John A. McDougall, M.D., is an American physician and author whose philosophy is that degenerative disease can be prevented and treated with a diet of whole, unprocessed, low-fat plant foods, especially starches such as potatoes, rice, and beans, and which excludes all animal foods (except honey) and vegetable oils. He runs a 10-day live-in program in Santa Rosa, California where patients work to regain their health by eating this diet (without limits) and where they hear lectures by McDougall and other health professionals. The program has been recommended by heart disease researcher Dean Ornish. The core components of the program are available for free on McDougall's web site, drmcdougall.com. An earlier version of the program was 12 days long and was held at St. Helena Hospital, California.
A graduate of Michigan State University's College of Human Medicine, he performed his internship at Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, 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.
McDougall is the author of several books. His first book, The McDougall Plan (1983), was the first book by a credentialed Western medical authority to posit that there is no need to combine proteins to make a "complete" protein. He is the co-founder and chairman of Dr. McDougall's Right Foods Inc. which produces food products for grocery stores, and a member of the advisory board of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. In 2000, The Press Democrat described McDougall and his wife operating "a small industry, with several cookbooks, a newsletter, a Web site, vegetarian meal cups sold across the country and a nationally syndicated TV show."
McDougall J. Dairy and type 2 diabetes mellitus: wrong conclusions. Arch Intern Med. 2005 Nov 14;165(20):2434
McDougall J. Effects of a low-carbohydrate diet. Mayo Clin Proc. 2004 Mar;79(3):431
McDougall J. Optimal diets to prevent heart disease. JAMA. 2003 Mar 26;289(12):1509
McDougall J. Misinformation on plant proteins. Circulation. 2002 Nov 12;106(20):e148
McDougall J. Plant foods have a complete amino acid composition. Circulation. 2002 Jun 25;105(25):e197
"Effects of a very low fat vegan diet in subjects with rheumatoid arthritis." Journal of the American College of Nutrition 17:512, 1998. & Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 8:71-75, 2002.
"Rapid Reduction of Serum Cholesterol and Blood Pressure by a Twelve Day, Very Low Fat, Strictly Vegetarian Diet" Journal of the American College of Nutrition 14:491-496, 1995.
"Reduction of Risk Factors in an Intensive Cardiac Rehabilitation and Lifestyle Modification Program in High Risk and Cardiovascularly Diseased Patients. Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehab 9:397, 1989.
"Preliminary Study of Diet as an Adjuvant Therapy for Breast Cancer Published": Breast, Diseases of the Breast 10:18-22, 1984.