Good-bye, Sugar!

While my heart-surgery adventure has been fraught with trials, tribulations and lots of naps, it’s had its lighter moments. The best one was on my last day at the hospital. Matt snuck me in a hamburger and tacos from a fast-food joint. Although I was still tasting metal in everything I ate, a cheeseburger hit the spot at that moment.

But, that’s not the funny part. A couple hours later, my nurse came in and I told her what we’d eaten for lunch. She had a shocked look on her face. (I desperately wish I had a photo of it.) “What?” she practically shrieked. “You’ve just had heart surgery! You’re supposed to be on a ‘heart healthy’ diet from now on, low fat and high carbohydrates.”

I explained to her about how nutritional science is starting to veer away from thinking fat is the problem and toward the view that sugar is. She said there was no way that was true. I told her that, within five years, the official position on diet and heart disease would change from eliminating fats to eliminating sugars.

I tentatively made that change 13 years ago when I was having trouble losing weight on a high-carbohydrate diet. Then, I read the book “Good Calories, Bad Calories” and immediately started reducing sugar (and bad carbohydrates) and not worrying about fats. I lost more than 60 pounds -- which have stayed off all this time.

You can find “Good Calories, Bad Calories” here.

You can read more about the new science behind sugar and heart disease here, here, and here.