Category: dairy

Ask Fatty Felicity

Welcome to Ask Fatty Felicity, the write-in column where you get to ask all your burning questions about Fat, Diet, and the Meaning of Life! Let’s get right to today’s burning questions, shall we?

Fatty Felicity, what a lovely name. Is it in reference to your personal tonnage statistics? 

–Jenny

Thank you, Jenny. In fact, I’ve taken this name in reference to my favorite food group, fat. Contrary to popular expectation, increasing my daily fat intake from around 30 grams a day to 200 and switching from “heart-healthy” oils to saturated fats like coconut oil and butter has been very good for me. It has helped me lose 145 pounds, put on muscle, and improve all my markers for good health–from cholesterol levels to blood pressure.

Fatty Felicity, I’m in a quandry. I’ve been invited to a friend’s party and I think the only things to eat will be nachos and pizza. Should I take up a life of monasticism?

–Artimus

Artimus, Artimus. Let’s leave the extremes for the vegans, shall we? There’s no reason to avoid people or parties. Here’s some handy tips for you, though:

Continue reading Ask Fatty Felicity

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly III

Just because something isn’t a lie does not mean that it isn’t deceptive. A liar knows that he is a liar, but one who speaks mere portions of truth in order to deceive is a craftsman of destruction.

― Criss Jami

We’ve looked at the good. We’ve looked at some bad. Now…the ugly.

  • Eating protein will kill you in middle age, and then somehow–magic, I think we can assume–becomes protective after age 65. Variations of this article came out all over the news about two weeks ago. It was such a headline that I had several people ask me about it. It took me about a week to get the time to find the actual study, and then more time to get around to writing about it. But here we go.

As you probably already guessed from the idiotic statement that the same protein that will kill you if you’re 64 will suddenly protect you from death once you turn 65, this is a load of baloney. This contention alone ought to be enough to put every reasonable person on alert. Continue reading The Good, The Bad and The Ugly III

Final Dairy Clarity

The one who burns his mouth for drinking milk too hot eats even yogurt carefully. 

–Turkish Proverb

Let’s talk about dairy one last time. We’ve considered whether we need to abandon it entirely solely because we imagine our supposed Paleolithic ancestors didn’t eat it. We’ve looked at whether it is going to give us cancer (no) or save us from cancer (no). We talked about its insulinogenic quality.

If you’ve come through all that you’ve probably figured out where I land on this issue: in general, dairy is perfectly fine in moderate amounts if you personally tolerate it and don’t show an insulin addictive response to it. (If you’re just reading this or aren’t sure what I mean I’ll give you a hint: if you ate half the block of cheddar at one sitting without even realizing what you were doing, you probably have a disproportionately high insulin response to this low-sugar food. Sorry.)
Continue reading Final Dairy Clarity

A Dairy Good Time Was Had By All

After cheese comes nothing.

–English Proverb (from the Latin)

Having discussed whether we should avoid dairy entirely solely because our supposed Paleolithic ancestors are believed not to have eaten it, let’s now consider a couple other thoughts, shall we?

The next thing to think about is this:

2. What’s up with the conflicting studies? Why does one study show that dairy will kill you, while another claims that it is a health food?

Continue reading A Dairy Good Time Was Had By All

Dairy, Dairy, Quite Contrary

Eat butter first, and eat it last, and live till a hundred years be past.

–Old Dutch proverb

What to do about dairy? Some people love it, some people hate it, everyone wants it on pizza. Vegans won’t touch it while Paleos claim it’s too new a food to safely eat. Some are sure it makes them gain weight or at least feel temporarily bloated, yet many Europeans consume it like candy and seem to enjoy both good health and healthy body weights regardless. Some people groups, such as the Chinese or Vietnamese, have rampant lactose intolerance; yet some societies–like the Mongols, Tibetans, and Masaai–have or do subsist largely on dairy and are strong and healthy. Some scientists claim that it will give you cancer and cause gut leakage problems, while others swear that it’s the best and healthiest way to get your Vit D and calcium, and may even protect your from cancer. One study tells you it will spike your insulin and derange your metabolism; another will tell you that it protects from diabetes.
Continue reading Dairy, Dairy, Quite Contrary