In praise of fat….
….not the kind we carry around, but the kind we eat. For years, and particularly when I pretended I was dieting, I would try to eliminate fatty foods and butter from my meals. That included carefully trimming the fat off the steaks I ate, even Thistle Hill steaks.
I have concluded that, for me at least, it was wasted effort. Fat, according to the latest research, is good for you. The right kind of fat. Here’s a recent article that provoked outrage in the comments section from people still wedded to the propaganda rammed down our throats by Big Ag and Big Government for at least 70 years.
Now my own experience since last Thanksgiving confirms this new thinking about fat. I’ve lost 45 pounds, basically by cutting down on carbohydrates, particularly sugar but also potatoes, rice and pasta. What I have not cut down on is fat.
Breakfast every day generally includes two eggs and several strips of bacon. Lunch features more meat: beef and pork. And dinner, still more meat though twice a week we have wild fish. If I have had one dietary rule it is this: don’t trim the fat!
Early in the diet, I was counting calories…even used one of those internet services. But, then, at the urging of our daughter…a cancer surgeon and director of integrative medicine at Baylor Medical Center…I switched to a kind of modified Paleo diet and soon threw away the calorie counter. (That internet service still occasionally contacts me asking if I need “help”.)
Now, I not only don’t count calories, I don’t weigh myself regularly. I did recently get on a scale after a series of business lunches and dinners on the road, that featured too much red wine, and overly-generous servings. I did push the potatoes to the side, passed on the bread and drank coffee without sugar. That’s all. Ate too much; drank too much. Loved the fatty meat. The result: down four more pounds!
Admittedly this is all anecdotal. What has worked for me might not work for everyone. I’m certainly not recommending gluttony as a way of life. But I am suggesting that it is just possible that the common wisdom on dieting is all wrong. We may be able to lose weight without all the self-sacrifice the experts say is good for us!
One Comment
mike ortwein
Two books that everyone who is interested in their weight and personal health should read are :The Virgin Diet” and “Wheat Belly”. Also pick up any CD from Acres by Jerry Brunetti–He tells me he feels good about both of the above books. Personally lost 20 lbs in ten weeks and have never felt hungry. Jerry says fat is where it is at, but from grass fed meat and dairy.