The Pritikin Promise: 28 Days to a Longer, Healthier Life

by Nathan Pritikin

This is my promise to You can banish fatigue, feel more alive and energetic, normalize your weight without hunger, lower your risk of contracting one of the degenerative diseases that are epidemic in our country, and look terrific as well. I know you can do all these things, just as many have.

Genres: Nutrition

432 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1983

About the author

Nathan Pritikin was an American nutritionist and inventer. He attended the University of Chicago from 1933 to 1935, dropping out because of the Depression. He became an inventor and a millionaire developing patents for companies such as Honeywell and Bendix while living in Chicago and Santa Barbara, California.

After being diagnosed with heart disease in 1957 Pritikin began researching into the illness. He found that cultures with primarily vegetarian diets had almost no history with the disease. He used his inventive mind to create a plant-based diet that was high in unrefined carbohydrates and low in fat. With this diet and a moderate amount of exercise, he astonishingly cured his own heart disease. Afterward, he went on to share his expertise and success through his lectures, writing and clinics, helping others to cure their own diseases using the same method.

He established the Pritikin Longevity Center in 1976 and served as its director. Now called the Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa, it offers controlled diet, counselling in lifestyle change, and exercise in a resort/spa-type setting. Pritikin also served as chairman of the Pritikin Research Foundation.

He went on to inspire the likes of Dr. John McDougall, Dr. Michael Greger and many others.

Reviews

[Angie Carter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Why I keep reading all these Pritikin books I'll never understand. Just trying to understand the appeal I guess.

[Steven H]

AN EXPANSION OF HIS ORIGINAL 1979 DIETARY PLAN

Nathan Pritikin (1915-1985; he committed suicide after a long fight with leukemia, which had been in remission for 27 years) was an American nutritionist (though without professional training) who established the Pritikin Longevity Center (now the Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa) in 1976 and served as its director. His original 1979 book was 'The Pritikin Program for Diet & Exercise.'

He begins this 1983 book by stating, "This book offers a diet and exercise program for all of you... The how-to-do-it 28-day food plan is more than good-tasting, and is designed for gourmet cooks and for busy people who have very little time for food preparation." (Pg. x)

He explains, "You have by now read several times that the Pritikin diet will virtually eliminate certain foods from your diet---namely, salt, sugar, fats, and most meats. You may be wondering whether this will somehow upset your body's chemical balance and leave you with some sort of deficiency... the Pritikin diet ensures that you will have adequate---in fact, abundant---supplies of all the nutrients essential for good health." (Pg. 27)

He adds, "The Pritikin diet is ideal for runners, hikers, bikers, mountain climbers, spelunkers, and other outdoor-sports fans... Your body will require some of the vitamins and minerals in slightly larger amounts, but the Pritikin diet would supply them even if you weren't eating more food for the extra calories you need... you do need to increase the amount of carbohydrates you eat." (Pg. 53)

He summarizes, "The nutritional content of the Pritikin diet, particularly with respect to its low fat content and restricted intake of meat, is quite similar to the diets people had before the Agricultural Revolution of the 1800s." (Pg. 437)

[Arletta Sloan · Rating 5 out of 5]

To be more accurate: did read part of, finished reading, started reading again, am reading, will continue reading. This book has some good information and some really tasty sounding recipes. It's not, for me, a read once sort of book. I first read any of it when I was 12 or 13, I think, when it first came out. At that time, I couldn't really wrap my head around it and my parents, despite being the ones who brought it into the house, were not down with the recipes or understanding how to do things well without them.

This program is both for those who want a general idea of how to eat healthier and then to go off and use their own common sense, and, for those who need real serious guidelines and a solid menu plan. It can be for vegans, vegetarians or mostly meat eaters who are open to some vegan and/or vegetarian meals. And, as it turns out, even though it seemed way too complicated way back when, it is possible for it to be super simple and easy, if you want it to be.

Nathan Pritikin was a scientist who devised the method by which he created better health for himself He did not make his original plan in the hopes of selling it to others. He was not the sort of person who claimed to know what is best for you, while continuing to have the sort of health and figure that showed it either was something he did not use for himself or was trying to sell you something ineffective.

I knew that before I bought it fairly recently. Persons the work is related to in type are T. Colin Campbell, Dr. McDougall, perhaps Scarsdale, Dr. Ornish. Probably others, but, those are the ones I remember off the top of my head.