If a person where to take all of the cautionary advice on the internet to heart he or she would not eat fats, carbohydrates or meats. In other words, starve–to death. A person absolutely must find sources of dietary energy that are least damaging or even healthy. Today in Washington Post there is an article that summarizes the known information on dietary fats. Some of them are no longer on the ‘do-not’ list that used to be. Some of them are on the ‘danger’ list that used to be the healthy recommendation.

Here is the link to today’s short article.

The bullet that you need to read, if no other from the article:

● Total fat (the percentage of fat in your diet) does not seem to be an issue when it comes to health; it is the type of fat that you eat that has the impact on your health.

All fats are not bad for us, the ones that are bad for us are man-made. The ones that are good for us come from fish or meats that are raised on grass. Lard is no worse for you than butter, butter is not bad for you, and is even good for you if it comes from cattle that are fed grass. Margarine is a deadly poison that over time will cause heart disease.

Sugar and simple carbohydrates are bad for you. The energy you get is too concentrated and causes ‘fatty liver’ disease and eventually cirrhosis. The disease is nicknamed NASH. Please click that link to read all about it. CHILDREN ARE COMING DOWN WITH IT. Sugar, while not a poison when used moderately (one fourth as much as the typical US citizen uses it), is a poison a lot like tobacco. It will not kill you right away, but it will give you diseases like obesity and diabetes over time.

Like fats, though, there are carbohydrates that are good for you. You need them to live. It turns out that the carbs you should be eating are the ones that come packaged with the good sugars that you should be eating. Fruits and vegetables have their sugars and fiber all packaged in precisely the correct proportion for the fiber to dampen the uptake of the sugar, allowing it to progress farther into your digestive system where it can safely be dealt with by the microbes in your intestines. Doing this prevents you from getting insulin shock, sugar high, and the carb crash.

Drinking orange juice is fundamentally different to your body than eating an orange. It is different because when you drink just the juice you are not getting the fiber and other essential elements of the orange that were put there by nature with your digestion in mind. You will be doing as much harm to yourself drinking orange juice as you would be eating a big bowl of Count Chocula cereal. The sugar immediately is taken up, as there is nothing to dampen that process. You cannot eat enough oranges to get a sugar high, you will fill up first.

If you want a perfectly good breakfast or lunch, one that will carry easily try making this mayonnaise free cole slaw. It’s not mayonnaise free because we don’t want fats. It is so that we don’t have to worry about bacteria growing on the eggs in the mayo. You can eat this slaw after a few hours in your lunch box and not worry about bad eggs. Tahini in the recipe is a sesame seed paste that you can find in the oriental section of your store or at a foreign foods store. You can leave the agave nectar out if you are detoxing from sugar and it will be really great that way.

If you want a dinner that will be really good eating and good for your health, try something like this stew. It is shown in the picture over brown rice which is much better for you than polished white rice. It uses quinoa and lentils–ingredients that most boxed-food-eating Americans may not be familiar with, but these grains and beans don’t take long to cook, which is an advantage if you aren’t the kind of cook that will plan ahead for tomorrow’s meals.

These dishes include the fuel that you need to live. You can’t cut out fats unless you replace them with carbs or proteins. You can’t cut out carbs unless you replace them with fats or protein.  You have to eat energetic nutrients. You should not be eating man-made nutrients, packaged in dead foods. Your foods should be alive and packaged in the wrapper that nature has been delivering them in for all of evolutionary history. You cannot go wrong trusting the planet to care for you, just as it always has done.