Imagine a trip to a health-food restaurant where the menu lists real cheeseburgers, carrots tossed with melted butter, Ceasar salad with plenty of raw eggs and anchovies, and a rich coconut cream pie (complete with lard crust) for dessert.

Even the most nutrient-savvy person would have to blink in shock. Has Atkins risen from the dead?

Not quite. But in “Real Food” (Bloomsbury USA, $23.95), former Greenmarket director Nina Planck asserts that we need just these kinds of foods to keep us healthy and slim. “The real culprits in heart disease are not traditional foods but industrial ones, such as margarine, powdered eggs, refined corn oil, and sugar. Real food is good for you,” she writes.

Nowadays, most of us are aware that industrialized food damages health — it’s usually packed with ingredients that spike blood sugars and clog arteries. But “Real Food” does far more than vilify McDonald’s and Burger King. For everyone who misses the skin on their chicken and resents counting the carbs in their broccoli, “Real Food” is an inspiring and guilt-relieving book, packed with equal doses of common sense and extensive research. One by one, Ms. Planck pokes sizable holes in the current accepted theories about cholesterol, saturated fat, heart disease, and weight. She marshals convincing arguments that saturated fat doesn’t cause high cholesterol, and offers evidence that cholesterol doesn’t cause heart disease. Ms. Planck argues for raw milk and raw-milk cheeses, saying they’re both safer and more nutritious than the pasteurized kind. She says that lard contains the same beneficial fats as olive oil (!). Vegetarians are sure to be shocked by her assertion that soybeans don’t offer complete protein.

“Real Food” advocates eating “all the foods they tell you to avoid: red meat, whole milk, sausage, butter, and raw milk cheese” — along with plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. But not just any milk or meat will do. Quite rightly, Ms. Planck emphasizes that where our beef, milk, and eggs come from affects how healthy (or unhealthy) they are for us. Grass-fed beef is richer in vitamins A and D, omega-3 fats, and CLA, a fatty acid that fights cancer and improves fat metabolism, and is less likely to be packed with growth hormones. Pastured chickens are richer in vitamin A and omega-3 fats, and less likely to be infected with drug-resistant bacteria.

On the surface, this meat-centric focus would seem like a surprising stance for Ms. Planck, who until recently was the director of the Greenmarket program and spent her 20s as a vegetarian. But Ms. Planck’s commitment to animal fats was actually a homecoming. She grew up on her parents’ vegetable farm, eating plenty of meat-and-potatoes American food. It was only in her teens and 20s that she dabbled in vegetarianism, convinced by the diet dictocrats that animal protein and fat were detrimental to her health. But instead of feeling better, she began to feel (and look) worse. When she opened farmer’s markets in London and then in New York, she began eating farm-fresh eggs, dairy, and meat again — and gradually slimmed down and improved her health.

These days, farmer’s markets are evolving just as Ms. Planck’s own diet did, many of them offering conscientiously raised chicken, beef, and pork along with microgreens and heirloom eggplants. “Real Food” is an excellent introduction to a new trend in food, one in which environmentalists, weight watchers, and gourmets join together to fight the real enemy — engineered and overly industrialized food. I knew something was in the air when a friend of mine who’s always popping omega-3 caplets began rendering her own lard. I say, bring it on.