The saturated fat lobby 🫃

Lately there has been a move to celebrate saturated fats and re-brand them as not only tasty but also healthy. A lot of it is by farmers who raise livestock for meat and dairy, especially the later who get paid for the components in their milk, and if people drink milk that is not skim, it can, at least in theory raise the price of milk components, namely the butterfat. Not only do the dairymen want you drink more milk, the highest of value for milk products, but they’d prefer you drink milk with as much butterfat as possible.

For some time now, most major medical organizations has argued for reducing the intake of saturated fat to promote health and reduce the risk from cardiovascular diseases. This is why skim milk has proved to be quite popular, with more and more milk fat going into cheese and other desserts. But contrarians and dairymen would like you to reconsider how much milk fat you have in your drink, noting that the fats in milk can make you fill faster quicker, displacing potentially more harmful foods like highly processed carbs like bread and rolls, sweets and desserts.

But the less bad way of thing doesn’t makes something bad. It doesn’t mean you should never enjoy a cold glass of whole milk or some in your coffee, but skim milk remains a healthier option – especially if not with a enormous hamburger and fries. Like everything, it’s about averages, not the every day. A few times of year, having whole milk, ice cream or cheese isn’t going to kill but such things should be a treat not an every day occurrence. Bacon, especially from tamworth hogs, is good as an occassional treat. But you really shouldn’t be having bacon every day for breakfast.