The SAD Truth

For the past half century a big - and deadly - fraud has been perpetrated upon the population by government and agribusiness.

This is not so much a conspiracy as simply a convergence between the profit motive and sloppy, compromised science to reinforce the status quo.

The fraud is this: Grains and vegetables should be eaten in quantity because they are good for us, while saturated fats should be strictly limited because they are deadly.

The truth is that since man first walked the earth he based his existence - and rise - upon the consumption of fat from animal sources. This is the diet that allowed our brains to grow and for us to become the planet's dominant species. This is the diet that gave us sound health and immunity.

Today, we are beset with a host of chronic ills because our diet in no way resembles that of our ancestors. We eat far too many carbohydrates and cheap fats and far too few high quality saturated fats. And it is the former, not the latter, which has wreaked havoc with our bodies.

These refined and processed foods comprise the bulk of the Standard American Diet (SAD) - which, as the acronym rightly suggests, is the source of our current chagrin.