I grew up with the Standard American Diet (SAD), was a scrawny kid then struggled with my weight from about age 17-22. I then decided that low-fat diet foods were wrong as God gave us real food, not low fat, and cooked that way for myself. The change in my health was crazy and despite eating what I wanted I lost 20 pounds easily. Even at 41 and after having 6 kids, I can eat red meat, butter on my veggies, drink whole milk and still wear a size 4. It is when money is tight and I start using beans for protein and less fat in our meals that my weight goes up.
Wish my mom had figured out what yours knew, it would have made my high school and college years much better!
Eggs were the preferred substitute for more meat for me in tough times-beans are a last resort before starvation-when I was little and asked about a margarine commercial I saw on TV, my mom told me how it used to be packaged before those cute little butter-like sticks, and it sounded terrible.
We had plenty fresh dairy and eggs at home-and I still can get the butter, goat cheese and eggs by barter, since I live in the hinterlands-but I quit drinking milk as soon as I could say “no”-I simply have always hated the taste of it, although I like cheese, yogurt, etc-anything but milk. Since we didn’t get stuff made with sugar, I don’t care for that, either-my idea of dessert is fresh, unadorned peaches or plums.
I’m 108-110, and have worn a 3 or 5, depending on the maker since I was 17-except for a dorm/junk food binge in college when I gained 10-15 pounds-when I realized this was why I had no energy, I ditched the Mcfish sandwiches, hamburger helper, tater tots and French fries and went back to real, fresh food-energy came back and the weight came right off-I never did that again...