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| The Free McDougall Program |
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The Free McDougall Program is a health guidance program available online to anyone who is seriously interested in pursuing healthy nutrition. In addition to the generous free program, there are a variety of excellent, reasonably priced McDougall health programs. Dr. John McDougall is an internist who is one of the most knowledgeable doctors in the United States about the importance of good nutrition for optimal health. His life story is instructive. He grew up eating hotdogs and pizza, was overweight, and suffered a severe stroke at age eighteen. He survived, though he was left with a limp that he still has today. His stroke inspired him to go to medical school, though it did not lead him to change his eating habits. That came after he went to Hawaii and became the doctor for a large sugar plantation. He noticed that first generation Filipino immigrants stayed in good health into old age, but their descendants began to develop most of the health problems characteristic of other Americans. The main difference between the generations was a change in diet. The old generation ate rice and vegetables, as their ancestors had. Their children were increasingly tempted by Western foods, and by the third generation, the rice and veggies were largely abandoned in favor of meat, dairy, and junk foods. Chronic health problems became more and more prevalent in each succeeding generation. Pills did not cure them. McDougall decided to go to the University of Hawaii Medical School for a residency in Internal Medicine. He became board-certified as a specialist, but his pills still didn’t cure patients. His experience as a sugar plantation doctor, and his wide reading in the medical library, taught him that a healthy, plant-based diet was best for health. Then he found that it also proved to be the most effective way to treat and reverse many chronic diseases. Today, Dr. McDougall maintains an excellent program to treat patients who come to him with serious, life-threatening, chronic illnesses. The accounts of their recoveries, often after decades of struggle with difficult health issues, are remarkable. Dozens of patients tell their stories in their own words on a page dedicated to them on his website. McDougall has written numerous books on diet and health. He and his wife, Mary, have co-authored several good cookbooks, and they also conduct five-day health programs at their center in Santa Rosa, California. Designed to teach healthy lifestyle principles by example, these programs include delicious meals and cooking demos. Dr. and Mrs. McDougall also lead health adventure vacations in Costa Rica every year. I’ve known of Dr. McDougall’s work for over twenty years. He teaches a vegan style of eating, which means no meat, eggs, or dairy foods of any kind. More rigorous than the vegetarian and fish diet I advise, his documentation of the benefits of his program to patients is impressive. A true medical visionary, he is ushering in a new model of health. Anyone searching for practical lifestyle guidance to improve his or her health would find a great deal of help through the McDougall program. I recommend it highly. |