The Pritikin Program for diet and exercise was created by Nathan Pritikin (1915–1985), a diet guru who gained popularity in the 1970s. Pritikin often referred to his program as “mankind’s original meal plan” and emphasized the importance of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and seafood.

During World War II, Pritikin—an inventor at the time—saw documents showing that European deaths from heart disease and diabetes had dropped dramatically during the war. Intrigued, he began following the work of a cardiologist who was studying the benefits of a low-cholesterol, low-fat diet (which mimicked the wartime food rations on which many Europeans survived) on seriously ill heart attack patients. Things got personal when Pritikin himself visited this cardiologist. Pritikin’s cholesterol level was more than 300 milligrams per deciliter, and a stress electrocardiogram showed that his arteries were closing up quickly. He was diagnosed with coronary heart disease at age 41.

At the time, the standard prescription for heart disease patients was to stop exercising or doing anything strenuous. But Pritikin was determined to get healthy. He became a vegetarian and also started running 3 to 4 miles a day. Within 4 years, his cholesterol was down to 120 and signs of his heart disease had disappeared. Over the next 25 years, Pritikin participated in more than 100 published studies detailing the benefits of his diet and exercise program. He wrote several books, and in 1975 opened the Pritikin Longevity Center—a health resort that focuses on nutrition, exercise, and lifestyle-change education.

The Pritikin eating plan recommends at least five servings of unrefined, complex carbohydrates a day, at least five vegetable and four fruit servings, two calcium-rich foods, and no more than one serving of animal protein—preferably fish, shellfish, or lean poultry. When the plan is followed strictly, fat accounts for just 10 percent of the diet. The program also includes a daily exercise regimen that combines cardiovascular conditioning (such as brisk walking), strength training, and stretching.

ADDITIONAL FACTS

  1. To date, nine books have been published on the Pritikin Program, including three by Nathan’s son Robert Pritikin. In The Pritikin Principle, Robert tweaks his father’s message and focuses on calorie density—the number of calories per pound in a specific food.
  2. In 1977, the television program 60 Minutes followed three men with severe heart disease as they attended 1-month programs at the Pritikin Longevity Center. All three men improved dramatically, regained much of their energy, experienced less chest pain, and were able to stop taking most of their medications.
  3. When Nathan Pritikin died in 1985 from complications related to leukemia, the results of his autopsy were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. They showed that his arteries were free of any sign of heart disease—a remarkable phenomenon for a man 69 years old, the pathologist wrote.