Comment on My oh Mitochondria! You need to see the (sun)light! by saarnok

Parent Post: My oh Mitochondria! You need to see the (sun)light! · In Reply To

saarnok · 5/25/2026, 9:27:19 PM · permalink

It's been a bit since I read it, but it's largely derived/distorted from Catherine Shanahan's "Dark Calories" book which comes with of course many citations that I never checked and likely never will.  
  
Basic rule. Animal fats are best, lard, tallow, precisely the opposite of the advice I grew up with and rejected totally over 40 years ago. Butter, eggs, fatty meat, rendered fat. I grew up being cautioned about the butter on my toast instead of the bread. Throw the bread away and eat the butter if you're trying to be healthy.  
  
Your comment about the donut is kind of fascinating if you think about it. Make the donut using lard instead of vegetable oil/shortening and you're probably cutting out the bad effects by something like half.  
  
Here's a challenge to you. Just try to avoid all, let's call them "machine oils" for a month, or just make a mental game as if you were doing so. You get to keep butter, lard, beef tallow, olive oil, coconut oil and avocado oil. Let's throw in peanut oil just to give you maximum flexibility.  
  
What you can't have is anything called "vegetable oil". No canola, corn, cottonseed, soy, sunflower, safflower, grapeseed, and rice oils. No crisco, no "vegetable shortening". None of that.  
  
You're going to find yourself all but totally cut off from essentially every snack food on the market. Every food associated with diabetes.  
  
A long time ago I gritted my teeth and bought genuine grade A maple syrup to use when we had pancakes or waffles or french toast. I was sure I'd regret it because all that would happen is we'd run out of that syrup in a week and be back to using the basic "maple syrup" we'd been buying by the gallon (not kidding). Funny thing. We loved the genuine natural maple syrup, but we now used a quart in the same amount of time we used to go through two gallons of normal "maple syrup".  
  
Nutrition isn't black and white, or if it is, it's black and white with blindfolds on.  
  
There is absolutely no way for you to believe what changing your diet to a radically natural one will do to you until you just do it.  
  
If, like me you're addicted to the ritual of getting a snack at the convenience store, or grabbing a burger while you're out shopping, then you, like me, will experience something that feels a bit like oppression when you realize the menu of the entire frickin world seems designed to thwart your desires.  
  
But, I ramble on. I recommend reading "Dark Calories" or at the very least find some interviews with the author to get somewhat better informed.

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