Dean Ornish

“If you go on a diet and feel constrained, you are more likely to drop it. But if you see your food choices each day as part of a spectrum, then you are more likely to feel free and empowered.”

“Fear leads to more fear, and trust leads to more trust.”

“We all know we're going to die one day, but who wants to think about it? What's sustainable is joy, pleasure and freedom.”

“The biological mechanisms that control our health and well-being are much more dynamic - for better and for worse - than most people realize.”

“When most people think about my work, they think about diet. To me, diet has always been the least interesting part of it.”

“If we're not careful, we become that which we most fear.”

“Because the biological mechanisms that affect our health and well-being are so dynamic, when people change their diet and lifestyle, they usually feel so much better, so quickly; it reframes the reason for changing from fear of dying to joy of living. Also, the support that patients give each other is a powerful motivator.”

“Whether you're six or sixty, if you go on a diet and lifestyle program and feel constrained, you're likely to go off it sooner or later. Offering a spectrum of choices is much more effective; then, you feel free and empowered.”

“In general, losing weight is a good thing for those who are overweight, but it's important to lose weight in a way that enhances your health rather than one that may compromise it.”

“In 2010, I consulted with President Clinton after his bypass grafts occluded and encouraged him to make healthy lifestyle changes including a whole-foods, plant-based diet low in refined carbohydrates.”

“Small changes in diet don't have much effect on preventing coronary heart disease and cancer. But bigger changes in diet and lifestyle may prevent heart attacks in almost everyone.”

“The need for connection and community is primal, as fundamental as the need for air, water, and food.”

“It's true, you can lose weight on these high-animal-protein, Atkins-type diets, but you're mortgaging your health in the process.”

“The choices you make each day in your diet and lifestyle have a direct influence on how your genetic predisposition is expressed - for better and for worse. You're only as old as your genes, but how your genes are expressed may be modified by exercise, diet and lifestyle choices much more than had previously been believed - and more quickly.”

“As a veteran of the diet wars, I think it's time to call a truce. Rather than hear experts argue, most people want practical information they can use.”

“When we realize that something as primal as the food that we choose to eat each day makes such an important difference in addressing both global warming and personal health, it empowers us and imbues these choices with meaning. If it's meaningful, then it's sustainable - and a meaningful life is a longer life.”

“Not everything that lowers HDL is bad for you. If you change from a high-fat, high-cholesterol diet to a healthy low-fat, low-cholesterol diet, your HDL levels may stay the same or even decrease because there is less need for it. When you have less garbage, you need fewer garbage trucks to remove it, so your body may make less HDL.”

“Your genes are not your fate... if you change your lifestyle, you change your genes.”

“If we can reach populations in developing countries and help them understand the value of their indigenous diet and lifestyles rather than copying ours, perhaps we can reverse the exponential rise in cardiovascular disease that is plaguing them.”

“The need for love and intimacy is a fundamental human need, as primal as the need for food, water, and air.”

“One of the reasons I'm excited by what visionary Elon Musk has done with the Tesla is to show that you can reduce global warming and drive a powerful, fun car. A cool car helps make a cooler planet.”