At least 30 years ago, I bought a booklet 'Drinking Man's Diet'. Cost me a
buck.

In brief, its message is simple - keeep your carbohydrate intake to 60 gm or
less per day.  There's a short explanation of the role carbohydrates play in
metabolism, wieght gain etc.   Most of the booklet consists of listing the
carbohydrate content of just about every item in  a normal N.American diet.
So you can make up a slew of quite appetising daily menus, which in toto
don't exceed the 60 gm limit.

The auther, splendid fellow, pointed out that pretty well all hard liquor
such as gin, vodka, scotch, also dry white wine etc have no carbohydrates.
Beer though is a super nono.

I tried it way back then, late-60s, early 70s, and indeed got my weight
down.  The gradually I got careless, 2-3 slices of toast at breakfast,
potatoes, ice-cream, and my weight crept up again.  Then about two years
ago, I caught sight of my silouhette in the mirror - yech, pear-shaped.
Weight, about 205 lbs (5' 10" and shrinking).  So I dug out the old DM'sD
and stuck to it.  In about three months I lost 35 lbs. I'm still sticking to
it, and hang in at 169-172 lbs.

I also do a 2 mile walk before breakfast, which helps holding the weight
down, I guess.  I had a pacemaker installed in 2000, as the doc noticed I
had a bit of arrhythmia - actually the synchronising signal form top-left to
bottom-right or some such, was not happening, so the secondary beat wandered
a bit out of synch.  The pacemaker doc (installing it under a local
anesthetic) assured me that the old ticker was in fine shape, and would now
be running at around 100% with this astonishing little gadget providing the
missing synchronisation.  (I'll be having it replaced around 2008, as the
battery will run out around then,so they just replace the whole unit - no
doubt incorporating all the interim improvements)

I've been aware of my BPH for 16 years or so.  The only aspect that I find a
nuisance is frequency.  2-4 hours is generally about my limit.  Most nights,
I'm up twice at around 4 hour intervals.  Not too bad as I read a lot
anyway.  I'm on the Proscar-Cardura combo, which seems to be fairly
effective.  The idea of a TURP turns me right off.  The PVP sounds a lot
better.  And the thought of catheterisation is somewhat scary.  In short I
intend to avoid all these horrors for as long as I can.

Age-wise, I'm now an old record - about two months ago, I had my 78th
birthday . . . . .

best to all
Rick