Never left my house. Love my buttah!

To an extent, but I mostly go with how I feel. Sometimes I will experiment based on a study that makes sense to me to see if I feel any benefit. I've recently switched my diet to avoid wheat and grain products and I feel much better. I eat a lot of nuts and other (natural) high fat foods (coconut, avocado) and sometimes my diet is 60% fat at the end of the day! But I have more energy and I'm losing a lot of weight doing that.

I also avoid dairy. There's been a lot of research that it's not good for you, but just listening to my body tells me that. It's mucus forming and I get far more congested when I eat it.

I do think one problem has been that some products are so ingrained in our society starting from childhood (like meat, wheat or dairy) that people think they feel "fine" on it because they have never gone any length of time without it. But everyone is different.

I never gave it up. Humans in every culture have eaten butter for thousands of years. Margarine has only been around for a hundred years or so. A few years ago, "scientists" said that coffee was bad and we should all give that up too. Now they say it prevents Alzheimer's. A while back, doctors were telling their patients to cut out eggs, meat, and dairy and go macrobiotic, which is heavily heavily vegetable and grain based. Now, they're telling us to give up grains. My grandmother used lard to fry eggs and meat and make her pies. She used full-fat milk in her cooking and heavy cream to make home-made ice cream, and in her coffee. She lived to be 94 and was still walking to church and the grocery store on the day before she died. Her only food mantra was "everything in moderation", including the shot of whiskey she drank every night before she went to bed. She must have been doing something right. There's a lot of junk nutrition science out there and there is much money to be made by the "experts" who write diet books because we're all looking for the fountain of youth and beauty.

I tend to use Olivio for toast, etc and butter when I cook.

I cringe now when I see people purchasing traditional margarine, as it seems it is bad for us. I did
use margarine for years before switching to Olivio.

DH avoided eggs, butter, etc and simply developed a weight problem because, I believe, of the poor food choices he then made instead. I feel the processed food industry has done a great deal of harm to trusting consumers, second only to the tobacco industry.

I gave up margarine in the 1970's when Prevention was reporting about hydrogenated fats. At about the same time I gave up meats cured with nitrates and stopped using charcoal briquettes for grilling, or eating much grilled meat.

I gave up non-organic dairy, chicken, and beef when I learned about hormones being used in all of it. I gave up all soy except grown in N. America organic when I learned that the majority of soy products are made from Chinese grown soy (including edamame) - I don't trust the Chinese to regulate and oversee "organic".

I gave up non-organic fruit: apples because of the chemicals used that were giving farmworkers cancer; strawberries because the chemicals used were ending up in the wells of the surrounding homes/farms; grapes for the same reasons.

I gave up farm raised salmon and seafood when I learned what it was being fed (hormone laced) and how the pens were affecting the environment for native species.

If I ever ate at Subway, I would have given it up when I learned about the additive sthey were using in their bread that also was used to make yoga mats.

I did an elimination diet and gave up a lot. Best thing ever. I found out I needed a lot more fat in my diet and got rid of foods that I reacted to along with anything with additives such as colourings and flavourings. Way back, in my youth, I would have rolled my eyes at these studies but I'm glad I'm over that.

Well, I stopped pan-frying in olive oil when I found out what high temps do to monounsaturated oils; now I use canola oil. But we still go through a fair amount of EVOO.

DH loathes the taste of margarine and any artificial sweeteners. He has a rather amazing palate for certain things; there are bottled waters I can't buy because he can taste the translucent plastic bottle; whereas he has no problem with bottled water in clear, harder plastics.

I'm mildly allergic to wheat and grains, but being Asian I refuse to give up rice. I just limit myself as my asthma symptoms are low-level. But if I went on one of those high-grain/low protein diets, after three days I wouldn't be able to make it up a single flight of stairs without stopping to wheeze.

This is such a loaded question, and I understand where everyone is coming from as far as the foods avoided.

I avoid to a degree; gmo's, canola oil, hydrogenated oil, high fructose corn syrup, processed foods with lots of "flavor" (excitotoxins), food from China, farmed raised fish, and canned foods.
I'm not a purist though, do eat out in restaurants about once a week and occasionally will buy something horrible but really tasty and wolf it down. I eat nitrates, bacon, about once every two weeks and ham maybe once a month or less.
I don't eat all organic meats and veggies but avoid the dirty dozen.

This post was edited by Bumblebeez on Wed, Mar 26, 14 at 22:26

Butter & fat are good for you?

I don't think so. I don't think they are bad for you either.

Moderation is key.

I visit a few other forums, including smoke meat, BBQ, grilling forums. Those forums have frequent member get togethers. I am shocked to see their group pictures of rampant obesity.

We all know "soul" food and "comfort food" are killing a lot of people in the black community.

To answer the question posted by this thread, I don't trust too many studies. I trust my body and my observations.

dcarch

I also think moderation is the key, although I entirely avoid things like cake mixes, frozen dinners and the preservatives they put on the vegetables at Subway, which taste metallic to me. Of course, I avoid them because I detest them, just like I avoid wine, beer, olives and stinky cheese, because I don't like them either.

Grandma used to tell me that if it wasn't a food 100 years ago, it isn't a food today. I've never in my adult life used margarine, I use butter. I drink coffee and my old doc told me years ago that an egg a day was "statistically insignificant" to my cholesterol.

I have always avoided convenience foods, don't really care for the vast majority of restaurant meals, raise my own organic vegetables and can them, and raise grass fed beef. However, I also eat an occasional chili cheese dog at A&W and happily said "thanks" to the marshmallow Peep that Bud shared with me today.

I tend to completely avoid the "health fad du jour", today it's agave nectar or coconut oil or grains, yesterday it was pork and coffee, tomorrow it will be something else entirely. If I don't like it, though, I'm not eating it, even if I live to see 100.

We mostly know what is good for us and what isn't. The Atkins people could never convince me that a carrot was poison while I was putting full fat cream in my coffee and eating a cheese stick. If you have a health issue, you're diabetic, have high blood pressure, are celiac, allergic to nuts, whatever, then you have a valid reason to avoid specific substances. Otherwise, eat healthy foods, lots of fruits and vegetables sprayed with as few poisons as possible, lean meats from well cared for and healthy animals and an occasional treat. It's what our bodies were designed to run on.

My very smart and now retired old doctor always told me to eat what I wanted, but eat half of it. He also told me that whatever "they" decided we should do today, they'd change that tomorrow and if we were just sensible it would solve many health issues.

Now, I'm not saying that I'm sensible but it seems very much like just common sense to me. And I'm still not giving up butter.

Annie

Sorry, but couldn't resist...

If you can't pronounce it, don't eat it is about how I think about things. And, I also bear in mind that Granny didn't have a washing machine, microwave, a host of gadgets to make her life easier or a TV so I think she needed more calories than I do.

It's always seemed to me that it's ridiculous to think that the foods we've been eating for thousands of years could be bad for us. It's like saying wolves shouldn't eat meat or cows shouldn't eat grass.

I did eliminate smoking right before my first pregnancy, have not smoked since, that's been around 35 years ago.

Years ago I stopped using soybean oil after I read from a trusted source that since soybeans were not (at the time) for human consumption, possible harmful chemicals could be used on them that were not allowed on plants grown for humans to eat. I do use butter in baking and as a spread on toast and olive oil in cooking. I hardly ever deep fry; just don't like the mess and smell.

Personally, I think that the genes you inherit have more to do with this than the foods you do or do not eat.

That said, I also think that that Annie's old doc was right: just eat half of anything you want.

Oh no! We stop at Subway when running errands, or on day trips, b/c I thought it was "healthy"! In fact, DD and I just ate there on Sat (hard to say how often we stop, sometimes we go months without going, other months we're there once a week).

I confess I switched to margarine when it was supposedly better for you, and am just now getting back to butter. I avoid anything with hydrogenated fat (except when I make blueberry buckle and strawberry shortcake using shortening in the summer), HFCS, artificial colors, flavors, or sweeteners, but did get hooked on Splenda 10 years ago - I used to take my coffee with just milk, not sugar, then added sugar when I was pg with DS 16 yrs ago, cut it after he was born, had to start using sugar again when pg with DD, and found I couldn't give up the sweetener afterwards, so switched to Splenda. I am finishing my last packets and plan on going back to sugar.

I will eat things with sucralose but don't give it to the kids, and we all avoid acesulfame K. I don't bake cakes often, just for birthdays, and do use cake mix then but 6 times a year or so isn't bad.

I don't buy anything with soy (GMO), don't generally buy vegetables at store except lettuce, frozen green beans and peas, sometimes broccoli plus canned beans. We grow own but tend to run out in the winter. I switched to sunflower oil for baking instead of vegetable (soy or corn) or canola. Haven't tried coconut oil yet.

We do eat conventional meat, but avoid the Dirty Dozen fruits/veggies. My mom gives DD non-organic fruit and snacks like applesauce with HFCS and shelf-stable pudding (which DD decided she can't stand). It makes me cringe - thank goodness DD decided she really doesn't like potatoes in any form so she didn't get hooked on French fries like DS did. Overall I think my kids eat healthier than most kids - DS is 15 and eats at least 2 servings of fruit (1 being OJ) and 3 servings of veggies each day, the only junk food I know of are the Quaker granola bars (not chocolate-covered) I buy them. Of course any time he can get his hands on chocolate he devours it but I can't blame him ;-)

DD has more of a sweet tooth than he does - is always asking for "a little dessert" but that for her is a lollipop or a couple of Girl Scout cookies, or some nuts, sometimes more fruit. She eats at least 2 fruits, usually 3, per day but I wish she'd eat some veggies.

After reading Fast Food Nation I don't even know if buying organic/grassfed meat would be any better - can't things still get contaminated at the slaughterhouse? As expensive as it is, I may start buying organic meat locally - after asking about their processing.

Studies studying studies, repeat....
It's getting amusing. Seems the conclusion is always
"move more, eat less".
Eat food, real food, and enjoy it. Enjoy making food into a meal, try new things. Meat is a garnish. (sometimes)

"Butter & fat are good for you?
I don't think so. I don't think they are bad for you either.
Moderation is key."

.... agree with that.

At least Jeff Novick is funny.

Here is a link that might be useful: fat free?

One way butter and animal fat are good for you--if they come from grass raised and grass finished animals they contain CLA--conjugated linoleic acid--which has been shown to fight several types of cancers and helps maintain lean body mass. Animals finished on grain immediately lose the CLA.

Kerrygold butter is easily available here and is grass finished.

No, studies have not really changed my eating habits as much as using common sense has. In the last couple of decades, studies seem to have been used less to educate consumers and more to manipulate the agricultural stock and commodities markets.

Studies demonizing high fructose corn syrup reduced consumer demand for corn and dropped its price to oil companies for ethanol production.

Release studies on the negative effects of soybeans and as demand for food products made with them drops, soybean feed prices for swine drop too. This leads to pork profit margins increasing concurrently with greater consumer demand for bacon and other pork products.

Digging into the funding sources for scientific studies is fascinating stuff.

Ruthanna, I totally agree with you. The same is true for pharmaceuticals. As I've said before on this forum in regards to coconut oil...follow the money trail before wasting time/money on the "studies" or the resulting products.

/tricia

Very interesting!

I agree Ruthanna, you have to check the authors/sources of your studies and who financed them. Monsanto has paid for several studies regarding GMO crops and now former Monsanto VP and head lobbyist Michael Taylor is Deputy Commissioner for the FDA ��" the board who regulates TaylorâÂÂs own industry.

There is far too much money and too many lobbyists involved in most of those studies, the conflicts are too great and in my opinion, renders them very nearly useless.

Common sense is far more reliable.

Annie

I have seen 2 family members battle cancer and two battle heart disease. These are painful and sad to endure. In the end, the person has to change their eating to stay alive. Save yourself the pain and eat safely. I love food but I love my health more.

Buy the best quality food you can afford and avoid added chemicals wherever you can. A liver loaded down with trying to rid you of extra toxins cannot keep you healthy or burn fats to maintain a healthy weight.

The first foods I stopped eating were the ones that came from inhumane factory farm practices.

This post was edited by kittymoonbeam on Sun, Mar 30, 14 at 11:45

"------I hate they way this has been ruined for all of us. What about innocent kids who have nothing else to eat? Who can cook everything from scratch all the time?----"

No one else to blame but ourselves. We elected those politicians.

Our system forces politicians to cater to money. As some politicians had said, " We don't spend much time governing, we spend most of our time fund raising."

dcarch