For a very long time the American government has been telling people to cut fat out of their diet and eat grains and vegetables instead of meat. The Standard American Diet is not based on anything but some casual observations about who has heart disease and the proselytizing of food fanatics. People who actually think about this stuff have long argued that the government has it backwards. People should cut the carbs and not worry about dietary fat, but the nutrition establishment persists.

Now it looks like the Swedes are breaking ranks.

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 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 humans that were good at digesting meat and fat would thrive, especially in harsh climates like in Europe and Asia. The people who could survive on game and fish were the ones who thrived in these areas. Evolution can work quickly when there is strong section pressure. The point being, we are probably better off eating like our ancestors. If you’re black, then eat like an African. If you’re white, eat like a European.