“The problem is that cravings are “macro”, for the things they need *most*. But they don’t crave “micro”, the things they only need a little bit of.”
Thank you very much for your reasoned and explicit response! The quote above (and the rest of your post) makes a lot of sense to me. I will take it into my consideration of the entire subject. You are a reasonable and responsible correspondent.
But, in that event, should we not allow the macro cravings to take care of themselves (let them eat what they want) and back fill the micro? In other words, should we be telling an 18 year old male (maybe burning 4000 calories a day) that he is “eating unhealthy” because he is eating a double cheeseburger with fries? If you look at the propaganda you know that this is exactly what the guys are being told. “Eat a salad which is healthy.” The screaming from the food fascist about how “unhealthy” a cheeseburger is makes me sick. In my opinion it is part of the femininization of American culture. Let the guys eat as many cheeseburgers as they want, as long as they take the vitamin pill on the plate. Men, that is males of every age, need to eat meat and animal fat, as much as possible!
I grew up largely before my family was influenced by the food fascists, but I was subjected to the usual eating ideas (which I think were wrong). When I was a young boy I hid peas, carrots and other vegetables under the table rather than eat them, and I faked drinking milk. I could not stand it then, and I hate milk even now. However, I was drawn to eating meat and animal fat, with some carbohydrates. When I was 18 I weighed 138 pounds (5’10”). Today, at 62 I weigh 150, at max. I still crave meat and animal fat (I stress ANIMAL) because I think that vegetable fat as a substitute is what is behind (pun intended) the obesity problem.
Human beings must eat fat (contrary to what food fascist might imply) and animal fat is vastly superior to vegetable fat.
I think that because the food fascists have made eating meat and animal fat a mortal sin we now have an obesity problem. Normal human beings, sensing the need for real fat, crave ANIMAL fat (real butter, not “diet margarine” or real bacon grease or lard, not “vegetable oil”). They end up substituting vegetable fat for animal fat and the body does not properly respond. People continue to eat and eat the vegetable fats to make up for the lack of real honest to goodness animal fat. They get fat, and fatter, and fatter still, all the while eating only vegetable fats. I say let them eat only, YES ONLY, lard sandwiches. Only animal fat! They will get less fat all the time.
There are a ridiculous number of twists and turns to oil and fat nutrition. Here are some of the ones you might find interesting.
To start with fats and oils. With mostly animal fats, there is an important ratio of fatty acids, Omega-3 and Omega-6, that are optimal for fat nutrition. The ratio is important, because most land animal meat has a lot of Omega-6, which is slightly inflammatory to the immune system; but cold water ocean fish is the primary source of Omega-3, which is slightly anti-inflammatory. So if you almost exclusively eat land animal meat and fat, you get *less* nutrition than if you also eat some fish. Plus, you tend to be a little more prone to auto-immune diseases like arthritis.
The really odd man out among fats and oils is coconut oil. Most vegetable oils have fairly small molecules, and animal fat tends to large molecules, but coconut oil is right in the middle, with medium chain oil.
When people eat fats and oils, after absorbing them, they go to the lymph system, a very roundabout route to the liver. But coconut oil is unique, because it is absorbed into the blood. So it is vital to people who cannot absorb other types of oils and fats, who would otherwise waste away.
The stomach is sometimes called “dumb”, because it is so easily fooled by its contents. However, it has different modes of digestion, depending on what is being eaten. So if you combine two different foods, that are digested differently starting with the stomach, it tends to get confused, and not digest either as well.
For this reason, neither eating meat and fat alone, or eating complex carbs alone, will tend to make you gain weight, compared to eating them at the same time, which seems to be the formula for fatty weight gain.
So far this is fairly simple stuff, because it is all about what is going into the system. But once the gut bacteria get involved, everything gets odd. Bile starts breaking down oils and fats in earnest, along with bacteria. And the mix of bacteria and other organisms has a lot to say about how much nutrition you get from your food.