The rule for this diet is very simple. It basically eliminates every food that you have ever WANTED to eat. If you like it, you can't have it. If it tastes good, spit it out. If you enjoy a food, there is something wrong with it. It is extremely limiting and tedious. Nothing made with flour. Nothing made with sugar. Nothing that contains salt. Nothing made with fat. Nothing that contains meat. Nothing that contains oil. Nothing that contains seafood of any kind. Nothing with taste.
The list of deadly, and forbidden foods is endless. No almonds, no avocadoes, no cabernet wine, no shrimp. Stay a way from walnuts, salmon, clams, coconut, flaxseed, pecans, and calamari. Eat no roquefort, no cashews, no sushi, no flounder, no cod, no olives, no california roll. You are not permitted olive oil or canola oil or sesame oil. (Sesame seeds are even frowned upon.) You are allowed no pecans, no mustard, no sunflower seeds, no pumpkin seeds, no Dover sole, no brook trout, no chocolate. . .
You are left to a spartan regime of leaves and stems, sugary fruits, and piles and piles of sticky starches. Rice beans potatoes rice beans potatoes rice beans. . . You may dress it up with saffron and exotic spices. But it is still potatoes rice beans to me.
And. . .not to be indelicate, but when consuming all this organic mulch your intestines will ferment and bubble like a pot of stew. You will pass gas every few minutes, much like a cow does. At the office, I could not sit through a 30-minute meeting without slipping out to the men's room once or twice to break wind in private. (Ornish recommends using Beano, some pill that supposedly helps this 'side effect.' Phooey.)
I gave this up. I now eat low-carb. My weight is down. My cholesterol is down (and balanced) my BP is down. I am not hungry. My periodontal disease cleared up. And a no longer puff like a steam engine out the back.
