The short version is that your body needs a balance of all three macronutrients - protein, fats, and carbohydrates, and that starving it of any is unhealthy. Parent would probably suggest focusing on calories in / out rather than minimizing fats.
This is also untrue. You can live in perfect health on fat and protein alone. Humans can’t make the essential amino acids necessary for making some proteins so we need to eat protein, and there are a number of vitamins that are fat/oil but not water soluble so we need at least some fat but a no carbohydrate diet with sufficient fat is fine as long as you get enough fat. If you only eat lean meat that will be bad for you.
> To my mind, examples of real people eating mostly-meat diets for long periods of time gives us much more powerful information about meat and health than conventional scientific studies conducted over short periods of time in which one group of people eats a little more meat or a few extra servings of vegetables than another group of people.
> Meet the Meat Mongers
> The Inuit of the Canadian Arctic thrived on fish, seal, walrus and whale meat.
The Chukotka of the Russian Arctic lived on caribou meat, marine animals and fish.
The Masai, Samburu, and Rendille warriors of East Africa survived on diets consisting primarily of milk and meat.
The steppe nomads of Mongolia ate mostly meat and dairy products.
The Sioux of South Dakota enjoyed a diet of buffalo meat.
The Brazilian Gauchos nourished themselves with beef.
Although it's also worth mentioning that, while what you say is true, most diets will not work for most people (statistically speaking, from studies). Focusing on calories in / calories out is less important, in my book, than finding a diet that will work for you, because most won't.
I would agree with that. I was kind of just trying to guess what I thought parent _might_ have thought based on some things I've heard a lot of people say about nutrition in recent years.
The actual situation is that we know extremely little about nutrition and you can find studies supporting almost every claim. IMHO the safest course of action is eating a varied diet with lots of fresh ingredients and taking care not to eat more than you burn.
I’m now left wondering what the actual situation around fat is.