Nationality American Role Physician Name John McDougall | Occupation physician, author Ethnicity Irish | |
Born 1947 ( 1947 ) Notable work The McDougall Plan (1983) Books The Starch Solution: Eat the F, McDougall's Medicine, The McDougall Plan, The McDougall Plan for S Similar People Neal D Barnard, Caldwell Esselstyn, T Colin Campbell, Dean Ornish, Michael Greger Profiles | ||
Education Michigan State University | ||
John A. McDougall (born May 17, 1947) is an American physician and author who has written that degenerative disease can be prevented and treated with a low-fat, whole foods, plant-based vegan diet—especially one based on starches which excludes animal foods and added vegetable oils. McDougall's diet—The McDougall Plan—has been categorized as a fad diet that carries some disadvantages, such as a boring food choice and the risk of feeling hungry.
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Early years education and career
He was born on May 17, 1947.
McDougall is a graduate of Michigan State University's College of Human Medicine. He performed his internship at Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1972 and his medical residency at the University of Hawaii. He is certified as an internist by the Board of Internal Medicine and the National Board of Medical Examiners.
In 1965, at age 18, McDougall suffered a massive stroke, which he attributed to his high animal product diet.
Between 1973 and 1976, McDougall worked as a physician at the Hamakua Sugar Plantation on Hawaii Island. Between 1986 and 2002, he launched a vegetarian dietary program at St. Helena Hospital in the Napa Valley, California. Between 1999 and 2001, he ran a dietary program for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
McDougall is on the advisory board of Naked Food Magazine, for which he is also a regular contributor of articles espousing a plant-based diet.
Diet programs and products
In 2002, McDougall began the McDougall Program at the Flamingo Resort in Santa Rosa, California. The McDougall Program is a 10-day residential treatment program based in Santa Clara, California which features a low fat starch based diet.
McDougall is the co-founder, chairman, and sole board member of San Francisco based Dr. McDougall's Right Foods Inc., which produces dried and packaged soups, and is manufactured by the SF Spice Co. He is also a member of the advisory board of the animal-activist group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) In 2016, McDougall was one of four named plaintiffs in a lawsuit by the PCRM alleging improper industry influence on establishing cholesterol recommendations.
McDougall Plan reception
His eponymous 1983 diet book, The McDougall Plan, has been categorized as a fad diet with possible disadvantages including a boring food choice, flatulence and the risk of feeling hungry. Reviewing McDougall's book, The McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss, nutritionist Frederick J. Stare and epidemiologist Elizabeth Whelan criticized its restrictive regime and "poor advice", concluding that the diet's concepts were "extreme and out of keeping with nutritional reality".