When Marketing Leads to Unnecessary Deaths

All in the Name of Money

Today I would like to share some results of a recent experiment. This is going to be long but very important, so please bear with me. First, I need to fill you in on a little background information. I am a male, 33 years old, 5' 11" tall, and 146 pounds. On average, I work out six days per week split between lifting free weights and running on a treadmill. I have been following Body-for-LIFE for over the last six years. I typically eat six times per day with a combination of lean protein (chicken, cottage cheese, protein powder) and carbohydrates (apples, peas, corn). I never smoke, drink, or do drugs. I have never had any serious illnesses, diseases or surgeries. I am not perfect but I would definitely say much better than average with regards to taking care of my health.

With all that said, my cholesterol has been elevated for the last several years. I went in for my most recent physical and my doctor told me I should start taking statins. He even told me about a 17 year old female track athlete he put on statins (as if that makes it okay for me). Told me it is probably genetic and that clearly eating healthy and exercising regularly were not working. Although he never did ask what I eat or what and how much exercise I do. He just whipped out his pen and wrote me a nice little prescription for drugs and sent me on my way. Who taught him this strategy? Pharmaceutical companies. Who gets a kickback on this strategy? The clinic.

I went back and told him I would like a VAP test done to get a more accurate picture of my cholesterol. He said they don't typically do that but would go ahead for me. Got those results back and he said statins are still my best bet. So, I began doing some research on statins. Needless to say I don't want to take them and especially not for the rest of my life. It made me sick to think it had gotten to this point with all of the hard work I have put in to be healthy. I don't want to take drugs to fix one thing and destroy something else (like my liver).

In my research, I ran across Dr. McDougall and began frantically consuming his website, his books, and the published studies (all respected medical journals) he references to back up his program. What I found was something that not only made complete sense and gave me hope but shocked me to the core. I kept reading every free moment I could find and still am one month later.

Basically, the McDougall program is plant/starch-based. The center-piece of your meals are starches (complex carbohydrates) such as potatoes, rice, corn, or beans combined with some fruits and green and yellow vegetables. You are to avoid all animal products (including meat and dairy) and all oils. Turns out the 60% of the earth's population that eats this way literally does not know heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and most other chronic diseases so common in Western culture. We are literally digging our own graves with our teeth.

Ironically, many will find this eating style radical but will feel it is completely normal to take diet pills, starve yourself, take pharmaceutical drugs, have your chest cracked open, or submit to chemotherapy and radiation. I had no trouble adopting the eating style and the change in how I feel is beyond words. I won't make long lists of all the ailments and things that went away within weeks and often days, but if you suffer from headaches, acid reflux, constipation, back pain, fatigue, anxiety, acne, depression, overeating, uncontrollable sweet tooth and a million other common issues many of us face…you can say goodbye to all of them within days.

This program has completely changed my life. I was beginning to feel old and now I feel better than I did as a teenager. These changes alone were enough to make this a permanent life change for me, but the ultimate measuring stick was still going to be how it affected my cholesterol. I had my total cholesterol tested again and it went from 217 to 138 in 14 days. That is a drop of 79 points with zero drugs or supplements! Anything under 150 literally lowers your risk of heart disease to zero. Remember that cholesterol is not a disease but an indicator of atherosclerosis and heart disease.

So, how come my doctor never mentioned this option to me. What about informed consent? Why are doctors not helping people with heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and other chronic diseases? Why is this not covered in the media? Marketing is why. The meat, dairy, pharmaceutical, and supplement industries are ridiculously powerful (and persuasive) and they need you to kill yourself eating meat, drinking milk, and taking drugs in order to profit. Hospitals and clinics are just another form of big business looking to maximize profits. You can't get rich telling people to stop eating meat, dairy, and oils. You can however get rich by pushing drugs, surgery, and radiation (especially if they never cure the root cause).

If everyone in the United States suddenly followed the McDougall program, we would witness the greatest financial crisis of all-time impacting the following industries: medical, farming, restaurant, food, vitamin/supplement, weight-loss, fitness, etc… It is unlikely this is going to happen anytime soon. If you want to be sick and riddled with disease, go ahead and follow what everyone else is doing. You will get the same results. Take a close look at everyone around you and see how many look healthy versus sick. When is the last time you saw someone go to the doctor for heart disease, cancer, or diabetes and come back cured? The answer is never. How about improved? The answer is still never.

Hospitals and clinics make money by having you be sick and stay sick. If you got healthy and never came back, that would not be good for their business model. That is the truth. I know, we were told that doctors are there to help us and most wish they could but often their hands are tied. The reality is that you cannot serve two Gods at one time. Either helping people or making money has to win and today there is no doubt that making money almost always wins.

If you only do one thing I ask of you, please go watch the following video:

Why current therapies for chronic disease don't work & why lifestyle medicine can't fail - Dr. McDougall presentation at an American College of Legal Medicine conference.

Note that Dr. McDougall is a board certified physician practicing in California, not some quack. While he does sell a bunch of different things in order to monetize his business (as we all should be doing), you are not required to buy anything to follow the free McDougall program.

If you still think I am nuts, I am fine with that. If this helps one other person, it will all have been worth it. How sick do you really figure I will get by eating this way? Sicker than consuming unlimited quantities of meat, dairy, and oil? All I ask is that you really put on your critical thinking cap and think long and hard about what Dr. McDougall has to say. The program is only 12 days and if you follow it faithfully, you will see and feel the results long before the 12 days are up. I guarantee it!

Also see, Addicted to Band-Aids? and Is Unbiased a Myth?.

Image Credit: unforth