Pritikin Launches New Wellness Book

“THE PRITIKIN EDGE: 10 ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS FOR A LONG AND DELICIOUS LIFE”

The First New Book From Pritikin in 10 Years Brings Home The Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa Experience

NEW YORK, NY (August 27, 2008) – The Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa today announced the launch of “The Pritikin Edge: 10 Essential Ingredients for a Long and Delicious Life” (Simon & Schuster; September 23, 2008; $25), a scientifically-proven health and weight-loss book, written by renowned cardiologist Dr. Robert A. Vogel, Pritikin’s chief medical director and Paul Tager Lehr, president of the Pritikin Organization. This is the first book from Pritikin in nearly ten years and is highly anticipated among the health community.

Drawing on more than 50 years of research and success, “The Pritikin Edge” outlines the 10 essentials of the Pritikin Program. The key message in the book: this isn’t a fad diet that goes in and out of headlines; it’s a scientifically-proven, delicious lifestyle that will help lower blood pressure and cholesterol, fight off diabetes and slim down. In fact, the Pritikin Program is so successful that legislation was recently passed allowing Medicare to cover participation in the program.

“‘The Pritikin Edge’ provides all of the tools to begin a new lifestyle that is both healthy and achievable," says Paul Lehr, president of the Pritikin Organization. “The knowledge that the readers will gain is priceless and can potentially save their lives. By reading the book, people will have the 30 plus years of insight and secrets taught at the Pritikin Longevity Center.”

“Pritikin is the smartest way to get the most out of life,” says Dr. Robert Vogel. “There is no better way to reverse obesity, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol – and all without medication.”

The book outlines the “10 Essential Ingredients for a Long and Delicious Life.” Detailed are simple lifestyle changes that have been proven to prevent and even reverse heart disease. The book also shows that calories count, but you don’t have to count calories to lose weight. More Pritikin lifestyle tips include dining out, exercise, stress management, smoking cessation as well as recipes for delicious meals. Another key message: the head really is connected to the heart. Pessimistic men have twice as many heart attacks as optimistic men. The book also debunks half-truths, like olive oil is “good for you.”

The Pritikin Program, a diet and exercise regimen founded in 1957, has helped more than 100,000 people who have come to the Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa – including actors, athletes, politicians, and CEOs – and more than 10 million people who have read its best-selling books lower their cholesterol and blood pressure, shed excess pounds, and live happier, more balanced lives. Praised by the USDA and leading scientists from Harvard to UCLA, the Pritikin Program has been widely credited with proving that diet and exercise cannot just prevent, but reverse conditions like diabetes and heart disease. The program’s results have been documented in more than110 studies in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

About the Authors:

Dr. Robert Vogel is a cardiologist, vascular biologist, Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland, and Pritikin’s Chief Medical Director. He has studied heart disease for more than 30 years and lectures frequently to practicing physicians on its prevention. Dr. Vogel has received a Good Housekeeping Magazine’s “Best Doctors in America” designation and a Federal Scientist of the Year Award. Dr. Vogel often writes the review guide on preventing heart disease for the American College of Cardiology. He serves as a dietary consultant to the National Institutes of Health and as a weight and heart disease consultant to the National Football League.

Son of Pritikin cofounder Dr. David Lehr, Paul Tager Lehr is the president of the Pritikin Organization, which has helped more than 100,000 people worldwide who have gone to the Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa and the 10 million plus readers of Pritikin books lose weight and prevent and reverse obesity, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.

About the Pritikin Longevity Center:

Since 1975, more than 100,000 people worldwide have come to the Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa to prevent and reverse obesity, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. Pritikin’s one- and two-week lifestyle-change programs focus on daily exercise and an eating plan based on unrefined and unprocessed whole foods including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, seafood, and limited lean meat. The Pritikin Program was the first diet and exercise program to scientifically document the benefits of lifestyle change in halting many of modern society’s diseases. Over the past 30 years, scientists at UCLA and other leading universities have published the results of the Pritikin Program in more than 110 papers and medical journals.

The world of Pritikin also includes online memberships, home delivery of fresh and frozen foods, packaged foods, personalized vitamin and nutritional supplements, food and fitness CDs, housewares, and, at the Pritikin Longevity Center, executive health exams, corporate retreats, and whole family programs in addition to the core health and weight-loss programs. Future projects include Pritikin Living Residences, the first slated for Houston, Texas, in 2009.