Let Them Eat Fat!
EricCowperthwaite
Posts: 450
This has got to be the greatest essay ever about the joys of high fat eating!
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887323393304578358681822758600-lMyQjAxMTAzMDEwNzExNDcyWj.html?mod=wsj_valetbottom_email
It's in the Wall Street Journal. I think this think will let you read it without being a subscriber.
My favorite bit -
Eating fatty foods has become the culinary version of "Breaking Bad": a dangerous walk on the wild side for the otherwise timid consumers of tasteless butter substitutes and Lean Cuisine. Soon the fear-of-food crowd will leave us with nothing but watery prison gruel (whole grain, of course) and the nine daily servings of kale, collards, spinach and other pesticide-laced and e-coli-menaced greens and fruits on the agribusiness-promoted "food pyramid."
Still worse is the ninth circle of food hell to which the fat-phobic ninnies have consigned us: egg-white omelets. Is life worth prolonging for a few (alleged) extra months if said life has been spent enduring the repellent slabs of gluey, pasty albumen that so many self-congratulatory "health conscious" types consider to be a sign of their sanity? They want to purge themselves of dietary sin. I just want to purge.
Enjoy!
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887323393304578358681822758600-lMyQjAxMTAzMDEwNzExNDcyWj.html?mod=wsj_valetbottom_email
It's in the Wall Street Journal. I think this think will let you read it without being a subscriber.
My favorite bit -
Eating fatty foods has become the culinary version of "Breaking Bad": a dangerous walk on the wild side for the otherwise timid consumers of tasteless butter substitutes and Lean Cuisine. Soon the fear-of-food crowd will leave us with nothing but watery prison gruel (whole grain, of course) and the nine daily servings of kale, collards, spinach and other pesticide-laced and e-coli-menaced greens and fruits on the agribusiness-promoted "food pyramid."
Still worse is the ninth circle of food hell to which the fat-phobic ninnies have consigned us: egg-white omelets. Is life worth prolonging for a few (alleged) extra months if said life has been spent enduring the repellent slabs of gluey, pasty albumen that so many self-congratulatory "health conscious" types consider to be a sign of their sanity? They want to purge themselves of dietary sin. I just want to purge.
Enjoy!
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Replies
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Egg white omelette are so gross.
Fat is fantastic!0 -
That article starts out kind of stupid suggesting that examples of "the war on fat" are: banning over-sized sugary drinks and promoting eating vegetables.
No one who is promoting the use of fats in healthy cooking is also promoting 64 oz Big Gulps or pointing and laughing at the First Lady's vegetable garden.
The author doesn't really address that the way to healthy eating through fats also includes avoiding sugary and starchy foods while indulging in fat. Or that fat satiates you enough to allow you to eat fewer calories and snack less.
Articles like these are the flip-side to "Asians eat rice all day and don't get fat!" claims where the claimant is not considering the whole diet, just deciding that one macro can be sky-high because they read it in an article.0 -
I wasn't worried about all that stuff ... there's a ton of education to be done yet. And frankly, banning sugary drinks fails to understand the problem, which is that people are substituting carbs and sugar for the fats they used to eat. And yes, Bloomberg banning sugary drinks is actually part of the "war on fat" since it is just more of the puritanical anti-gluttony idiocy that has led us to the point of 1/3 of the adult population being overweight or obese.
In any case, I loved his celebration of fat and the words and imagery used.0 -
I liked this:
"Something deeper than concern for nutrition and cholesterol is going on here. You don't have to be a Freudian (I'm not) to see in the antifat crusade a cowering fear of sexuality. The evil of oral pleasure as Satan's tool of seduction, dating back to Eve, is deeply embedded in American culture. Recall Cotton Mather's denunciation of the hell-bound wickedness of the pleasures of the flesh and his call for self-mortification (anticipating today's egg-white omelets)."
And I enjoyed his discussion of some of his favourite fatty foods.
What I didn't like was the anti-veggie message that people will undoubtedly have a knee jerk reaction to. Hell, even I feel like defending spinach and kale after reading that. I also don't like encouraging the idea (even if one is doing so facetiously) that a diet rich in healthy fats is somehow 'living on the edge'. And Paula Deen and Guy Fieri? :noway:0 -
These writers need to shut the hell up! Meat is already heavily subsidized and too expensive as it is. Imagine if everyone went low carb. *shudder*
Shut up, journalists, just shut up!0 -
I enjoyed the article, Eric. This reminds me of new bits of research on mummified human remains I recently read. While scientists have been searching for the "golden diet", they've surprisingly discovered that humans from thousands of years ago appear to have incidents of heart disease similar or only slightly less to humans today. Despite having far "healthier diets" of whole foods, fatty arteries may have more to do with genetics and amounts of exercise, and less to do with what you eat than what is currently believed.
There is other new research indicating that lower calorie diets (less than the recommended daily 2,000) may have more health benefits for adults than previously thought. The results from this research indicates that our bodies will go into repair mode and attempt to clean up our systems when our caloric intake is lower or we even skip days of eating. This also indicates that we don't fully understand what we call "starvation mode". While eating 2,000 + calories are bodies go into growth mode, which is good for children. As adults we have less need for this mode.
Personally, I feel better on a low carb, higher fat, fiber and protein diet. I try to cut out as much sugar as possible, except for fresh fruit in small quantities. My skin looks better, my mood is better, I sleep better, weight falls right off when I stick with it, my blood counts & pressure are better, and I have more energy, which makes me want to exercise. So regardless, of whatever research or news article from anywhere tells me, my body is telling me I'm doing something right for myself.
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I really don't think anybody really knows anything about weight loss, the perfect diet, or what causes heart disease. For every study you find that says fat is the culprit, you'll find one that blames the carbs. High protein is good for muscles! Too much protein will kill your kidneys! There are masses of people who think the best exercise is slow and heavy while others think it's HIIT and still others think cardio and high reps, low weights are best. Thin people live longer! No, overweight people live longer! Eat raw! Juice all the things! No processed foods or chemicals! Eat your ice cream and PopTarts as long as it fits your macros!
You can see the arguments all over this site. People from every position have proof for their position, along with heaps of anectodal evidence and they're all convinced everyone else is just misguided.
In reality, I think it's very, very individualized, a lot of it is determined by genetics, and I think people really need to spend time at the beginning of their weight loss journey playing around with their macros and calorie consumption to find something that works for them. For me, that is fat first, carbs next, and protein coming in last. Fewer carbs and I get dizzy and nauseated after workouts. Less fat and I want to eat all the things.0 -
These writers need to shut the hell up! Meat is already heavily subsidized and too expensive as it is. Imagine if everyone went low carb. *shudder*
Shut up, journalists, just shut up!
Lol. That's the view I've started taking. Used to try to promote the way of life to people but now I think "Hell, if everyone starts eating like this we'll have a bacon shortage!" They can stick to their pasta, bread, rice. Leaves more of the good stuff for me.0 -
I really don't think anybody really knows anything about weight loss, the perfect diet, or what causes heart disease. For every study you find that says fat is the culprit, you'll find one that blames the carbs. High protein is good for muscles! Too much protein will kill your kidneys! There are masses of people who think the best exercise is slow and heavy while others think it's HIIT and still others think cardio and high reps, low weights are best. Thin people live longer! No, overweight people live longer! Eat raw! Juice all the things! No processed foods or chemicals! Eat your ice cream and PopTarts as long as it fits your macros!
You can see the arguments all over this site. People from every position have proof for their position, along with heaps of anectodal evidence and they're all convinced everyone else is just misguided.
In reality, I think it's very, very individualized, a lot of it is determined by genetics, and I think people really need to spend time at the beginning of their weight loss journey playing around with their macros and calorie consumption to find something that works for them. For me, that is fat first, carbs next, and protein coming in last. Fewer carbs and I get dizzy and nauseated after workouts. Less fat and I want to eat all the things.
well said - I couldn't agree more. I sometimes feel my head is spinning with all the advice. Like you I am trying to find out what works for me and that I can stick with0 -
I wrote a blog post not too long ago that talked about how Weston A Price, a dentist in search of a reason for so many cavities occurring in young children, discovered much more than he set out for. He discovered that there were a variety of cultures with varieties of diets. Some would eat primarily fat, some primarily vegetables and beans, and others would have a diet focused on dairy. It really depended on what was available to them in their particular region. But the ONE thing he found in common--the one thing that made all the difference in their health--was who ate the "western" foods. He actually studied people long-term, and someone with perfect health, perfect teeth, etc. would go to the industrialized city and begin to eat white bread, shortening, processed sugars, etc., and would return a few short years later with teeth falling out, obese, and in very poor health. The one thing they had in common wasn't what they DID eat, but what they DID NOT eat, which kept them in great health. These multiple cultures, with a wide range of diets, only had that one thing in common. Those who were in good health were those sticking to their traditional diets; those in poor health were those who ate the processed food of the western world.
So we each have to find what works for us, but also avoid those things that have been PROVEN to cause damage--the bleached white flours, hydrogenated oils, excessive sugar, and so on.0 -
What really stuck out to me was the part about the New England Journal of Medicine report on a study of the olive-oil-heavy "Mediterranean diet". "After five years of watching trends in heart disease and strokes among people at high risk, the researchers could not in good conscience continue to recommend a 'low-fat diet' to anyone."
Also, I may not drink sugary sodas anymore, but I certainly do not agree with banning certain sizes of sodas.0 -
I think about the only thing everyone agrees on is that fast food should be avoided like the plague (but, even then, there are those hordes of IIFYM followers).
Everything else has controversy surrounding it, including Weston Price:
http://www.diseaseproof.com/archives/diet-myths-the-misinformation-of-barry-groves-and-weston-price.html
http://kerryg.hubpages.com/hub/Nourishing-Traditions-Traditional-diets-the-Weston-A-Price-Foundation-and-your-health#
Here is a perfect, current thread about what I'm talking about:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/929626-paleo-vs-the-china-study-what-are-your-views
Both diets seek to minimize processed foods from your diet, which is probably a good start for any diet, but they go about it in two different directions and everyone starts telling everyone else about how the other side is wrong and their side is right (including the people in the middle who just don't care and eat whatever they want, PopTarts included).0 -
Both diets seek to minimize processed foods from your diet, which is probably a good start for any diet, but they go about it in two different directions and everyone starts telling everyone else about how the other side is wrong and their side is right (including the people in the middle who just don't care and eat whatever they want, PopTarts included).
This really made me laugh...because you are so correct.0
