Finding McDougall

[Langeranger]

I first heard (read) of Dr. McDougall reading The China Study. Dr. Campbell mentioned him and mentioned that Dr. McD had a more extensive acquaintance with the nutritional research literature than anyone he had ever encountered including Dr. Campbell's academic colleagues at Cornell University. It was such a glowing endorsement that I wanted to find about this McDougall person ASAP. Might be fun to hear from others on the forum re: how they first heard of the McDougall program. Any takers?

[VeggieSue]

January 1992, we saved up for ages but finally bought our first desktop computer during an after-Christmas sale - an IBM PS\2 running DOS 5 and Windows 3.1. It came with a free month of the Prodigy Network and we soon subscribed. I still have 2 Prodigy email addresses I use even though the Prodigy network doesn't exist any more.

As a nurse and chronic dieter, I was drawn immediately to the Health/Healthy Eating message board area, and found a group of people talking about that exciting new book The McDougall Program: 12 Days to Dynamic Health. I immediately had our local book store order it, but started making some of the recipes the ladies on-line were sharing before it even came. My husband and I dabbled in plant based eating a few times since the mid-70's so this way of eating wasn't totally foreign to us.

I fell in love with Mary's recipes - they were fairly easy to make and didn't require anything more exotic than no-salt added tomatoes and no-salt added beans, but we did find them a bit too spicy at first. We were used to really bland American foods by way of our grandparents' Eastern European heritages. The spiciest food we had was pizza, and Tex-Mex seasonings were foreign to us. Chili was something that came in a can with "Hormel" on the label! Our tastes have completely changed over the years, of course, but McDougall eating has stayed with us. Mary's recipes are still the favorites in this family - last night we used her Asian Dressing on rice and veggies, tonight I'm making her Mexi Soup, Thursday is her Fat Free Golden Gravy with potatoes and veggies, and Friday is her Quick Black Bean Soup! When I make beans I no longer use a Crockpot, but do frequently make her bean "stew" - pinto beans cooked up with dehydrated (or sun dried) tomatoes, spinach, and a few tablespoons of no salt seasoning.

[debknott]

My husband was all excited about the whole resistant starch movement, and asked me to watch a particular YouTube video that he said explained it well. I resisted resistant starch for a long while, (little pun there ) then on December 30, 2017 I told myself to just watch the darn video. I did and found it mildly interesting, but it just seemed like another fad to me. The next thing that YouTube popped up was something called The Starch Solution by some Dr. McDougall guy. Thinking it was more about resistant starch, I decided to watch it for a bit to see if it was any better. I sat through the whole more than an hour presentation and was totally intrigued. I knew my husband would want to eat seafood on New Years eve and New years day, so I waited to start the program until January 2nd. I have never looked back. He has never joined me, but admits that my health has improved from it. I hold out hope that one day he will
join me.

[MINNIE]

Late December, 2012.

I was miserably trying (and failing) to recover from gallbladder surgery which I had in July 2012. My digestive system was still in total chaos, and no doctor I consulted could tell me anything except to take pills: proton pump inhibitors, ranitidine, etc. I hated the thought of being on that stuff for life, but was about to give up and just accept it.

One day In December, having just had the most awful birthday ever -I couldn't eat anything without feeling intense pain -I thought I would cheer myself up by going to a bookstore.

I wasn't looking for books on "dieting" , as I was already emaciated, but random luck made me pick up The Starch Solution. I think it was the potato on the cover, but whatever it was it was better than winning the lottery!

Looking at that potato, I thought how much I wished I could eat one, instead of avoiding them because they made me feel awful.

I started reading in the check out line and learned that I not only could but should eat potatoes - it was the fat and salt that was making me sick, not the tuber itself! Enlightenment!!

I decided to start the McDougall plan on New Year's Day 2013.

I started feeling better within days, and have never looked back or deviated from the plan.

No medical person I have spoken to since then (except here, of course) has believed my story, but maybe someday they will catch up .

[Langeranger]

People’s stories can be so interesting. And this means you debknott; and you Minnie; and you Veggie Sue.

[jan_npr]

really good question and I wish I could remember. It was years ago. I think YouTube introduced us as I was watching lots of lectures on vegan eating. It was Dr. Greger's lecture called something like "an apple a day" that converted my husband to my off and on vegan ways and McDougall gave us the more down to earth "how to" information. The 10 day live in program was life-changing. Just did the now free Starch Solution Certification Course. Thanks Dr. McDougall!!!

[Lyndzie]

I watched my mom have a heart attack, and realized that I did not want to do the same thing.

Fortunately, at the time I worked at Whole Foods. I went to the book section and began buying books. First was Prevent and Recerse Heart Disease, for course, but eventually I came across The Starch Solution, and that book finally told me how to eat. It’s great. It was empowering to read.

[pundit999]

This is what I wrote 2 years ago on a similar thread:

About 25 years back, my brother-in-law had a heart attack in his early 40s. He survived but had some damage to his heart. I was worried about him and my sister, and did research on how to treat heart disease.

I was a researcher in engineering and was used to going to the library and finding stuff. So that is what I did and came across Dr Dean Ornish' work. I told my sister and BIL about the research and how they can fend off more trouble. They adopted some of the advice and he survived for another two decades, eventually succumbing to the consequences of the heart damage he suffered initially.

But I never thought I would be at risk. My BIL was a smoker, had a sedentary life style and did not eat well. Nobody in my side of the family at the time had heart disease and I was active, so I thought I am not at risk. I also believed having migrated to a western country that consuming more animal protein is better. So I ate cheese, chicken, seafood regularly, a diet very different from the one I grew up with.

20 years later, I was diagnosed as having heart disease. I was on an elliptical in the gym and had a severe blow in my chest. Doctors still don't know what it was (was not a heart attack, luckily), but they sent me for a stress test which I failed. I also recognized that I was having angina and not heart burn while exerting myself in the gym or mowing the lawn.

I was told to get an angiography and was minutes away from getting one and faced a certainty that I would get a stent inserted. Better sense prevailed and I declined the surgery and proceeded instead to do research again.

This time the Internet made things much easier. I remembered Dr Dean Ornish and searching for him led to Dr Esselstyn's work. I finished reading his book on the day I declined surgery, went through each and every review on Amazon, and started eating this way that night. I also called Dr Esselstyn. He returned my call right away and assured me I was on the right path.

I came across Dr McDougall and this excellent web site within 2-3 weeks of starting. I was at first startled by Dr McDougall's advocacy of the much maligned "Starch", but when I read the books, it all made perfect sense.

Six years on, I have reversed my heart disease in the sense that I do not have angina anymore, can do what I want, labs are excellent etc.

Wish I had listened to my own advice to my BIL 25 years ago. But such is life I guess.

I am of course continuing to eat whole plants only. Still no stent or angina. Thanks Dr McDougall!

[pundit999]

No medical person I have spoken to since then (except here, of course) has believed my story, but maybe someday they will catch up .

Interesting you say that. As you can see my earlier post, I overcame my heart disease using Dr McDougall's excellent advice.
My family doctor, who initially ordered the stress test, was privy to all my medical decisions including the one about making these life style changes and held testimony to my amazing recovery, refused to believe the truth. He continued eating the standard american diet even though his father had had a heart attack when he was 48.
Unfortunately, this doctor also suffered a heart attack at the same age and did not survive. He was alive when the paramedics arrived but they could not revive him after he collapsed a few minutes later.

I had been seeing this doctor for more than a decade and he was good friend. Another day does not go by when I don't wish he had had believed in what he saw first hand.

But I guess again, alas, such is life.

[Langeranger]

Wow Pundit, what a story. I've heard that the famed anthropologist, Margaret Mead once said that it's easier to get a society to change its religion than it is to change it's way of eating. Guess that's equally true for individuals within a society (as we probably well know). Thanks for your interesting post. Don

[Mom+Me]

In 1989 our family took a Summer road trip with the destination being Colorado. On our way there we passed many stockades. Growing up pretty much in the country, I was plenty used to seeing cows graze in the pastures...but these were stockades...cattle crammed together by the hundreds or more ready to be shipped off to their execution. The conditions were poor--not the tranquil, picturesque scenes I was used to.

Years prior to this, I would sit at the dinner table and while eating ask, "What animal is this?". I didn't ask to be rude, but as a young child it puzzled me that if we ate chicken or turkey, those were easy to identify. But things like smoked butt, pork chops, corned beef, etc., I didn't understand why they weren't named as simply as the chicken or turkey. So after an explanation I'd bluntly say, "Oh, so this is/was a pig?" or "This was a cow?".

Back to seeing the cattle dirty, packed together, and no green grass in sight: when we stopped for lunch or dinner, the idea of eating a hamburger didn't sit well with me. Immediately on that trip I stopped eating beef and pork (yeah, cows and pigs). So I ate chicken and a little fish.

We got back from the trip and my mom said, "Well, it's okay if you keep this up, but you're going to have to be eating beans. Also, if you're stopping eating beef and pork, poultry and fish are treated similarly." So I became a lacto-ovo basically overnight.

Then my mom said, "You know, it's great that you stopped eating all meat, and it's a lot healthier, but by consuming dairy and eggs, you're still purpetuating the killing of animals and dairy and eggs have a lot of fat and cholesterol, in fact I've read about cheese being called 'liquid meat'". Then, "I've been reading from this man by the name of John McDougall. He's a medical doctor and advocates not eating animals or their by-products. I really think he has it right, but it goes against everything I've ever known. It bothers me because, what if it turns out he is wrong? Dad and I'd be okay, but you kids...you're still growing. What if you really do need milk?".

So that was my foray into vegetarianism and McDougalling. The story is a lot longer, but that's how it started for me. Throughout the decades my focus shifted in that health became the number one reason for not consuming animals.

The biggest takeaway from my story: Dr. McDougall was right! Had my mom adhered to The McDougall Plan in the late 1980's, I firmly believe that she'd still be alive today. What we decide to eat--every mouthful--is either helping or hindering our health. Not only would my mom probably never had a stroke, but had she followed The McDougall Plan 100% after her stroke, I still believe she'd be alive. Instead she McDougalled along with also being a raw vegan, but consumed oils and too much fat from whole plants. Following The McDougall Plan is where it's at...no oil, low (if any) added high fat plant foods (depending on one's health).

I got a little off track there, but that's how I "found" Dr. McDougall. After all the above transpired, my mom would tell me what she read or even read excerpts to me from Dr. McDougall's books and paper newsletters as I would prepare my own lunches for school (I was a teenager--no child labor or anything like that--besides, I loved to [and still do] cook and create dishes.). It was an extra special treat when my mom ordered cassette and VHS tapes of Dr. McDougall! This whole Internet thing and the availability to see Dr. and Mary, etc. so easily still blows my mind.

Lest anyone think that I've McDougalled all these years, I haven't. I've been a vegetarian solidly (except for 6 months early on), but I haven't McDougalled the entire time, but certainly wish I had. Oh well, onward and upward!

Also, if one couldn't tell by now, my username is a homage to my mom. Had it not been for her, I don't know when/if I would have heard of Dr. McDougall. She and I did have a lot of good times of McDougalling, but they weren't enough. That's why Jeff Novick's phrase of "time and adherence" is also so spot on.

[Mom+Me]

P.S. One thing my mom commented on towards the end of her life and I wholeheartedly concurred, is that throughout all the decades of knowing about Dr. McDougall and his Plan, it never changed. Whereas some other heath/vegan gurus would add this supplement or that, or this superfood or that one--making it as though their eating plan was inadequate. But Dr. McDougall's message has been clear from day one. "It's the Food!" and not only that, nothing has been added or taken away from his sage advice all these decades. And, all necessary items can be found at anyone's local supermarket. Sure, organic is nice, but not necessary...nor are any certain (and expensive!) supplements (except B-12), superfoods, etc..

[Lacey]

I was flipping through channels in the early 80s and saw a young Dr. McDougall on a program with his set of glass stomachs, comparing the quantities of foods one could consume for the same amount of calories. That led to me buying his book. I had already been experimenting with eating a vegetarian diet after reading Diet for a Small Planet in the mid-1970s. Even after reading Dr McDougall's book it took awhile to ditch cheese.

[GlennR]

I was a member of Dr Fuhrman's site and a chap there posted about a thread going on here. By that time I'd attended a Fuhrman conference on Hilton Head in North Carolina and I'd lost some twenty odd pounds with him but I'd never learned to like the food and my weight loss stalled out. On a personal note something about Doc Furhman just rubbed me the wrong way.

I came over to here, read some posts, read some more and eventually I joined in. I liked the free access to information here and Dr McDougal's ideas resonated with me. I'm still here some six or so years later.

[f1jim]

I first heard about Dr. McDougall from my sister. She started following him in the early 80's. I of course, assumed she was following a quack and that he was a fraud. I was pretty rough on my sister for her thinking at the time.
Fast forward several decades to my early 50's. Angina and a diagnosis of serious heart disease opened my eyes to better health through diet. I then saw Dr. McDougalls name in Caldwell Esselstyns book and discovered this website. It's been 13 years of discovery and sharing. The real miracle is I am still alive and doing well despite the previous history of severe damage through very poor eating. If the McDougall diet could keep someone like me alive it must be powerful!
It's a great feeling checking off another year of undeserved life. Let's go for another one!
f1jim