Actually, I grew up with my grandparents on a farm.
There were fats aplenty. There was toast. Things like cake, candy, pies and ice cream were very rare treats. My grandfather was a bee-keeper and we did have honey. (I was given raw comb as a treat.) Our primary starches were bread and potatoes. (Bread for breakfast and potatoes for ‘dinner’ and ‘supper’) We never ate cold cereal.
Meat and carbs (usually potatoes) were eaten in equal portions - bite for bite. We’d have a small amount of cooked veggies on the side. (For breakfast we’d eat toast with eggs and, if we were lucky, some carefully rationed sausage or bacon.)
Men at much more than the women. They were larger and more physically active and it was expected. But the ratio of meat to carbs was the same. 1:1
Weirdly, I don’t remember eating a single salad (I’m not counting potato salad - that was a common theme with lunch), although we did munch on raw carrots straight out of the ground and I loved eating sugar peas right off the vine. Heck, grandma carried a salt-shaker in her basket when we’d work on the harvest just so we could snack as we worked. (I got smacked a lot for eating when I was supposed to be peeling... I hated peeling.)
Other than that, our veggies were eaten cooked and we ate much less than the amounts recommended today. (Usually it was only about two, half-cup servings a day.) Fruits and berries were eaten in season or in the form of preserves spread on our breakfast toast. My grandfather drank a tall glass of fresh goat’s milk every morning and this was also forced upon us kids. None of the grown women drank straight milk unless they were pregnant, but they did eat cheese.
We ate three meals a day, although the kids did graze outside all afternoon on whatever we could find on the farm.
As for the whole, ‘needing to eat carbs for energy thing’ that I hear so much about - our guys would head out to do chores in the morning with nothing more than a cup of coffee. (The cows and goats won’t wait to be milked while grandma makes breakfast.) They’d come in two hours later to wash up and break their fast.
We still have the farm in the family. Most of my relatives are farmers.
Yes, the farm life-style is much more physical than modern living. Yes, exercise is important. But we didn’t eat a ton of refined carbs on the farm. Sweet should be a *treat*, not a regular way of eating.
And one more thing: Every single time anyone of the older generation wanted to lose weight - they’d cut out ‘starch’. It was common knowledge that starch made you fat and unhealthy. Us kids weren’t allowed sugar very often because we were told it would make us ‘sick’ and give us ‘sugar diabetes’!
(Of course these were the same adults who thought it was hilarious to watch a 5 year old cry because she accidentally swallowed a watermelon seed and was terrified that it would grow in her stomach...)
As for the whole, ‘needing to eat carbs for energy thing’ that I hear so much about -
Without glucose, your brain isn't going to function properly nor will you have the glycogen stores necessary for demanding physical activity. So, yes, you need to eat carbs for energy.
our guys would head out to do chores in the morning with nothing more than a cup of coffee
Yes, some guys can go for a time just on a cup of coffee, but there's a reason breakfast is considered the most important meal of the day.
But we didn’t eat a ton of refined carbs on the farm. Sweet should be a *treat*, not a regular way of eating
I'm not sure why you feel the need to differentiate between "refined" carbs and, I guess, "unrefined" carbs. Of course, I don't know of anyone who gets sucrose from gnawing on a stick of sugar cane so this whole "sucrose is refined" thingy doesn't make much sense to me. For the sake of this discussion, however, a carb is a carb. You seem to be suggesting that when it comes to the issue of obesity and diabetes that refined vs. unrefined is material. It isn't.