Great post! My wife got us into a CSA (community supported agriculture) with grass fed and pastured meat. We love it. We also get "not for human consumption" raw milk (thanks, government) and grass fed butter, both of which are amazing. The whole "fat is bad!" movement, I think, did so much to lower human health. Bring on the healthy fats!
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To clarify....The raw (grass-fed) milk we buy here has to be labeled "not for human consumption" because it is illegal to sell raw milk for human consumption here in Tennessee.
@lukestokes thank you. I couldn't agree more with you. My family and I consume grass fed beef, lamb, bison, and raw grass fed milk quite regularly. These foods are not only super nutritious, but so tasty.
Is there really a "fat is bad" movement? There's a high-carb/low-fat movement (the 80-10-10 diet, Doug Graham, Freelee the banana girl, etc.), but none of these people say fat is bad, just that it should be a lower ratio of your diet than what people usually eat today.
It's kind of like you can say the US should cut down on military spending without saying it doesn't need defense. It just doesn't need THAT much.
And the other part of the equation is they advocate eating a bunch more calories than most people usually eat. So even if they're advocating a low proportion of fat, it doesn't mean the total amount of fat is necessarily that low. And they're certainly not denying that there are healthy fats or advocating that you don't get any.
Perhaps there is a different movement actually saying fat is bad, I'm not sure :p
It was more of an advertising thing, from what little I understand. Products sold better if they had "0% Fat!" on the label because some people we're confused about healthy fats. I'd have to ask @corinnestokes for more details, but from what I remember reading, the cultural idea that fats were unhealthy did spread to a number of people (which is why advertisers responded as they did, to get that purchasing power) which, ultimately, hurt people's health. It also relates to the cholesterol discussion which pushed out healthly fats as well. This isn't my area of understanding, so I'm worse than an armchair quarter back here.
Gotcha. Ya, I'm pretty sure whole milk is better for you than skim (I don't drink either anymore), but through marketing people have it in their head that skim is better.
I'm always skeptical of like "reduced fat" potato chips. I just won't eat potato chips if I'm concerned about fat today, lol. It seems like there has to be some tradeoff of making things more artificial.. I'd rather take the fat and keep it closer to the whole food.
Well....generally speaking, fat has been demonized here in the US. People/government have pointed the finger at fat for causing heart disease and obesity....hence the marketing push to label things as low-fat/no-fat. But fat is not bad, and not all fats are equal. There are healthy fats and non-healthy fats. Partially hydrogenated fats and canola oil, for example, are not so great for you. But butter (especially made from milk from cows that are grass-fed) and coconut oil have lots of health benefits. For some great nutritional reading, check out a book called Nourishing Traditions.