and the plan on how I would correct the way I eat to make it a more healthier lifestyle.

Which diet works, is a question many ask in today’s world of conflicting health news. High protein diets have become a popular method to lose weight amongst those seeking a simplified version to healthy eating; however, Dean Ornish contributor of “The Myth of High-Protein Diets,” in The New York Times, March 23, 2015, sets the record straight about the “so called” benefits of a diet heavy in protein. Ornish offers information to educate the general population regarding some misconceptions with high-protein diets, and he sets the record straight that high-protein diets cause harm to the body and a plant-based diet restores health, prevents disease and nourishes the body for years to come.

The Western Diet mainly consists of fried foods, refined grains, sugar, high carbohydrate and fats, and meats (3). It has been hypothesized that having a Western Diet increases one’s chances for developing depression. There has been a great deal of research into why the western diet increase’s one chance of having depression. A common sense reason maybe that the Western Diet consisted of large amounts carbohydrates, fats and sugars which promotes obesity and then causes depression (1). More scientific evidence suggest that having a improper diet like the Western Diet negatively affects peripheral and central dopamine, which are neurotransmitters (chemical which transmit signals across the synapse from the nerve cell to the target cell)

Zhang, Z., Wang, J., Chen, S., & Lu, W. (2014). Comparison of vegetarian diets and omnivorous diets on plasma level of HDL-c: A meta-analysis. PLoS ONE 9(3). Retrieved from:

Some health benefits that come along with being a vegan include: lower cholesterol levels, higher energy levels, weight loss, and even a longer life. After just two weeks on a low-fat vegan diet, most people lose weight and feel more energized. Other physical benefits that come along with this lifestyle are healthy skin, reduction of body odor, healthier hair and nails, elimination of bad breath, alleviation of allergies, and relief from migraines. (57 Health) Through eating a healthy, disciplined, vegan diet and having higher levels of essential vitamins, minerals and proteins many popular diseases amongst people can be avoided such as cardiovascular disease, type two diabetes, osteoporosis, arthritis, and even certain types of cancer. Heart disease has been successfully reversed through programs that include an exclusive vegan diet. Dedicated to their work, Dr. Dean Ornish, the founder and president of the non-profit Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, the president of the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons both utilize the vegan diet in