My husband has very high BP and is on medication. He is low carbing with me for his BP. He is only a bit overweight. He no longer eats bread,rice,wheat products or junk. However,he still has too many carbs sometimes - mostly in beer when we are out (which is quite regularly). My worry is that now he is eating a higher fat diet, and sometimes too many carbs and clearly this is not a good combination. The Protein Power book says you can;t stay on current medications safely while you're low carbing!I figure everyone cheats - some a lot worse than him. How do others on cholesterol or BP medication deal with this high fat high carb situation? Thanks.

Hi Sally!

I guess it would all depend on how high your husband's carb consumption is. Some people do very well on carb levels of 100 grams a day or more which is still considerably less than the average American diet of 300+ grams per day.
My concern with the alcohol wouldn't be so much the carbs as its effect on triglycerides. Alcohol raises triglycerides which is something you really don't want. I'm not going to say that the occasional beer, cocktail or glass of wine isn't okay but it should certainly be limited.
I don't think the Eades say that you can't safely stay on your medications when you low carb, but make the point that your individual situation will need monitoring by a medical professional to determine if the dosage needs to be decreased or if the medication can safely be discontinued altogether.

Thank you so much Lisa - you have really set my mind at rest. There is no way he eats anything like that amount of carbs. He has actually really embraced low carbing - except for the beer. But that is only two cans generally.
I don't know what to do about the medication. I doubt that our doctor knows anything about LC diets. I guess we'll go visit him and just see. Thanks. Sally

You could try, sally - gosh, if you're doc doesn't know anything about LC dieting, get a new one - they should all know their stuff on all diets!

Gosh, once upon a time doctors wanted to help and studied hard. now all they want is the big almighty dollar and to heck with all the "work" and keeping up on things, huh.

Jimjam..

The truth of the matter is that doctors receive very little training in diets and nutrition while in medical school, so they have very little to "keep up on" to begin with. It's sad, but true. What most doctors do is rely on organizations such as the AHA and ADA to provide them with dietary recommendations for different situations such as heart disease/hypercholesterolemia and diabetes and will refer patients to dieticians to get the specifics of any diet that they recommend.

Well, I don't doubt you I guess, but that just isn't my experience- all my doctors are totally up on the low carb diet and know oodles - especially my GP. He and I talk low-carb vs. low-fat all the time and my GYN is totally up on it as well. Don't know what the difference is, but I've yet to meet one doctor who didn't know what he/she was talking about when it came to all diets - low carb, low fat, gluten-free, low salt, low calorie...

WEll, guess that one will remain a mystery, and I just haven't had the same experience you had.