For decades, saturated fats like butter, lard and tallow were said to cause heart disease. Responding to such health concerns, the food industry replaced saturated fats with hydrogenated oils that are loaded with trans fats, giving rise to a whole new market of low-fat (but high-sugar) foods.
Americans’ health plummeted in tandem with this systemwide change, and millions have been prematurely killed by it. As it turns out, trans fat, found in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, acts as a pro-oxidant, contributing to oxidative stress that causes cellular damage.
Trans fat is also a major contributor to insulin resistance, currently affecting an estimated 8 in 10 Americans,1,2 and many researchers agree that there is no threshold at which trans fats are safe.
Interestingly, an analysis3 of more than 1,000 raw foods published in PLOS ONE in 2015 ranked raw separated pork fat, also known as pork lard, as the eighth healthiest food on a list of 100.4 Even more interesting, but perhaps not surprising, considering the timing of the publication, these findings didn’t gain much media traction until recently.5,6,7
Trans Fats Are Just Now Being Eliminated From Our Diet
Sources and References
- 1 The Fat Emperor May 10, 2015
- 2 IDM Program, Kraft Patterns
- 3, 13 PLOS ONE March 13, 2015 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0118697
- 4, 5 BBC News January 26, 2018
- 6, 11, 34, 36 Healthy Home Economist May 15, 2019
- 7 The Independent February 26, 2018
- 8 Scand Cardiovasc J. 2013 Dec;47(6):377-82
- 9, 10 FDA.gov, Final Determination Regarding Partially Hydrogenated Oils
- 12 Wall Street Journal, The Last Anti-Fat Crusaders, Nina Teicholz
- 14 PLOS ONE March 13, 2015 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0118697, S1 Dataset: Foods Analyzed in This Study
- 15 BBC News January 26, 2018, See “Download the Dataset” under Sources
- 16, 35 Weston A Price November 25, 2011
- 17, 18, 20, 21, 31 Self Nutrition Data, Lard
- 19, 33, 37, 39, 40 The Week July 22, 2014
- 22 Nutr Rev. 2009 Nov; 67(11):615-23
- 23 Science Daily January 4, 2018
- 24 Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2013 May; 16(3): 339–345.
- 25 Veterinary Journal 2008 Apr;176(1):10-20
- 26 J Biol Chem. 2002 Nov. 1; 277(44):42358-65
- 27 ARYA Atheroscler. 2011 Summer;7(2):78-86
- 28 FASEB J. 2008 June;22(6):2045-2052
- 29 Nutrition Data, Hardboiled egg
- 30 USDA Nutrient Database Hardboiled egg
- 32 Self Nutrition Data, Game Meat, Boar, Wild
- 38 Healthy Home Economist June 5, 2019, How to Render Lard Traditionally
- 41 NPR February 3, 2012
- 42 Acta Scientific Nutritional Health June 2018; 2(6)
The post Lard Rated One of the Top 10 Healthiest Foods appeared first on LewRockwell.
The daily news and opinion site LewRockwell.com was founded in 1999 by anarcho-capitalists Lew Rockwell and Burt Blumert to help carry on the anti-war, anti-state, pro-market work of Murray N. Rothbard. Visit https://www.lewrockwell.com