How Am I Supposed to Be a Contrarian?

It's hard to oppose a consensus when the consensus changes at unpredictable intervals. For example, are all fatty foods unhealthy (in the 1980s, I worked with someone who tried convincing me that nuts were bad for my health because of the fat content)? Are just saturated fats unhealthy? Are trans-fats the main enemy? Are ω-3 fats the elixir of youth? Or were the saturated fats okay in the first place? For example:

Choose coconut oil and moderate amounts of other saturated fats such as butter and lard, and avoid fat-free milk, yogurt, and other fat free dairy products that have been over-processed within an inch of their nutritional lives. Moderate amounts of saturated fats are not your enemy.

There's similar advice in Clean Plates by Jared Koch and Alex Van Buren. That got favorable comments from Deepak Chopra, so you know it's full of … something.

Maybe I shouldn't be cooking with that coconut oil after all.