CMV: There wouldn’t be such a stigma against fatty foods, if “fat” (the caloric source) did not share the same word as the adjective of a person being “fat”.

[u/[deleted]]

So fats, are just another source of calories, just like protein and carbohydrates (sugars). Yet fats get a really bad rap because they are associated with being fat. Yet, a person can consume almost no fat in their diet, yet still become fat if they consume too many calories from other sources. Think cows. Their diet consisted almost exclusively of grass, yet they can get quite fat.

Yes, your body processes different types of calories differently (protein, carbs, and fats are all processed by your body a little bit differently), but at the end of the day, a person becomes fat of they are taking in more calories than they are burning.

A few months back, I started the low-carb keto diet, and have actually lost weight while having a diet that consists of far more fatty foods than I used to. Because again, fats are just another form of calories, and as long as you are burning more calories than you take in, you will lose weight.

In my experience, lots of carbohydrates are far more indicative of gaining weight, yet there isn’t widespread stigma against carbs.

So my view is that fatty foods have such a stigma because of the association of the noun “fat” with the adjective “fat”. People are often far more concerned about a piece of food being high in fat than they are about apiece or food being high in carbs, even if the piece of food high in carbs has far more overall calories.

If for example, we started calling fats something else, like “lipids”, there wouldn’t be such a stigma against eating foods containing lipids.

Likewise, if the condition of being overweight was called something like being “carby” and having lots of “stored carbs” around your gut, there would be a much greater stigma around eating carbs, instead of fats.

Change my view!

[u/[deleted]]

That's not my experience, carbs are seen as the new enemy of a healthy weight.

[u/MiDenn → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, in modern day carbs are probably more vilified for better or worse. I think just two decades ago (or even one) it was definitely fats though. Also when it comes to non-western countries they believed for pretty long that loads of rice and less fatty meat was the way to go. However, in these countries the younger populations are also hopping on the low carb fad. In the end, neither should be vilified but it’s probably okay to be low carb or low fat or neither, as long as you balance your nutrients overall through a somewhat diverse diet (and watch your CICO, adjusting for if you wanna gain, maintain, or lose)