Had I eaten what the hospital nutritionist sent to me as a cardiac diet (what they also referred to as a diabetic diet) I would have consumed almost 500 grams of carbohydrates in a single day. From Swordmaker
First, Swordmaker, I thank God that you survived your ordeal and that you are doing alright. You have my prayers for your continued well being. Now if you even are actually able to remember who I am... I will give you a little of what you might have come to expect from me... advice that will contradict you and other posters here.
I give you this advice based on what I know from 25 years working on a fire department. I responded to countless people who were having cardiac events. Many of them became repeat customers. But I also have many, many years volunteering at Nursing Homes and Retirement Centers, and watching friends and family members recover from similar cardiac events.
The very first thing that you should do is to forget all about counting how many grams of “carbs” you are eating. And don't try to listen to your body. And don't try to read everything you can on nutrition and diet. Most of the self help nutrition books you find these days are pure unadulterated fad diet nonsense. And that goes especially for this high protein, low carb diet crap. If that is how you have been picking what you eat, then you do not have any idea how typical your situation is. You just survived something that could easily have killed you. This is not a the time to play games with your health trying to use your superior intellect by putting your faith in some fad diet guru.
Sorry guys, but patients are often their own worst enemies especially when it comes to recovering from a cardiac event. Follow the advice of your doctors and the nutritionist from the hospital or whoever your doctors recommend. They are professionals and their “old-fashioned ideas” are typically based on years of experience. If they are older they have observed who has done the best after going through what you just have. If they are younger, they probably are up on the latest research.
I have known many people in their 90s and quite a few who made it past 100 and still had their wits about them. Not one was ever counting their carbs or eating a high protein fad diet. Many were under the guidance of nutritionists. I can't tell you how many men I have met who were on high protein low carb diets who had cardiac events... most of those who continued on the same routine are now dead. So I feel very passionately about this.
The people who I have known who have reached very old age ate a balanced diet, have had an active lifestyle, and had interests that kept them mentally engaged. They weren't counting carbs and eating high protein diets. You were lucky enough to survive your cardiac event. It was a wake up call. Follow the advice of the professionals whose actions saved you. And if they advise you to change your diet... LISTEN even if it means eating French Toast with genuine syrup, Orange Juice, a large banana, and three quasi-sausages. That sounds delicious to me and probably has more than enough protein for a balanced diet.
So get well and keep letting us know about all things Apple. Remember what Benjamin Franklin said.
For example, doctors have spent decades telling us to eat margarine instead of butter and eating egg whites while discarding the yolk (the most nutritional part of the egg!) out of fears of cholesterol. Those ideas (and others) have been completely discredited.
Then you have the "food pyramid" that was pushed on us for many years which basically says that most of your meals should be grain-based and that healthy fats like olive oil and nuts should be used only sparingly. This food pyramid (probably pushed in Washington by lobbyists for cereal companies) has also been discredited and even the government has been backing away from it in recent years.
Just like global warming, nutrition is not a "settled science" and there is much disinformation out there presented as settled science. Even worse, many doctors (for whom nutrition is not their specialty) parrot the misinformation pushed by the government.
Fully agree that most of the nutrition books out there are garbage. You can usually tell the bad ones when they make ridiculous claims on the cover like "lose 15 pounds in one week" or when they push a diet that requires you to buy special foods like shakes, protein powder and vitamin pills. Also, if a nutrition/diet book is pushed on daytime TV, it's probably one you should stay away from as well.
One should be able to eat perfectly well with the foods found in any supermarket and should never have to buy anything special or follow a "fad" diet (like eating nothing but grapefruit for a month!).
Lastly, you misinterpret my post to Swordmaker about the carbs. I eat carbs every day and I don't count them. Obviously I eat less carbs than the average person as I avoid junk food as much as I can and try to limit my intake to food in its natural form, such as meat, fish, eggs, nuts, fruits, vegetables, and whole-milk dairy products like yogurts and cheese.
So I fully encourage Swordmaker to follow the advice of his doctors in general but with regard to nutrition, some independent research and taking a common sense approach to what he eats will also go a long way.