This content was published first in The Sunday Letters Journal: https://sundayletters.larrygmaguire.com/p/gimme-full-fat by Larry G. Maguire on Mon, 16 Jan 2023 21:31:47 GMT

It might not look great, but it tastes great. I’m currently on an 18/6 fast each day, and this is my indulgence.

I like the four-pack, full-fat natural yoghurt from the local supermarket. Unsweetened, unflavoured and made in West Cork, apparently. I take a small glass from the press, drop a couple of spoons of homemade stewed apple or jam in the bottom, and then drop the thick and creamy full-fat natural yoghurt on top. I finish it off with a tablespoon of homemade granola and flaked almonds – deadly.

I’m a man of simple pleasures. I don’t need it made for me, and I don’t need the best part of it removed in some kind of elaborate ploy to sell me less than I should have got for more money. I enjoy the process of making things myself – the granola, stewed apple, jam, or whatever. Processes, not outcomes. Funny thing is, the outcome usually ends up more enjoyable and valuable to me for the trouble it has taken me to embark on the process.

That’s the remarkable situation we live in today…we come for a dog and are sold a pup at every hand’s turn. We’re suckered on the promise of the perfect result with little or no effort, the irony being, it’s the effort that makes the result worthwhile. As it turns out, full-fat natural yoghurt that has not been fucked with is really good for our gut health, according to geneticist and epidemiologist Professor Tim Spector . Consuming low-fat, flavoured and sweetened yoghurt causes more damage than it proposes to solve. It might be a drop in the ocean, but there’s a trend here.

When there are so many easy options available right under our noses, and we are marketed to everywhere we turn, it’s a struggle to keep our focus.

In the heavy glare of marketing’s bright shiny lights, I say gimme full fat.

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