Dr. John McDougall - Health and Healing on a Starch-Based Diet
PLANTSTRONG Podcast
Rip Esselstyn
4.8 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 1 July 2024
⏱️ 77 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This episode originally aired July 7, 2022. We reshare it today as a tribute to his work and legacy.
Dr. John McDougall was drawn to medicine because of his own health “fate.” At 18, he suffered a massive stroke and was an anomaly to the doctors in Michigan who wanted to explore “why” and “how” this could happen to someone so young.
This health scare inspired his own journey to become a doctor, which eventually led McDougall and his wife, Mary, to Hawaii to practice medicine on a sugar plantation in Hawaii and service over 5,000 residents. What he saw there changed the course of his medical practice forever.
The healthiest people on the island, the first-generation elders who had come from China, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines, were the healthiest and most vibrant people…still active, with no medications, and still in bodies fit for movement. It was their children and grandchildren, however, those second and third generations, that were struggling.
Why? They had adopted a western diet of meat, dairy, and processed foods.
The secret, Dr. McDougall discovered, was STARCH. Those healthy islanders subsisted on a diet comprised mostly of rice, potatoes, vegetables, and fruits and THAT inspired the work he does today through his McDougall programs and education.
Beyond diet, the McDougalls are also dedicated to informing citizens about the positive effects of dietary therapy on chronic disease and our Planet. Animal agriculture, as we’re learning, is also one of the main culprits contributing to climate change and we discuss all of his “four deadly dietary deceptions” outlined at mcdougallfoundation.org.
It’s an inspiring conversation from one of the legends and it was an honor to sit down with Dr. John McDougall.
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I like all of you are completely shell-shocked that the larger-than-life giant, Dr. John McDougal has died. |
| 0:09.6 | He was one of my great heroes in life he was fearless he was courageous he was a true |
| 0:17.0 | seeker he was bloody intense like nobody I know he was compassionate and he was committed to |
| 0:25.9 | spreading the good word about the benefits of a whole food, plant-based diet or |
| 0:30.6 | as he'd like to say being a starch of ore until the very very end. |
| 0:36.0 | And that torch that he lit will continue to burn brightly and be carried by his family, |
| 0:42.4 | by Mary, and all those who loved him and cherished his message. |
| 0:47.0 | Here are 10 quotes from John McDougal that I love and you may hear several of these in this podcast interview that I have with John. |
| 0:59.0 | One, people love to hear good news about their bad habits. |
| 1:04.0 | That is so, John. |
| 1:06.0 | Two, the fat you eat is the fat you wear. |
| 1:11.0 | Three, people think that they are free when they are on a Western diet, but they are slaves to their |
| 1:17.6 | cravings. |
| 1:18.6 | 4. The joy of living comes from surrounding ourselves with people that we love and living in a way that promotes our health. |
| 1:27.0 | 5. If you don't take care of your body, where are you going to live? |
| 1:33.0 | 6. Health is not something that you need to find. |
| 1:37.0 | It's something that you already have if you just don't disturb it. |
| 1:43.0 | 7. The food you eat can either be the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison. |
| 1:52.0 | 8. It's not the food in your life, but the life in your food that counts. |
| 1:58.0 | 9. If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made up of. |
| 2:06.0 | And then lastly, it's the food, it's the food, it's the food. |
| 2:11.0 | John McDougal was the yoda of the plant-based movement. |
... |
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