Welcome to the McDougall Forums. I think this is one of the best places to learn how to implement a healthy diet and to consistently implement it to achieve and maintain good health.
To clarify, we're here because we're hoping to learn about and hopefully implement the McDougall Program (which includes diet and lifestyle) and to help others do the same. While other vegan diets are likely nicer for the environment and the animals than their non-vegan alternatives, those vegan diets may not always be healthy. Fortunately, following the McDougall Program is definitely healthy, and the McDougall Program recommends a vegan diet for optimal personal, societal, and environmental health.
Personally, I have been interested in diet and lifestyle medicine since 2002, and I have yet to find a better resource for evidence-based diet and lifestyle information that can be sustainably implemented than this website, particularly these entirely free forums.
Dr. John McDougall, MD, and Jeff Novick, MS, RD, are the two figures in the field I have the most respect for, especially since they have both committed themselves to being extremely evidence-based and to provide their recommendations to the public entirely for free.
Of note, 70 kg at 1.71 m (171 cm) is a BMI of 23.9.
You're not in danger of becoming underweight until you reach a BMI of 18.5. At your height, that would be 54 kg, so I think you have quite a bit of room before you need to be concerned about getting too thin.
In addition, most of the evidence I have seen suggests that being as lean as possible without being underweight (defined as BMI<18.5) is likely the healthiest place to be.
Here's more on what a healthy weight is and how to gain weight, if necessary, from Dr. McDougall:
https://www.drmcdougall.com/education/i ... ot-joking/(Importantly, Dr. McDougall has also stated in some of his recent YouTube videos that as long as you're otherwise healthy when following the McDougall Program, being a little underweight is not something he's concerned about for people.)
In addition, here's a long thread on Optimal BMI from Jeff Novick:
https://www.drmcdougallforums.com/viewt ... 67#p625867Fortunately for you, a healthy diet is rarely discouraged regardless of someone's current health status, so I would strongly encourage you to make a serious effort to follow the McDougall Program to see how it might further benefit your health.
It is very common for people to use the McDougall Program to reverse insulin resistance, typically by achieving a healthier body weight by following the Program's recommendations. However, the Program is so effective at improving one's health that even Type 1 diabetics can often substantially reduce their necessary insulin dosage.
For reference, in his patients, based on the preponderance of peer-reviewed, published evidence, Dr. McDougall discourages aggressive treatment of blood sugars, which includes aggressively monitoring blood sugar levels:
https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2009nl ... abetes.htmIn addition, A-Fib, a type of tachycardia, seems to benefit substantially from a healthy diet and lifestyle:
https://www.drmcdougall.com/education/l ... -mandrola/Importantly, while you're learning to implement and implementing the McDougall Program, I would also caution you to be careful with trying to learn about and implement other recommendations that aren't part of the Program. In many cases, these "tweaks" can lead people astray and prevent them from succeeding with the McDougall program.
Jeff Novick has highlighted some of those issues here:
https://www.drmcdougallforums.com/viewt ... 35#p583235Including beef in your diet (or any animal product or oil), especially if you have health problems, is definitely not recommended on the McDougall Program.
My advice to you to give you the best chance to succeed on the Program and see how it can benefit your health would be to commit to following the MWL (Maximum Weight Loss) Program strictly for at least eight weeks. Jeff Novick refers to this as the Maximum Health Program because the guidelines help people more easily follow the healthiest version of the McDougall Program.
My recommendation for how to begin your at least eight weeks would be to head over to the MWL Program forums:
https://www.drmcdougallforums.com/viewforum.php?f=11... and read the first two threads under "Announcements", which include the Orientation thread. Then, you can join the free monthly "The Behavioral Path to MWL Success" support group as soon as possible (in your case, that would likely be February 2024). Until then, however, you can use the information you gained from the MWL Program Forum Announcement posts to start implementing the MWL diet and follow along with the January 2024 support group to see how the group operates and how people are managing their implementation of the Program.
While I would encourage you to follow up with your medical team while following the Program to help track your progress, there is also one important caveat to note before you begin any McDougall Program (including the MWL Program):
1) If you are on any medication for high blood pressure or high blood sugar, you likely want to meet with your medical team to reduce the dosages of those medications before you begin the Program. This is because the diet is so effective at bringing down high blood pressure or high blood sugar to healthy levels (often on the first day of following the Program) that any medications for these issues will then bring the McDougaller's blood sugar or blood pressure down into unhealthy ranges (hypotension or hypoglycemia), which can be dangerous. Because of this, with patients under his care that are going to begin the McDougall Program, I believe Dr. McDougall typically stops these two classes of medications to help protect the health of his patients. Thus, if you're on medications, especially these two classes, I would make sure that your medical team knows that you're about to start eating a lot healthier and may need some medication dosage adjustments.
I hope that helps
. Again, welcome to the McDougall Program community, and I hope that you find the success that seems to be the norm for those who diligently implement the McDougall Program recommendations. Good luck, and please don't hesitate to reach out to the community if you need additional support (or to help others who may be struggling once you're an expert McDougaller.)
