I’ve always been a low carb diet guy. When I played sports as a kid, we were told that athletes should eat loads of protein and few carbs. Into adulthood, I ignored the conventional wisdom and stuck with the low-carb diet when watching my weight. I never heard of Atkins until a few years ago, but I had to laugh that someone was making a buck off it. Wrestlers and swimmers have know for decades that low-carb, high protein diets result in better muscle growth and lower body fat. I still get lectures about eating too many eggs or too much meat. Of course, the government is always lecturing us about our food. That horse faced first lady is a pest about it. She’s always out yelling about the kids not eating arugula or something.

Now it looks like the Swedes are breaking ranks and joining me on the fatty side of the plate.

Butter, olive oil, heavy cream, and bacon are not harmful foods. Quite the opposite. Fat is the best thing for those who want to lose weight. And there are no connections between a high fat intake and cardiovascular disease.

On Monday, SBU, the Swedish Council on Health Technology Assessment, dropped a bombshell. After a two-year long inquiry, reviewing 16,000 studies, the report “Dietary Treatment for Obesity” upends the conventional dietary guidelines for obese or diabetic people.

For a long time, the health care system has given the public advice to avoid fat, saturated fat in particular, and calories. A low-carb diet (LCHF – Low Carb High Fat, is actually a Swedish “invention”) has been dismissed as harmful, a humbug and as being a fad diet lacking any scientific basis.

Instead, the health care system has urged diabetics to eat a lot of fruit (=sugar) and low-fat products with considerable amounts of sugar or artificial sweeteners, the latter a dangerous trigger for the sugar-addicted person.

This report turns the current concepts upside down and advocates a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet, as the most effective weapon against obesity.

The thing about carbohydrates is they make you hungry. It is why Chinese food does not stick with you. It is (the round eye version) loaded with carbs and often simple carbs like sugar. The calories are not the issue. It is metabolism and blood sugar. Humans evolved over a million years eating meat, bugs, fish and edible wild greens. When available, fruits and vegetables were eaten by our ancestors. Even into recent times, meat was the main part of the diet. We were designed, if you will, to eat meat because it is packed with energy. A nice hunk of blubber can keep you going through the worst winter. it is not hard to see why hominids that were good at digesting meat and fat would thrive. Packing out gut with vegetables now is like putting coal in your gas tank.

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