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  • From: Jerry B <liberty AT kaballero.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Serious diseases
  • Date: Sat, 27 Sep 2008 13:31:14 -0400

I wrote:
Still I think it is helpful
to understand that highly heated oils, refined or not, and even whole
grain breads baked at 350-400 degrees produce substances that are toxic
and can eventually lead to any number of ailments.

Does that go for Lard, also?

Rob
_
I didn't know very much about lard, only swearing off vegetable shortening Crisco for years knowing it was hydrogenated, a process now considered deadly ( see trans fats). Crisco of course is not lard. Most commercial sources of lard are hydrogenated for added shelf life, with different health effects than lard rendered straight off the hog. Since you are raising pigs, you probably will appreciate this well written article I goggled.

http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/lard-the-new-health-food.

So lard apparently has gotten an undeserved bad rap the last thirty years or so. Lard has less saturated fats than even butter, and a higher smoking point than vegetable oils.

Heated vegetable oils are apparently far worse than heated animal fats.

"The purpose of this report is to alert the foodservice industry, particularly the fast-food industry, of an emerging health issue. Considerable evidence has accumulated over the past two decades that heated cooking oils, especially polyunsaturated oils, may pose several types of health risks to consumers of fried foods and even people working near deep fat fryers. Heat degrades polyunsaturated fatty acids to toxic compounds; saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids are resistant to heat-induced degradation. Several types of diseases may be related to the exposure of humans to food- or air-borne breakdown products of heated oils including atherosclerosis, the forerunner to cardiovascular disease; inflammatory joint disease, including rheumatoid arthritis; pathogenic conditions of the digestive tract; mutagenicity and genotoxicity, properties that often signal carcinogenesis; and teratogenicity, the property of chemicals that leads to the development of birth defects. Factors that can contribute to improved oil stability, and therefore fewer health concerns, are briefly discussed. The literature reviewed raises serious questions concerning the willful addition of large amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids into the human diet without accompanying measures to ensure the protection of these fatty acids against heat- and oxidative-degradation. It is hoped that this review will stimulate interest in the foodservice industry in this important area of potential health concern, and also foster the research and development activities necessary to reduce the exposure of humans to lipid oxidation products."

Given only these considerations, it would seem fresh unhydrogenated lard is at least a relatively healthy food to eat. jerry b







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