his dad salted his beer!

[Guest guest]

Star McDougaller: Charles Alexander

“Listen to your body’s wake up calls”

Dr. McDougall's Comments

 

The McDougall Program is for people interested in a lifetime of good

health and an outstanding personal appearance, as Charles Alexander

clearly demonstrates. He has never looked back, nor does anyone

else who really learns and honestly embraces the Program. You

will not find followers of the McDougall philosophy searching the

tabloids for the next miracle weight loss diet or waiting for a

pharmaceutical discovery that lets them gorge themselves while

remaining trim. Why would they waste their time? They have

already found the answer in a simple meal plan.

 

 

 

 

 

“The truth will set you free.” It really will. Just as

Charles was set free from a family history condemning him to an early

death from hypertension and heart disease. Without any conscious

thought, Charles trimmed down to a slim body weight and has maintained

his muscular appearance for more than a quarter century. And

without any pills his body adjusted to a healthy blood pressure and

cholesterol. He is free—disease-free.

Learning the principles of the McDougall diet does not appear to

most people to be as easy as counting calories or eating only

low-carbohydrate foods (meat, eggs, and cheese). What they fail

to consider is with our diet you don’t suffer the constant pains of

hunger from limiting portions and the expected sicknesses

(constipation, fatigue, headaches, oily skin, bone loss, kidney

stones, etc.) from inadequate carbohydrates, and way too much fat and

protein. Because people following our program fill up with

delicious foods and look and feel great, they remain happy for a long

lifetime.

Learning valuable skills takes some effort—like learning to

properly speak a foreign language, be a nurse, or fly an airplane.

But the return for the student in each case is well worth all of the

effort. Learning proper eating is no different—once learned,

the advantages are for life. Charles has reaped the benefits

every day for the past 27 years—and so have thousands of

others.

I (Dr. McDougall) have known the reason most people are

chronically ill and how to cure them since 1977 (for 30 years).

But I still have not fully figured out how to get most people to give

up their old habits and set themselves free. We (Mary and I) try

new methods at every opportunity. Together, we have written

books, given lectures, held seminars, and taken people to exotic

destinations (like Costa Rica).

The most effective tool we have found is 10 days of intensive

education and medical care at our clinic in Santa Rosa,

California. I estimate over 90% of participants leave our clinic

permanently changed—off medications, and in control of their health

and personal appearance.

Tens of thousands of people who are not able to take advantage of

our live-in experience have been able to change themselves by using

the free information on our web

site. For a small investment our latest creations provide some of

the most cost-effective and practical help. These two DVDs, McDougall Made Easy

and McDougall Made

Irresistible, demonstrate more than 34 delicious and

simple-to-make meals prepared by Mary in her kitchen. For

everyday living, you need only one selection for breakfast and one for

lunch and a couple for dinner. Find four to six recipes you like

from this entertaining collection and eat them over and over again.

Now how easy is that? This is unquestionably a small price to

pay t o have the same degree of control over your life that Charles

and thousands of others have after learning the McDougall Program.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We encourage you to pass this Star McDougaller along to

friends.

 

When I was 40 years old (I am now 68) I was very surprised

to discover during an annual physical that I had borderline

hypertension and elevated cholesterol. At the time I felt that I was

eating a good diet which provided lots of animal protein, which I

assumed was necessary for my rigorous exercise program (bodybuilding

and running regularly since age 16). This is the way my parents and

grandparents ate, and if it was good enough for them, it must be good

enough for me. I wondered, “How could I possibly have elevated

cholesterol and hypertension with such a “healthy” diet and such a

strenuous exercise program?”

For breakfast I typically ate two or three scrambled eggs with a

few strips of bacon, toast with butter, and a quart of whole milk.

Lunch might consist of two roast beef sandwiches smothered in

mayonnaise. And for dinner I’d eat chicken or beef with mashed

potatoes drowned in greasy gravy—once in a while I’d add a

vegetable. And of course, dinner was not complete without ice cream

and cake.

I came to learn that the way my family ate was far from healthy.

I grew up in a middle-class family living about 30 miles from

Philadelphia. My parents smoked two to three packs of cigarettes a day

and drank alcohol regularly. Dad was a meat-and-potatoes man and loved

his beef cooked rare with none of the peripheral fat cut away. In

addition to having a penchant for animal fat, he also loved to smother

his food with salt. He had such a liking for the taste of sodium that

he would put salt in his beer. It’s no wonder he was plagued with

hypertension most of his short adult life before dying at age 61. My

grandfather on my father’s side also had a problem with the

hypertension and that was the cause of his demise at the age of 61.

Because my mother never went to the doctor, I don’t know what

maladies affected her, but we suspect she had the beginnings of

osteoporosis and heart disease. A massive stroke took her life at age

71.

At the time of my physical, my cholesterol was 230 mg/dL and my

blood pressure was around 180/95 mmHg. My doctor seemed to be as

surprised as I was and could only attribute these problems to

heredity. I asked him if my diet could be affecting my blood pressure

and cholesterol, but he didn’t think so. He did, however, feel

confident that drugs would take care of my problems. (I chose not to

take the cholesterol-lowering drug, but did start the blood pressure

pills.)

A couple of weeks after the physical, I was invited to attend a

lecture in my hometown of Honolulu, Hawaii, where a young doctor was

speaking about how to be healthy through diet and moderate exercise.

That doctor was John McDougall. I was struck by his discussion about

the geographic distribution of many diseases throughout the world, and

how the diseases of our western world were, and still are, rare in

developing nations where rich, fatty foods are not readily available.

I was so impressed with the research-based information that Dr.

McDougall presented that I promised myself I would attend the rest of

the lectures in the series. I began to make the necessary changes in

my diet and give my body every possible chance to be healthy.

Throughout the lectures I learned that there were indeed ways to

treat high blood pressure and high cholesterol with a healthy diet and

without drugs. I read the McDougalls’ first publication; a

ring-bound recipe book called Making the Change, and followed their

advice completely. During a visit to his medical office he explained

to me that if I followed his diet, I would steadily lose weight until

I reached the level that was natural for my frame and body type. And

that is exactly what happened. When I made the dietary changes, my

5’5” frame was carrying a pudgy 165 pounds. At the end of the first

month on the diet, I had lost eight pounds and, surprisingly, never

left the dining room table wanting more food. My stomach was full, my

appetite was sated, and my body was becoming lean and healthy.

As for my own family, my wife was not interested in making a

dietary change, nor were my two teenage children, although they were

interested in the concept. Thankfully, my kids adopted much of the

McDougall diet after they got married and had children of their own.

Most of my meals now are centered around vegetable stews, lentil

stews, brown rice, chili, potatoes, Portuguese bean soup (without meat

or oil), or just a bowl of frozen vegetables with McDougall’s pasta

sauce. All my dishes come from the McDougall cookbooks. Making the

dietary change was not difficult for me since I believed in the

program from the beginning, and that it would reduce the chances of me

contracting many of the health problems that afflict westerners. It

took me about two months for my palate to adjust to all the natural

foods. Now the only time I’m in danger of backsliding is when I’m

hungry and there is no McDougall food a t hand.

 

After losing about 20 pounds, I expressed concern to Dr.

McDougall that if I continued to lose weight at this rate (while

eating all I wanted), I would be nothing but skin and bones. Dr.

McDougall assured me that I would continue to lose unnecessary pounds

until I reached the weight that nature had intended for me. In

approximately six months, when I reached 125 pounds, I stopped losing

weight, even though I continued to eat until I was full at each meal.

That was in 1980, and I’ve maintained this weight ever since while

continuing to eat according to the McDougall Plan. As Dr. McDougall

expected, my high blood pressure dropped to normal, as did my

cholesterol, after about two to three months.

I am now 68 years old and am in excellent health. I take no

drugs, vitamins, nor supplements. In addition to losing weight, and

lowering my blood pressure and cholesterol, I have also gained much

more energy and I am less susceptibility to colds, flu, and other

common maladies. I bicycle 70 miles a week, play tennis twice a week,

and work out with light weights every other day.

Many of my peers who continue to eat the typical western,

high-fat, low-fiber diet, and get little or no exercise, show the

symptoms of an unhealthy lifestyle, such as heart disease, diabetes,

hypertension, and breast and colon cancers. They are always impressed

when they see what activities I’m involved in, observe my lean and

muscular body, and learn that I don’t take any drugs or supplements.

They begin to realize that there must be something to a healthy diet

and lifestyle.

That serendipitous invitation to attend Dr. McDougall’s lecture

27 years ago had a profound and positive effect on my health and

wellbeing. I plan on continuing the McDougall diet so that I will have

many more years to do the things I love.

Charles Alexander

Kailua, Hawaii

 

 

2007 John McDougall

McDougall Wellness Center P.O. Box 14039, Santa Rosa, CA

95402

http://www.drmcdougall.com

 

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Read this Star McDougaller online: http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2007star/nov/starcharlie.htm