Dr. McDougall's Comments
The McDougall Program is for people interested in a lifetime of
good health and an outstanding personal appearance, as Charles
Alexander clearly demonstrates. He has never looked back, nor
does anyone else who really learns and honestly embraces the
Program. You will not find followers of the McDougall
philosophy searching the tabloids for the next miracle weight
loss diet or waiting for a pharmaceutical discovery that lets
them gorge themselves while remaining trim. Why would they
waste their time? They have already found the answer in a
simple meal plan.
“The truth will set you free.” It
really will. Just as Charles was set free from a family history
condemning him to an early death from hypertension and heart
disease. Without any conscious thought, Charles trimmed down to
a slim body weight and has maintained his muscular appearance
for more than a quarter century. And without any pills his body
adjusted to a healthy blood pressure and cholesterol. He is
free—disease-free.
Learning the principles of the
McDougall diet does not appear to most people to be as easy as
counting calories or eating only low-carbohydrate foods (meat,
eggs, and cheese). What they fail to consider is with our diet
you don’t suffer the constant pains of hunger from limiting
portions and the expected sicknesses (constipation, fatigue,
headaches, oily skin, bone loss, kidney stones, etc.) from
inadequate carbohydrates, and way too much fat and protein.
Because people following our program fill up with delicious
foods and look and feel great, they remain happy for a long
lifetime.
Learning valuable skills takes
some effort—like learning to properly speak a foreign language,
be a nurse, or fly an airplane. But the return for the student
in each case is well worth all of the effort. Learning proper
eating is no different—once learned, the advantages are for
life. Charles has reaped the benefits every day for the past 27
years—and so have thousands of others.
I (Dr. McDougall) have known the
reason most people are chronically ill and how to cure them
since 1977 (for 30 years). But I still have not fully figured
out how to get most people to give up their old habits and set
themselves free. We (Mary and I) try new methods at every
opportunity. Together, we have written books, given lectures,
held seminars, and taken people to exotic destinations (like
Costa Rica). The most effective tool we have found is 10
days of intensive education and medical care at
our clinic in
Santa Rosa, California. I estimate over 90% of
participants leave our clinic permanently changed—off
medications, and in control of their health and personal
appearance.
Tens of thousands of people who
are not able to take advantage of our live-in experience have
been able to change themselves by using the free information on
our web site. For a small investment our latest creations
provide some of the most cost-effective and practical help.
These two DVDs,
McDougall Made Easy and
McDougall Made Irresistible, demonstrate more than 34
delicious and simple-to-make meals prepared by Mary in her
kitchen. For everyday living, you need only one selection for
breakfast and one for lunch and a couple for dinner. Find four
to six recipes you like from this entertaining collection and
eat them over and over again. Now how easy is that? This is
unquestionably a small price to pay to have the same degree of
control over your life that Charles and thousands of others have
after learning the McDougall Program.
We encourage you to pass
this Star McDougaller along to friends. |
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When
I was 40 years old (I am now 68) I was very surprised to
discover during an annual physical that I had borderline
hypertension and elevated cholesterol. At the time I felt that I
was eating a good diet which provided lots of animal protein,
which I assumed was necessary for my rigorous exercise program
(bodybuilding and running regularly since age 16). This is the
way my parents and grandparents ate, and if it was good enough
for them, it must be good enough for me. I wondered, “How could
I possibly have elevated cholesterol and hypertension with such
a “healthy” diet and such a strenuous exercise program?”
For breakfast I
typically ate two or three scrambled eggs with a few
strips of bacon, toast with butter, and a quart of
whole milk. Lunch might consist of two roast beef
sandwiches smothered in mayonnaise. And for dinner
I’d eat chicken or beef with mashed potatoes drowned
in greasy gravy—once in a while I’d add a vegetable.
And of course, dinner was not complete without ice
cream and cake.
I came to learn that
the way my family ate was far from healthy. I grew
up in a middle-class family living about 30 miles
from Philadelphia. My parents smoked two to three
packs of cigarettes a day and drank alcohol
regularly. Dad was a meat-and-potatoes man and loved
his beef cooked rare with none of the peripheral fat
cut away. In addition to having a penchant for
animal fat, he also loved to smother his food with
salt. He had such a liking for the taste of sodium
that he would put salt in his beer. It’s no wonder
he was plagued with hypertension most of his short
adult life before dying at age 61. My grandfather on
my father’s side also had a problem with the
hypertension and that was the cause of his demise at
the age of 61. Because my mother never went to the
doctor, I don’t know what maladies affected her, but
we suspect she had the beginnings of osteoporosis
and heart disease. A massive stroke took her life at
age 71.
At the time of my
physical, my cholesterol was 230 mg/dL and my blood
pressure was around 180/95 mmHg. My doctor seemed to
be as surprised as I was and could only attribute
these problems to heredity. I asked him if my diet
could be affecting my blood pressure and
cholesterol, but he didn’t think so. He did,
however, feel confident that drugs would take care
of my problems. (I chose not to take the
cholesterol-lowering drug, but did start the blood
pressure pills.) |
A couple of weeks after the
physical, I was invited to attend a lecture in my hometown of
Honolulu, Hawaii, where a young doctor was speaking about how to
be healthy through diet and moderate exercise. That doctor was
John McDougall. I was struck by his discussion about the
geographic distribution of many diseases throughout the world,
and how the diseases of our western world were, and still are,
rare in developing nations where rich, fatty foods are not
readily available. I was so impressed with the research-based
information that Dr. McDougall presented that I promised myself
I would attend the rest of the lectures in the series. I began
to make the necessary changes in my diet and give my body every
possible chance to be healthy.
Throughout the lectures I learned
that there were indeed ways to treat high blood pressure and
high cholesterol with a healthy diet and without drugs. I read
the McDougalls’ first publication; a ring-bound recipe book
called Making the Change, and followed their advice
completely. During a visit to his medical office he explained to
me that if I followed his diet, I would steadily lose weight
until I reached the level that was natural for my frame and body
type. And that is exactly what happened. When I made the dietary
changes, my 5’5” frame was carrying a pudgy 165 pounds. At the
end of the first month on the diet, I had lost eight pounds and,
surprisingly, never left the dining room table wanting more
food. My stomach was full, my appetite was sated, and my body
was becoming lean and healthy.
As for my own family, my wife was
not interested in making a dietary change, nor were my two
teenage children, although they were interested in the concept.
Thankfully, my kids adopted much of the McDougall diet after
they got married and had children of their own. Most of my meals
now are centered around vegetable stews, lentil stews, brown
rice, chili, potatoes, Portuguese bean soup (without meat or
oil), or just a bowl of frozen vegetables with McDougall’s pasta
sauce. All my dishes come from the McDougall cookbooks. Making
the dietary change was not difficult for me since I believed in
the program from the beginning, and that it would reduce the
chances of me contracting many of the health problems that
afflict westerners. It took me about two months for my palate to
adjust to all the natural foods. Now the only time I’m in danger
of backsliding is when I’m hungry and there is no McDougall
food at hand.
After losing about 20 pounds, I
expressed concern to Dr. McDougall that if I continued to lose
weight at this rate (while eating all I wanted), I would be
nothing but skin and bones. Dr. McDougall assured me that I
would continue to lose unnecessary pounds until I reached the
weight that nature had intended for me. In approximately six
months, when I reached 125 pounds, I stopped losing weight, even
though I continued to eat until I was full at each meal. That
was in 1980, and I’ve maintained this weight ever since while
continuing to eat according to the McDougall Plan. As Dr.
McDougall expected, my high blood pressure dropped to normal, as
did my cholesterol, after about two to three months.
I am now 68 years old and am in
excellent health. I take no drugs, vitamins, nor supplements. In
addition to losing weight, and lowering my blood pressure and
cholesterol, I have also gained much more energy and I am less
susceptible to colds, flu, and other common maladies. I
bicycle 70 miles a week, play tennis twice a week, and work out
with light weights every other day.
Many of my peers who continue to
eat the typical western, high-fat, low-fiber diet, and get
little or no exercise, show the symptoms of an unhealthy
lifestyle, such as heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, and
breast and colon cancers. They are always impressed when they
see what activities I’m involved in, observe my lean and
muscular body, and learn that I don’t take any drugs or
supplements. They begin to realize that there must be something
to a healthy diet and lifestyle.
That serendipitous invitation to
attend Dr. McDougall’s lecture 27 years ago had a profound and
positive effect on my health and wellbeing. I plan on continuing
the McDougall diet so that I will have many more years to do the
things I love.
Charles Alexander
Kailua, Hawaii
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