Fatten Up Already

America is obsessed with miracle diets. The latest, a morning banana craze is sweeping across Japan and moving with tsunamic certainty towards the gullible food fadests of the Lower 48. Alaska has blubber and Hawaii has Wo Fat, so they get a pass on this plea to defeat dietary hucksterism at home. The rest of us seem to have no idea why fat is important. And after all, you really are what you eat. Jennifer McLagan and Michael Pollan both have written interestingly about food as history and how "diet book culture" has fogged over our memories and taste buds.

In the Beginning, people hunted animals, ate the fat of those animals and lo and behold their brains got bigger. That's the story. Our story. So don't monkey with the system people. Your body needs fat. It doesn't need tofu pups or food that has been "optimized for your health." Over processed foods are bullshit and imitation food is nonsense. Eat simple fresh things.

Now don't go overboard with bacon smoothies or bone marrow tacos, simply eat loads of fresh veggies as a counter balance. Meals with lard or butter or schmaltz are more satisfying and keep you from gorging on crap like Rice-A-Roni, the San Franciso Treat. A change in eating habits will have a greater health and economic impact on the nation than the cumulative impact of the next 20 wonder drugs.

And because the pharmaceutical giants are only in business to make money they will screw you. Better served to eat like a caveman: grab the pork butter to fry your turnip greens, braise some ox-tails and lather fresh butter on whole bread. Your life will be changed and your heart will be none the wiser because a barbecued brisket is assuredly less dangerous than a stray banana peel.