Since we're all over the place anyway, topic-wise.....
We've found that good high-quality meat (and milk) don't leave us with the same effects of industrially-farmed meat and milk. The rare occasions when we can get raw milk, we LOOOOOOVE the taste and we don't have any of the digestive after-effects. (For anyone concerned, Pennsylvania raw milk dairy farms are super-highly regulated and inspected so we feel confident getting milk from certified farms there, plus the farmers who sell it do NOT want bad press or lawsuits so they are really scrupulously clean.) Grass-fed meats don't leave me in food comas the way "regular" meat does either, so I'm inclined to think it's not so much the saturated fat but the quality of the farming.
My breakfast smoothie consists of full-fat yogurt and coconut milk (plus rice protein powder and a calcium supplement), both higher in saturated fat than my doctor would deem fit for human consumption, plus a raw egg from my friend's backyard chickens when they're available, and I'm LOSING weight at long last despite a stubborn thyroid. It fills me up the whole morning, seriously, and it's the good sat fat that does it, I'm sure of it.
My doc praised my cholesterol numbers and was shocked - SHOCKED, I tell you! - that we consume and cook in coconut oil, not to mention full-fat dairy (including butter), plenty of eggs, and dark-meat chicken, and Heaven forbid we occasionally cook veg in leftover bacon fat (but have you ever had your kids ask for THIRDS on okra or green beans?
). Yes, plenty of people eat way more meat than they should, but so far the USDA-recommended diet high in grains and low in sat fats hasn't really panned out, what with the much higher levels of diabetes and obesity and occurring at younger and younger ages. Grains are also prepared differently than they used to be, as are pretty much most foods we get unless they're specifically raised and processed without the extras. Even Crisco, which is pretty much pure trans fat (hydrogentated oil), is marketed in the States as having 0 grams of trans fat per serving, with a serving size small enough to legally round down to zero.
There is still emerging research on the effects of (naturally) saturated fats and how necessary they are for neural and eye development, but in the absence of messed-up blood chemistry or obesity or behavioral effects of the stuff on my kids (who seem to be like canaries in a coal mine when it comes to food), I'm sticking with the stuff for now.
*steps gingerly backward off soapbox*
In any event, it
is interesting to see the different recommendations even from country to country or region to region in the opinions of doctors about when to go low-fat with the milk.
