Dr. McDougall’s
Comments:
Obesity has become the socially acceptable norm in
the US. Our nominated Surgeon General, Regina Benjamin,
is obese. Advertisements on TV use obese actors to sell
most any product, not just fast foods, to the overweight
public. Even actors playing doctors in commercials are
obese. No doubt this is all done purposefully so that
the public can relate to themselves, since two-thirds of
people are overweight and one-third are obese. This
common phenomenon is called the “the fat gap,” where the
majority of overweight people are unaware that they are
too heavy, and have a blurred perception of what is a
healthy weight.
The
popularity of surgical solutions to this epidemic
suggests that most people now consider the problem
unsolvable by their own will. With the discovery that
gastric banding and gastric bypass surgery can reverse
type-2 diabetes, bariatric surgery is now viewed as a
medical necessity; paid for by insurance companies. The
burdens on our financially strapped healthcare system
deepen as human suffering spirals out of control. This
growing trend can be reversed with some long overdue
changes finally made:
1) Mandatory
education on proper nutrition, including implementa-
tion, will be taught to everyone from grade school to
medical school to the workplace. People will learn that the
human diet is a starch-based diet, and that “the fat you
eat is the fat you wear.”
2) Heavy
taxes will be levied on rich foods: Meats, dairy
products, confectionaries, candies, sugar-filled sodas,
oils, etc.—just like those “sin taxes” that are placed
on alcohol and tobacco. The money collected will be used
to finance healthcare based on diet and lifestyle
medicine.
3) Subsidies
will be given to promote the consumption of starches,
vegetables, and fruits, ranging from commercials
promoting foods to food stamps for their purchase.
4) Diet and
lifestyle education programs will be attended by
patients before surgeries and medications are prescribed
for chronic diseases. Doctors will have to take training
to learn how to practice conservative medicine.
5) Rewards,
such as lower premiums on life and health insurance,
will be given to those who are fit and to those working
towards better health.
6) The US
Dietary Guidelines, which determine what is fed in
schools, the military, and government agencies, and
influence everyone else, will no longer be written by
the food industry.
Changes are
beginning, but slowly. Almost all research articles on
diets being published these days focus on the hazards of
excessive protein and fat (like the diets promoted by
Atkins, South Beach, and the Zone). The dangers of
eating meat, and occasionally dairy products, are being
discussed in the media. “Vegan” is now a universally
recognized word, and with favor. Tough economic times
are making the consumer take a closer look at their
grocery basket. The day is coming when eating a diet
centered on animal foods and oils will be considered as
disgusting as smoking cigarettes and public drunkenness.
Health through better nutrition is happening. The only
question is the speed of the upcoming revolution.
Discuss this Star with others
2009
John McDougall
All Rights Reserved
McDougall Wellness Center
P.O. Box 14039, Santa Rosa, CA 95402
https://www.drmcdougall.com |
“I used to
eat such large quantities of greasy globs of guck that taste was
never the issue. Today food is an experience of pleasure. Now
I
actually taste my food.”—Mike
Teehan
Ever since I was a child, my whole
life has been centered on food. Whenever things with my alcoholic
father got too bad, my mom would pack me and my sister up, and we’d
all go on an eating binge of candy, hot dogs, potato chips, whatever
was quick and cheap. By the time I was in 6th grade I weighed nearly
200 pounds. I have sought solace in food ever since.
I did manage to get my weight down in
high school, and was able to enlist in the United States Marine
Corps after graduation. However, it didn’t take long for me to reach
over 300 pounds after I was discharged at age 24. I picked right
back up eating the same fare I had grown up with, including lots of
meat and cheese, and for most of my adult life my weight fluctuated
between 200 and 330 pounds (staying over 300 more often than not).
In 1983, when I was 28, I picked up
one of Dr. McDougall’s books in a Manhattan bookstore. He said in
his book that you could eat “all you want,” and I immediately
thought “Yeah, right!” So, I went out and bought ten pounds of
potatoes and said to myself, “I’ll show him!” I got on my scale the
next morning and it showed a loss of about two pounds—I had
discovered Nirvana! But it wasn’t long before I was adding sour
cream and butter to my potatoes, and that’s when the weight loss
stopped. Back
then I also liked to drink beer, and after one beer too many it was
invariably “goodbye McDougall, hello McDonald’s.”
In January of 1997 at age 42, I
managed to get my weight down from 331 pounds to 232 pounds. I have
no idea why I stopped there; I think I felt that I could lose more
weight faster by going on the Atkins diet for a while. My thinking
was: I’ll use Atkins—which I know is deadly—just to get below 200,
and then I’ll McDougall my way back to health. Sheesh, what was I
thinking?! In 2002 I hit 300 pounds again and stayed there for a few
years. The fact
that SAD (standard American diet) food was, and still is, so readily
available made it very difficult to stick to a healthy diet.
In 2005 I decided to revisit the
McDougall diet, and by August of that year I weighed 288 pounds; by
early December I weighed 229 pounds. Unfortunately, this was right
during holiday season, and my co-workers
were bringing in Christmas goodies by the truckload. I was also
getting so many compliments that I began to get a bit cocky,
thinking to myself: “Well, I’ve lost most of what I need to lose, so
I guess I can eat like everyone else now.” The problem with this is
that most everyone else is overweight. After the
holidays I ended up going back to my old SAD eating habits, and my
weight shot back up to 270 pounds in less than a year. In 2007 I
tried Medifast and lost 34 pounds in 30 days, but I also developed
kidney stones for the first time in my life. I have never felt worse
pain.
By the end of 2008 I was hovering
around 260 pounds. I absolutely knew that the McDougall way of
eating was the only way I could feed my large appetite, lose weight,
and get healthy, so I committed once again to Dr. McDougall’s
Maximum Weight Loss (MWL) program. I didn’t have any support from my
family, which wasn’t easy, but I did have support from Dr.
McDougall, who in
between seeing his patients, writing books, producing videos, giving
lectures, and running his 10-Day programs, always found the time to
answer my email questions.
In March of 2009 I was again
contemplating speeding up my weight loss (I had lost only about 30
pounds since January 1st), and I was motivated by
something that Dr. McDougall said to me years back after I sent him
one of my many email questions. Never once did he ignore my
questions, and most times I received email responses in less than 24
hours. His response was, politely, “You know what you need to do.”
He was right, of course.
I pulled out my Maximum Weight Loss
book and truly committed to it, 100 percent. I stopped counting
calories (why I ever did that I’ll never know), I ate only when I
was hungry, and I ate only from the approved MWL list. Each week the
scale crept lower. I set a goal of 175 pounds for myself, even
though I honestly can’t ever remember weighing 175 pounds. I’ve
heard the expression “Can’t see the forest for the trees” a million
times, but I never really understood it until recently. I’ve had the
McDougall Program in front of me for over 20 years and I’ve never
really “seen” it. Intellectually I’ve always known its power but,
for some reason, I never really understood it until this year.
Post yo-yo
Today I am 54 years old and weigh 165
pounds (I still feel like I’m lying when I write this). I eat when I
want to, and I’m not self conscious around new people. Food is a
complete non-issue for me. Well, that’s not completely true—today
food is a delight! Mary’s recipes and the ones I learn about from
Dr. McDougall’s website and in the DVDs have made food absolutely
delectable. I’ve also spent a large part of my adult life as an
ethical vegan (I
just can’t deal with the fact that innocent creatures must suffer
for my pleasure), and with the McDougall program
I can still remain ethically vegan.
I used to eat such large quantities of
greasy globs of guck that taste was never the issue. Today food is
an experience of pleasure. Now
I actually taste my
food. Every week I try a new McDougall recipe, and I even make up my
own recipes. One of my favorites is my “McDougall’s Right Pie.” I
boil a five-pound bag of potatoes, and when they’re almost done I
throw in about three bags of frozen broccoli. Then I prepare two or
three McDougall Right Foods instant meals. When the veggies are
tender I mash them into the potatoes and then add the Right Foods
meals and mix well. I put it all into a large casserole dish and
bake it. This is enough for about a week’s worth of meals. I
absolutely love the taste, texture and the fact that I never have to
count calories or worry about how much I’m eating (I can, and often
do, have seconds).
Today I can honestly say that the
McDougall Maximum Weight Loss Program is responsible for my entire
166-pound weight loss, from 331 to 165 pounds. If I could pass along
one message to anyone who is considering the McDougall Program it
would be to do the program exactly as Dr. McDougall prescribes. Do
not count calories or do the McDougall Program with Weight Watchers.
You can’t do the McDougall Program with any other diet because it is
not a diet, it’s a lifestyle. It has taken me years to finally get
this. Everything is on his website, for free (I haven’t come across
anyone else who does this).
My blood work is in the normal range,
and while I never had really high blood pressure (usually around
130/80), today I consistently get readings of around 100/70 mmHg. My
BMI is also normal, at 22.9. For the very first time in my adult
life, I wake up in the morning excited about the day ahead and I
feel better than I have in years! The most fun I have is when people
ask me what I eat and I tell them about 85 to 90 percent
carbohydrates. I love their reactions! Some even accuse me of lying,
with one lady responding, “So, don’t tell me then!”
|
Previous to McDougall
(weight: 308 lbs.) |
10/06/2009 |
Triglycerides |
80 |
59 |
Cholesterol |
192 |
140 |
LDL |
141 |
87 |
HDL |
34.7 |
41 |
Glucose |
104 |
97 |
|
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Dr. McDougall has
been screaming the truth from the mountaintop for years, and while
millions have heard him, few have listened. Millions have stayed
sick and a few got better. I was one of those who heard but didn’t
listen, and so I stayed fat and sick. But I kept listening until I
really got it—and now, the rest of my life is
optimistically ahead of me.
Mike Teehan
Honolulu, HI
October 2009
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