The verdict is still out on coconut oil although DrM did a trial and found it increased his hdl (happy cholesterol) without affecting ldl (lousy cholesterol) my way of remembering which is which. I would suggest that ghee is an absolute no no but I dont know enough about it. It is butter which has been cooked and skimmed so some of the impurities are taken out. We allow butter on this diet but I think it is more the amount of ghee needed in recipes that is the problem.
The low fat regime came in after an American president had a heart attack and he was found to be eating a high fat diet so they devised a lower fat, cutting out the bad culprits. Then the food industry ran with this and started making everything low fat. Unfortunately, they didn’t tell us what they were putting in the food to replace the fat, replace the taste and replace the satisfaction the good gave. Usually it is sugars or carbs, in particular rice powder with is both a sugar and a carb. Other foods that have had the fat taken out have been pumped full of chemicals which the body doesn’t know how to deal with so stores along with the fat or bloats the body with fluids which hold in any fat in the cells. All very interesting but it led to an explosion of weight gain. If you look at the countries and / or populations where weight is a problem you will usually find it is among the poorest people. They cannot afford the healthy foods (although I would argue they could) they cannot afford lean meats etc so have been filling up on carbs like rice, pasta and potatoes which are cheap and filling. There is a whole history of this in the book How We Get Fat and What To Do About it by Gary Taubes if you are interested in learning more – but it is quite a heavy going book.
