‘Fellow Crusader’ George McGovern at Rites : Pritikin Eulogized as a Bold Pioneer

It was a time for rejoicing rather than mourning, former Sen. George McGovern (D-S.D.) told the more than 700 people attending a memorial service for nutritionist Nathan Pritikin in Santa Monica on Thursday.

Pritikin, a former inventor who developed a controversial regimen of a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet and strenuous exercise to combat heart disease, committed suicide in an Albany, N.Y. hospital last week by slashing his forearms with a razor blade.

In Chronic pain, Pritikin had entered the hospital under an alias for treatment of terminal leukemia. McGovern reminded the audience that Pritikin’s life was supposedly at an end 30 years ago.

“He was a victim of heart disease, immobilized, in pain, at the point of death,” McGovern said. “But he literally healed himself by bold, pioneering experiments with diet and exercise. It was that combination that extended his life for another three decades.

The same Nathan Pritikin who took charge of his life 30 years ago when he believed that life was possible, also took charge of his death when he believed life was impossible. I do not mourn his decision to control his passing. I do rejoice in his decision to give us these three bonus decades.”

Pritikin was a man who “boldly asserted” his convictions “in the face of official skepticism, public ridicule and professional rejection,” McGovern said, “but in recent years scientific studies by top research teams have corroborated his earlier conclusions.”

McGovern first met Pritikin in the early 1970s and later invited him to testify before the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs.

“We became friends, mutual admirers and fellow crusaders,” McGovern said.

The former South Dakota senator and 1972 Democratic presidential nominee completed the diet and exercise training program at the Pritikin Longevity Center in Santa Monica last year.

While the excruciating pain resulting from his leukemia apparently led to Pritikin’s decision to commit suicide, an autopsy showed no signs of his earlier coronary artery disease.

The autopsy revealed that all of his major arteries were clear of fatty deposits, said Dr. Steven Inkeles, chief of the Santa Monica center’s medical staff.

“His arteries were as clean as a whistle,” he said. “Nor was there any calcification. That’s very striking in any man 69 years of age.”

Dr. Jeffrey Hubbard, the Albany pathologist who performed the autopsy, confirmed in a telephone interview Thursday that Inkeles’ comments accurately reflected the autopsy’s findings.

Inkeles attributed the “significant regression” of Pritikin’s coronary artery disease to “the stringent diet” that the nutritionist developed.

That diet and exercise program has attracted any number of detractors, however. Many doctors contend that the exercise routine and diet he espoused are far harsher than necessary. Some of them had criticized Pritikin for making what they regard as wild claims--including the one in his first book that diet “is probably the most feasible method of attaining an extra 20 to 30 years of vigorous life.”

In a message read to the memorial service, Harvard Medical School Prof. William Castelli said: “To his critics, let me say that when you get your patients’ cholesterol down to 175, then you can begin to complain about Nathan Pritikin.”

Current participants in the program at the Santa Monica center couldn’t agree more. Over a lunch of carrots, Brussels sprouts and vegetable soup on Wednesday, participants offered testimonials to Pritikin’s regimen.

“My son’s father-in-law, who was dependent on insulin, came last year,” said Nevada City insurance broker Wally Krill, 57. “Since going on the program, he has lost 100 pounds and no longer uses insulin.”

Krill and his wife, Mary, 55, had just completed an hour on a treadmill in the center’s exercise room. Both said they were saddened and surprised by Pritikin’s suicide, “but his system has proven itself with or without Mr. Pritikin,” Krill said. “The most dramatic thing for me was that my cholesterol level dropped 30% in the first week.”

“I came for the program, not because of the individual,” said Bob Tracy, 52, a hotel owner from Orlando, Fla., adding that he did not learn that there is a center in Florida until after he arrived in Santa Monica.

“I just wanted to feel better,” he said. “I was overweight, I had no energy, I didn’t have any body tone, and my cholesterol level was too high. I’ve already lost 15 pounds, and I feel much better.”

Heart Attack Victim

Retired Chicago attorney Morris Feldman, 67, had begun the Pritikin diet and exercise program on his own in 1979 after suffering a heart attack, but he decided to sign up for the program after “back-sliding” last year.

“The support group here is most important,” he said. “I’m in better shape today than when I played football at the University of Illinois. I couldn’t run 10 miles then, but I can now.

“When I read Pritikin’s book, I told my wife: ‘This is my diet. This makes sense.’ I think it’s the greatest thing in the world.”

Since Pritikin’s death, calls to the Santa Monica center have tripled, center spokeswoman Eugenia Killoran said. “We’re normally booked three weeks to a month in advance,” she said. “We’re now booked 2 1/2 months ahead.”

She added that Pritikin’s two other centers in Downingtown, Pa., and Surfside, Fla., have been similarly deluged with calls.

“Callers say he must have been in so much pain to do what he did,” she said. “We know how much he loved life.”