Embracing the Fat

When I think back to the first time I became aware that what I put in my mouth affected my body/weight, it was probably during the low-fat and non-fat fads. My mom fully embraced this, and she and I were always striving to find the next best food with no fat. Non-fat ice cream? Non-fat cookies? For some reason, this brought us satisfaction as well as an all-access pass to eat as much as we wanted. No fat meant no calories, right?

Eat all. the. fat

Then came the infamous Atkins diet, which basically swung the other way. Eat all.the.fat with no thought as to the quality or kind of fat you were consuming. I know plenty of people had success with this (while they were on it), but the minute a carb touched their lips they put the weight right back on.

Organic eating

Next came the notion of “organic eating” and “clean eating.” Focusing on a list of specific foods and avoiding everything at all costs. Now I don’t have a problem with this concept, and we try and focus a lot of our efforts on organic, grass-fed, and “clean.” But we are anything but food avoiders. Nathan and I each have a meal plan that we loosely follow, and I personally aim to follow this plan 85% – 90% of the time. It works for me.

One thing that has taken me a long time to be able to do is to embrace the fat. Probably because the whole notion of “non-fat is the best fat” was ingrained in my mind at such a young age. So even just 5 years ago I was still looking for 2% milk, turkey bacon, and the leanest ground meat possible. I blotted the grease off my pizza. I ate frozen yogurt. When browning meat I would drain the fat before eating it. I purchased low-fat yogurt. One memory I have is a few years ago when Nathan and I were able to escape for a couple’s weekend at a local Bed and Breakfast. We were enjoying a cup of coffee in peace that Saturday morning, and I remember freaking out when Nathan said he added half and half instead of 2% milk to my coffee. Seriously? But I really felt this would impact my diet.

Full-fat raw milk

Fast forward to today, and I am finally at a place where I am fully embracing the fat. Full-fat raw milk in my morning coffee. Eggs cooked in coconut oil with REAL BACON. Half an avocado with my lunch each day. Heaping spoonfuls of almond butter in my smoothies. Real full-fat butter. Grass-fed beef with blue cheese mixed in (I don’t know the fat content of the beef because we purchase from a local farm). Handfuls of pistachios and cashews to tide me over until dinner. Veggies fried in bacon grease. And full-fat ice cream (we like Breyer’s for the simple ingredient list).