First off let me assure both you and SamAdams76 that nothing makes me happier than to be able to continue having this type of conversation with the two of you... complete with whatever mischaracterizations and misquotes either of you would like to assign to me. I consider both of you to be very good and knowledgeable “freeper” friends. The amazing thing to me especially with Swordmaker is all the parallels in our life experiences.
My wife of approximately 30 years is a retired nurse who taught nutrition for decades and was the reigning Northwest Aerobics Instructor Champion in her age group when I met her. She, like your girlfriend had been pudgy at one point in her life and also has kept the weight off since that time. At 60 she is still just 110 pounds and currently fairs better than me riding a bicycle 50 or 60 miles over a mountain pass for an afternoon outing.
I personally have also had a life long interest in nutrition. It started when I was a teenager and state road bicycle racing champion and nationally ranked racer. I was a skinny little kid who had to eat massive amounts of food to supply the energy necessary to ride my bicycles over 10,000 miles a year. My coaches and I felt it would maximize my competitiveness if I made good food choices.
Swordmaker, I have no idea the extent that your dietary and lifestyle choices have contributed to your current difficulties. You told me previously that you had worked in a medical related field for 35 years. I will happily acknowledge also that you and your girlfriend are very smart and have forgotten more than I will ever know about nutrition. And I have now learned that you have doctor friends who have studied 80 to 100 year old people who have concluded that what they ate had little to do with their longevity.
My message to you is very, very simple... it doesn't matter how smart we are... it doesn't matter how much we know or think we know... any life threatening medical episode like you have just experienced is a wake up call. If you do not pay attention. If you keep doing things the same way you have been, no matter how well reasoned you feel your behaviors are... you will have continuing problems and the next time you might not be so lucky. I don't know why it is but most people make poor decisions when trying to out think their own doctors after a crisis such as you have just experienced.
I am telling you directly that people I have known who were counting “carbs” and eating a high protein diet after having a cardiac event had poor outcomes. And by that I mean that they are now dead. Almost every one was very smart and could argue with the best of them and tell you how they knew better than nutritionists and doctors, heck some of them were doctors. But they are still dead.
If you do not think that the doctors you currently have know what they are talking about, then find some different doctors. Even doctors are generally not good doctors for themselves and you are not either. This is not like arguing about Apple products. Get professional guidance and care and follow it.
The Krebs cycle is driven by carbohydrates using insulin to convert them to glycogen.
This board certified cardiologist was so wedded to the use of Statins and insistent on the use of them, that when I told him that I had consistent weight gain when ever I take them. I also told them that Statins completely counter a class of drugs I must take to counter severe phantom pain I have in my feet that can be debilitating. This class of drugs requires being titrated down over a space of 18 months to stop using it otherwise I am at risk of suffering severe psychiatric drug withdrawal episodes due to the body not supplying the necessary chemicals right away. Statins turned OFF the action of this drug in the course of just FOUR HOURS! I had to do deep research into how both classes of drugs worked to discover why I was having problems the last time a doctor put me on statins.
In any case, this Cardiologist told me I would be better off RE-GAINING the 154 pounds I had lost and risking those withdrawal symptoms and suffering the severe pain in my feet just to take a Statin that has no proof of efficacy, or even any proven studies showing that having high cholesterol is a risk factor.
In fact, the latest studies show that high cholesterol may, in fact, may be a factor for longevity. It turns out that the guy who had the "hunch" that dietary cholesterol was the "cause" of heart disease had tweaked his data to get the results he wanted. . . and when it was untweaked, there was no indicator one way or the other.
My family has a high cholesterol level and my mom's cholesterol of over 350 and lived without heart problems to 95 ⅕. Her mom lived to 95. Her Dad to 95.
But this "expert" doctor would rather have me weigh 374 pounds just so I can take his holy Statin drug. That make no sense.To lower my risk of another heart attack by 20% he will increase my risk by 200%! AND condemn me to living in pain for the rest of my life.
This A-hole, not only insisted I needed to do that, he went so far as to CANCEL a prescription for a more modern, non-Statin drug cholesterol lowering drug I had agreed to try that another cardiologist had recommended that does not, he claimed, have the side effects! because it works in another modality This drug was listed on my discharge prescriptions but it was not delivered. When I called to find out why it wasn't, I was told it had been canceled by the arrogant Statin A-hole.