So where do you think we are in the war on fat?
First, as I pay attention to the world around me, too many people have lost control of their own waistlines. Second, I think that too many people are still avoiding the consumption of dietary fat despite overwhelming data that suggests we should not avoid the health benefits of animal fat in our diets.
I don’t believe that people are in tune with the latest data because anti-fat proponents fill the airwaves with low-fat, non-fat propaganda. People need nutritional facts and the fact is that too many people avoid lard and butter because they don’t know the truth.
I read “Lard: A highly nutritious but misunderstood superfood” by Laura Harris. In this article she walks through all the health benefits of lard consumption. A couple examples that really caught my attention are:
- A traditional fat used for centuries worldwide, lard was a staple ingredient for cooking and baking before being replaced by industrial vegetable oils in the early 20th century.
- Lard is rich in heart-healthy monounsaturated fats, vitamin D and beneficial fatty acids like palmitoleic acid. It is also stable and thus suitable for high-heat cooking, unlike inflammatory processed seed oils.
- False claims linking lard to heart disease have been debunked. Research shows natural saturated fats (like lard) are not the cause of metabolic issues. Industrial seed oils (soybean, canola) are far more harmful when oxidized.
For more than 20 years, when I speak at events I credit the Greatest Generation, some of whom are still living a quality life up into their 90s and 100s. As young American citizens, lard was a daily consumption for them. Throughout our nation’s history and until the 1960s, our nation was really driven by hog fat. Doesn’t everyone have an Aunt Gladys who told stories of eating lard sandwiches in her lunchbox at school in the early days?
That brings me to the other rage of the day, which is beef tallow. I have friends who are in the business of marketing beef tallow and sales are on fire. Now to be honest, the rage there seems to be as a facial cream and for skin care, but that brings up a point that was made in the lard article.
Fred Madsen, an animal nutritionist who formulates swine diets, has always reminded me that the skin is the largest organ of the body. He goes on to say that the skin is an extension of what the lining of your digestive tract is like. If your skin is not smooth and creamy, then your stomach and intestines are inflamed. So the real question is, if you know that beef tallow is good for your skin, why don’t you consume it in a higher percentage and improve your “skin” quality from the inside out instead of just fixing the outside?
It is widely understood that choline is vital to brain health. When you take into consideration that animal products, in particular eggs and beef items, are the best source of choline, one would argue that animal products are vital to mental health as well. In fact, a number of studies show pregnant women who do not consume enough animal fat during gestation put their baby at risk of cognitive challenges.
The literature is clear that as man has evolved within the species and shifted to a higher meat consumption diet, the gut has decreased and the brain has increased. Of the total brain weight, 73% is water so it makes tremendous sense to irrigate that thing regularly. But in addition, 60% of the dry matter content of the brain is fat. Does it now also make sense to feed the thing what it is made up of? So back to my initial question: Do you believe our fellow Americans have maintained the smaller gut, larger brain advancements that our ancestors developed? I would say it is time for some lard sandwiches again.
Editor’s note: The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not represent the views of High Plains Journal. Trent Loos is a sixth-generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show “Loos Tales” and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information at www.LoosTales.com, or email Trent at [email protected].
PHOTO: Lard. (Adobe Stock │ #102443920 – Daniel Vincek)