O.E. is well-known to a number of posters on this forum. Over the years, O.E. has acquired a number of serious health problems, mostly stemming from a serious case of increasing obesity. The issue here is not such much one of excessive poundage, but of body composition: O.E. has acquired a very unfavorable lean-muscle/fat ratio, as a result of caloric indulgence that has not even been remotely justified by O.E.'s activity level.
The problem has only been complicated, in my opinion, by O.E.'s doctors. For a number of years, O.E. has followed the popular “I” diet, which seeks to rev up the metabolism by infusing large numbers of calories, primarily in the form of high-glycemic foods, particularly refined carbohydrates (sugars, starches, etc.). Now I understand that there is a place for such nutrition in an active person’s lifestyle, to the degree that it serves to fuel one’s workouts. O.E., unfortunately, indulges in such foods but shirks the workouts. Remarkably, the doctor who was treating O.E. during most of the last decade only encouraged this unhealthy behavior. (My theory is that diets like this one offer short-term gratification and are therefore popular, and unscrupulous doctors try to “grow” their practices by telling their patients what they want to hear.) Naturally, many of us who have been concerned about O.E. advised, in tactful but firm language, in favor of healthier nutritional and exercise habits, but our advice has fallen on deaf ears. The consequences have included not only large amounts of excess flab, but also the other deleterious long-term consequences one would expect: high blood pressure, back problems and arthritis in the lower extremities, high cholesterol and triglycerides, and signs of increased insulin resistance.
O.E. changed doctors a couple of months ago, and some optimists hoped that the new doctor would reverse this course. Astoundingly, this doctor is advising even more of the same! The argument seems to be that in the face of this latest host of medical problems, O.E. needs the pick-me-up effect of the high-GI foods more than ever, in order to counter a tendency to react by sinking into despair and inactivity–sleeping a lot, sitting in front of the TV, or moping around the house.
Although I’m not a registered dietician or a medical researcher, I have taken the time to learn some basic facts about human physiology, and I know that this kind of eating is not good for one’s long-term health. The rapid caloric intake may yield a short-term “high,” but then an insulin reaction sets in. Meanwhile, the excess “junk” calories are stored in unwanted fat tissue, while other parts of the body remain deprived of healthy nutrients. In my opinion, O.E. is getting some really bad advice from his doctors. Yet some of O.E.'s alleged “friends” concoct various strange arguments against any change in this behavior: First, the “friends,” including a few people on this forum, try to pretend that O.E. is already following a healthy lifestyle. (In fact, both of O.E.'s doctors have claimed that this diet is designed to “protect” O.E.'s healthy lifestyle!) I’ve challenged this claim from time to time, but they counter by demanding: Do you know anyone personally who follows a perfectly healthy lifestyle? Of course, I don’t, but I think nevertheless that it is only rational to make lifestyle changes that medical science indicates will benefit one’s health in the long term. In some cases, they condescendingly smile at what they call my “almost religious faith” in the benefits of good nutrition and exercise. I can only scratch my head in puzzlement at this one. One would think they were totally unaware that there even exists a science of human physiology. In any case, they obviously haven’t made the mental connection between O.E.'s poor diet and the health issues mentioned above. One poster on this forum angrily asserted (http://forum.slowtwitch.com/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Lavender_Room_F4/A_message_on_Government_spending_and_debt_P2273028/) that those who questioned the doctor’s advice were engaging in “hypocritical rhetoric.” Allegedly, we are motivated by special animosity toward this latest doctor. Following the same theme, another poster noted that “you have to admit the number of people crying foul now appears to be far more than in the past.” The truth, of course, is that we’ve been advising O.E. against the “I” diet for years. It baffles me that a lot of people try to make this into an issue of Doctor #1 vs. Doctor #2. The important objective, in my opinion, is O.E.'s long-term well-being–not which doctor is in charge. In the same thread, the argument was raised that even if a lifestyle change is warranted, now is not the time, since caloric restriction at this time would be likely to cause O.E. to sink into depression. But when one looks at O.E.'s bloodwork–for example, the rapidly escalating blood sugar and cholesterol numbers–one has to wonder what sense there is in continuing the same practices that have brought O.E. to the brink of disaster. Finally, the argument is made that O.E. has only been under the care of this new doctor since mid-January, and that it is much too early to know whether or not this massive new influx of high-GI calories will work. This argument, like the others, seems to me to throw out the window the known principles of medical science.
How long can O.E. continue on this track before it leads to life-threatening conditions–diabetes, stroke, or heart attack? I would be very interested in any ideas that others in this community might have to accomplish the lifestyle changes that are needed for O.E.'s long-run well-being, especially since the latter has such a significant and obvious impact on the lives of most of us here.