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Book ID Asin: 1609613937
Book Title: The Starch Solution: Eat the Foods You Love, Regain Your Health, and Lose the Weight for Good!
Book Author: John McDougall,Mary McDougall
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Book Rating: 7,657 ratings

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  4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 7,657 ratings

Book Review

Name: Michael Parish
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: .0 out of 5 stars Something of value to say
Date: Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2012
Review: I read the book in one sitting. That wasn't hard to do since half of the book is vegan recipes. There isn't much here that he hasn't covered in prior books. I did notice that he focused more heavily on extracted vegetable oils. I'm glad he did since I read a research paper presented at the annual convention of the American Oil Chemist Society (can you believe the world has become this specialized?) on 5/6/2012. These are the guys that work with vegetable oils and figure out how to shove this stuff in every processed food in your grocery store. The health hazards of vegetable oil have proven to be even more harmful than animal fat. The discovery that heating vegetable oil repeatedly (there is a slight cooling and heating of the oil each time a basket of food is dropped into the oil) to temperatures used for frying and holding the oil at that temperature produced HNE's in as little as 3 hours. This should be devastating news to anyone with an ounce of sense. HNE's are some of the most carcinogenic elements known to science.

As I read the book the doctor eliminated one food after another on a typical Western diet, I had to ask myself, can I do this; the answer was yes. It was yes until I got near the end and he started to caveat the starch solution. After telling me that it would be difficult to limit those forbidden animal products to some lower safe level and better to exclude them, he announces that the Starch Solution won't work well if you have a chronic disease, are near to having a chronic disease or wanted to lose weight unless you do the same with some vegan foods.......what? Hey, why would I want to give up all the food I grew up with unless I was fat, sick or near dead? Now we learn that many other non-animal food items including any product made from flours including whole grain flours "will substantially slow down our progress to good health and normal weight. " Yet, what do I find in his quick start diet section; meal after meal with items like pancakes, whole wheat bread, whole grain tortillas and pasta. I'm confused! What also confused me is his statement that the Japanese eat less than 2 ounces of soy products a day and that maybe eating soy at the level that American Vegans do might not be healthy (7th Day Adventist vegan women who eat soy more than 2 times per week have higher breast cancer rates than those women eating the standard American diet). But then he loads his recipe section with soy. Either this stuff is good for you or it isn't. And if it isn't why feature so much of this product in so many recipes. If meat isn't healthy even in small quantities as he says, well, shouldn't the same apply to soy? You would have thought that instead of coming up with a "wildly popular" (among his family) soy burger he would have come up with a Vegan bean burger instead.

I started eating pretty much as he suggested six months ago. Based on blood work my kidney function has improved substantially. Cancer (multiple Myeloma) and the chemo used to hold it at bay caused a 53% loss of kidney function. I spent the last eight years killing my kidneys even further with a high protein diet thinking this was the way to health. It was not! First, I couldn't eat high protein/high fat with minimum carbs long term (l love my carbs). Second, it damaged my kidneys even further. I never realized how heavy a load protein puts on the kidneys, and my doctors never informed me, or suggested a change in diet, nor questioned my eating habits. My doctors tried solving the problem with numerous medications, each having their own side effects when a simple change in diet would have saved me a lot of pain and grief.

The doctor focuses heavily on the fact that throughout history ALL major populations were based on a starch diet. This is fact and it cannot be disputed. But what is also fact is that none of these populations were Vegan, or even close to it. He points out that as long as a population stayed on their traditional diet (and it follows that means regardless of what that was. Doesn't this start to sound a lot like Weston Price?) they stayed healthy. The further they strayed from that path the fatter and sicker they got. This makes sense since research shows that as little as 20 generations are required for adaptation to any pattern of eating. In my case coming from a Northern European background, fruit as much as I love it presents a problem. The single month that I went on a 100% ultra-low fat (about 6%) Vegan diet I gained one pound. I was also cycling one hour a day five days a week. I discovered it was the fruit. Once I cut fruit consumption to one piece each day I started to lose weight again. I assume the reason was my ancestry didn't have access to fruit year round and therefore genetically I'm not programed to burn it effectively. In Northern Europe fruit was available in two very small slivers of time, spring for berries and fall for berries and apples. Fruit is one carbohydrate that my body loves to store as fat.

Oh, you also need to be just a little skeptical about some of the health claims of the plant based doctors. They claim they can cure everything from cancer to a broken heart and have testimonials to prove it. Plus they can do it in record time. Ornish tells you he can cure type 2 diabetes in just over a year and it might take up to two for tough cases, Neal Barnard says he can do it in 22 weeks, Gabriel Cousens does it in 8 weeks, Pritikin used to do it in 28 days, and Dr. McDougall can do it in his 10 day live in program. Kind of like "Name That Tune", each doctor can do it in fewer notes.

Another recommendation you need to be careful about is ultra-low protein (less than 10%). I see nothing wrong at keeping protein (plant based of course) as high (it is difficult to get beyond 15% eating low fat vegan) as 10 to 20 percent (the old Atkins at 30% was nuts and hard on the kidneys). The focus in the book and the on-line site is to keep protein as close to the minimum required as possible. The doctor tells you NOT to eat more than one cup of beans a day in order to keep the protein number as low as possible. I know all the plant based doctors give you the same recommendation. They use the Okinawans, Kitavans and Tarahumara peoples as the pictures of perfect health. And from a heart disease perspective I guess they are, but the average height of the males in these societies is under 5-4 with the Okinawa Centenarian men at 4-10 and their women at 4-6. I'm sure you don't want you male children to be this tiny. That's why I believe that feeding this kind of diet to a growing child is dangerous to their development. If you're going to go low fat vegan make sure it's AFTER your final growth spurt....unless as a mother of a male child you don't mind him looking up at his dates.

In the end I do believe he has something of value to say; a something that would make us all healthier if we listen. The push to be 100% Vegan isn't necessary unless you want to do it for environmental or personal reasons. But of course if nothing else Vegans are passionate about their food.

Update:

After being on this new way of eating for almost a year and participating in the on-line website you discover the contrary to what the doctor says you CAN'T eat large quantities of starches and lose weight; in fact you gain weight. You'll find that it's a low calorie diet with many people eating in the 1000 to 1400 calorie range (called MWL, Maximum Weight Loss program in the book and on-line) and if they eat more than that they don't lose weight and some gain. Yes, you don't COUNT calories, but by eating less starch and more green and yellow vegetables and salads you're doing the same thing with a trick they call calorie density. The folks on Weight Watchers don't count calories either: they count points. You've got all these gimmicks trying to convince you that somehow calories don't count or need to be counted: they do! According to their on-line Nutritionist (Novick) it all comes down to "food density;" if you stick with large amounts of green and yellow vegetables and salads and keep the starches relatively lower you lose weight and the fiber from the vegetables fills you up. I've found in practice this just isn't true. You need the starch to keep you satiated and under these circumstances the weight might come off at a snail's pace; one pounds every couple of months. I still think from health perspective it's the way to eat, but from a weight loss point of view it's hardly a quick solution. I've found if you add eight ounces of egg protein shake to your meals it leaves you satisfied without the fat that would come with most animal sources which is the real villain in most chronic diseases. This has allowed me to eat only two or three meals a day instead of every three hours and pooping three times a day. On the program you feel like you spend your entire day either preparing food, eating it or sitting on the toilet. Most of the people on the program cook a half dozen baked potatoes at one time and keep them in the frig to munch to get past the constant cooking. They do the same with rice, beans and most other grains. The idea of cold baked potatoes just doesn't appeal to me. The other down side is the gas problem. Eating that much volume and fiber makes you a one person greenhouse gas disaster. Forget about eating out unless you're satisfied with dry salad (remember that oils are a no, no) and social events will find you going hungry or bringing your own food. From a weight loss perspective the book would be better called the green and yellow vegetable solution with starch added. The shear volume of food required on the program is other than starch.

Is it hard to do the McDougal program? Yes, if it was easy you wouldn't need a support board to keep you on track. The question you have to ask yourself is how far are you willing to go for health and is a program this strict really necessary to achieve it?

11/22/2013

2nd update

Yes, I'm still eating vegan, but not ultra-low fat. I've added seeds and nuts to the diet plus vitamin D, B12 and Flax for the Omega 3. The seeds and nuts allowed me to knock off the protein shake and gave me the same satiation as the shake AND finally dropped my Triglycerides to 87 from their near 300 level and finally reduced my fasting glucose from 110/113 to 78/82. This higher fat way is starting to get closer to the recommendation of another plant based doctor named Fuhrman. My hair was starting to thin and fall out and after some research I figured out it was the D. Doctor McDougall doesn't believe in added vitamins except for B12, but if you give it some thought the only way of getting vitamin D on this diet is via the sun. For those of us living north we are a little short of sun for vitamin D. Your other option is to eat "junk vegan" with lots of processed food that has vitamin D added. What the doctor fails to realize is that in the standard American diet packaged foods like bread, cereal, juice and even milk and cheese have vitamin D added by the processor or manufacturer as does processed vegan food. If you follow the book's instruction and eat only a whole food plant based diet you're eliminating all these sources of vitamin D. There is another vegan doctor named Greger who posted a YouTube video called "40 year vegan dies of heart attack" or something very close to this. He reviews various vegetarian and vegan studies and points out that they die at the same level of heart attacks, strokes, and a higher death rate from brain disorders. He goes on to point out why, and that why is a lack of vitamin D, B12 levels that are too low and an omega 3 to 6 ratio that is wildly (40 to 1, instead of from 4 or better yet 2 to 1) out of whack. He points out that adding these supplements to a vegan diet puts it back into the super healthy range. The reality is that the McDougall program hasn't changed a lick in 40 years and there have been an average of 16,000 studies produced each year. Can we believe there hasn’t been one credible study done out of the 640,000 studies done during that period that would require a modification of his program? At some point Dr. McDougall will be required to modify his program (as Dr. Ornish did by OKing fish) based on today's science instead of what was known 40 years ago. Let's look at reality; all the plant based doctors took what Pritikin first came up with in the 60's and modified it a bit. Pritikin made sure his body was autopsied upon his death and what they discovered were arteries that were almost as clean as when he was born. Yet, Pritikin ate fish several times a week and chicken from time to time, proving you don't have to be full blown vegan to reap the health benefits of a plant based whole food, no oils diet. Sadly, seafood has always made me gag and therefore I've never eaten the stuff.

By the way, if you join the McDougall site I wouldn't question any of the information put into the book on-line, or the studies done by plant based doctors like Campbell. If you disagree on minor points or dare to simply question what's been written the site manager, will allow three or four of the board's cyber bullies to work you over on any posts you make. If you stand up to these bullies he'll immediately step on you while at the same time allowing them to insult and demean you and your opinion. If you don't take the hint and leave the board voluntarily, you’ll ultimately be banned from the site. The purpose of a support group should be to provide a SAFE environment where people can open up and talk about what they really feel and any doubts they may have; help that allows them to stay on the diet and new life style. When the board administrator allows cyber bullies to take over and enforce their own version of what's right he damages the entire concept of compassionate support. It's natural to have doubts and questions when you first start something as new and radical as this way of eating. Don't allow these bullies and poor management of their actions by the administrator to turn you off to this way of eating. The message is sound even though those in charge of it aren't. Veganism at this level is closer to a religion than simply a dietary change and deviations won't be tolerated. Of course the average person should know that diets this strict whether McDougall, Pritikin or Atkins are not going to be followed to the letter. But then the world isn't about perfection and some deviation is expected, you simply can't admit to it on-line. I still believe this is a healthy way of eating once you add the vitamins and fats I mentioned. This still complies with the heart of the book which is a whole food plant based diet.

May 2014 Update

It's now be over two years that I've been eating a plant based vegan no oils diet. Do I eat the McDougall program? NO! I'm eating closer to 15/20 percent fat depending on the day. The additional fat comes from seeds, nuts and coconut products. My protein intake is higher than 10% max based on the amount of beans I eat. I'm guessing it's closer to 12/15%. I'm also taking supplements like vitamin D, K2, zinc and fish oils. All of which are against the McDougall program. At some point I as an individual came to realize that thousands of studies have been done since Dr. McDougall came out with his modified Pritikin requirements and called them his own 40 years ago. Those studies have pointed out the flaws in his 40 year old program and how to get around those shortcomings. It truly is sad that the doctor has so much emotionally invested in wanting to be right that there is no room to admit that science has progressed in those 40 years. What's even sadder is the fact that he and his people make every effort to suppress those finding on his site and they ban anyone who points out those shortcomings or even comes to that conclusion and posts it. We have 31/38 vegans in our meeting group and seven joined the McDougall site over two years ago, six have been banned or pushed out. Joe, the sixth member was banned in April for posting that based on a dozen studies it would seem that how much you ate had as much impact as what you ate. Sue, our seventh is still a member because she has only posted a couple of times at most. I made it until October of 2013 after pointing out that the Okinawan diet was neither vegan, nor low oil and certainly not low salt. All six of us are still vegan but no longer welcome on the McDougall site.

There have been some interesting developments since I last reviewed the program and website. Dr. Campbell has written an article now stating that saturated fat DOES NOT cause heart disease and there hasn't been even one study that shows it does. Is this the same Dr. Campbell of the China Study? Yep! What's more he has published at least six new studies based on re-analysis of the original China study data that directly conflicts with his original analysis of that data in the book. It seems that meat isn't all that bad and doesn't cause certain cancers but wheat is correlated more with cancer. It would seem Denise Menger has been right all along. Additionally, Dr. McDougall's MS study results have been leaked by one of the researchers a year after completion. It was a total bust. Not only were there no regression of MS lesions, they didn't even slow down. In fact they grew and new ones formed with the McDougall diet at the same rate as the control group. The conclusion? Diet has no effect on MS. Of course they are excusing the results by saying we don't have all the facts; the study was too small or we don't know how it was set up and followed, or it wasn't long enough to tell. The reality is that it was Dr. McDougall and his people who came up with the study, selected the members, its parameters including length and requirements and therefore they had it exactly his way and it still busted flat.

My final conclusion is that veganism isn't necessary and creates its own problems, BUT all can be handled with supplements. Those supplements wouldn't be necessary if you ate fish a few times a week as the Japanese and Okinawans do. Sadly, I can't stand seafood and I'm stuck with supplements. What are the real evils in the modern diet? Extracted oils are the number one killer, processed grain products come next, followed by too much meat.

Plant based but not necessarily plant exclusive is the way to real health.

May 13, 2015
Another year has passed and I’m still a vegan, but not because I still think meat, fish and fat are bad. I’m a vegan on a modified version of whole foods diet. I eat about 20% in fat from nuts and seeds instead of under 10, and 12/15% in protein versus the recommended under 10%. I’m a vegan because I dislike meat and just can’t stomach fish.

I’ve come to determine that energy overload is the primary cause of type 2 diabetes and obesity. That’s why both high fat (vegan and omnivore) and low fat ways of eating show “cures”. They all are associated with weight loss. There isn’t a single study that has shown a cure for type 2 without weight loss: eliminate the energy overload no matter what diet you use and diabetes disappears in the vast majority of people.

If you keep pumping tons of starch or sugar into the body it will protect itself by becoming insulin resistant and in time you’ll develop type 2. High levels of glucose are dangerous to the body and it will do everything (burn excess carbs as heat and pump in all they insulin it can produce) to reduce those levels. It first stores glucose in the liver and muscle cells and once those are full it starts burning as much of the excess as it can as heat in the muscle cells. But the cells can only do this for so many years. You can’t keep pumping massive amounts of high octane fuel into the cells year after year generating high levels of heat without damaging them. The body will protect itself by forced conversion of carbs to fat through insulin resistance (that’s why high carb vegans end up with very high trig levels. Trig are the storage form of fat). The body burns fat slowly and effectively. It is after all the storage medium of the body. If saturated fat is dangerous to heart health and causes type 2 the body wouldn’t be converting every calorie of excess glucose into saturated fat? Then there is the fact that our mothers’ feed us breast milk with more saturated fat than cow’s milk.

The excess of glucose produces high levels of heat which causes inflammation in the cells that contributes to heart disease and the reason why so many with type 2 have heart attacks.

Contrary to vegan beliefs carbs are not the preferred fuel of the body; the brain yes, but not the body. The reason the body uses carbs first isn’t because it prefers carbs, but because carbs as glucose sitting for long periods in the blood are toxic. The body does everything in its power to get blood glucose down.

All sub-caloric diets are high fat diets because you’re burning lots of your own fat (most of it saturated). So, you might be eating under 10% fat but you’re burning 40% of your calories daily as fat. The body can’t differentiate fat coming from the body versus fat from your diet.. And all diets are also low carb diets. It isn’t the percentage of carbs in the diet that counts, but the absolute value of carbs per gram of ideal body weight that makes a difference. If you need 2000 calories a day to fuel your body and If you eat 100% of your calories from carbs (I’m ignoring the normal fat and protein in all foods just to make the math easy) at 2000 calories a day you’d eat 500 grams of carbs. When you go on a very low fat vegan diet you’ll be eating say 1200 calories which equals 300 gram of carbs. That’s a sixty percent reduction in the absolute amount of carbs you’ll be eating. Where does the additional 800 calories that are required to fuel the body come from? Yep, from your body fat. That translates into 40% of the calories required to fuel your body will come from fat. That’s a high saturated fat diet. Do you really think the body cares if the fat comes from your food or from your body? Of course not, fat is fat.

What finally convinced me that it’s not the meat or saturated or oils that cause heart disease (maybe there is some correlation with cancer) was discovered by pure accident. It all started the day I read Dr. McDougall’s take on why the autopsy studies on soldiers killed in action showed 70 percent blockage in some arteries for those killed in Korea and 40 percent for those who died in Viet Nam? Dr. McDougall’s answer was it’s the meat and other animal products. I thought, yeah that makes sense….until I ran across the autopsy study for guys killed in action from the Afghan and Iraq conflict a few months ago. Their blockage was 8 percent. We’ve been eating more meat (red meat started to drop in the late 70’s but it’s still higher than in the 50’s), animal products like cheese and yogurt each decade since 1900. We’ve also radically increased our extracted oils consumption since the 70’s. So, why has each decade shown a reduction in artery blockage of our young men killed in action when meat, saturated fat and oils has gone up each of those periods (hey, but remember obesity and type 2 has gone way up, but we’re talking heart disease as the moment)? Obviously it wasn’t the meat and other animal products or the oils. We’ve got to be very careful before we start assigning disease to a single cause.

Is beef and chicken in reasonable quantities bad for you? Besides what I’ve already concluded I’ll answer it in this way: people are allergic to many foods, but have you ever heard of anybody allergic to beef or chicken? The answer is NO. Why is it that people can be sensitive to stuff like peanuts, grains, the nightshade family and almost any other plant food, but you never hear of them being sensitive to beef or chicken? The answer is simple. Man has been adapted to meat over the last three million years. Those who couldn’t tolerate meat were selected out over a million years ago. On the other hand since various plants have only left their country of origin in the last few hundred years many people haven’t adapted and therefore have problems.

The conclusion I’ve come to is that all vegan doctors got it right and also got it wrong. Each has figured out a piece of the puzzle, but none are about to admit they might have part of it wrong. These guys are intelligent men I’m sure most have figured it out, but after decades of making a living off of their version of the truth they just can’t bear to come out and say they’ve got parts of the story wrong. They’ve all got the eating of greens and veggies right, McDougall got the starch part right, Fuhrman gave us the beans, Cousen the nuts and Ornish/Pritikin the fish. If you combine their stories you end up with a lower carb, higher protein diet (1.2 grams per kilogram of body weight). Add fish to the mix, up your fruit and vegetables dump most of your flour products and you’ve got it right. The cravings disappear on lower carbs/higher protein and the amount of calories you’ll eat will naturally be just what your ideal body weight wants to see. You’ll get enough protein to maintain your muscle and bones while slowly losing the excess weight and you won’t be hungry because the higher fat, protein and starch will satiate. After all, the healthiest and longest lived people in America are the subgroup of Seventh Day Adventists who consider themselves vegan, but eat fish. Based on a 2000 calorie diet they eat 34% of their calories from fat that comes from fish, nuts and oils, and 15% to 17% of their calories from protein and the balance as carbs. Even the real vegans eat 29% of their calories from fat in the form of nuts, seeds and oils. It’s interesting to note that based on the Adventist 2 study that those considering themselves real vegans still eat animal products once or twice a month ( want to guess what that animal product is? Ice cream). These folks are NOT low fat vegans, and neither is any other population including the longest lived Okinawans when viewed from a fat gram per kilogram basis.

My biggest concern about Dr. McDougall is his increasing fear of the medical profession he’s been a part of for fifty years. Last year he became faint and collapsed moving from his bed to the bathroom. He fractured his hip, two lower vertebrae, and had a spiral fracture of his upper tight bone. Yet, he refused to go to the hospital. His claim was a fear of having his heart stented without his permission. Since you can refuse any medical procedure I highly doubt that was his fear. It’s more likely he feared the x-rays that would be required prior to being treated for his fractures would be leaked to the public as were Dr. Atkin’s records. Various vegan Doctors used Dr. Atkins hospital records after his death to attack his way of eating. Dr. McDougall having that much bone damage from a simple collapse in his bedroom speaks to severe osteoporosis. If that information were to have leaked it would have spelled disaster for his program and his income. You can read this story in his own words by going to the McDougall site and checking into to the monthly newsletters.

If you’ve read ALL my thoughts on The Starch Solution you’ve lived with me through three years of a N=1 experiment. You’ve listened to my original thoughts and how they’ve changed over that period based on my body’s reaction to the food on the program. I hope this will be of benefit and allow you to avoid some of the mistakes I’ve made. As someone once said, “a smart person learns from his mistakes, but a wise person learns from the mistakes of others.” Where exactly am I and where did I come from? My high weight was 263 at 5-9 and when I started the program it was 241. My current weight is a muscular 165 thanks to my new way of eating and lots of weight work. My total cholesterol is 157 with LDL at 79 and HDL of 63. My blood pressure came down from 162/95 to 110/72, my Trigs from 298 to 76 and my fasting sugars from roughly 110 to 79, after meals they never move above 128.

May good health bless you all.

9/16/2016

Last week I had a major heart attack and was lucky to survive. The chemo from my cancer treatment over a decade ago damaged my heart and this attack did more damage. I had a stent placed and am doing well. So much for being heart attack proof by having very low cholesterol, perfect weight, great blood sugar, wonderful blood pressure, exercised and ate right and still almost died. No one is heart attack proof.

Name: Samyama
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: .0 out of 5 stars Love love love this book!
Date: Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2015
Review: Love love love this book! I also purchased Dr. McDougall's earlier book "The McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss" & recommend both. This book has been life-changing & I've only been implementing this vegan way of eating (WOE) for 4 days. I was a vegetarian for a decade about 15 years ago & loved running marathons at that time. Since then I've experimented with everything from low carb to very low carb--from paleo to keto to intermittent fasting & honestly my body lost its resiliency for running. I missed running (the runner's high is no myth)--it is so calming & energizing simultaneously. But I really believed that carbs were the bad guys & chalked my running challenges up to needing more "strength" etc. Well guess what? Since implementing McDougall's WOE, running is back in the picture & my enjoyment, ease, passion & split times are better & better. Running is like a dear friend that I'm able to welcome back into my life. Plus my "weight/eating issues/stresses/concerns" have vanished, I'm not hungry, I feel great, I'm less bloated, more free & soooo happy not to eat animals (or animal products). I cried this morning because this is a magic wand for me--a best case scenario all around. I love whole plant-based foods--veggies of all kinds, quinoa, lentils, buckwheat, oat groats, millet, amaranth, pintos, the list goes on & on. Rice cookers make preparing meals a delicious no-brainer (I highly recommend getting at least one or two--mine are from amazon & used daily). Based on how I feel, my athletic performance, mood, appetite satiation, outlook, energy, happiness quotient, inspiration, inner calm, etc. etc., I suspect that this is a long-term "Yes please!" For those of you who aren't sure you find this WOE doable/palateable--take heart! McDougall addresses this. From the Maximum Weight Loss book, I quote, "You must take into consideration 3 important factors that will support you once you begin: 1.) how good you will feel; 2.) how the nutritional balance of the diet supports your sticking with it; & 3.) how easily you will lose weight." Give it at least 10 days. Check out the success stories on his website--you may see many aspects of yourself, as I did. As a reviewer of Maximum Weight Loss said, "You never have to be fat or hungry again." What a relief that the WOE that feels best in my heart & to my spirit also feels best to my mind & body. Win-win-win-win! I also recommend the documentary "Forks over Knives" (great starting place) & also ordered Esselstyn's "Prevent & Reverse Heart Disease" & Campbell's "The Campbell Plan the Simple Way to Lose Weight & Reverse Illness." Both are due to arrive today. Thank you McDougall & wishing all of you the best on your chosen path!

2-week Update: It's been over two weeks & I have nothing but good things to report. I'm sleeping better, sated, energized, I feel cleaner, kinder & happier. Plus I'm more adventurous & confident. I'm sold! Food is my friend & I love eating in the way that teachers of non-violence have practiced throughout the ages. I feel congruent, fueled & thankful. I still recommend getting a rice cooker. I use mine for pulses/grains (my current favorite is an equal mix of green lentils, red lentils, oat groats & quinoa) with a tray of steamed veggies on top (e.g. kale, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts). Delish! Also canned organic pumpkin is a great convenience to have on hand (especially if, like me, you tend to be sensitive to night-shades (such as tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, peppers)). Find what works for you & go with it--your body will thank you profusely!

3-week Update: Even though I thought I was sensitive to nightshades (which includes potatoes), I'm not so sure. I decided to try an experiment (b/c I love experiments). I'm currently eating only potatoes & vegetables. The experiment is going so well (in terms of optimal performance, energy, mood, satiety, etc.) that I've decided to continue it. I'm simultaneously experimenting with a new strength training program which is going awesome. I look forward to every workout (I tend to love exercise--now more than ever.) One day, when I'm patient enough, I'd like to start sprouting legumes & grains again (as one of my next experiments). I'm having so much fun with this WOE! Thanks again & again Dr. McDougall.

4-week Update: Although this review is getting long, I'll update about the potato experiment. The good news is, my system seems to love potatoes (nightshades or no). I've had excellent energy, sleep, mood, satiation, but my digestion seems to prefer more variety. My favorite way to eat potatoes is to slice & bake them for 90 min. at 350 degrees (the skin is chewy-crispy & so delicious with nothing added) or in cabbage-potato(-yam if available) soup.

What I'm noticing--steady abundant energy, good sleep (especially ability to fall back asleep if awakened), resilient mood, new ideas/inspirations easily implemented, optimism, enjoyment of food, satiation, less anxiety, more patience (with myself & others) & confidence. It surprises me that I didn't realize the beauty of this vegan WFPB WOE sooner. I echo what others have said that this is very simple to do, as long as you prepare ahead. Keep things you know you like on hand & have cooking tools that work for you.

Another aspect of this WOE I'm curious about is how it will positively impact my body composition. I'm in my mid-40's, about 17-18% body fat & about 20-21 BMI. I'm generally very healthy. I'd love to be a bit leaner for running & sports. (That said, feeling good & being balanced are bigger priorities). I've been experimenting with a new kind of strength training (Callanetics & SuperCallanetics) for the last few weeks as I recover from a sprained ankle. Between Callanetics & McDougaling I feel like the sky's the limit. A very very good feeling. I mention the body composition thing b/c I'm being especially careful/disciplined with how I eat (SOS-free (salt-oil-sugar-free if you're new to this term), no fruit, no processed foods, etc.). The awesome thing about this WOE is how it's infinitely tailor-able & adaptable while at the same time having a clear grounded basis.

The thought of eating animal products & fats now turns my stomach. For years I misunderstood the "necessity" of a high protein/very low carb/paleo/keto WOE. It's a relief to return to my roots. All is well. No doubt the Universe is unfolding as it should. I now know better how to take care of my body-mind as well as how to live in harmony & congruence with life & the planet. I'm learning more every day. McDougall's work (as well as that of Esselstyn, Campbell & other visionaries in this field) is a gift & a treasure. I'm considering (eventually) experimenting with a vegan diet for my dogs. They love pumpkin, yams, broccoli, carrots... I understand that dogs can thrive on this WOE.

Thanks again Dr. McDougall & all other pioneers willing to blaze new paths with ancient wisdom :-). Best to all!

8-month update: I LOVE this WOE more & more everyday & would be remiss if I didn't share the discovery of the Instant Pot (available here on amazon) about 6 months ago. How does this WOE get *even* better? Check out the Instant Pot & find out. We now have 3 in our household, & they're well-used & well appreciated on a daily basis. It's essentially the only cooking apparatus I use. It cooks quickly, doesn't need to be monitored (has a timer & automatic shut off), & something about the pressure cooking infuses food with ideal flavor & texture. I continue to be delighted as ever more ways to make this WOE even more simple, easy, delicious, nourishing & beneficial are revealed. It's the opposite of feeling deprived--it's incredibly fun & liberating & allows more joy is all areas of life. If you're compelled by "sattvic" eating (light & nutritious--& satisfying to boot), you'll likely feel sincere gratitude for the Instant Pot too. Kitchari's my latest favorite (super simple--my version is short grain brown rice with mung beans & veggies sometimes oat groats, buckwheat, quinoa, blackeyed peas, lentils). The Instant Pot cooks everything to perfection--better than any restaurant I've been to :-). I feel so blessed in every way every day. Awareness, patience & love are fed by this WOE. Oh, one more note: Dr. Greger rocks! Check out his website & new book. His perspective is incredibly valuable, entertaining & sweet. My menu contains a hybrid of McDougall & Greger wisdom augmented with a few other favorites for well-being (like kala msm, magnesium, optizinc, ginger, fennel, peppermint...& off topic--I also love applying essential oils topically & recently discovered a natural vegan progesterone cream which seems to be a boon for me & many other women... I digress. However the point is that this WOE allows you to listen to your body with ever more subtle awareness.) Simplifying my WOE has allowed me to recognize the variables in my daily routine that really make a slam-dunk positive difference. Best to you on your chosen path! Be who you are, do your best & know it's unfolding perfectly.

Body composition update: Weight, body fat% & BMI are all going down of their own accord--which is a bonus. Most importantly, I feel healthier & happier than ever. My relationship with food is much more pleasant. I enjoy athletic endeavors, yoga/bodywork/somatics/embodied movement & meditation more than ever. This WOE pairs beautifully with non-duality/Self-awareness/Advaita/Samyama/stillness-in-action/cleansing the inner windows of perception. Looking forward to seeing what continues to unfold... Enjoy!

21-month update (just shy of 2 years)--I remain thrilled & delighted with this WFPB vegan WOE. The instant pot is indispensable. I use it daily, sometimes multiple times. 2 happy discoveries to offer: 1.) Pintos, garbanzo beans, oat groats, millet, short-grain brown rice (i.e., any legumes/pulse with longer cook times) are delicious when cooked *2 hours* in the instant pot (with current favorites: cumin seeds & pepper) with a 4:1 water:grain/legume ratio. This is a personal preference yields an awesome, smooth, very tender, end product. 2.) Harmony House Foods offers delicious Earth-friendly dehydrated vegetables. I'm crazy for their cabbage (I often don't cook the cabbage rather simply rehydrate it like cole slaw with some added apple cider vinegar & spices as desired). Their broccoli, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, etc. etc. cook up beautifully in the instant pot. Check out their website. Best wishes to all! p.s. Every day in every way I feel better & better. :-) Sincere gratitude & best wishes!

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