Dr. Andrew Weil

Dr. Andrew Weil

(Diet book bestseller: "8 Weeks To Optimum Health")

Type of Counseling: none, do-it-yourself

Typical Cost: $34.95 for online program, or cost of his book

Type Program: diet bestseller book, supporting diet website

Type of Foods Used: regular grocery store foods

At-Home or Direct Mail Plan Available? Yes

Summary – Who Is Andrew Weil?

Dr. Andrew Weil, director and founder of the Program of Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, is a Harvard medical School graduate who also holds an AB degree in Biology (Botany) from Harvard University. He is an Internationally recognized expert on medicinal herbs, mind-body interactions, and the director and founder of the Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona.

Dr. Weil has authored numerous scientific articles and eight books, including three consecutive New York Times #1 bestsellers Eight Weeks to Optimum Health, Spontaneous Healing and his newest offering, Eating Well for Optimum Health: The Essential Guide to Food, Diet, and Nutrition. In 1997, Time magazine named Dr. Weil as one of America's most influential people.

Dr. Weil is a well-known health and wellness "guru" who, like Deepak Chopra, has a strong focus on the mind-body connection, with a tinge of spirituality thrown in. In our opinion, he is a little outside of the mainstream, since he does believe in the use of herbs and other "non-traditional" healing methods.

Polaris Health, LLC is controlled by Dr. Andrew Weil. Funding for Polaris Health LLC is independent, allowing the company and this web site to provide only the products and services in which Dr. Weil believes.

How The Program Works: The Books and His Website

Dr. Weil’s philosophy…

According to Dr. Weil, diets generally do not work. The book: My Optimum Health Plan is about making every day easy-to-follow lifestyle changes. It is about your body’s natural ability to heal itself and align itself to natural forces. If your body needs to lose weight, it will happen when you follow this program, it is claimed. Dr. Weil donates all of his after-tax profits from the "My Optimum Health Plan" as well as other products and services sold on Dr. Weil's website to the non-profit Polaris Foundation (www.polarisfoundation.org), "to sustain the vision of integrative medicine for all through education and research."

Dr. Weil is a proponent of Integrative Medicine, which combines the best ideas and practices of alternative and conventional medicine in order to maximize the body's natural healing mechanisms. Integrative Medicine has a much larger perspective and mission. It:

Seeks to restore the focus of medicine on health and healing rather than disease and treatment.

Views patients as whole persons—minds and spirits as well as physical bodies—and considers these in the diagnosis and treatment of illness.

Emphasizes a true partnership between patient and practitioner that addresses healing on all levels—especially lifestyle factors such as diet, exercise, stress, quality of sleep, relationships, and work, as well as the appropriate use of dietary supplements, herbs, and other treatments.

Considers simple, inexpensive, low-tech treatment methods, especially when conventional approaches are relatively ineffective or potentially harmful.

Dr. Weil’s website…

In December of 2002, Dr. Weil launched an online subscription program to help people lose weight. It was called: "My Optimum Health Plan." This plan is being offered at $34.95 for the initial 8 weeks, with an ongoing fee of $6.95 per month.

His website gives you several tools:

My journal… an online diary of your progress

My nutrition… comprehensive meal plan, customized to your needs. This is a meal planner, shopping list generator, and database of healthy recipes based on Dr. Weil’s principles and beliefs. The meal planner gives you suggested meals for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, based on your preferences.

My discussion… ability to communicate with other users of the plan. You have access to discussion boards, expert interviews, and clips from the 8 Weeks To Optimum Health video guide, hosted by Dr. Weil.

My mood… monitors your daily well-being.

At this website, you will receive weekly and detailed advice on diet and exercise, and mental and spiritual health. In addition, you can get content that includes heart healthy tips, advice for women, and meals for those with special needs and health conditions.

Dr. Weil’s website does not seem to have a "store" associated with it where one can buy his books, CDs, vitamins and supplements. Rather, you can follow a link from the Polaris Foundation to www.drugstore.com, where he recommends specific products.

After completing the 8-week plan, you have the choice of continuing on, with the Going Forward option. Here, you have access to all the tools provided during the first eight weeks of the plan.

Comment

If you prefer a total wellness approach, and are open to non-traditional methods of healing and achieving wellness, Dr. Weil’s books, tapes, DVDs and website may be for you. He will be closer to Deepak Chopra in philosophy than Dean Ornish, in our opinion. The website plan is an extension of his books, and is comparable in price to other diet websites offering a program ranging from 8 to 12 weeks, usually for a price less than $50. His books and website do cover such psychological issues as social skills, but are weak in areas like stimulus control and emotional overeating. However, the program does provide a very good meal planner and the ability to get feedback from other users. The emphasis is on nutrition and wellness and the mental aspects of your total body health. Also, you can’t contact a dietitian or psychologist on staff, as you can with eDiets.com. As a do-it-yourself diet website, it’s pretty good, but seems to be weak in addressing exercise. This is perhaps the site’s biggest weakness, in BestDietForMe.com’s opinion.

Try our Diet Wizard to find out which diet programs are best suited to your specific needs, and which ones will help you keep the weight off.

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The information on this web site is intended for information purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for medical advice. Before starting any weight loss program, it is recommended that you consult your physician or other health care professional.