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The Pritikin® Program was originally founded by Nathan Pritikin, an engineer who became interested in nutrition after he was diagnosed with heart disease at a very young age. The medical advice given to Nathan Pritikin (and all other heart disease sufferers) in the 1950’s was: “Take it easy, don’t over-exert yourself, and keep eating the 40% fat American diet of eggs, beef, and the like, until you die.”
Unwilling to accept the fatalistic advice, Nathan Pritikin studied cultures from around the world that had a very low incidence of heart disease, adapted their diets to American tastes, and thus the Pritikin Program was born. Scorned by the medical profession, the Pritikin Program was propelled to the forefront of American culture when Dr. David Lehr, a well-known Miami cardiologist, brought CBS 60 Minutes television to investigate the Pritikin Program and risked his career by telling the medical profession that they were not practicing medicine in the interest of their patients – that doctors needed to focus on nutrition and exercise, not drugs and surgery. It was Nathan Pritikin's and Dr. David Lehr’s appearances on 60 Minutes in 1977 and 1978 that made “Pritikin” a household word and brought into acceptance the then controversial notions that regular exercise and a diet high in fiber-rich foods like fruits and vegetables and low in fat can dramatically improve health and prevent heart attacks — the #1 killer of Americans. These concepts are now widely accepted by the medical profession and the American Heart Association.
The Pritikin® Eating Plan is naturally low in fat, emphasizing fruits, whole grains, vegetables, seafood, and some nonfat dairy foods and lean meat. Today, guests receive the full benefits of the Pritikin Program at the Pritikin Longevity Center® & Spa, a full service waterfront health resort located in sunny Aventura, Florida (15 minutes from Ft. Lauderdale and 25 minutes from Miami Beach) where people attend sessions of one week or longer. More than 100,000 people have visited the Pritikin Center to lose weight, prevent health problems, and improve their health. The success of the Pritikin Program has been documented in more than 100 scientific studies. The benefits for those who stay with the Pritikin Program are great. They achieve healthy, long-term weight loss; control Type 2 diabetes; lower blood pressure; reduce the risk of breast, prostate and colon cancers; protect against heart attacks; reduce or eliminate the need for many medications; and reduce virtually all heart disease risk factors, including cholesterol, triglycerides, inflammatory markers like C-reactive protein, and insulin levels — all through the Pritikin Program of diet and exercise.
When Nathan Pritikin died in 1985, the autopsy report results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that he had actually reversed the heart disease and plaque build-up in his arteries that had plagued him years earlier.
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