Comments on: Lardy, lardy when will they learn?

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:27:26 +0000

Your reasoning that palmitic acid can’t be bad for you because there is so much in human milk, and that lard must be healthy do to a resemblance in composition to human milk is utterly unsound.

What is healthy for an infant for a few years can hardly be extrapolated to an adult life. It would also be extremely unnatural.

I’m not claiming lard is bad for you. Frankly the evidence either way looks pretty muddy to me, and while I don’t trust the mainstream lipid theory, the data and thinking from the advocates of various alternative theories (such as those that advocate palm oil or lard) aren’t any more convincing to me. In any case, it does not help the cause of de-vilifying lard by employing faulty logic to advocate it.

By: Hammad H.

Hammad H. — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 19:43:52 +0000

Are fully hydrogenated oils (given that, technically, they don’t have much trans fat)just as unhealthy as the partially hydrogenated kind? Thanks in advance.

COMMENT from MD EADES: A fully hydrogenated oil can’t take on a ‘trans’ configuration, which a partially hydrogenated oil will do, so yes it’s better from a health standpoint.

By: Drawbacks of a low-carb lifestyle | Divine Mind

Drawbacks of a low-carb lifestyle | Divine Mind — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:05:46 +0000

[...] Lardy, Lardy – great post on the health benefits of lard by Dr. Mary Dan Eades (Protein Power)

By: Hammad H.

Hammad H. — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 03:24:14 +0000

I’ve noticed that sometimes food packages list 0.5 or more grams of trans fat, but don’t list shortening or hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oil under “Ingredients.” Does this mean that the trans fat content is of the naturally occurring type? In these cases, I’ve often noticed “hydrolyzed soy protein” under “Ingredients.” Does that also contain trans fat like hydrogenated oils? Thanks in advance for any answer you can provide.

COMMENT from MD EADES: I’m not sure what it might be coming from, but it could be soybean oil, which is often a source of transfat even if it’s not listed as ‘partially hydrogenated’ and it could be that there is some portion of trans fat containing oil remaining in the hydrolyzed soy protein. That’s just a WAG, though.

By: JLL

JLL — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:30:16 +0000

Good post.

I wish I could get lard easier here in Finland, but like with most countries, saturated fat is still being looked upon with suspicion and vegetable fats are king. It’s a shame.

By: Rachel Webb

Rachel Webb — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:47:02 +0000

Dr. Eades,

Thank you for the excellent article.

Here is another organic lard source for you:
texasgrassfedbeef.com
The pigs are 100% grass fed too!

By: Lucy

Lucy — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:11:11 +0000

Could you comment on the benefits of using a saturated fat like Lard for high temperature cooking (like frying) v. a monounsaturated fat like almond oil?

Some people seem to go by “smoke point” as the judge of what should be used for high temperature cooking, but does “smoking” really indicate any substantive or harmful change in the chemical composition of the oil/fat? Does it relate to free radical creation (and is that even important?)

Thanks, Lucy

COMMENT from MD EADES: I can’t say that I’ve ever used almond oil for frying. The more stable the fat (saturated being more stable than monoun- or polyunsaturated) the better for high temperature frying. So the best choices would be lard and beef tallow, as I understand it. Peanut oil tolerates high temperatures pretty well, I think. I use olive oil or a combo of olive oil and butter for lower temperature pan frying. Certainly a component is the smoke point, because at that point the taste of the oil (and what’s fried in it) changes. I would assume, though I don’t know for certain, that there would be higher generation of free radicals as the oil temp increases beyond its smoke point.

By: Rachel Webb

Rachel Webb — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 05:41:15 +0000

Dr. Eades,

Thank you for the excellent article.

Here is another organic lard source for you:
http://texasgrassfedbeef.com/ The pigs are 100% grass fed too!

By: mjsteffe;

mjsteffe; — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:13:51 +0000

The person who wrote this is even more ignorant of chemistry and fats than the person being criticized. The terms “cis” and “trans” describe the positioning of H atoms at a C to C double bond (an unsataurated site) either on the same side of the double bond or the opposite sides of the double bond. So if a carbon bonding site has “a full complement of hyddrogens” it is a saturated site, not an unsaturated site, and the terms “cis” does not describe it. If you “force-feed” hydrogen to the double bonds you have a saturated site and so there cannot be a “trans” configuration. “Alittle bit of hydrogen added”…….does indeed “increase shelf life of the oil” but you have saturated fat, not unsaturated with a trans configuration. The trans configuration results when oils are PARTIALLY hydrogenated and some of the cis unsaturated sites rearrange to trans configurations.

COMMENT from MD EADES: Thank you for your input.

By: Jimmy Moore

Jimmy Moore — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 18:38:07 +0000

Hey Dr. Mary Dan,

You should write a cookbook devoted exclusively to your best recipes using LARD! Don’t you know that would get the low-fatties all in a tizzy! Great column. Jimmy Moore

COMMENT from MD EADES: Wouldn’t it?