Have you heard that saturated fats are bad for you? “Saturated animal fats are not villains! They are filled with essential vitamins A, D, K2 and E, among many other nutrients that support our entire body’s ability to manufacture the hormones that help us stay healthy, happy and strong,” according to the Weston Price Foundation. Did you know that there have only been two studies that actually compared a diet based on vegetable oils to one that is high in animal fats? It’s interesting to note that both studies revealed that animal fats actually protect us from heart disease, but you don’t hear that part of the story. All the focus has been on the results that a diet high in vegetable oils reduced cholesterol, but they neglect to mention the fact that there were eight deaths among the vegetable oil group.
One of the studies was launched in 1957 by the Anti-Coronary Club project and published in 1966 in the journal of American Medical Association. It compared two groups of New York businessmen, age 40 to 59 years. One group followed a “Prudent Diet” consisting of corn oil and margarine instead of butter, cold breakfast cereals instead of eggs for breakfast and chicken and fish instead of beef. The control group ate eggs for breakfast and meat three times a day. The final report noted that the average serum cholesterol of the prudent dieters was 220 mg/dl, compared to 250 mg/dl in the eggs and meat group. This is one of the studies that is often used to convince people to switch to a highly processed diet filled with vegetable oils and refined carbohydrates, but we are rarely told that there were eight deaths from heart disease among the Prudent Dieters (low saturated fat diet) -and none among those who ate meat three times a day.” This is another reminder of why we must do our own research, and ask ourselves why we believe what we believe. Advertising works and people are profiting from this!
We have three fats that we use a lot on our farm. They are butter, lard, and tallow. We love to use lard for frying instead of vegetable oil. It makes the best homemade chips! I remember my grandma talking about how she would render her lard in the basement and how surprised she was when I started to render lard myself. She said that it was widely used in America and made the best pie crusts and doughnuts. Lard is another fat that our ancestors thrived on, especially if their hogs were out in the sun and given greens (pastured pig lard is one of the best sources of vitamin D). This traditional fat could be produced on the farm and stored at room temperature once it was rendered.
According to the Nourishing Traditions book, “Some researchers believe pork products should be avoided because they may contribute to cancer. Others suggest that only pork meat presents a problem and that pig fat in the form of lard is safe and healthy.” I haven’t had time to dig into why this is or how the meat was raised that was considered carcinogenic, and I have to wonder if it contained nitrites/nitrates. As pork producers, we want to be transparent in all we do. I do believe there’s a difference when a pig gets moved around on pasture and doesn’t get bored and “eat” gross things. I encourage you to do your own research on this.
I will only eat our pork that has been raised on pasture and fed a very natural diet of good quality grains that are raised organically, milk from our beyond organic milk cows, organic produce, and organic nuts that we forage for them. When you source lard, I believe that quality is essential, since most toxins are stored in the fat, and animals eating plants and soaking up the sun will have more vitamins stored in the fat. Commercial lard will have BHT added to preserve it, which is another great reason to make your own. I have never had trouble with it storing for long periods of time. We used to store our lard in the refrigerator, but now we store it at room temperature in our dark closet. The key to room temperature storage is to make sure you get it to the right temperature so there’s no moisture in it. Have you tried lard or do you plan to? What do you like making with lard? We love hearing from you!
If you are sitting on the fence on this issue, I highly encourage you to read the scientifically based book Eat Fat Lose Fat to learn about how traditional fats can benefit our health. Do you use lard in your cooking? Have you rendered it yourself? Was it easy? We love to hear from you!
Our family has learned to slow down, make careful observations of what heals/damages, decrease modern distractions, take a little more time preparing our food, and most importantly to seek the Lord’s wisdom. It’s a daily struggle and it never goes perfectly, but we just keep trying to do the best we can. If
you are working toward a more traditional, clean, whole foods diet, and would like to take small steps to get there, then you are at the right place. Week one was Get Your Salt Better,” week 2 was The Power of Water, week 3 we learned about removing toxins from our water, Week 4 was Get Your Sleep Better, and this week we are talking about getting your fats better. Join us next week for Get Your . . . Better.