20/10/2026
🥩 DON’T BLAME THE MEAT FOR WHAT SUGAR DID.
My people didn’t need a “low fat” label to know what food was.
For generations, Cree families hunted, fished and valued animal fat. It was nourishment, energy and something worth keeping. We weren’t choosing our traditional foods based on a fear of saturated fat.
From what I’ve read and experienced, I believe animal fat has been unfairly blamed. I see it as a valuable part of a healthy diet.
Books like The Big Fat Surprise by Nina Teicholz and Eat the Yolks by Liz Wolfe challenge how meat, butter and egg yolks became foods to fear, while processed products earned a healthy reputation simply by removing fat.
And the sugar industry helped shape that story.
In the 1960s, it funded a research review that downplayed sugar’s possible role in heart disease while directing attention toward fat and cholesterol. Its involvement wasn’t disclosed.
Research has since linked high added-sugar intake with a greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. Controlled studies have also found that higher sugar intake can raise blood pressure and triglycerides—the fat circulating in your blood.
Replacing saturated fat with refined starches and added sugar hasn’t shown a heart-health benefit either. “Low fat” never automatically meant healthy.
To me, questioning that advice means giving our traditional foods the respect they deserve.
Meat and animal fat belong on my plate. I’m far more concerned about the added sugar that became an everyday part of modern eating.
🥩 Cree Carnivore
