[LouisSayers]

When I said fat I was thinking of the types of fats you eat when eating out.

Lots of deep fried, Canola oil or vegetable oils, bacon etc.

I agree that "fat" isn't harmful, but I do think people get a taste for the nasty ones.

[tptacek]

"Deep fried" is a problem because it almost always saturates carbohydrate-heavy food in fat. There's no debate about whether potato chips are probably just as harmful! But it turns out: the baked potato chips are just as harmful. Vegetable oil on its own is probably not a problem at all. Research on ketogenic diets suggests bacon simply isn't a problem: it's an extremely high-satiety food (it's physically difficult to eat a lot of it!).

Bacon might be a problem for other reasons; for instance, maybe the CVD correlation with saturated fats will pan out. But in terms of basic metabolism, appetite, and hunger, the current trend seems to be away from the idea that people should avoid bacon-like fats.

I'm not here to say "bacon is the answer" so much as to say that your original post, suggesting that there's a simple nutritional answer to this problem, is both glib and not especially well-informed. The truth is: this stuff is very complicated, and there's a lot of uncertainty.

[LouisSayers]

Aren't baked potato chips generally cooked in oil?

I agree that nutrition is complicated, and I am in no way an expert, but I really don't think we need to get so complicated to live a moderately healthy lifestyle.

In general most people know what foods they should be avoiding. I'm not saying stop eating avocados and almonds (although I've heard avocados use a ridiculous amount of water to farm). I am saying maybe don't chow down on potato chips, pizza and then eat a muffin - and then repeat roughly the same diet the next day... when I think of fatty foods, these are the types of food that come to my mind (and I'm assuming that's what comes to mind for the general population as well).

Of course if we go down a technical track or move away from the general population nutrition gets complicated super quickly.

On the subject of vegetable oils, this is why I say to avoid them - https://chriskresser.com/how-industrial-seed-oils-are-making...

Lastly, bacon is delicious.

Here's some more of my non-expert opinion: delicious things should be eaten in moderation.

[tptacek]

It's complicated.

People with satiety issues (for instance, with hormonal disregulation, issues with insulin resistance, etc) aren't necessarily as well served by the "everything in moderation" message.

Food cravings aren't purely intellectual any more than needing to urinate is; intellectually, I can hold it until I find an acceptable bathroom, but physically, the severity of the urge and thus the energy required to regulate it varies based on how much liquid I've consumed, how long I've been waiting, and whether anything I drank is diuretic.

Similarly: depending on your hormonal profile, different foods will probably have different impacts both on satiety (the feeling of being full, of additional food being a welcome stimulation) and on "cravings". Some people can eat a "balanced" diet in moderation, across all the macronutrients, and be just fine; some people will consume simple carbohydrates (bread, rice) and immediately have an urge to eat more, as a dose-dependent response to the carbohydrates they've consumed.

For those people, "eat a little of everything, don't overdo it on the bacon" might not be good advice. There is in fact not that much evidence that eating bacon (or other high-fat, high-protein foods) is especially bad for you. But those foods also tend to quickly produce satiety, and they don't seem to generate food cravings directly in response to their consumption. Maybe for them the bacon, cheese, and eggs is a good call, as long as they're steering clear of the carbohydrates. It's a very big open question right now.

(Again: I'm only considering the goal of minimizing caloric consumption --- weight management --- not other food health considerations.)

Different people are different, and one of the things we are probably getting very wrong in dealing with nutrition is trying to come up with a single set of guidelines for everybody.