Where’s the fat?!
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A train is coming and there are lots of food companies on the track… I have it on good authority that we will be embracing fat on the new dietary guidelines again! Due out this month from the US I will be encouraging you to take a closer look at this major change coming…
 
What does it mean? Our fear of fats has dictated the pace on how nutrition information has been presented to us. Our food pyramid recommends low fat dairy options for us for example. Now we are fat fanatics here not only for taste but for the fat soluble vitamin content (ADEK) therein. Butter is better… Science has conceded reluctantly that a higher fat diet is linked with better health outcomes. The keto diet / low carb versions are recognised and a powerful tool to reverse metabolic disease. But to date the guidelines have resisted embracing this fact. So what you may say…!
 
The thing is most people like to follow a guideline… how many times do we have to be told to always follow official advice...?
 
So having the obvious included in the official guidelines is a major step forward. Will it happen?
 
The food companies I fear will not be happy about this. Thinking it through when I focus on dairy for example, it is not hard to work out the impact will be colossal.
 
Let me walk you through it… full fat milk becomes the recommended advice. Now the food industry cannot separate the milk into the constituents and sell to the highest bidder the separate parts. Skimmed milk & cream. I am simplifying it but imagine if low fat and skimmed milk are not recommended? This is a serious hit to the dairies. It’s certainly not worth investing heavily in advertising to go against the guidelines. They will have to go with it. They will have to reconfigure everything they do… a major cost. Should they pass this cost on to farmers then the price of milk will plummet. The price has reduced recently. Perhaps it has started…
 
The low fat experiment is due to come to an end. Decades of destruction to our health that will go untold hidden behind the distraction of other health stories and interventions. 
 
Will the dairy industry take it with out a fight? I do wonder…

Anne Maher

I’ve said it countless times, but it is worth reminding folks that FAT is good for us… If you are still afraid of this vital nutrient, you have been brainwashed by decades of propaganda. Have you got low-fat products in your house/fridge? It may not be a coincidence that you are suffering with your health..
 
If we had not taken on board this belief and changed everything with our foods, I wonder where we would be now… we took on the butter substitutes, the trans fats, the added sugar, the high fructose corn syrup, the sugar substitutes, the refined salt, the colours and flavours…. All to make food taste somewhat palatable. We have paid the price and continue to do so.
 
Do not think that a jab will solve this…
 
Let's go back to eating fat instead! Simple! The fat on the rasher, cream on the milk, full-fat coconut milk… etc., it's not a hardship. Trust me…
 
I am so glad to see that whole milk is returning to school meals in the US. This is the start of a recovery. 

Anne Maher

The times are a changing and I am excited with the prospect of our dietary guidelines being updated in a timely fashion in the USA. We may all be distracted with news of peace talks but there is something more impactful happening in Washington.
 
Every 5 years the dietary guidelines are revised according to the evidence emerging on nutrition. You will recognise these guidelines as the food pyramid. I used to believe they were a credible piece of guidance to help us provide evidence based nutrition advice. I stopped believing that when I realized that despite the evidence of contrary fact the same old dogma was rolled out. Low fat is good, saturated fat is bad etc… It is easier to keep rolling out the same message than admit you were wrong. For many years we have championed how important fat is not to mention the fat soluble vitamins within! Bread may have moved up a row on the pyramid but we still cannot have a carvery meal without the serious helping of carbs.
 
These are interesting times as I believe the guidelines are going to be radically different under the leadership of the new administration in the US. They are expected to be a simpler message so that we can understand them better. I cannot wait to get hold of them! Watch this space next month.. 

Anne Maher

My fridge is full again and the family are enjoying the benefits. For too long my fridge was dwindling. I hadn’t realised how easily it had happened. With the erratic and minimal raw milk supply to The Urban Co-op over the last few months I was stepping back from the table and letting the customers take the benefit. When it became clear that the local milk supply was not going to be made available to us as it was heading to Dublin and Cork retail instead, I was brought back to basics. Many years ago I started going directly to the farmers to get my milk supply. How furtive the farmers were then when I asked for milk. They were afraid. Brow beaten by the industry that was exploiting them imo…  It is how I met Sean Condon and so began the journey…. we are where we are today with The Urban Co-op because of those first steps.

I’m back again doing the same visiting local farmers but this time it’s different. Farmers have more confidence about their food. They speak with pride. This is encouraging. I’m bringing home the raw milk again. I’ve made yoghurt and kefir. There is a satisfaction that I’m nourishing my family again. About time. 

Anne Maher

I’m calling it out for the niggling reality it is. Call me sexist but there is a thing we can’t seem to let go of … the guilt. Working mothers and guilt. Can you recognise this concept? Managing to raise a family and hold down a job and keep the house going…it’s a constant juggle. So much so that something always gives… and that is often the quality of the food. The price of convenience is often ultra processed food over consumption. Easier to grab some thing quick like a pizza than face in to cooking a meal from scratch at home after a long day at work…
 
I have found some solutions to this dilemma over the years.. one is definitely having a slow cooker and prepping in the morning. But am always seeking another solution for us band of mothers.. wouldn’t it be wonderful if our children in school had a wholesome organic meal to depend on? Or should I say wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could depend on our systems to support us as parents on this journey? How much time do we waste on the guilt mindset that could be better utilized? If we were confident that our children were effectively nourished in schools/centres how much extra stress would be taken from us and what would be the impact of that relief?
 
The argument is always cost. Good food, organic food is expensive. What is the cost of our guilt burden instead, I ask, as we increasingly witness our children being exposed to the lowest common denominator of foods and suffer the fallout of the effects.
 
Here is the proposal. Invest in our children! Offer nourishing organic foods of quality in schools and centres as standard. Ensure this is a key policy for the most vulnerable. The return on investment is beyond your wildest imagination. Guilt free parents who see their children thriving. The potential for what’s possible is limitless.  

Anne Maher

A discussion that is happening repeatedly from farmers is about the lack of small abattoirs locally that would help with local meat production. Here I am going to concentrate on offal so look away now if you are mindful that plants don’t have feelings too. Here’s the deal. The large abattoirs can process and monetise all parts of the animal. Offal is frozen and sent abroad for human consumption. Small abattoirs have restrictions on selling and effectively cannot monetise. Of course we then don’t have the access to this nutrient dense food. The slow race to the bottom continues. Our old cookbooks showed how to utilise this nourishing food and Limerick itself was known for offal being a traditional common food. Packet and tripe anyone? How easily a nourishing food can disappear out of our diets…I do believe we need to be on the alert for this trend because we go through periods of feast and famine in cycles…
 
Raw milk is making a comeback though and the experience of this journey shows that there are so many factors influencing whether we can have the access to nourishing foods at all. It’s not a given at any time despite periods of prosperity and our agricultural culture…The danger lies in complacency. Stay awake. 

​Anne Maher

Food prices have risen – a topical issue of course. Revolutions have happened when food prices reached the triggering point. Politicians have always known that the population must have access to affordable food. Subsidised food is so normal to us now we have little idea just how much it actually costs to bring it to our table. For many years we have had the luxury of wasting food also because there is such excess. How difficult it is for us to transition to the real life reality of what food costs!
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A story from a customer struck a cord when I thought about this topic. We were discussing the craft of lacemaking as an old tradition. I had recently met the folk showcasing the Limerick lace traditions and was amazed at the fine work and detail involved. How skilled people were and this is an important tradition to protect. In any case she told me of her grandmothers story of being a child with siblings in Mayo making lace all winter long and working hard to save for a cow. Months of detailed work by candlelight, I guess, with the prize at the end of a living food source. Milk, butter, cream…I imagined the longing for this prize. The achievement and satisfaction to have earned this valuable prize. Alas the story did not end well as the cow died soon after! How devastating this must have been. The fact the story carried on through the generations echoes the enormity of the impact. It is no harm to be reminded though of how valuable food actually is. Butter will never taste so good.   

Anne Maher

Blindboy ran a great podcast recently about unstainable meat. A gifted story teller weaving the history of Pigtown as a sustainable food system compared with the current system of cheap food that is far from sustainable. It’s gorey and bloody and while he certainly warns folk of the sensitive nature of content it is a fascinating listen. Pigs sustained Limerick. The Limerick Ham was a delicacy and highly prized, the offal was an inexpensive nourishing food for all. Skills in butchery were valued. Pigs provided food and a living. It seems ridiculously simple that a single food source could achieve so much. We cloak ourselves now in the righteous indignation of animal cruelty to prevent ourselves dwelling on the reality of this lifestyle familiar to Limerick older generations. Imagine going back to this type of life again? Local foods expertly processed to nourish. Local foods that provide a living and a lifestyle. Imagine that! Fruit & Veg won’t be enough to fit this model. Soya is not local…and its production is not sustainable. We need meat.
 
For that there has to be death. Our local butchers are that conduit. It’s time to cultivate their importance again in sustainable food systems.

​Anne Maher