Another hangover from the last half-century of dietary misguidance is the belief that dietary fat must indeed be bad for us, even if we accept that Carbohydrates are causing us to fatten.
This is a compromise position that seems perfectly reasonable. It was this kind of thinking in the early 1960s that led proponents of carbohydrate restriction to describe their recommended diets as high
in protein instead of high in fat. Rather than avoiding only the fattening carbohydrates, you eliminate butter and cheese from the diet, eat chicken breasts without the skin, lean fish, the leanest cuts of meat, and egg white without the yolks.
As I’ve said, though, there’s no compelling reason to think that fat, or saturated fat, is harmful, whereas there’s good reason to question the benefits of diets that abnormally elevate the protein content. Populations that ate mostly meat or exclusively meat, as I discussed earlier, tried to maximize the fat they ate, and one reason seems to be that high-protein diets–without signification fat or carbohydrates–can be toxic. Protein-metabolism experts in a recent U.S have addressed this issue.
Institute of Medicine Report called Dietary Reference Intakes.
“It has been suggested from evidence of the dietary practices of hunter-gatherer populations, both present day and historical, that humans avoid diets that contain too much protein,” the IOM experts explain, citing the same research on hunter-gatherer populations to which I referred. The short-term symptoms of these high-protein, low fat, low carbohydrate diets, these protein-metabolism experts point out, are weakness, nausea, and diarrhea. These symptoms will disappear when the protein content is reduced to a more moderate 20 to 25 percent of calories and fat content is increased to compensate.
When physicians and nutritionist tested carbohydrate restriction before the beginning of the anti-fat movement in the 1960s, they did so with fatty meat and diets that were 75 to 80 percent fat by calories but only 20 to 25 percent protein. This mixture had no side effects, was well tolerated, and is most consistent with the diets eaten by populations like the Inuits, who lived almost exclusively, if not exclusively, on animal products.
Whether or not a diet that is 75 percent fat and 25 percent protein is healthier that one than is 65 percent fat and 35 percent protein is an open question. Equally important is the question of which is easier to sustain and provides the most enjoyment. If you find yourself satisfied eating skinless chicken breasts, lean cuts of meat and fish, and egg-white omelets. So be it. But eating that fat of the meat as well as the lean, the yolks as well as the white, foods cooked with butter and lard may be the better prescription for sustainability, and it may be for health as well.
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