"Avoid fatty foods for twenty-four hours before you donate. Increased fat in your blood stream might make it impossible to get accurate readings on some of the mandatory screening tests conducted on samples of your blood after you donate. If they can't run all the tests, they have to discard your donation. You don't want all your effort wasted!"

http://www.wikihow.com/Prepare-to-Donate-Blood

It's quite possible that all these people who are telling you it's fine are never told there was something wrong with their donation, especially if it wasn't a real medical issue, just an error with the screening tests. Blood gets discarded, doesn't help anyone, and you never know.

Seems like the potential for an awful waste inefficient use of time - may as well just stick to low fat paleo for a day beforehand.

I've never had a problem donating, and I eat a lot of fatty foods

There is nothing on that link saying you can't eat eggs, beef, or butter. They list beef and eggs under sources of iron. It says nothing about NO fat. It just gives advice on the few hours before the test, as it affects your blood prior to donation. You can chug down your butter right after the test if you really want to make up for one meal. I'm sure it's not a BIG deal, but for blood donation, they probably just want to play it "safe" and increase the likelihood that blood will be useable.

The post-blood donation calls (to get you to donate blood) are from people who have no idea of your medical history. They go by a giant list of previous donors or even those who put their email on a list and never donated. And like someone else said before, unless you have AIDS, they don't have the time to call each person up whose diet interfered with their testing.

I just gave blood last monday and before I donated I ate a sweet potato loaded with butter.

So... my bad.

Just make sure you eat plenty and drink lots of water. I'm not sure that warning even makes sense.

Just eat like you normally do, it'll be fine. Ive eaten massive amounts coconut oil before donating and they keep sending emails wanting more.

I think the confusion is due to the misconception that fat increases fat and triglicerides in your blood. From the looks of it they just advise not eating junk food which should be no problem for you since I doubt Mcdonals and ice cream are on the menu.

I donate every 8 weeks, and have for a long time. I've never avoided fatty food, and never had a problem. Quite frankly I've never noticed that warning. It's really not a big deal. It'll be fine.

im donating today ut im really nerous, is there any tips for reassurance. also i had a chinese last night for my tea, would it affect donating ???