RIP: Dr. John McDougall, controversial advocate for plant-based diet to prevent prostate cancer and other chronic diseases
By Howard Wolinsky
John McDougall, MD, an advocate for plant-based eating to prevent and reverse chronic diseases like prostate cancer, died “peacefully” in his home on June 22. He was 77.
The announcement today did not list the cause of death. It would be helpful to know.
Many men with prostate cancer or trying to avoid it followed McDougall’s program combining diet, exercise, and quitting smoking and drinking.
The McDougall diet is a low-fat starch-based diet high in fiber and containing no cholesterol based on vegetables and starchy foods.
Typical fare is rice, potatoes, corn, breads, pasta, and fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables. A meal might include a baked potato with steamed broccoli, or steamed brown rice with steamed vegetables, perhaps with a fruit for dessert.
His book The McDougall Plan was a New York Times bestseller in 1985. His critics categorized his program as a low-fat fad diet. The diet rejects all animal products as well as cooking oils, processed food, alcoholic beverages and caffeinated drinks.
McDougall had his detractors. In 1992, nutritionist Kurt Butler described McDougall's ideas as "vegetarian extremism" and McDougall as "Americas most influential vegan zealot" who has taken the low-fat vegetarian diet to extremes.
In 2002, the doctort launched the McDougall Program at the Flamingo Resort in Santa Rosa, California. The program is a 10-day residential treatment program which features a low-fat, starch-based, vegan diet.
McDougall also was a critic of the widespread use of PSA to find prostate cancer that led to overtreatment and overdiagnosis of low-risk prostate cancer. Take a look at his newsletter from 2009 showing as he takes on many of the battles still being fought today.
McDougall said his interest in medicine started at age 18 in 1965 when experienced a massive stroke that mysteriously paralyzed him for two weeks.
McDougall probably gets the last laugh. His vision of a plant-based diet is gaining increasing credibility, especially in the prostate cancer arena.
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By Howard Wolinsky
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Just wanted to bring to your attention this Substack article I posted in response. Thank you.
https://mattcook.substack.com/p/death-of-dr-mcdougall-is-his-plant
He was big on starch and phobic on fat. He got into arguments with other vegans who thought there should be more emphasis on fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.