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I’d love to hear your experience: how difficult was it for you to give up the “low-fat mentality”?
- I’m talking about that voice in your head that tells you not to eat too much butter because it causes heart attacks or weight gain. (Not true!)
- Or the one that tells you red meat is bad for your health. (NOPE. It’s good for you if you’re buying healthy meat, not just plain ol’ grocery story meat.)
- Or the voice that says healthy fats are only found in things like olive oil and nuts. (Those aren’t unhealthy, but both have a higher tendency to cause weight gain/stored fat. Your body needs saturated fats, like butter and coconut oil, and those are not stored, but burned immediately for fuel!)
- That inclination to buy low-fat milk so you “don’t gain weight”. (DON’T DO IT! Read why low-fat milk is rotten for you, and also read, “Does fat make you fat?-part 2“)
I KNOW, I KNOW, YOU THINK I’M A NUT-CASE FOR SUGGESTING YOU EAT MORE FATS…
This certainly wasn’t easy for me to wrap my brain around, either. When my mentor, Kathy, started telling me these things almost 5 years ago, I remember asking her, “So you’re telling me that if Jack (her husband) had a heart attack, you’d continue to buy butter?” She replied, “Most definitely, the components in butter help to heal.“
When it comes to the weight gain issue, all you have to do is look around at the overweight people around you – I’d guess that all of them have tried the typical Weight Watchers fat-free sugar-free plan (there are less “points” in those foods, so you can eat more)…and they’re still overweight. Or maybe they lost the weight, but it all came back. Our bodies need healthy fats, so how could it hold out long-term without them? That is going against nature, which never works.
If you’re still smack in the middle of the low-fat mentality, don’t feel bad.
Who can blame you? That’s all “they” (doctors, drug companies, food manufacturers) have been telling us for years! But look around, it’s not working – our culture is more unhealthy than ever. Here is the complete index of posts on the topic of healthy fats & oils – take some time to do some reading here, and then decide for yourself.
I hope to hear from you, I’ll compile all your answers and put them into one post. You can comment here or email me: Kelly(“at” sign)kellythekitchencop(dot)com. I’m also going to ask people like Sally Fallon and Nina Planck – hopefully they’ll respond, too!
Thank you! I look forward to your comments. 
UPDATE: here are the great responses I received from this post, as well as the many wonderful comments below!
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{ 34 comments… read them below or add one }
Well I have stopped feeling bad about the fat I eat ( I always liked full fat dairy ( see more about it later)
- but I do still feel a bit embarrased when I shop, especially cause I grow some of our veggies/fruit myself + get a box of veggies delivered,
I get meat and fish locally- and we don´t eat much grains
So my shopping basket is mainly filled with butter, cheese, cream, full fat yoghurt, milk – nuts- chocolate :O etc
And I do think that my local store keeps wondering what happens with all that butter and cream ????
Denmark is hit by a “low fat/ high whole grain – no dairy” crazynes at the moment so in some shops it is almost impossible to buy full fat dairy !!! So at times I feel almost criminal….
My daughter ( teenage 14,5) is fat scared when it comes to fatty meat – but eats lots of butter, cream, cheese and nuts – so I keep laughing at her cutting fat off meat.I try to use fatter cuts in minced/ground meat so she doesn´t notice the fat- but at least she gets butter/cheese fat…;)
AS a kid we always had full fat dairy, cheese and meat and we were slim As a teenager we changed to 1,5 % milk and we started putting weight on…
) and I really got overweight.
after I had E I switched to O,5 % fat milk ( and was a vegetarina – or more correct a Starchtarian
The last 2 years I have changed back to 3,5-4 % milk – I eat lots of butter and I loose weight slowly. I have noticed that when I low carb more I loose more weight -so when my economy is better in February we`ll switch to a more low carb diet (it is sadly more expensive than eating grains, rice, pulses etc )
I think my reaction when I first heard about the benefits of a diet rich in meat, fish, vegetables and FAT was “Hallelujah”. A friend introduced me to the book “The Schwartzbein Principle” about 10 years ago. It helped her husband bring his cholesterol down and enjoy life again. I read the book and it made so much sense to me. I sort of felt like a caged bird set free. ( Coming of age in the late 60’s early 70’s had a damaging effect on girls–we had the thin models or the commune vegetarians as role models.) Then in recent years finding out about the benefits of butter,saturated fat coconut oil, marrow, cod liver oil has helped me even more.
I continually need reassurance that feeding my family with all this fat is “good”. I know it is because of the indoctrination of our culture about how fat is bad. My mom had a heart attack 2 years ago and I harped on her to change to low fat cheese and skim milk. I have seen her gain more weight than ever before which I know isn’t good or helping her diabetes. She is a packaged food junkie. Anything with splenda in it she buys since it is targeted to diabetics. If I am having a hard time accepting this full fat new culture you talk about, I can’t even imagine what how she will feel when I tell her.
Henriette, I feel like that at the store sometimes too, but I’m always hoping someone will ask me about it!
Julie, that book is on my list to read!
Tracy, I can SO relate to your comment. My Mom is also diabetic, and also eats a lot of packaged or restaurant food. If our generation has a tough time accepting that traditional fats are good, their generation often just can’t get there. It’s sad.
Oh Kelly, it is so hard! The low-fat mentality is absolutely everywhere! I just keep hearing your voice in my head, “which is more natural?” When I answer that question honestly, eating the way our ancestors did for generations before us makes the most sense. As I read “Real Food”, and “Eat Fat, Lose Weight” I began to get angry at our industrialized society and our supposed blind trust in government agencies and food manufacturers. Lately, it seems everywhere I go, I am noticing how unhealthy many people look. I see excess weight, dull and lifeless looking skin, people are tired and chugging on sodas to give them energy and it makes me so sad. I recently saw an overweight woman from our church eating a large candy bar and drinking a large soda. It was a public place and I chided her that she’d never feed that to her kids. She responded that she needed energy to keep going. At first, I spent days criticizing her in my own mind. Then I was convicted that I really need to pray for her and her family. I’m waiting for God to open the door for me to share with her about nutrition. Perhaps I should be praying that she bumps into YOU someday!
Thanks for all that you do. Personally, I still need the regular reminders that good quality saturated fats are good!
Just wanted to let people living in SW Grand Rapids/Wyoming know that the Heffron Farms in the strip mall at 54th & Clyde Park also carries the Cream Line Moo-ville milk (so you needn’t travel to Plainfield to get it!)
Hi Kelly,
I lost 60+ pounds on the low-fat diet several years ago. While I did get very slim, I was not very healthy and did not feel nearly as good as I do now! I am about a year into this “whole fat is good for you” knowledge and can’t say that I really have any qualms at all. Well other than hearing my doctor harp on me if my cholesterol has gone up. I have no fear about it at all, and I truly believe that God has led me to this realization (your website, too!), and if God is in anything, you (I, we) can’t go wrong. It’s a plain as that to me!
I can’t thank you enough for all you do. The research you put into this “ministry” is very time-consuming, I know. What a gift to all of us!
Lisa
I have been looking at how I and my family should be eating for a long time and have gone the full route. But the biggest thing for me to overcome is the fat. I have been so indoctrinated against fat for so long, that it has been very difficult. But I have decided that this is right. My family gave me 2 months and were sure that I would change to something new. But I am still eating this way and learning more and more since I started in October. My biggest regret is that my children still think that fat is bad.
Before I began low-carbing, I still ate all the fats, just the really unhealthy ones, you know, that devil in disguise, trans-fat.
When I began my new WOE I gave up full fat milk because it was too carby. I began reading about different fats, etc, and now I drink full heavy cream in my coffee but give my children full fat milk, cheese, I make my own Greek style yogurt, etc. We also buy fatty cuts of beef and now I savor the fat, where as before I would cut it off before cooking.
My mother cannot understand how I continue to lose weight even though I drink heavy cream every day. I just laugh, because I know she won’t hear me if I tell her. She’s still all “low-fat” and her doctors encourage that sort of thinking.
Even here in the food carnival, you had a commenter telling how we should choose “lean meats”. All I can do is roll my eyes. I’m not going to eat some dry piece of lean meats when I can choose a fatty piece of beef (grass fed of course!
)
I never rolled with the low-fat fads. The food always tasted bad — dry meats, flavorless dairy, you name it. That was enough for me to mistrust the low-fat mindset. But I still ate lots of BAD fats like vegetable oils and trans-fats because they also tasted good. Giving them up hasn’t been hard at all because I’ve been rewarded with yummy animal fats in their place.
Such great replies, thank you everyone! I’m busy compiling all your thoughts into a post as we “speak”!
Lisa Haan, thanks for that scoop, I always forget they have other locations.
Kelly
I’ve always drank full-fat milk, to me it just taste better. My mom recently switched to 2% though and I’m going to try and talk her out of it, but who knows how that will go.
I’m so happy to not have to be afraid of saturated fats anymore, and when I go to the supermarket and see sig s on food that say “no saturated fat!” I laugh as though I’m in on an inside joke, however sickening it may be.
My only shortcoming is with meat. When I eat steak I instictively cut the fat off. It’s not even -was never- about the fat content; I just hated the chewy texture. I really wish I wouldn’t, but at least there’s fat that really can’t be cut out, so I have to be getting SOME from it.
Vera, you’re not alone…I’m not one to chew on a piece of fat, either! I LOVE food made with it, though.
Luckily for me, I prefer full fat dairy. It was definitely hard to work myself into a new mindset about fats in general though. And I totally agree with the “cutting the fat off the meat” thing! We are curious about grass-fed beef though. Is it leaner? Do you have to cut off as much fat?
It wasn’t hard for me, because I grew up on butter (lots of it), whole milk, cream, and wild meat (lived in AK, had lots of salmon, moose, and caribou).
It was a relief when I read that those fats were healthy. I had tried to eat lowfat for a little while because all the voices finally got to me, but it wasn’t long after that, that I discovered the truth.
Well, i do have the occasional mind fight of “Oh no, this used to be bad for me, but now its good”. That ridiculous chatter that comes from the recesses of my mind’s memory are hard to shoo away sometimes.
My husband has been labeled “morbidly obese” by doctors, but continually shocks them by passing every stress test, cholesterol test, blood pressure test, etc that they give him. But he desperately wants to lose weight because he’s uncomfortable in his body and for a while was eyeing veganism and vegetarianism. So imagine me learning about nourishing, traditional foods and being like, hey baby, let’s have some more butter, salt and grassfed meat! So far, he is trusting me with it all…he certainly loves the taste of everything i cook! I still have to purchase “Eat Fat, Lose Fat” so that I can present him with a healthy way to lose weight while nourishing his body, so that’s my next goal.
I also have a mother born in 1950 who is ALL about Splenda and splenda-ladden “green tea’ drinks in the plastic bottles from the store. She’s just discovered tai chi and so now her peers are pushing the whole “don’t eat meat, here’s some splenda, just suck down some green tea and you’ll be healthy as a horse” spiel and I’m worried for her cause she passes this on my two diabetic grandparents (her parents).
For the most part, my grands eat pretty well for the sheer fact that they are from the south and themselves grew up on chicken farms, but they like to use margarine and veggie oils and splenda too. Gone are the ways of growing their own food and now they depend on the conventional grocery store. I mean, my grandmother still has the canister of bacon grease on the stove, but i still worry about them, lol.
I had a pretty easy time making the transition because I did my research. What is interesting to watch is the reaction of others. They are surprised that I’m on a “diet” yet eat butter, cream, fats, etc. I keep telling them ad nauseum: “Fat doesn’t make you fat! Sugar makes you fat!” Despite this, the low-fat way of eating is so ingrained in some people that they can’t even imagine that it’s a huge crock of you-know-what. People should have faith in their doctor, but not blind faith. You need to do your own research!
Anne, I rarely have to cut any fat off, but we don’t get a lot of steaks, etc., because we haven’t mastered how to cook grass-fed steaks yet!
Shannon, what a healthy upbringing!
Tamara, I know, it’s always odd (sad?) to see someone’s counter with a jar of bacon grease, and then you look over and they also have something like, “I can’t believe it’s not butter”, or some other fake, nasty “spread.”
Brian, you’re singing my song! I wish everyone knew to do a little checking before AND after visiting the doctor. It can’t hurt!
Kelly,
Wow..Interesting Journeys here. It took me 3-4 years to integrate this way of eating into my life. I saw Fallon and Cowan in Vancouver, BC at the suggestion of my homeopathic vet friend about 4 years ago.
I had the opportunity to sit across from S. Fallon at lunch. She asked me how I liked the conference. I told her “I’ve just come from a McDougall seminar.” She burst out laughing saying something like “Wow, that’s 180 degrees from what we are doing here!!” She proceeded to butter her bread and said “I bet you think I’m putting a lot of butter on my bread.” I said, “Well, yes, actually, I do.” She then told me that ‘you know you have enough butter on your bread when, after you take a bite, you leave teeth marks.” I thought that was hilarious.
It’s been an arduous journey for me. I had to ‘hold on’ tight and trust and it took me 2 weeks after I returned home to cancel and request a refund for another McDougall seminar. They were not working.
I was 65-70 pounds over weight and hungry all the time.
I can remember the first time I had lunch, used mayo [the best imho, from Wilderness Naturals] and was NOT hungry until dinner time!! Wow. it didn’t take much, maybe a T…but it worked.
Secondly, my periodic depression was lifted. I was functioning and thinking so much more clearly.
Lastly, in the last 7 months, I’ve lost about 45 pounds. It’s slow but steady and I’m happy…that alone is worth a million bucks.
I’m in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico right now and I “pad” my Mum’s food with real butter. I haven’t found raw yet here but I will. She’s a lot more mellow and is looking good at 86. The fruits and veggies are great and the turkey marvelous.
That’s it in a nutshell. What I can’t do seemingly, is eat the organ meats etc…I’m a vegetarian from the 60’s and we all have our limits.
I have to say, I’m so pleased and delighted I went to the Westin Price conference. If you are anywhere near and can go, it’s worth it.
Hugs….
Hi Karen,
Love the Sally Fallon story. If you can go from McDougal to WAP, give it time and you’ll be eating organ meats soon, girl!
Kel
Thanks for this post! The comments are also really helpful. I am just recently making the switch to traditional foods and WAP lifestyle. The main thing I’m struggling with is convincing my husband that saturated fat can be healthy. While we get all of meat and eggs from pastured sources, my husband still insists on drinking fat free milk. He is also very wary of raw milk. We have a terrific local source for it and are lucky to live in a state where it is legal to buy. I’ve recently started drinking it but he’s not ready to make the switch himself or for our very young children. Any suggestions?
I am VERY thankful for my upbringing, food-wise, that is!
That good foundation has put me in a good place. There are so many around me dealing with issues that are related to all the junk they grew up on. 
I enjoyed reading Karen’s comments. I will start putting enough butter on my bread to leave teethmarks from now on! Also, I am going to check out the mayonnaise from Wilderness Naturals.
Yahoo!! We’re on our way!! hahah….Kelly thinks I’m gonna eat organ meats. Well, if you woulda told me i was gonna eat raw butter on my veggies,I would been appalled …and at 200 pounds. Sigh….when is this culture going to wake up to HFCS as being totally UNHEALTHY and ADDICTIVE. [high fructose corn syrup].
I have given up all sugars and alas, flour for now as it turns into sugar. It’s processed food. My friend said “ever see a bread tree?” so I eat the grain, not the bread. Just the way I have to do it as I eat one piece and want MORE. It sets up a craving.
Our fabulous [unfabulous] Coca-Cola company in the states infiltrated Mexico years ago and now we have Coca Lite here w/ with aspartame on top of chemicalized water. Such a shame.
But I can walk 2 doors down and get fabulous corn tortillas and that’s bread here.
Delighted Julie that you are going to try the mayo. I do hope you like it as it’s expensive…but it doesn’t take much. Alas, again, my friend Pam laughed at me when I said “wanna share a jar?” She said you should finish one in a month.
I have grass fed beef in my freezer at home in CA, and Mexico is too poor to feed their cattle corn or soy..so it’s naturally grass fed here. The fish is great too. But I eat more beans here and it’s hot so fruit is tasty although I limit myself to 2 pieces a day.
I’m actually hungry now. And, my breakfast has to change a bit. Perhaps a t. of butter in the oatmeal w/ the whole fat yogurt. All I know is if I have some fat [I love Wilderness Naturals coconut oil, too] I don’t snack. That’s important to me as I want my body to know I’m going to feed it at certain times each day and I still have 20-25 pounds to lose.
I *cringe* to think about all the paths I’ve taken, yet I have learned so much. I’m not for fasting even for spiritual purposes…I think there are other ways of spiritual practices that are far better. I’ve been a vegan, a vegetarian and a raw vegan. I’m happiest now: and I thank all the food sources for their gifts.
Color me happy. Life is good. And, I feel great. It’s so great to hear all these stories. Hugs to you all. Hang out here and we will learn so much with such love…it’s grand!
Blessings. Thanks Kel.
Jessica, ask your husband to read this: http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2008/02/healthy-milk.html
Karen, your comments are a riot!
Thanks everyone, I’m still getting some replies, so I’m going to wait a bit more before posting them.
I looked at the Wilderness Naturals website yesterday for the mayonnaise. Right now it is too cold for them to risk sending mayonnaise out! (they are in Minnesota) I will wait a bit–maybe until then I will try making my own.
My doctor told me to switch to a low-fat diet to lower my cholesterol about 13 years ago. I didn’t like skim milk, lean meat, or veggies without butter but I made the mistake of trusting my doctor and endured these foods. I bought all the foods that had “low-fat” on the label, which were loaded with addicting sugar to make up in flavor for the lack of fat. I ended up gaining about 40 pounds before I finally came to my senses and realized low-fat was not working for me. A friend had lost about 30 pounds doing low-carb, so I tried it, but didn’t lose much weight because I didn’t break my sugar addiction and cheated every weekend. It didn’t help that I was buying all the foods that had “low-carb” on the box, because they were often loaded with aspartame and sucralose which are counter-productive for losing weight. It wasn’t until I stumbled onto the Dr Mercola and WAPF web sites about three years ago that I decided to break my sugar addiction and switch to healthy real foods that our ancestors ate. I initially lost 30 pounds in about 9 months on a fairly low-carb real food diet with daily exercise, but slowly rebounded about 10 pounds over the next year. Last summer I added intermittent fasting, using the 18/6 fast/eat approach and lost almost 20 pounds in about 5 months. My weight is finally back to where it was 13 years ago and I still want to lose another 10 pounds of fat, so I’m going to stick with the 18/6 on weekdays for a while longer. I’m 56 now and I have to look in the mirror to remind myself that I’m not 36 again
Julie, I’m glad that they’re being so careful. It’s supposed to get a little warmer here in MIchigan soon, so it’s probably the same where they are.
Hi Bryan, that’s an awesome testimony – you’re doing great! Thanks for sharing.
I don’t think I ever really went low fat. My mother always used butter and my grandmother had the same can of bacon grease on her stove! I read WAP around 10 years or so ago, and have been trying to improve things since then. But I have also made other changes that make not being overwhelmed by the low fat mind set easier — I tossed out my TV in 2003 (no commercials, no news, and it also makes Christmas LOTS nicer), I don’t read newspapers, or news on the internet. I am also stubborn enough to know what I’m doing is right, and untrusting enough of Western medicine/doctors/drugs to avoid all like the plague. I wish I knew a way to reach people, even just a little bit, but if they aren’t ready, it just won’t happen (my husband thought the four food groups were beenie-weenies, beer, cigarettes, and coffee). I would settle for getting people to start to think for themselves and not believe EVERYTHING doctors tell them.
Janet, I’d actually like not having a TV, but Kent would be too sad without his Red Wings hockey! You’re right on, though, until someone is truly ready for change, we can’t force them. That reminds me, I have a post on that to get up…
Thanks!
Kelly
This post caught my eye in Works For Me Wednesday at Rocks In my Dryer. I have been eating a more natural diet (high vegetable and protein, lower carb) for five years now. I had gained about 38 pounds while pregnant, and after I had my son I stumbled upon a few books praising low-carb diets. The best overall food-focused health book I’ve read was by Rob Faigin, “Natural Hormonal Enhancement.” It’s so easy!!! I’ve “fallen off the wagon” a few times around the holidays, of course, but other than that, I’ve had no problem whatsoever. The one-week very low carb was hard to start out, but after that it was smooth sailing. Initially I lost all the baby weight in three months, barely even trying (breastfeeding helped). I love vegetables and meat and eat a great variety of foods. Twice a week I eat a high-carb but still mostly natural meal for dinner. People can’t believe how much I eat (and specifically how much fat I eat) and still have low bodyfat! I am almost never hungry. It’s great. I have visible abs which I never had before, even as a Division-I athlete working out 20+ hours a week. Now I work out maybe three hours a week and I am lean and agile. More importantly, I have been declared very healthy by my doctor and gynecologist. I’m not saying this to brag, I truly owe my healthy and leanness to my eating plan.
Kristin,
What a great testimony, thanks for sharing! And what a gift you’re giving your children – you’ll be a healthy Grandma someday who can enjoy her grandkids!
Jessica,
You might consider pointing out to your husband that with breast milk, everyone is very careful mothers know never to heat the milk (other than slightly, in a warm water bath) so as to not destroy the bacteria, enzymes, vitamins and minerals. Nearly every fact to that nature holds true to cows milk. I’m so glad my wife is with me 100% on all this. It really makes everything so much easier.
Blake, that’s true, I’d never thought of explaining it to people that way!