Featured Articles

Thanksgiving is often thought of as time of feasting and indulgence and, for many, it means a time of overindulgence. As food is central to many of our celebrations and our health, I want to share some personal thoughts on Thanksgiving.

What you put into your intestines determines their health. Problems from esophageal reflux to constipation are easily cured by filling the intestines with the right foods.

Breaking News: Watch Videos: Award Ceremony & Dr. McDougall's Talk on Climate

Dr. McDougall has been passionately bringing these matters to the public’s attention for the past 15 years with landmark presentations on how we are eating ourselves to death and destroying planet Earth.

Shortly after the tragic death of the famous American hero, resulting from an unnecessary bypass surgery, Dr. McDougall wrote how heart surgeons killed the first man on the moon.

As the devastation of climate change threatens future generations, it is children who are leading the fight to save the planet. Recently, students around the world took a day off of school to protest inaction against climate change.

Summer is almost here. If you need a little kick start or would like to add some meals with low calorie density try some of our Maximum Weight Loss Recipes.

With >67% of American adults overweight and >33% of them considered obese, calories are an issue because many of us struggle to maintain and/or lose weight. While we always hear about special diets, pills, supplements, etc. that will help us somehow escape the first law of thermodynamics, the bottom line is that our weight is a factor of energy balance.

Health information today is much more commonplace than ever before. Every day, if not every hour, we hear of another new study or report on health. These reports can be very confusing because if you listen to them, one day (or hour) something is good and the next day (or hour), it’s bad.

The most healthful foods are those that come straight out of the garden, are consumed in their natural forms and/or are prepared as simply as possible. These foods - fresh fruits, vegetables, starchy vegetables, intact whole grains and legumes - should be the main focus of any healthful diet.

By planning ahead and using a few healthful convenience foods, we can make simple meals that are not only quick and easy but also good and good for us.

Protein is one of the most misunderstood nutrients in our diets today. While it receives an incredible amount of attention, there is little justification for this level of attention and concern. Yet protein, specifically animal protein (meat, chicken and/or fish), remains the main center of the plate at home and in restaurants.

The most healthful foods are those that come straight out of the garden, are consumed in their natural forms and/or are prepared as simply as possible. These foods - fresh fruits, vegetables, starchy vegetables, intact whole grains and legumes - should be the main focus of any healthful diet.

Have you ever ended up eating more calories than you intended? There are certain properties of food that, when we eat until we are comfortably full, result in the unintended consumption of excess calories. This is called the passive overconsumption of calories.

A recent report by the EAT-Lancet Commission, has found that “the global adoption of healthy diets from sustainable food systems would safeguard our planet and improve the health of billions.

Calorie density is the simplest approach to healthful eating and lifelong weight management. This commonsense approach to sound nutrition allows for lifelong weight management without hunger and more food for fewer calories.

Jeff Novick, MS, RDN: You know what they say when it comes to what to eat, “everything in moderation.” Whether it is chocolate, wine, red meat, dessert, etc., nothing is bad in and of itself as long as we just don’t consume too much of it. But how do we define “too much” and how do we know if we have surpassed this?

Jeff Novick, MS, RDN: Thanksgiving is often thought of as time of feasting and indulgence and, for many, it means a time of overindulgence. As food is central to many of our celebrations and our health, I want to share some personal thoughts on Thanksgiving.

Jeff Novick, MS, RDN: The real coconut oil miracle has nothing to do with any magical healing or nutritional properties in coconut oil—it’s how a high-fat, high-calorie condiment was turned into a superfood.

Presented by the American College of Lifestyle Medicine and the Lifestyle Medicine Foundation, this award recognizes lifetime achievement in the field and is the highest honor bestowed on a healthcare pioneer...

Jeff Novick, MS, RDN: A concern I often hear is that people can’t follow my dietary recommendations because they think large quantities of salad are required as a way to successfully incorporate the principles of calorie density, which are important for both weight loss and weight maintenance.

When we decide to improve our diets and health, what we are really doing is learning new behaviors and making them into habits. We are trying to break old unhealthful habits and develop new healthful ones. These include learning to be more active and learning to make more healthful dietary choices.

We are pleased to share that Forks Over Knives has released an exciting (and FREE!) short film on Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams. BP Adams had diabetes so severe that he was losing his eyesight as well as the feeling in his legs.

Summer vacation is here again. Tasty snacks for hungry kids are a must. With a little planning you can stock your kitchen with foods both you and your kids will love. Here are some healthy McDougall-approved snacks.

I am announcing that I no longer will be seeing patients in a professional medical manner. After half a century of my life being dedicated to the medical care of people as their general physician, I am retiring. I have moved on to working with more legislation, healthcare systems, and education projects.

People who are trying to lose weight, as well as those trying to maintain weight loss they have already achieved, typically use a scale to keep track of how they are doing. The question of how often to weigh yourself is common and, since daily weight fluctuations can be discouraging, people sometimes ask if weighing yourself regularly is considered a good idea.

As a physician, I have had the opportunity to counsel hundreds of women with breast cancer. Early in my career I recognized that breast cancer is caused by, and the rate of growth is promoted by, the Western diet.

Our first book (a ringed notebook) was called Making the Change. Mary and I knew, when we wrote it back in 1978, that "medical miracles" could be achieved by a major shift in our patients' nutrition...

Even when I believe that I hold the truth, and even when I find that my diet-therapy results are consistently successful with my patients, the meat, dairy, egg, fish, and other food industries usually win "the information game"...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is now, worldwide, the most common form of dementia (a decline in mental ability severe enough to interfere with daily life). Primarily found in the elderly, AD was unknown until the beginning of the 19th century.

Plants have evolved to synthesize a variety of toxic substances to cope with their environment abundant with predators (insects, animals, etc.) and microbes (bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites, etc.) and, thereby, fight an ongoing battle for survival.

Vitamin B12, also called "cobalamin," is one of the eight water-soluble vitamins that play a key role in the metabolism of every cell in the human body, and is especially important in the normal functioning of the brain and nervous system, and the formation of red blood cells.

The current disagreements over healthcare policies in the US are essentially founded on: 1) trying to induce people who do not need healthcare to pay the bills for those that do, and 2) requiring the wealthy to spend some of their "pocket change" for the healthcare of people with low incomes and few opportunities.

For my entire medical career, spanning half a century, the pot of gold to be made from sick people has been tapped into almost exclusively by the pharmaceutical, surgical, radiation, device, screening, and hospital and healthcare provider industries. The economics are changing, fortunately, as the news spreads that "food poisoning" (due to subsisting on the rich Western diet)...

Big Pharma and Big Medicine have faced many huge challenges over the past years to keep their cash cows—people with type-2 diabetes—each forking over an average of $13,700 annually (approximately 2.3 times more than what expenditures would be in the absence of diabetes).

Throughout Dr. Henry Heimlich's seventy-year career, he was dedicated to finding simple solutions to complex problems affecting human health. History will remember him as the most impactful medical pioneer of the 20th century. He passed away this month, December 17, 2016, at age 96.

Healthcare is the number-one issue Americans want Donald Trump to address during his first 100 days in the White House, according a November 2016 Reuters poll. Twenty-one percent of Americans want Trump to focus on the healthcare system.

Drinking white cow's milk is unpalatable for most children. As a result, the Dairy Association now actively promotes chocolate milk as "Nutrition in Disguise."

H. Glibert Welch, MD - Publishes large study showing mammography does more harm than good in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Simple sugar is not health food. However, one devastating result of the exaggeration of the role played by sugar in common diseases has been the promotion of low-carbohydrate diets to prevent and even treat common cancers.

The Swank MS Foundation has given me permission to share their professional video, "Conversations with Roy L. Swank," with you. Please take the time to get to know one of the true medical geniuses of the twentieth century.

Worldwide, colorectal cancer is the fourth most common cause of death from cancer, with 1.4 million new cases and 700,000 deaths annually. Almost all cases of this disease are found in people who eat the Western Diet, high in animal foods, vegetable oils, and highly refined, low-fiber plant foods.

Massive melting of the glaciers was obvious and a topic frequently discussed among our group. However, our National Geographic guides, seldom mentioned the connection between global warming caused by human activities and the threat to these northern lands.

I developed a viral infection that affected my inner ears. I totally lost my hearing, my balance was disturbed, and I became very weak. At about midnight I walked to the bathroom, lost all control of my muscles, fell down to the floor onto my buttocks, and was unconsciousness for a few minutes.

The newest fad diagnosis for explaining why people feel poorly for no apparent reason is called Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO)—meaning there is an overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestine

Currently, children and adults living around the Mediterranean Sea are among the most obese in the world. Low-carb diets are based on meat, poultry, cheese, eggs, fish, and vegetable oils, foods that are the polar opposite to my beliefs for achieving good health.

The USDA in particular is also compelled to enhance the welfare of "agribusinesses" (the producers of meat, poultry, dairy, egg, fish, and more).

The egg industry has taken the lead in misleading the public (including physicians) about the harmful effects of eggs, which are poisonous when consumed in the high amounts typical of American diets.

Excellent health is attractive. Our appearance to others is within our control and largely dependent upon the food choices we make.

The ideal picture of good health intimates fertility, productivity, strength, and youth. A person's healthfulness is communicated to others, most importantly by sight and scent, and the health messages we send are dependent on the food choices we make.

October is commonly known as "Breast Cancer Awareness Month." This is an annual, international campaign organized by major charities to increase the awareness of breast cancer and to raise funds for research.

While sharing photos of one’s meals is nothing new on the Internet, the twist here is that Andersen is a long-haul trucker who has been driving five to six days a week, 11 hours a day, for the last 21 years.

Worldwide headlines were released on September 11, 2015, through the general media (newspapers, Internet, radio, and TV), about benefits derived from more aggressively treating high blood pressure (hypertension) with drugs.

The golden age of nutrition bloomed in the twentieth century with discoveries of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins, and other plant (phyto)-derived chemicals required for human health. Accepted wisdom about these nutrients became, “if some is necessary, then more is better.” The search for ways to “supercharge nutrition” began with supplements: pills filled

The right choices at the dinner table make a winning difference in both strength and endurance for top athletes, and the same nutritional rules are true for every other human being. To be our best, we all must eat our best.

Last week's (June 23/24, 2015) "Opinion" piece in the Journal of the American Medical Association about the 2015 US Dietary Guidelines lifting the ban on total dietary fat meets my criterion for "damned lies."

Atul Gawande, a staff writer for The New Yorker and a practicing medical doctor, wrote "Overkill, An avalanche of unnecessary medical care is harming patients physically and financially. What can we do about it?"

The carnivorous diet of traditional Eskimo inhabitants of the frozen, northern, circumpolar regions of planet Earth (Siberia, Alaska, Canada, and Greenland), serves as a testament to the strengths and adaptability of the human species.

Worries over vitamin D, once known as “the sunshine vitamin,” have turned hundreds of millions of people into patients with worse, not better, health. The latest, and likely the final, analyses of the studies performed on treating people with vitamin D supplements has shown that this multiple billion-dollar business does not work. The authors, after thoroughly examining the results of

More than 30 years ago, I (John McDougall, MD) performed and published the first study on the dietary treatment of breast cancer. Although it was a small study circulated by an obscure journal, this was an important beginning for the current medical thinking that a healthy diet should be fundamental therapy recommended by physicians for all cancer patients.

In my (Dr. McDougall's) opinion, Dr. Dean Ornish stands out as the most important physician/scientist* of the past quarter century for his contributions to medicine through proper human nutrition, and especially for his work on the epidemic diseases of obesity, heart disease, prostate cancer, and type-2 diabetes.

The "king of poisons," arsenic, is found in rice. Articles about this connection have distressed health-conscious consumers who recognize the nutritional value of this inexpensive, high-energy, health-promoting staple.

In the US, national guidelines for receiving an annual flu vaccine extend to almost everyone over the age of six months old. Nevertheless, I recommend that my patients of all ages not take these incessantly promoted immunizations, primarily because of their lack of effectiveness. In addition, there are some risks from influenza vaccines, including injection site pain, allergic reactions, fever, fa

The British Medical Journal reported in the news on October 29, 2014 on “Milk intake and risk of mortality and fractures in women and men: cohort studies.”

The Nutrition Journal on October 14, 2014 published the results of 1,615 patients who attended the McDougall Program in Santa Rosa, California. Important Medical Findings Achieved in Seven Days from Eating the McDougall Diet...

A low-fat, starch-based, vegan diet eaten ad libitum for 7 days results in significant favorable changes in commonly tested biomarkers that are used to predict future risks for cardiovascular disease and metabolic diseases.

Once you know the benefits of a starch-based diet, you will want to share the good news with family and friends. And maybe with everyone you meet. Some people will be ready to listen and learn while others may need more education and experiences before you can open their eyes.

Accepting an examination of your body parts in an effort to find cancer earlier means you are willing to risk your life today for the theoretical possibility that you will gain extra years in the distant future.

Our Diet & Multiple Sclerosis Study showed immediate and permanent positive changes in feelings of "well being" of patients with MS.

How to Cure It by Eating Beans, Corn, Pasta, Potatoes, Rice, etc.* After viewing this book, my 3 grandsons (ages 5, 7 & 10) easily understood why people are fat and sick, and how they become well by eating the “green light” foods and avoiding the “red light” ones. Please share this free picture book with your friends, family, and co-workers. View the Color Picture Book

The following are typical examples of the results achieved by people with various forms of inflammatory arthritis who have followed my dietary recommendations strictly.* You can read the short quotes beside the pictures of these people for a glimpse at their lives before the McDougall Diet. There is little need for individual comments about life “after McDougall” because the outcomes a

The Clinton family has been in the spotlight for decades, and much illumination has been on their health and diets. High-profile medical doctors have prescribed treatments for them ranging from heart surgery to vegan food plans, with outcomes visible to the public. The population’s interpretation of their behaviors has worldwide impact, including influencing healthcare delivery, food buying

Ronald M. Krauss, MD is a well-publicized author in both the lay press and medical journals. He is a UCSF Adjuvant Professor, Endocrinologist, and the Director of Atherosclerosis Research at Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute.

1) I agree with the conclusion that polyunsaturated fats (fish oil) and monounsaturated fat (olive oil) are not going to prevent heart disease. They are at least fattening and most likely promote cancer. 2) However, I know that one of their main conclusions is wrong: That it is OK to eat animals. Dairy, meat, and eggs are bad for people and the planet. This March 18, 2014 Annals of Internal Medici

The Medical Board of California approved their much-awaited Action Plan on February 6, 2014 to fulfill the requirements of SB 380.  Unfortunately, the Medical Board’s actions may amount to nothing more than a couple of insignificant newsletter articles published biannually. On September 6, 2011, after the unanimous passage by both houses of the California State Assembly, California Governor

“Plant Positive” is the pseudonym of an independent, brilliant, nutrition researcher who is based in Washington, DC. Disturbed by the pervasive misinformation promulgated by advocates of “Paleo” and low-carbohydrate diets, Plant Positive created a thorough, credible, and free educational resource for those seeking the truth about diet and health. The first fruits of his efforts were 71 videos, c

The Atkins Diet lives on in the current bestselling books Wheat Belly by William Davis, MD and Grain Brain by David Perlmutter, MD. Robert Atkins, MD, creator of the Atkins Diet, was upfront with his recommendations to eat a diet almost exclusively made up of meat, poultry, cheese, butter, fish, and eggs, with very little plant-foods.  The first Atkins Diet book was published in 1972; since then w

Three years ago I discussed the issues of the US government banning one of the healthiest foods for humans, the white potato, in my book, The Starch Solution. You know, the book with a white potato on the cover. This article from the WSJ explains how after all these years some action is being taken to correct health damaging information on potatoes. (Please note I am not defending greasy French fr

Kempner, medical doctor and research scientist, is the father of modern day diet therapy and creator of the Rice Diet. All who have followed in his footsteps, including Nathan Pritikin, Dean Ornish, Neal Barnard, Caldwell Esselstyn, and myself, owe homage to this man and his work. Kempner’s Rice Diet program began at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina in 1939. The treatment was a simp

New guidelines for treating high blood pressure were released today (Dec. 18, 2013). They can be found in an online article free from the Journal of the American Medical Association.

World history was favorably changed this past week (November 26, 2013) when the former US Vice President and environmental activist Al Gore declared that he was no longer consuming animal foods. As a former Black Angus cattle rancher and a long-time indulger in all foods fattening, many people doubted that he would ever come to his senses. But he has. Mr. Gore has been grappling with this decision

Our efforts over the past 34 years have been focused on helping people through these often-difficult times so Making the Changethat they could see and feel the biggest results. The most empowering motivations for change have become clear to Mary and I, and they are presented below, organized into the three overlapping stages of life: Early, Middle and Late.

Scientists once believed that genetic information was fixed at the time of fertilization, and therefore was beyond any outside influences. This has been found to be untrue. Good genes are “turned on” by a healthy environment, just as “bad genes” are silenced by a healthy environment. In practical terms “a healthy environment” means a diet based on a plentiful supply of starches, vegetables, and fr

Fish are not health food. Please leave them in the ocean, lakes, and streams. In terms of your health: a muscle is a muscle is a muscle – whether it moves a limb, flaps a wing, or swishes a tail. Muscles consist of health damaging amounts of fat, protein, and cholesterol; mixed with infectious microbes and poisonous environmental chemicals.

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) products, especially foods, have been a hot-button issue in recent years as more consumers seek assurances that they will not harm their health.  Are efforts now spent on limiting their use going to translate into better health for people worldwide? Or would all the time and money be better directed towards other food matters? Planet Earth faces enormous challe

Michael Moss, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter at the New York Times, has written a #1 bestselling book that I recommend you buy and read. This is not a diet book or cookbook. No practical solutions for the current obesity and health catastrophes facing our nation and the developed world are offered. Rather, this book explains how normal unregulated business practices underlie the cur