individual nutrients and can cause people to seek out certain foods because they contain more of a particular vitamin or mineral than other foods.
This is a misdirected strategy because optimal health cannot be achieved by focusing on a few nutrients or eating a few special foods that contain more iron or potassium. In fact, many people experience frustration because they have added or eliminated foods, or increased their consumption of a particular nutrient, without noticing much improvement in their weight or health.
The reason for this frustration is that good health can only be achieved by focusing on adopting a healthful dietary pattern: a low-fat, plant-based diet comprised of whole foods.
So don’t worry about eating a particular food in order to get enough of a certain vitamin and instead focus on eating a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains.
John A. McDougall, MD
DR. JOHN A. MCDOUGALL, who has been studying and writing about the effects of nutrition on disease for more than thirty years, is the founder and medical director of the McDougall program, a ten-day residential treatment program located in Santa Rosa, California, that features a low-fat, starch-based diet.
A Michigan native, John graduated from Michigan state University’s College of Human Medicine and received an MD in 1972 from Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu, where he also performed his internship, and did his residency in internal medicine at the University of Hawaii. He is the author of several national best sellers, including his latest book,
The McDougall Program for a Healthy Heart,
and cofounder and chairman of Dr. McDougall’s Right Foods, Inc., a line of plant-based convenience meals made with no added oils and less than 10 percent of their calories derived from fat.
John has dedicated his life to urging the public to eat a high-starch, plant-based diet.
“It started in 1972, when I went to Hawaii to do my medical internship and took a job at a sugar plantation, where I was the primary doctor for five thousand people. On that plantation were workers of Japanese, Filipino, Korean, and other Asian descent. Soon I learned my limitations as I tried, and often failed, to help these people cope with chronic diseases using pills and surgeries.
“I also noticed that my patients spanned four generations, and observed how members in each one ate differently. The older generations consumed mostly rice and vegetables, just as they had in their native lands. Their children’s diets were becoming more Westernized. I eventually realized that assoon as people move from a dairy- and meat-free diet to one that includes animal foods, they become ill.
“In 1976, while studying at the University of Hawaii, I began to put into practice the lessons I’d learned. I asked patients to get off oils and switch to a high-starch diet, and the results were immediate.
“Given the excellent results, I was sure that everyone else would see, and do, as I did. That didn’t happen. Instead, I was horrified to watch Americans being urged to eat a diet full of meat and dairy. Not surprisingly, they became sicker and sicker. It’s been disappointing, but large financial interests are keeping the truth from the public. There just isn’t the same kind of money behind promoting starches like corn and potatoes as there is promoting meat and dairy.
“In the 1980s, when my books started coming out, I thought my ideas were going to change America and the world. It didn’t happen that way. In fact, it got so bad that my publishers actually told me that they wanted me to change my focus and write about high-protein, low-carb diets, or they’d stop publishing me.
“I laughed at them—and then came Atkins and other enormously successful meat-based, low-carb diets. But now we’re in the 2010s, and things have changed. Frankly, I think I’m going to have the last laugh.”
Neal Barnard, MD
DR. NEAL BARNARD is an adjunct associate
This is a misdirected strategy because optimal health cannot be achieved by focusing on a few nutrients or eating a few special foods that contain more iron or potassium. In fact, many people experience frustration because they have added or eliminated foods, or increased their consumption of a particular nutrient, without noticing much improvement in their weight or health.
The reason for this frustration is that good health can only be achieved by focusing on adopting a healthful dietary pattern: a low-fat, plant-based diet comprised of whole foods.
So don’t worry about eating a particular food in order to get enough of a certain vitamin and instead focus on eating a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains.
John A. McDougall, MD
DR. JOHN A. MCDOUGALL, who has been studying and writing about the effects of nutrition on disease for more than thirty years, is the founder and medical director of the McDougall program, a ten-day residential treatment program located in Santa Rosa, California, that features a low-fat, starch-based diet.
A Michigan native, John graduated from Michigan state University’s College of Human Medicine and received an MD in 1972 from Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu, where he also performed his internship, and did his residency in internal medicine at the University of Hawaii. He is the author of several national best sellers, including his latest book,
The McDougall Program for a Healthy Heart,
and cofounder and chairman of Dr. McDougall’s Right Foods, Inc., a line of plant-based convenience meals made with no added oils and less than 10 percent of their calories derived from fat.
John has dedicated his life to urging the public to eat a high-starch, plant-based diet.
“It started in 1972, when I went to Hawaii to do my medical internship and took a job at a sugar plantation, where I was the primary doctor for five thousand people. On that plantation were workers of Japanese, Filipino, Korean, and other Asian descent. Soon I learned my limitations as I tried, and often failed, to help these people cope with chronic diseases using pills and surgeries.
“I also noticed that my patients spanned four generations, and observed how members in each one ate differently. The older generations consumed mostly rice and vegetables, just as they had in their native lands. Their children’s diets were becoming more Westernized. I eventually realized that assoon as people move from a dairy- and meat-free diet to one that includes animal foods, they become ill.
“In 1976, while studying at the University of Hawaii, I began to put into practice the lessons I’d learned. I asked patients to get off oils and switch to a high-starch diet, and the results were immediate.
“Given the excellent results, I was sure that everyone else would see, and do, as I did. That didn’t happen. Instead, I was horrified to watch Americans being urged to eat a diet full of meat and dairy. Not surprisingly, they became sicker and sicker. It’s been disappointing, but large financial interests are keeping the truth from the public. There just isn’t the same kind of money behind promoting starches like corn and potatoes as there is promoting meat and dairy.
“In the 1980s, when my books started coming out, I thought my ideas were going to change America and the world. It didn’t happen that way. In fact, it got so bad that my publishers actually told me that they wanted me to change my focus and write about high-protein, low-carb diets, or they’d stop publishing me.
“I laughed at them—and then came Atkins and other enormously successful meat-based, low-carb diets. But now we’re in the 2010s, and things have changed. Frankly, I think I’m going to have the last laugh.”
Neal Barnard, MD
DR. NEAL BARNARD is an adjunct associate
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