JB Comes Clean

OK...it's time for me to come clean.  All this diet and nutrition stuff that I've been talking about lately, there's more to the story. 

I told you that I had been undergoing a lot of medical studies lately.  Blood work, sleep studies, cardiac function studies.  At first, it was all about pursuing better health.  I mean, I preach it so I've got to pursue it. 

I've seen my primary care physician, my cardiologist, a sports performance doctor, my physical therapist, two nutritionists, and a pulmonologist/sleep medicine physician.

Along the way, I found out a lot of good things about myself.  My cholesterol levels (total, HDL, LDL) are superb.  My body weight is right where it needs to be.  My blood pressure is under control.  

My coronary arteries are probably as big around as your little finger.  I am highly unlikely to ever have a heart attack. 

But I did find out that all the news isn't good.  I found that I have a significant case of atherosclerosis.  I have placque on my arteries. 

How could that be?  I've lived my whole life doing everything I knew to do to guarantee that I had good cardiac health!

I ate a diet low in dietary fats and exercised daily.  I always kept my weight and blood pressure under control.  I got an annual physical and followed the medical advice received.  I have never had high cholesterol.

You may remember my story.  My dad had his first heart attack when I was 5.  I lived my life from that point forward avoiding fried foods, eggs, and fatty foods.  We cooked with corn oil and used corn oil margarine.  I hardly knew what whole milk tasted like. 

As an adult I've continued that pattern, even going for several years without touching red meat.   

So what did I do wrong?  Turns out pretty much everything.

After getting past the shock of "how could this happen to me," I turned to what I know to do:  I did the research.

And what I found out was that from a nutritional standpoint, we had it all wrong.  Dietary fats are not the culprit--refined sugar and refined flour are.  That plaque on my arteries?  Most likely not my genes but my diet, a diet high in carbs. 

The research has been there for a while.  I've been told before that flour and sugar were bad for me (and everybody else).  Since I never had a weight problem, I really didn't worry about the bread and desserts.  Calories meant nothing to me.  I was so active that I could eat whatever I wanted and never gain.

Oh, I still minimized my dietary fats.  Still drank skim milk and ate only lean meats.  But it obviously wasn't close to being enough.

So 3 months ago, I made some drastic changes.  I eliminated most of the refined sugar and refined flour from my diet.  I started eating more whole foods, more foods where I know all the ingredients and most of the time know exactly where it came from.

I'm eating a lot more vegetables, especially green leafy vegetables.  I read labels for carbohydrate content and then look for ingredients.  I eat butter (really), drink whole milk, and get most of my carbs from fruit.

Breakfast is no longer cereal with milk but an egg/sausage casserole chased with almond milk.  

Lunch is no longer a PB&J but a salad, boiled eggs, fruit, and an avocado.  Dinner is meat (grass fed, pasture raised, wild caught), cruciferous vegetables, and a sweet potato.  No bread.  No desserts. 

The hard part is that I felt good before making these changes and I still feel good.  I won't wait on results (it will be a long time before there are any measurable changes anyway) to judge all this--because I've done my homework, I know that this is a better way to live.