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Comment by jimmysong | Hacker News Reader

The main reason lard wasn't sold was because the health industrial complex blamed fat for heart disease and a whole host of other health conditions. This started the low-fat food trend which brought way more carbs into our diet which eventually led to the low-carb diets which spurred a renewed interest in animal fat like lard.

In other words, there was a lot of argument from authority that precipitated this, not just corporate profit seeking (which was also significant).

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https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/well/eat/how-the-sugar-in... would disagree with you. The argument from authority was paid for by the sugar industry. The health industrial complex, whatever that is, was also profit-seeking.

And those authorities often worked as scientists funded by and regulators captured by their respective industries, no?

In fact most people ignored the dietary guidelines, as people generally do, and kept right on eating fat. In the decades since those guidelines were released people have increased calorie intake of all kinds across the board.

Which is why even though sugar consumption peaked years ago, and is now in decline, obesity and all its related diseases are at an all time high.

I am surprised to hear that sugar consumption peaked years ago. I was under the impression that when accounting for sugar added to products, it has continued to increase. As for obesity, I blame the weaponization of the sugar/salt/fat balance towards making processed foods more addictive.

This is the problem with the whole "carbs are making us fat" narrative. Sugar consumption peaked in 1999. But consumption of chicken and cheese has gone through the roof since then. As you can see from the charts, the decades where people were supposedly loading up on carbs were also decades where meat consumption exploded.

https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistic...

Americans are eating too much of everything, basically. A lot of the health benefits attributed to various diets are just the intrinsic benefits of losing weight.

Now we are doing the same to meat, in order to valorize "plant-based" foods.

That's patently false on two charges:

- Vegan dishes enjoy nowhere near the popularity of low-fat foods in the anti-fat wave of the 80s and 90s. Not even close. It's still a minority of restaurants that offer any vegan options.

- The main argument for plant-based diets isn't that they're healthier (though a minority of folks do argue such), but that they're less cruel to animals and are more environmentally friendly. In contrast to arguing that low-fat diets are healthier, both of those assertions are uncontroversial.

Personally, I still eat meat, but have moved (aside from eating out, which I do rarely) to buying all of my animal products from farms that are certified for specific animal welfare conditions. And, well, I also always have some lard in the fridge. Where I'm from, people tended to save rendered pork fat in their fridges.

> Vegan dishes enjoy nowhere near the popularity of low-fat foods in the anti-fat wave of the 80s and 90s. Not even close. It's still a minority of restaurants that offer any vegan options.

Mr. Paul Graham is predicing otherwise: https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1099648817601921024?lang=en

I sincerely hope there will not be a grand "social pressure against eating meat" as I do much better on the carnivore diet.

> to buying all of my animal products from farms that are certified for specific animal welfare conditions.

That's what I do as well. And the meat tastes much better too.

I have IBD, carnivore works much better for me. I would not be happy with all the fiber of a vegan diet.

> Personally, I still eat meat, but have moved (aside from eating out, which I do rarely) to buying all of my animal products from farms that are certified for specific animal welfare conditions.

Whenever I hear people say this, I'm really sceptical. Does this mean never buying any products with animal ingredients? Nothing that has butter or milk, no ice cream, never a turkey sandwich or anything with egg or gelatine in it, like candy? Because if you do, they most probably don't come from farms certified for their animal welfare.

I'm not trying to attack you personally, it's just that I suspect that you either exclude the majority of animal products you consume, or you're one of the rare people that never buys anything with a list of ingredients.

If you're the latter, that's great, because I think that's a very good way of knowing exactly what you eat. I want to get better at eating from basic ingredients myself, where I snack on things like an apple or nuts and not something with 5-10 ingredients.

> Whenever I hear people say this, I'm really sceptical. Does this mean never buying any products with animal ingredients? Nothing that has butter or milk, no ice cream, never a turkey sandwich or anything with egg or gelatine in it, like candy?

Yes, that's what I mean by that. Anything with animal products I buy from organic shops (which in Germany are required to meet animal welfare standards) or from farms with one of two other animal welfare standards (without the organic requirements attached). The only real exception that I regularly make is buying chocolates that my wife particularly likes. But we're talking about a couple hundred grams of chocolate per year.

It helps significantly that I enjoy cooking and buy next to nothing pre-packaged. I make just about everything myself from fresh ingredients, and the thing I don't come from the above mentioned shops. Things like ice cream, mayonnaise, etc. I make myself.

Do I end up eating some stuff that doesn't meet my standards? Of course. But far, far more of that comes from eating out, or eating at friends' places, etc. than stuff that slips through in my own grocery shopping.

We're still at the beginnings of veganism as a diet craze (though the motivations for it go beyond health). Give it time.

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