By the time you read this, you’ll be looking back on the holidays and thinking, “Why did I eat so much?” Well, I probably will. I should probably “take the cake out of my own eye before I take the cookie out of yours,” as it were. Suffice it to say, we all tend to eat a bit more than normal during Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s.

So, as we think about our diets and whether or not our dietary resolutions will survive leftovers and the winter doldrums, it might be a good time to revisit some old dietary rules. When you think of dieting, one of the first things that comes to mind is … what? Cutting your fat intake, I’ll bet. Unfortunately, it turns out that the government probably advised us incorrectly on that aspect of diet for quite a long time. For decades, we have been told to lower fat intake and increase our carbohydrates. We were supposed to eat grains and pasta, potatoes and rice and other such foods, to the exclusion of red meat and other things containing fat. Nevertheless, people following those diets continued to have issues like obesity, heart disease and diabetes.

Recent research has begun to suggest that this was just plain wrong. Now, medical research swings back and forth all the time. In my specialty alone, we change our minds every 10 years or so on some major issues, like the care of heart attack or trauma victims. But it looks very much like the dietary recommendations we should follow involve fewer carbohydrates and, yep, more fat.

Sometimes it’s very hard for the medical establishment, and certainly government agencies, to embrace change. When I go to conferences, the breakfast is always full of bagels and pastries, all happily consumed by doctors warily avoiding fat. We come to believe that old research was carved in stone on Mt. Sinai. However, it’s time to change.

The study from which these conclusions was drawn was funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. However, it requires a subscription to read the details, which I don’t have (and you probably don’t, either). Here’s a link to a summary, published in the New York Times, which hits the high points: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/02/health/low-carb-vs-low-fat-diet.html?ref=health&_r=0.

The health effects of a low-carbohydrate diet seem pretty remarkable. This isn’t the first time it has been recommended, but the Atkins diet and other high-protein diets of the past were generally viewed by some doctors and dieticians with suspicion. Looks like the advocates of low-carbohydrate diets were ahead of their time.

I can speak to this myself. In the last few months I’ve lost about 15 pounds by cutting carbohydrates dramatically and eating more meats and vegetables. In the end, it’s an easy diet to follow, and you’ll be surprised at what happens. Cut out pizza, pasta, bread, fries, potatoes and rice, and the next time you have any, it will feel remarkably heavy!

So give it a whirl. You’ll be pleased at the progress you can make by doing almost exactly the opposite of what you were told.

— Edwin Leap’s latest book, “Holidays & Holy Days,” is available at BaptistCourier.com/publishing.