Plant Chat: Plant-Based Expert Dr. John McDougall

I am so thrilled to have legendary plant-based nutrition expert John McDougall, M.D. on my Plant Chat today. Through his 50-year career as a respected physician and internist, Dr. McDougall has been dedicated to educating others about the power of nutrition on disease. He advocates for diets focusing on plant-based foods. With the help of his wife Mary, he oversees the McDougall Program, a ten-day residential program that focuses on serving foods to improve health at a luxury resort in Santa Rosa, California. Together, they have authored multiple cookbooks, and they are co-founders of a vegetarian meal program called Dr. McDougall’s Right Food, which consists of more than 50 different types of pre-made vegan plant-based recipes produced in Woodland, California sold both in stores nationally and online.

I sat down with Dr. McDougall to get his take on how the world of plant-based nutrition has evolved to where it is today. You won’t want to miss out on his wonderful story and best advice.

Sharon: What was the landscape when you first started in the field of plant-based nutrition?

Dr. McDougall: I wanted to help people through science, so I got into medicine and had several mentors through med school. I noticed that 90% of chronic disease is attributed to what people eat and other bad habits. For forty years my eyes were open to what people were putting into their bodies, and it made me feel bad as a doctor that rarely anyone got better. I wanted to help people, and I ended up with overweight, sick people. My eyes were opened that the problem poisoning our Western population was that people were eating mostly animal foods and vegetable oils. Medicine was not going to solve this problem, diet was. Convincing people of this truth and establishing that there are healthy, tasty foods was difficult and took a long time.

Sharon: How has that changed today?

Dr. McDougall: By 1991, I had already written the best-selling McDougall Plan: 12 Days to Dynamic Health, which hit the top 5 percent of sales. My editor said I must change my style of writing, because my approach of a high-carb, low-animal product diet was passé; that I was supposed to write about low-carb diets. I thought it would never happen, but I was wrong—low-carb diets are making a comeback.

Sharon: How far has your program reached?

Dr. McDougall: I’ve been able to promote my program in 13 national best-selling books. Students from all over the world come into this program and come out feeling so much better about themselves. We’re still running the clinic in Santa Rosa, and approximately 50-60 people come through each program, and we host about 8 programs per year. We also hold commercial programs for businesses and around 80-150 people come to each of those.

Sharon: What is your approach to diet?

Dr. Mcdougall: “Vegan” doesn’t adequately describe a plant-based diet, because people could live on coca cola and chips; some who claim to be vegan are overweight because of this. I would call my approach a starch-based diet. You must get the starches to provide the energy, protein, vitamins, and minerals that you just can’t get with broccoli and cauliflower. People must change from fat and protein to complex carbs. I think it’s a mistake that people have aligned me with the vegan movement, although it has taken a lot of effort to get past this and made me unpopular over the last 40 years.

Sharon: What does your diet program consist of?

Dr. McDougall: It started out in 1970, with my wife Mary and I in an office setting. Mary is the true inventor of this low-fat vegan cooking. I requested it and did research, and we had the opportunity to implement it at the St. Helena Hospital in California from 1986-2002. By 1993, we had items from our Right Foods program in 6000+ grocery stores across the country. From this, we have thought about opening a restaurant with some of Mary’s 400 recipes, and a mobile app cookbook. The McDougall Program uses a pure-vegetarian diet based on starchy foods, plus fresh or frozen fruits and other vegetables. If you follow the diet strictly for more than three years, or if you are pregnant or nursing, people should take a minimum of 5 micrograms (mcg) of supplemental vitamin B12 each day.

Sharon: Have you tried to influence any other actions regarding healthy diets?

Dr. McDougall: In 2011, I proposed that doctors and medical students should learn about human nutrition, because it has such an influence on disease. The SB 380 bill was enforced to teach medical students what to eat, as well as what their patients should consume, so that they could understand the reasoning behind registered dietitian’s suggestions.

To learn more about Dr. McDougall’s nutrition programs, please visit the following:

https://www.drmcdougall.com/
https://www.rightfoods.com/
https://www.drmcdougall.com/health/shopping/books/

If you’re interested in following a healthy, whole foods, plant-based diet, check out my books:

Plant-Powered For Life, Eat Your Way to Lasting Health with 52 Simple Steps and 125 Delicious Recipes
The Plant-Powered Diet