Our Mission
Tragically, millions of Americans, including many doctors, still believe that the only way to treat heart disease and other illnesses is with surgeries and drugs. There is very little emphasis on prevention or diet.
That’s why, for the past 30 years, we’ve devoted funds solely for our nonprofit Nathan Pritikin Research Foundation (NPRF). The purpose of NPRF is to publish research that persistently and persuasively proves to doctors, health institutions, and the media that the best way to halt most of modern society’s diseases is the simplest way – with good nutrition and exercise. We believe that the right message, if delivered well, and if bolstered by research, will save millions of lives.
Lead by scientists at UCLA, NPRF has published more than 100 studies in peer reviewed journals like the New England Journal of Medicine documenting the extraordinary benefits of the Pritikin Program. It is research demonstrates that dietary changes and regular exercise can prevent, treat, and reverse – rapidly and economically – America’s epidemic diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and many cancers. It is research that saves lives.
We ask that you join us in supporting NPRF. Here are four excellent reasons why:
1. Inflammation is the problem. The Pritikin Program is the solution.
More and more research is finding that inflammation plays a major role in the development of a multitude of chronic diseases, including heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes. A key marker of inflammation in the body is C-reactive protein. The lower your blood levels of C-reactive protein, the lower your risk of many diseases.
New research from NPRF has found that the Pritikin Program reduces C-reactive protein levels more than any other diet-and-exercise program or drug therapy, including statins. UCLA researchers measured “entry” and “exit” levels of women attending the Pritikin Longevity Center and found that in just two weeks C-reactive protein plunged 45%.
This is exciting groundbreaking research. With your help, scientists at UCLA can continue their investigations of the Pritikin Program and C-reactive protein.
2. NPRF must educate America about the dangers of diets high in saturated fat, like the Atkins diet.
We are living in a time when many seem to have forgotten the deleterious effects of foods rich in saturated fat and cholesterol. Diets on bestseller lists recommend artery-clogging meat and cheese and demonize carbohydrates. Rarely does the media discuss the benefits of a diet full of the right kind of carbohydrates. As leaders in nutrition education, it is our responsibility to stem the tide, to make America aware of how life saving these natural carbohydrates are, just as film critic and Pritikin alumnus Roger Ebert did in his letter to the editor in Newsweek Magazine, February 2, 2004:
“You rightly criticize Atkins for his 'bad idea' of eating unlimited beef, sausage, butter and cheese . . . It drives me nuts to see friends endangering their health with the Atkins monomania, when Pritikin offers a safe and sane alternative: whole foods, not refined; fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish rich in omega-3, limited low-fat meats, limited sugar and salt, no saturated and trans fats – and exercise. . . . In the last year I lost 67 pounds on Pritikin. Nathan Pritikin and those who carry on his work are the true heroes of modern nutritional theory.”
3. NPRF is innovative.
For 30 years, NPRF has amassed definitive proof of the value of the Pritikin Program in preventing and controlling heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes. Now, the Foundation is spearheading vital new research on many other health concerns, such as:
Children’s Health
Responding to the alarming rise in obesity and type 2 diabetes in America’s youth, NPRF is documenting the power of the Pritikin Program to dramatically reduce cardiovascular risk factors in children.
Breast and Prostate Cancer
Recently, NPRF completed landmark research showing that the Pritikin Program halts the growth of prostate cancer cells and induces apoptosis, or programmed cell death.
4. NPRF saves lives.
NPRF does its work for one reason, and one reason alone. NPRF’s research saves lives. Never before has this work been so necessary. Unless NPRF and other scientists teach America about the benefits of lifestyles like the Pritikin Program, we are at frighteningly real risk of reversing the advancements made over the last three decades in curbing heart disease, our nation’s #1 killer. The continued work of NPRF is important for everyone – the public, the scientific community, our children and grandchildren – and all generations to come. It is work that enriches and extends all our lives. It is work that happens because of you.
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