Yep. As they say, if you eliminate everything that tastes good, you won’t live longer – but it will just FEEL that way…

Exactly. I was reminded of the movie SLEEPER.. The time traveler who says he owned a health food store is asked, “So, in your time, there were no hot fudge sundaes?”

And my mother who dutifully fed us margarine for decades because she thought it was better for us.

My own rule is on the lines of Michael Pollan’s. I eat whatever I like, just not too much of anything.

Hello Kathleen,
Home-smoked brisket?! Ginger snaps with bacon fat?! Also heavenly… If we keep up with all food trends/experts/news, we’ll soon have to give up everything – including fruit, for Pete’s sake.

So much nutrition advice is fad based on dubious science. Interesting that Kristin Kirkpatrick bases her opposition to bacon on sodium these days. In another era it would have been fat. Though I recently read that the official sodium standards in the US are below what is necessary to sustain life, and far below recommendations in other countries. Perhaps they are compensating for the fact that processed foods contain enormous amounts of sodium.

This year I made ginger snaps with bacon fat for Christmas and shared them with my book group. They were exclaiming over their utter deliciousness, but when I told them the secret ingredient the double-bypass veteran handed me her half-eaten cookie in horror. That’s when the only doctor among us nodded her approval. “Animal fat is important,” she said. Having just attended a nutrition workshop in which the effects of fructose on the liver (including from fruit) was a far greater health (and heart) concern.