Mini-Courses

For more than 35 years, we’ve been teaching people how to empower themselves to alleviate their pain from all chronic illnesses, regain their health, lose weight safely, and learn simple and practical ways to live a starch-based lifestyle. These lessons are now available in mini-courses to fast-track your education.

Learn directly from John McDougall, MD, how to improve, maintain and optimize your health.

For a limited time, save 25% off our mini-courses!

See our Mini-Courses

New

Mary’s Mini-McDougall Diet®

Mary’s Mini-McDougall Diet® offers a straightforward approach to weight loss centered around starch-based nutrition.

Discover the authentic Mary’s Mini-McDougall Diet® as crafted by its originators, Dr. John and Mary McDougall. It’s a streamlined, rapid-adjustment version of the standard McDougall diet, emphasizing starch while incorporating non-starchy vegetables. This dietary plan acts as a simplified resource for those who may find the initial hurdles of commencing the McDougall program daunting or need to accelerate their progress. Mary’s Mini-McDougall Diet® is a nutritionally balanced regimen that you might consider adopting for the long term, if not a lifetime.

Here’s What to Expect:

Reboot your weight loss journey and regain your footing in healthy eating, all without the need for calorie counting or adhering to specific meal timings.
Combat sugar and high-fat cravings effectively.
Learn an uncomplicated entry point to the regular McDougall diet.
Receive prompt guidance from the McDougall team to address any queries that arise (available within the online mini-course).

And much more!

Image of user in Mary’s Mini-McDougall Diet® Mini-Course

Monotony is key. Choose one starch and one vegetable. Eat when you are hungry and until you are comfortably full.

"Mary’s Mini is basically a very simple starch-based weight loss program where you just choose one starch that you eat at every meal, the same starch every day for 10 days. Then you can add assorted green and yellow vegetables to the program, but you always eat the same starch, so if you choose potatoes that means you eat potatoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and any snacks in between meals, and to that you can add assorted green and yellow vegetables."

- Mary McDougall

Maximum Weight
Loss Program

Lose up to 15 pounds a month with a whole food, starch-based diet without going hungry or counting calories.

Learn the fundamentals of the McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss and specifically which foods to eat (and to avoid). This mini-course is designed to help you easily learn the most important aspects of how to lose weight in a safe and sustainable way.

Lose weight effortlessly by eating your favorite starch-centered comfort foods like potatoes, beans and rice
Never feel hungry again – as you may have experienced, diets that limit food and leave you hungry do not work long-term
Eat as much as you want of the right foods, when you want (with no calorie counting or time-specific eating windows)

Inside this mini-course, you’ll have lifetime access to:

Dr. McDougall’s lectures describing the Maximum Weight Loss program, specific guidelines and more
Heather McDougall’s lecture on meal planning including her favorite kitchen tools, how to use healthy packaged foods to make meal prep quick and easy, and practical best practices
Summary of the most important components of the Maximum Weight Loss program with a clear checklist of tips to follow
Sample meal planner
Recipe favorites of the McDougall team and community

Image of user in Maximum Weight <br />Loss Program Mini-Course

Our Fat Free Golden Gravy recipe over mashed potatoes is not only a community favorite, it's one of the many weight loss and comfort food ideas inside this course!

"If you haven’t eaten the best diet or lived a healthy lifestyle, now is the time to start. The body is very forgiving and has a tremendous ability to recuperate. You will be surprised and pleased by the results you experience on the McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss. Don’t waste another minute."

- John McDougall, MD

New

The Truth About Food

Alleviate the pain of chronic illness and start living the life you deserve.

The Truth About Food covers four main pillars of nutrition that are commonly misunderstood. After learning about these hot topics, you’ll know more about food and its effect on human health than most doctors, dietitians and nutritionists have learned throughout their years of professional training about these vital subjects.

The scientific facts about how much protein, fats, sugar and vitamins your body needs for optimal health
How osteoporosis is caused by excess protein and how to reverse it naturally
How fats and oils affect your heart health
The truth behind sugar and diabetes
The health benefits of eating starch
The best sources of B12 and vitamin D
How nature and whole plant foods provide complete nutrition
How to optimize your health with perfectly-packaged, nature-made foods

Image of user in The Truth About Food Mini-Course

Learn the science behind what makes Sweet Potato Beginnings an excellent example of delicious, easy-to-prepare food that can help heal your body.

Aging Gracefully

The biggest fear we have as we get older is losing our ability to function – in particular, losing our mental functions. We want to make the best of – and ideally avoid – dementia.

The results of the McDougall program and McDougall diet have proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that you can make a difference as far as diseases that now take you in the prime of life.

Avoid Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia with safe, non-toxic, relatively inexpensive and effective treatments
Reverse common diseases like arthritis, heart disease and atherosclerosis, type-2 diabetes, kidney disease, osteoporosis, multiple sclerosis, depression and more
Preserve and improve cognitive health and gain additional benefits like lower insulin resistance, cholesterol, body weight and blood pressure

You’ll have lifetime access to:

Dr. McDougall’s lecture teaching the fundamentals of the McDougall Program with specific instructions of what to eat, what to limit and what to avoid for aging gracefully
Dr. McDougall’s two-part lectures for Live Longer & Better including the right protein to carbohydrate ratio for longevity, good heart function and brain health, as well as a deep dive into the cause of dementia and effective treatments for Alzheimer’s disease
Heather McDougall’s lecture on meal planning including her favorite kitchen tools, how to use healthy packaged foods to make meal prep quick and easy, and practical best practices
Recipe favorites of the McDougall team and community
Scientific references

Image of user in Aging Gracefully Mini-Course

Linda reversed heart disease, lost 50 pounds, and at 78 years old, lives a vibrant life and feels wonderful!

"We need to focus on the things we can control today, not our genes, good luck or good fortune. The information within these lectures are messages that every doctor should be providing for their patients."

- John McDougall, MD