“Eat healthy fat and prevent cancer and heart disease. Avoid fat and increase your risk of cancer, heart disease and obesity.” Mark Sisson

 

For years and years I have been writing about low fat this and that. I have spent hours and hours in the kitchen baking low fat goodies and sweets. I have been swinging from the wrong tree.

The world has been lead to believe that fat is bad. The common agreement is that it can kill you with heart attacks, cancer or any number of diseases. To top that all off it makes us well… fat!  Our culture has turned into this fat phobic society, due to this thinking, and continues to grow fatter and fatter and have more and more disease. Something is rotten in Denmark.

The truth of the matter is that fat is actually good for you. I mean really good for you. There are wicked fats that should be avoided at all costs, such as trans fats and partially hydrogenated oils. But fats that have been created by Mother Nature are good for you, no, they are great for you.

Eating healthy fat is an excellent way to prevent cancer and stave off the evil heart attack that we all fear. It is also a can help you lose weight and feel great. Yes, loose weight. By eating good fat, you will feel full and satisfied in a way that actually sustains you so you won’t be tempted to over load on empty carbs.  By eating a low fat diet, you will never feel satisfied, get depressed, and you will eventually gain back all the weight you lost and more. Guaranteed.

This low fat fable was all started in the 1960s by a well respected scientist, Ancel Keys. Keys formulated the “lipid hypothesis” that promoted the link between fat intake, cholesterol levels, and heart disease. The US Senate’s McGovern Committee in the 1970s decided to adopt this hypothesis as an American standard for eating. The only problem was that that it was a hypothesis and not a reality.

In fact, all of the studies over the years have proven otherwise. The highly respected and ongoing Nurses’ Health Study that has tracked over 127,000 nurses over 2 decades has showed no statistical association between total fat intake and heart disease. There have been at least four large studies on men comparing disease rates and diet which “showed no evidence that men who ate less fat lived longer or had fewer heart attacks”.

Meanwhile, the link between low-fat diets and weight loss hasn’t fared well either. The ongoing Women’s Health Initiative – a 100 million dollar study on women’s health – enrolled 50,000 women in a randomized trial, putting half of them on a draconian diet that provided only 20 per cent of their calories from fat. After three years they had lost, on average, just one kilogram. (One lousy kilogram and I bet they gained that back!)

In my next post I will discuss what are the healthy oils that one can eat to save oneself and how much fat should actually be in our diet. A few good books to read on this subject are “Bad Calories Good Calories” by Gary Taubes, and “The Primal Blueprint” by Mark Sisson.

It is time to rethink this old paradigm that has not successful. Time to think outside of these hypotheses that were never true to begin with. Open your mind and your mouth and begin a new way of seeing food and our health. Here’s to a new and healthy and satisfying year!

Stuffed Acorn Squash

 

This has become my new favorite dish this winter. Maybe it is because we had a bumper crop of acorn squash! None the less, this dish is bone deep satisfying and easy to whip up any night. Thanks to “It’s a primal life.” Serves four.

 

2 medium sized acorn squash, cut in half and de-seeded

1 pound of fresh sausage, (we use venison)

1 tablespoon of coconut oil

1/2 onion chopped

2-6 garlic cloves, minced

1 large apple, cubed

2-3 cups of fresh kale chopped

¼ cup of chopped pecans

2 eggs

2 tablespoons of milk or coconut milk or water

1 tablespoon of fresh rosemary, finely chopped

½ cup of goat cheddar (optional)

Preheat the primal fire, the oven, to 350 degrees. Bake the squash cut side down in a baking pan with 1 inch of water. Slip into the oven to bake for 20 to 30 minutes till a knife easily penetrates the skin. Remove the pan and squash and let them cool a little bit. (Pour out the water when cooled) Bump the oven temperature up to 400 degrees.

When those little nuggets are just about done, heat up a nice deep skillet medium high and cook the sausage, onion and garlic till the sausage is just done. Toss in the kale and apples and cook a few minutes till the kale wilts. Stir in the nuts and rosemary.

In a large bowl, whip up the eggs and milk and stir into the sausage mixture. Stuff the squash with the sausage mix as full as you can get them. Tuck them in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes till baked and glowing. Delish!