The McDougall Program for Women (ISBN 0525942092)

Amazon.com Review:
Women trust and rely on their doctors for medical guidance. "Unfortunately, that advice is sometimes biased or ill-informed," says John McDougall, M.D. "The consequence is that a lot of women choose treatments that are ineffective at best, or harmful at worst." In The McDougall Program for Women, he discusses the most common medical conditions affecting women, such as breast cancer, menopause, cardiovascular disease, and osteoporosis (don't miss his explanation of how high consumption of animal protein destroys bones). He describes how best to treat these conditions and the benefits and risks of the usual treatments. His solution to women's health problems isn't hormones, drugs, or surgery--it's diet and lifestyle changes, specifically a starch-based, vegetarian diet, moderate exercise, and eliminating the "most toxic of (your) bad habits," such as smoking. McDougall is well known from his other books and his program at St. Helena Hospital in California, with a loyal bevy of followers who report tremendous health gains and weight loss by eating mainly bulky complex carbohydrates (whole grains, beans, legumes, starchy vegetables), no meat or dairy products, and no added oil. The 102 recipes show that this eating plan can be varied and tasty. This is no trendy diet-of-the-month scheme--McDougall includes 82 pages of scientific references that support his views. --Joan Price

Don't Listen To Those Negative Punks With the Bad Reviews!:
I am 20 years old and I have been following the McDougall Program for a year and a half now, and it has changed my life. I had been an ovo-lacto vegetarian for 3 years before I began this program. I had been overweight all my life, pretty much ever since I was born. Even as an ovo-lacto I was overweight and could never lose weight. I love to eat. I never had energy. I was always hungry and on a diet. I tried high-protein and it made me ill in scary ways. Then I discovered the McDougall program and I can eat happily and satisfy my appetite, lost 40 pounds and feel so much better. I feel good knowing that I only put healthy food in my body. Anyone who says you can't live without animial products doesn't know what they are talking about. If vegetarianism and veganism were dangerous the Seventh Day Adventist religion would have died out long ago. The notion that this program is restrictive is nonsense. Look at all the McDougall cookbooks there are. And almost any recipe is modifiable to the program with a few substitutions. If you think you need to eat fat, have some avocados or nuts or tofu. They won't clog your arteries like milk and eggs. This program is liberating and life-changing, and Americans would be much healthier if they adopted the McDougalls' principles.

You either love McDougall or hate him:
Well, of the 18 reviews (at the moment) of this book, there are 2 one-star reviews and the rest are 4 or 5 stars. McDougall is one of those that really generates strong reactions, positive and negative. The reviewer that claims that high-starch diet is "scientifically proven" to mess with you insulin is off-base. High fat with high starch does, high starch with low fat does not. As far as the reviewer that felt that McDougall displays a blase attitude about breast cancer and mamography... Well, what can I say? I'm not a woman and never had breast cancer. So I'm sure she would have a very different perspective than I would. But I really don't see how McDougall's attitude can be considered "blase". He is very passionate, you may disagree with him, but I don't see how he can be called "blase". Now McDougall does have a very negative attitude towards radiation, chemo, and most "standard" treatments for cancers, such as breast cancers. But I think he makes a good case for his negative attitudes, they have not been shown to extend life, and significantly harm life. Basically, McDougall believes the best treatment for cancer is prevention, and shows why he feels diet and lifestyle are the best preventions.

Good Intentions, Spotty Science:
Reviewer #20 caught it: High-carbohydrate diets are not healthful, and the misbegotten advice of Dr. McDougall destroys a book with some valuable content on other topics. The Good Intentions: "For a great many reasons...doctors often keep important information from patients. This practice is much more common in the relationship between male doctors and female patients. ...too many women take drugs they do not need, undergo an excessive amnount of unecessary surgery..." (p8). "Everything I am going to say is based on scientific evidence that has already been published in the world's leading medical and scientific journals." (p12). The Spotty Science: In giving the caloric content of foods, Dr. McDougall mistakenly gives calories rather than kilocalories per gram (kcal/g) (p341). (The kilocalories are often written as Calories in other literature.) He correctly states that some fats are partially absorbed, cutting their caloric content in half; but is unaware that most common fats and oils provide only about 5 kcal/g (Kekwick A, Pawan GLS, "Body-Weight, Food, and Energy", The Lancet 19 Apr 1969:822-825. Dr. McDougall fails to note that some of his supposed successes, like those of Pritikin and Ornish, may result from any of multiple interventions, including placebo effect, as well as the elimination of the toxic trans fatty acids along with all other fats (Oomen CM et al., "Association between trans fatty acid intake and 10-year risk of coronary heart disease in the Zutphen Elderly Study: a prospective population-based study", The Lancet 2001:357:746-751; the facts were known much earlier, as in the book "Know Your Fats". Dr. McDougall has fallen for the cholesterol nonsense, hook, line and sinker (see Uffe Ravnskov, "The Cholsterol Myths", 2000; Mary C. Enig, "Know Your Fats", 2000; Kilmer S. McCully, The Heart Revolution", 2000; all available from Amazon.com). He also managed to avoid citing a single paper from any of these 3 key authors. Meta-analyses of 24 cholesterol-lowering diet trials found that there was no significant effect of low-fat diets on total death rates (Garber AM, et al., "Clinical Guideline, Part 2. Cholesterol Screening in Asymptomatic Adults", Ann Int Med 1996:124:518-531). Dr. McDougall cannot distinguish between complex carbohydrates and high-glycemic carbohydrates, so he is unaware that the wheat flour and potato in his recipes are death warrants for diabetics (Richard K. Bernstein, "Dr. Bernstein;s Diabetes Solution", 1997). The downside of vegetarianism is omitted by Dr. McDougall... Some excellent advice on the low benefits of mammograms is marred by Dr. McDougall's failure to mention the hormetic benefit of the Xrays (Upton AC, "Radiation Hormesis: Data and Interpretations", Critical Rev Tox 2001:31(4&5):681-695), and the availability for 9 years of a simple blood test to detect cancer .... Because of some serious misinformation in this book, it cannot be recommended at all despite its content of very good information on certain other topics. ---7 Jun 02

Extreme vegan program:
The description of this book didn't prepare me. This is a radical approach, which will undoubtedly be effective for people who are suffering serious health issues. But "every woman"? I don't think so. Can "every woman" live without any animal products at all, any oil, any wheat . . . it goes on and on. Only those who are really ill with food sensitivities will want to take this on. Although I can guarantee any woman who follows the program will lose weight!

The McDougall program for women:
This is a great , and interesting book for all women to read