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Lard and butter and fat – oh my!


jfrater

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I have decided this week to drop all artificial sweeteners and other highly processed foods from my diet. I am also now getting weekly deliveries of raw milk and fresh farm eggs. I will be cooking primarily with lard, dripping, and butter.

Has anyone else made this change to old fashioned eating?

I was actually inspired to do this by Modernist Cuisine because of their reports on studies of the benefits of animal fats and the possible link between the reduction of animal fat in our diets with the increase in obesity.

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Does Modernist Cuisine really advocate a high saturated fat diet? I just finished reading Tim Caulfield's The Cure for Everything and his advise seems pretty good. Basically don't eat too much and 50% fruit/veg. http://www.amazon.co...tmm_pap_title_0

Any excuse to link to my favourite website:

Fat

http://www.scienceba...t-fat-get-thin/

http://www.scienceba...why-we-get-fat/

Raw milk

http://www.scienceba...n-modern-times/

Sweeteners

http://www.scienceba...weeteners-safe/

From the first link "...his contention that government recommendations to avoid fat led to higher carbohydrate intake and thereby caused the obesity epidemic. That may be true, but it doesn’t justify his conclusion that the solution to the obesity epidemic is to replace carbohydrates in the diet with saturated fat."

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It's hard for me to put much stock into any health studies nowadays... even as the Modernist Cuisine pointed out, most health studies have biased funding or suffer from inappropriately small sample sizes. And so many are contradictory it becomes impossible to make sense of it all, and it seems most people just latch on to one and practice / preach it.

While I wouldn't say I'm a proponent of "old fashioned" (I love my hydrocolloids), I will not use artificial sweeteners - and I love using animal fat when convenient. If it's good for me - even better. I above all things, think practicing reasonable eating habits is at least enough. Don't eat convenience or fast foods, don't snack frequently, eat a wide and balanced variety of food, and practice reasonable portion control. A lot of people get cranky when a single meal doesn't contain 50% of their daily caloric values...

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mm8431 - thanks for the book title - I will check it out for sure.

Rob - I think that Modernist Cuisine comes to similar conclusions about obesity being - in part - caused by heavy promotion of low-fat diets. Also, the anti-fat brigade gets much of its argument from a study that found a link between high cholesterol and heart disease - but it made no claims (nor have any other real studies) that eating high fat increases cholesterol - there is no evidence at all that there is a connection.

Baselerd - I too am enjoying cooking with Modernist Cuisine and it is my essential reference now for any food related stuff (along with two books by Harold McGee). I like the MC approach to using old fashioned animal fats in their recipes where needed so I am hoping to combine the old fashioned with the "new fashioned" - traditional ingredients with a modernist twist.

Today is my first day on my new style eating and I have had - so far, toast with the best NZ butter you can buy topped with one farm fresh egg fried in lard and a latte made with raw milk and sugar (I normally have trim milk and artificial sweetener). I will let you all know how I progress!

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As I have said (in various ways) many times - life is short, so bring me butter! I've always had a hate-on for artificial anything, and that goes for my fats as well. Margarine is trying far to hard to be something it's not, and low-fat for me is just an exercise in culinary frustration.

With portion control and a balanced outlook to what one eats, I see absolutely ZERO reason to deny oneself the deliciousness of lard, butter, and pan drippings.

Elizabeth Campbell, baking 10,000 feet up at 1° South latitude.

My eG Food Blog (2011)My eG Foodblog (2012)

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I'm not exactly on a PHD but I lean in that direction...it's a "paleo" diet with more starches and not high protein. No sugar.

I have all kind of fats in my fridge: tallow, lard, clarified butter, goose, duck, foie gras fat, coconut oil and use them all. But I'm also a skeptical and believe everything is toxyc in high doses.

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Not to be a wet blanket, but anyone who says "throw caution to the wind" or "lard is good for you" might temper their attitude with just a wee bit of common sense. Everyone's physiology is different, due to genetics, eating or exercise habits or whatever. Paleo people lived primarily on animal products, but they ran 10 miles just to chase the animal down. And life WAS short, for a number of reasons. Anyone who embarks on a high animal fat diet would be well advised to have their cholesterol level monitored. If both sides of your family have no history of heart disease and your cholesterol levels are low, go for it, enjoy all the raw milk cheddar, bacon and croissants your heart desires. If everything that's "natural" is also healthy we would be on easy street.

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Moderation in all things....yes, I use butter and bacon grease, but I also use a tremendous amount of olive oil, with some walnut, peanut, and grape seed too. No canola, as it smells bad to me & Is highly processed. Can't say I'd switch to all animal fats considering a family history of heart disease. Would rather have the cholesterol come from some dairy and cheese than lard and butter in everything when olive oil works just fine for me in so many applications.

Agree 100 percent abouth the artificial sweeteners, though. Nasty tasting. Have no use for 'em.

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What HungryC said. Moderation in all things and we try to stay with a "natural" diet -- keep processed foods and artificial ingredients way down, have lots of fresh stuff. Most of our processed foods consists of preserves (fruit, pickles, cheese and salami :rolleyes: ), what grains we eat are mostly whole, and we do try to get healthily grown fruits, vegetables and especially animal products. But we don't go crazy about. If a friend's dinner made for me consists of noodle 'n mushroom soup casserole, KFC chicken wings, and Cool Whip and Jell-O for desert, I'll eat it without any guilt. I'll just probably live on greens, olive oil and garlic for the next two days...

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Interesting discussion.

Try looking at the information in this way of eating. http://www.montignac.com/. He's a sort of Gallic Adkins, but with common sense.

I've been mostly on this diet for nearly 20 years and it works. Fats, protein, vegetables & fruit. Quantity is not an issue.

Just avoid simple carbs. No sugar, No white flour and No potatoes. The simple carbs in other words.

For me wine was the issue, the alcohol being a simple carb, but I have found that if I restrict myself to two small glasses a day when I'm in a weight loss phase I'm OK.

Have a read.

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Interesting discussion.

Try looking at the information in this way of eating. http://www.montignac.com/. He's a sort of Gallic Adkins, but with common sense.

I've been mostly on this diet for nearly 20 years and it works. Fats, protein, vegetables & fruit. Quantity is not an issue.

Just avoid simple carbs. No sugar, No white flour and No potatoes. The simple carbs in other words.

For me wine was the issue, the alcohol being a simple carb, but I have found that if I restrict myself to two small glasses a day when I'm in a weight loss phase I'm OK.

Have a read.

There's quite a long discussion here of the Montignac Method, if anyone is inclined to bump it up with their recent experiences.


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Did people live longer in the old days using mostly animal fat?

I don't know. Just asking.

dcarch

My dad's oldest sister was 105 August 6 and has spent her entire life eating all the "wrong" things. My great grandmother (my mother's grandmother) was born in 1844 and died in 1949 when I was ten, just two months shy of turning 105... She was a Victorian lady who ate all the "wrong" things.

I never trusted margarine and have always used butter and I make my own. I'm 73, and am not about to change things now.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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Not to be a wet blanket, but anyone who says "throw caution to the wind" or "lard is good for you" might temper their attitude with just a wee bit of common sense. Everyone's physiology is different, due to genetics, eating or exercise habits or whatever. Paleo people lived primarily on animal products, but they ran 10 miles just to chase the animal down. And life WAS short, for a number of reasons. Anyone who embarks on a high animal fat diet would be well advised to have their cholesterol level monitored. If both sides of your family have no history of heart disease and your cholesterol levels are low, go for it, enjoy all the raw milk cheddar, bacon and croissants your heart desires. If everything that's "natural" is also healthy we would be on easy street.

In reply to you and also to HungryC below you, there has been no link shown between consumption of animal fats and cholesterol/heart disease. There is a link between cholesterol and heart disease but no study has yet shown that cholesterol levels are affected by animal fat consumption. Here is review of various studies on the subject: http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.co.nz/2011/01/does-dietary-saturated-fat-increase.html

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I am a first generation American and can attest to the issues that arose when my ancestors came and suddenly had a glut of cheap stuff to eat - much of it animal fats. Health issues and weight issues. The landscape of the food changed and all the "treats" so to speak were eaten as daily fare. They were moving less (no longer farmers) and there was just SO much relatively cheap food that to them had been more of a special occasion food.

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As far as cholesterol is concerned, I am convinced that it is genetic. I consume a diet that is rather high in the foods that are suspected of cholesterol loading but my cholesterol is 180 and my HDL is high compared to LDL. My doctor says he can't explain it. He suggested my cholesterol was "borderline" and wanted to prescribe one of the "statin" drugs - I refused.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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Did people live longer in the old days using mostly animal fat?

I don't know. Just asking.

dcarch

No dcarch , people didn't live longer because of diet, they lived 'shorter' at that time because of the lack of penicillin, and

Sulfanilamide.Well said andiesenji

:

Martial.2,500 Years ago:

If pale beans bubble for you in a red earthenware pot, you can often decline the dinners of sumptuous hosts.

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Not to be a wet blanket, but anyone who says "throw caution to the wind" or "lard is good for you" might temper their attitude with just a wee bit of common sense. Everyone's physiology is different, due to genetics, eating or exercise habits or whatever. Paleo people lived primarily on animal products, but they ran 10 miles just to chase the animal down. And life WAS short, for a number of reasons. Anyone who embarks on a high animal fat diet would be well advised to have their cholesterol level monitored. If both sides of your family have no history of heart disease and your cholesterol levels are low, go for it, enjoy all the raw milk cheddar, bacon and croissants your heart desires. If everything that's "natural" is also healthy we would be on easy street.

In reply to you and also to HungryC below you, there has been no link shown between consumption of animal fats and cholesterol/heart disease. There is a link between cholesterol and heart disease but no study has yet shown that cholesterol levels are affected by animal fat consumption. Here is review of various studies on the subject: http://wholehealthso...t-increase.html

Dietary cholesterol and serum cholesterol are two different things.

I highly recommend the book mentioned earlier, Gary Taubes' "Good Calories, Bad Calories". His other book puts the research a bit more simply, "Why We Get Fat". He has exposed the flawed research that goes into current obesity and fat thinking. Even easier than reading the books, listen to his talks on youtube. Here's one:

*****

"Did you see what Julia Child did to that chicken?" ... Howard Borden on "Bob Newhart"

*****

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Everything in moderation IMHO - except of course, processed sugar

Don't forget that 50 years ago, while the populous were eating lard, butter etc, they were also doing physical work as opposed to sitting on their butts in an office.

Plus in the UK we had rationing - so although you had butter, it was a thin scraping on your toast.

PS - if you are a lard fan, seek out a recipe for Lardy Cake. It is actually a bread with dried fruit, but is delicious.

http://www.thecriticalcouple.co.uk

Latest blog post - Oh my - someone needs a spell checker

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  • 2 weeks later...

After talking to (okay, grilling) a friend of mine who has been diabetic from childhood, I gave up eating wheat and I eat potatoes and rice in extreme moderation. There is a new book out, called Wheat Belly, that tells the wheat story. My friend told me that sugar wipes out of the blood stream quite quickly. Wheat hangs around for days. So does rice and potatoes.

I've lost 30 pounds and have every reasonable hope of losing 50 more. I'm never hungry. I do Weight Watchers -- mostly to give myself some structure because I don't actually believe WW wants you to lose weight (they want you to give them money, two different things). I often have about half my points left at the end of the day and I'm not sure what to do with them. Cheese helps.

When I gave up wheat, I also decided that vegetables and fruits were going to constitute the primary focus of my diet and I started focusing my food energy (formidable food energy, I'm a baker) on the farmer's market, eating all my meals at home, vegetable cookbooks, etc.

I feel great -- better mood, optimism and energy than I've had in a long time. I am in complete control of everything I put in my mouth and it isn't a careful balancing act of self-talk and motivational focus. It just is.

And the point is, I eat fat. I've been eating more of it since I saw the movie Fat Head. Apparently, Congress decided that fat was the cause of fat and now we're fatter than ever. I eat butter. I eat sardines in olive oil. I eat peanut butter. I avoid oil in general except olive oil. I eat full fat cheese. I eat full fat yogurt. When I do have milk, it's full fat.

What's really good is a mess of greens, spinach is my favorite, with butter. Cooked carrots with parsley and butter. Dumpling squash with butter. Butter is also good with butter.

I've also started eating my meat with bones and fat. I don't eat much meat in general, but I like it rich when I do eat it.

I like to bake nice things. And then I eat them. Then I can bake some more.

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