Dietary Review: Dr. McDougal
Posted on March 6, 2008
Filed Under Diet Reviews |
Dr. McDougal has implemented and explained on his website, in books, and in movies a dietary system that is claimed to help you lose weight, reduce dependency on pharmaceutical drugs, and become much healthier overall. His diet system is not only vegan (no meat, eggs, dairy, or any other animal derivatives), but also very restrictive of processed foods. In this article, I will attempt to explain his diet as well as cover posted reviews of the McDougal system.
The idea behind the McDougal diet is that heredity does not control your health; your personal diet choices do. This turns out to be good news because according to his website, fat and cholesterol are almost poison-like. “The problem with fat and cholesterol is that we need so little of both.” Meat-based diets provide an abundance of both, which proves unnecessary. Dr. McDougal even goes as far as to suggest that vegetarians don’t need supplements of omega-3 or flaxseed oils (a seemingly common suggestion when researching vegetarianism).
“The McDougall Program uses a pure-vegetarian diet based around starchy vegetables with the addition of fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables.” In the free program section of the McDougal website, the following foods are listed as ‘not allowed’:
· Any kind of Dairy
· Any kind of Meat, Fish, or Poultry
· Any kind of Eggs
· Vegetable Oils
· White Rice
· White Flour
· Refined and Sugary Cereals
· Coffee and black teas
· Chocolate
· Colas
· Coconut
So what do you do instead? Well, you can use his replacement foods listed right beside these restricted foods. Or just scrap your current diet entirely and start with McDougal’s suggested foods.
Starches should serve as the center of the meal. In particular, whole grains, unrefined flours, legumes, and egg-free pastas. Other starches, perhaps less common, are included in the list as well.
Green and yellow vegetables are a great addition to your starchy meal, consumable in unlimited quantities, especially for faster weight loss.
Since fruits are high in sugar, they should be limited to three servings per day. Generally considered as healthy by the general populous, fruits are recognized by McDougal as particularly sugary. Eating too many fruits turn out to be treacherous waters.
Add exercise to the above dietary plan and you have McDougal’s teachings in a nutshell.
Reviews
I have to say that I tried really hard to find a sensible argument to McDougal’s diet. Apparently no one with internet access (in combination with a working brain) has taken enough initiative to argue nutritional points to the contrary. Or perhaps, these arguments are impossible to denounce?
I found several negative reviews on McDougal’s books on amazon.com, but most were illogical. Overwhelmingly, anyone who has tried this system is greatly in favor of it.
Here is the “best” negative review that I could find:
I’m happy so many have succeeded at this plan. It sounded really good to me, but after following it for about two weeks, I didn’t lose any weight and was very susceptible to refined carbs. Oh and I’ve been VERY bloated from all the high-residue foods.
Now, I’ve been vegan for some time so that was no problem. But to give up all breads & pastas was too much. Not to mention any nuts or nut butters. Or soy milk & tofu.
Ugh. I like T. Colin Campbell’s (”The
McDougall’s diet, while sounding great, is too austere for me. I’d much rather have fewer calories and include whole-grain breads, nuts, etc. Much more satisfying.
I did like the section on sleep-deprivation though and have noticed the depressing effect of normal sleep time. That alone was worth reading most of the book.
You can see that even this isn’t the worst review in the world. While the reviewer only gave 1 star to The Mcdougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss, you can see that they were already vegan for some time and just wanted more carbohydrates in their diet. Also I question ‘very susceptible to refined carbs.’ Does this mean that you couldn’t stay away from the white bread and donuts? Perhaps that is why the plan didn’t work.
In Summary
All of the diet information that I have analyzed above can be found on Dr. McDougal’s website. If you want a more detailed approach with recipes and something to read that isn’t fluffy internet writing, then Dr. McDougal is also well published.
I tried McDougal’s plan about a year ago and lost 10 pounds in less than two weeks (and really, I’m not that overweight). I ate massive quantities of green vegetables and felt pretty good, although hungry. It seemed like a good diet but ultimately, not practical in my current lifestyle. I will go back to it in the future; it is definitely the healthiest nutritional plan I’ve ever come across.
If you’re interested in one of McDougal’s books, you can check out a selection of titles either on his own website or on amazon.com
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