Emergency trip to the Bay Area this week. My Pops contracted a couple of infections that landed him in the hospital. At 94, every hospitalization has to be taken seriously, so hopping on a flight wasn’t really a decision. It was a duty, and one I was grateful to make.
I arrived in time to be the person he woke up to on his second lonely and scary day in the hospital. Well… maybe not so lonely after enduring me talking for ten straight hours about his incredible life stories, old memories, and reminding him what an absolute warrior he’s been for nearly a century.
The good news is Pops is making a strong recovery. Your prayers are certainly welcome, but what we are really hoping for now is a hospital release today. More than anything, he wants to come home. My Dad is one tough dude. His recovery capabilities are honestly next level. I feel deep in my heart that God still has more time planned for him.
Anyhow, when you sit around a hospital room for 10 hours, you notice a few things.
First, I ran into the doctor I fired 10 years ago. Back then he repeatedly tried to put me on statins and told me to “eat more fiber,” which may or may not have been useful advice. But when I asked him what fiber sources he actually recommended, he literally Googled it in front of me and started reading off the first search results. Confidence level instantly dropped to zero. That was the last time I saw him… until yesterday.
I walked right past him in the hallway and he didn’t recognize me at all. To be fair, I was 300 pounds back then. Maybe if I had stayed unhealthy and medicated into oblivion I would’ve looked more familiar to him. Instead, I stood there shocked at how unhealthy he himself now looked. Life has a sense of irony sometimes.
The second thing I noticed was the food. My father is battling three infections, including diverticulitis, which is literally an infection of the gut and colon where what you consume matters tremendously during recovery.
Now, having battled diverticulitis myself for years before finally healing my gut, I know a thing or two about these episodes. Overall, the hospital staff has been tremendous and I’m genuinely grateful for the care they are providing him. But what absolutely stunned me was the amount of sugar on every single tray they brought him.
I started counting it. Easily 100 grams of sugar sitting on some of these trays between juices, desserts, processed items, and then multiple packets of sugar on the side… just in case he wanted to add more sugar to his sugar. That part really struck me.
Around 11 AM, after arriving at 7:30 that morning, I finally wandered down to the cafeteria to find myself something to eat. I expected a modern hospital cafeteria in the middle of Silicon Valley. What I found instead looked like a 7-Eleven attached to an airport gas station.
I spent 20 minutes trying to find literally anything high in protein and low in sugar. After a lengthy search, I found two hard boiled eggs. That became my lunch. Not one single item in the entire store had under 10 grams of sugar. Not one. And this is in one of the most advanced hospitals in the country.
Again, the care itself has been excellent and I’m deeply appreciative of the doctors and nurses helping my father recover. But it’s remarkable that the very thing contributing to so much chronic disease in America is available in abundance at every step of the healing process.
How do you win a war when the front lines are handing out the very thing that’s making people sick?
Not everyone can move to Miami and accidentally end up living in a building full of biohackers and health obsessed gym people like Lori and I did. But I really do hope we see a movement in this country away from ultra processed sugar loaded foods masquerading as normal nutrition.
Watching my Dad fight this battle at 94 has only reinforced something I already believed deeply: our health is our greatest asset, and far too many people are unknowingly surrendering it one tray, one snack, and one habit at a time.
The photo below was a selfie I took from the very best moment of our day together when I snuck my Dad out of his hospital room to get some Vitamin-D outside from the sun - no sugar necessary! I will never forget that moment. It was so joyful for both of us. Life is beautiful.
