Animal fat obsession

[flojo]

I was reading the passion with purpose posts over at YLCF, and noticed one of the posts was about eating healthy. The writer made a mention of "healthy" animal fats. Seriously, wtf? I don't get the point of doing something that could harm you and your family, just to be different. This seems to be found all over the place, for example the famous (now no longer updated) blog o' Emily, and I've read people didcussing on the titus 2 boards people adding butter, fo 'nourishment'

I just don't get it...

[Deleted12]

Fish fat is healthy as long as it's not full of mercury.

Other than that, I got nothin'.

[Lillybee]

I think it is because some think that animal fats like butter are healthier than the transfats used in margerine.

[Austin]

I cook primarily with olive oil and butter. We only use real butter on the table, and never, ever use margerine. I don't think that's a fundie thing.

[Bookworm]

Check out the Weston Price site for more info. While I take issue with much of the site, I do think they have some very, very interesting points, and if you download Weston Price's book with the gazillions of photos he took (free), it does give a lot of cause for thought. I definitely believe animal fats can be healthy, but that does not mean I go out and eat burgers at McDonald's - it means I look for either wild-caught fish, grass-fed meat, or free-range poultry products as much as I can. Having recovered from a suicidal depression basically in a matter of weeks due to taking cod liver oil and having discovered I feel lousy if I'm not getting grassfed dairy, and even worse if I switch to commercial dairy, I do like to get a boost in for the grassfed movement when I can.

Ditto to Austin, it's not a fundie-only thing.

[Alecto]

That isn't a fundie thing. Lots of folks who are non-fundie believe it, and there is some scientific evidence to back it up.

[Austin]

That isn't a fundie thing. Lots of folks who are non-fundie believe it, and there is some scientific evidence to back it up.

About 20 years ago, my then-boss told me something like "margerine is only molecule away from plastic", which turns out not to be exactly true, but it was enough to make me research margerine and realize it was not something I wanted to be consuming or feeding my family. Plus butter just tastes so much better!

[VeraAnne]

It's not just a fundie thing. Watch FatHead on Netflix. Basically the theory is that carbs do a lot more harm to our bodies than fats, but they are heavily pushed despite the fact that the science behind pushing them isn't that strong. There's a diet movement called the Paleo Diet that basically says that we aren't evolved to eat a lot of grains, and that our bodies function better on a diet of animal meat/fat and fruits and veggies.

[jaelh]

Plus butter just tastes so much better!

No marg in this house.

But the above is why salted butter is verboten in this house, and the unsalted for cooking remains in the freezer.

Too tasty for general consumption. (I have the kind of self restraint that requires built in controls. Ie: none)

[flojo]

Ok... I honestly didn't think of fish oils in the animal fat arena, and I honestly didn't consider it as butter as opposed to Margarine ( derpy me... That's. so. Obvious.), I was thinking more along the lines of using lard and butter as a substitute to plant oils...

I'll look up links submitted :)

[ImNoSupermom]

It's not just a fundie thing. Watch FatHead on Netflix. Basically the theory is that carbs do a lot more harm to our bodies than fats, but they are heavily pushed despite the fact that the science behind pushing them isn't that strong. There's a diet movement called the Paleo Diet that basically says that we aren't evolved to eat a lot of grains, and that our bodies function better on a diet of animal meat/fat and fruits and veggies.

I eat a Paleo Diet and I'm down 20 pounds from when I left vegetarianism after 17 years. Animal fat is VERY nutrient dense and it doesn't make you fat. Weston A. Price has a lot of good info. Some other great sites for info on this would be Balanced Bites, the Healthy Skeptic (aka Chris Kresser) and RobbWolf.com. (Sorry, being a lurker and not a poster, I don't know how to do links.) Its not a fundie thing at all. The science is there- the convential wisdom hasn't caught up yet ;)

[Wolfie]

The Weston A. Price and Nourishing Traditions stuff is becoming popular around here. (and it is NOT the stuff that Emily tried to make it) I think that most of it is simply common sense and non-processed foods.

(and for the above poster- I'm not big on paleo, but I agree with you that vegetarianism isn't as healthy as most people make it out to be, you have to work really hard to get the nutrients you need, and even then you can't get them all.)

[PraiseSeitan]

The Weston A. Price shit is crazy. Dude died young for a reason.

[Alecto]

The Weston A. Price shit is crazy. Dude died young for a reason.

I hardly call dying at 78 in the 1940's as dying young.

[Wolfie]

I hardly call dying at 78 in the 1940's as dying young.

Especially since that is the CURRENT life expectancy in the US.

[Cannelle]

The Weston A. Price shit is crazy. Dude died young for a reason.

I got the Nourishing Traditions book from the library once and read a bunch of it out loud to my biologist husband. He laughed and laughed and laughed at the "science" behind it.

[Brainsample]

I got the Nourishing Traditions book from the library once and read a bunch of it out loud to my biologist husband. He laughed and laughed and laughed at the "science" behind it.

Everyone that I know that cooks out of Nourishing Traditions is in some kind of cult, be it Christian or something else, and they believe 6 impossible things before breakfast. I never bought a copy because I was too freaked out by the people who recommended it (in multiple religions). I do marinate beets with yogurt whey from time to time, but that's about it!

[dairyfreelife]

I agree that it is important to eat meat. I really don't like meat, but I eat anyway because you can only get certain B vitamins from meat. No vegetables or fruits contain B12, for example. You can take a vitamin, but it seems better to get them from food.

I don't get the whole thing about not being able to digest grains? People have done it for 1000s of years. I say this because being able to digest dairy is considered a genetic mutation. The majority of the world is lactose intolerant. They can eat cheese and things, but they cannot drink a glass of milk without becoming ill. I can't even eat a little tiny bit dairy without becoming ill, but I'm a minority there in that respect. Perhaps wheat was similar, but the majority of people can eat it without a problem. There is celiac disease and other wheat intolerances, but they are sporadic.

[emmiedahl]

About 20 years ago, my then-boss told me something like "margerine is only molecule away from plastic", which turns out not to be exactly true, but it was enough to make me research margerine and realize it was not something I wanted to be consuming or feeding my family. Plus butter just tastes so much better!

Every substance in the world is one molecule away from plastic. I think what they mean is that the molecule is one atom away from plastic? But plastic can mean so many things on a biochemical level.

I think animal fats have an important place in the diet, especially for little humans who are building their myelin sheaths and such. They supply things that are important for brain function, hormone production and more. How much you need them does seem to depend on the person. I had immense health problems during the years that I was vegetarian/vegan, but I have friends who had similar health problems disappear when they went veg. I think my body just does not use lipids very efficiently for whatever reason and needs the easily accessible fats that animal products provide.

[Jewess]

I think the only connection between fundies and animal fats is because fundies are more likely to believe "If God made a food, and its been eaten in its natural state for thousands of years, it can't be unhealthy, but if man made a food (artificial flavorings, colorings, preservatives, and refined sugar/flour) it is likely very unhealthy. Refined vegetable oils are a modern man made invention; animal fats are natural and have been used from time immemorial.

Which is possibly why a lot more fundies to the weston price thing.

[Witsec5]

I had "biofeedback" allergy treatment with the ATT method and it really helped me. The practitioner was a dietician who espoused Nourishing Traditions. Upon her advice, I borrowed the book from the library and tried some of the recipes. It seemed really labor intensive (practically kill your own meat, churn your own butter, grind your own grain, milk your own cows) and hard to do on a daily basis but I have to admit the chicken soup was better than I have ever made because the bones simmer for up to 24 hours. If I had my own "wife" I might have kept up with some of it. My Kaiser doctor and dietition told me gluten-free and also to go dairy free for a while so I stopped trying to follow the Price Pottenger regime. You are right about the Christian cultish influences. Nice, well-meaning hippies though and the bio-feedback worked very well.

[clarinetpower]

...being able to digest dairy is considered a genetic mutation. The majority of the world is lactose intolerant.

I'm a MUTANT!!! Woo hoo! :mrgreen:

I'm also blue-eyed, which is another mutation, apparently. I'm hoping for a third arm someday...

[NurseNell]

I cook primarily with olive oil and butter. We only use real butter on the table, and never, ever use margerine. I don't think that's a fundie thing.

I think it's a eating well thing. I use only olive oil and butter too For baking I use unsalted butter, otherwise I use salted butter.

[NurseNell]

I don't get the whole thing about not being able to digest grains? People have done it for 1000s of years. I say this because being able to digest dairy is considered a genetic mutation. The majority of the world is lactose intolerant. They can eat cheese and things, but they cannot drink a glass of milk without becoming ill. I can't even eat a little tiny bit dairy without becoming ill, but I'm a minority there in that respect. Perhaps wheat was similar, but the majority of people can eat it without a problem. There is celiac disease and other wheat intolerances, but they are sporadic.

The fact that the majority of the world is lactose intolerant is why I get so mad that public schools make school children take milk at lunch, and breakfast too in our school system. We are an urban school district with 74% of our 42,000+ students being students of color. Many are immigrants who never drank cow's milk before. When a student sees me with a stomach ache I send a note to the teacher, no milk with lunch. I would like to see milk be an option, not a requirement but that will never happen with the powerful dairy lobby. And blue eyed anglo-saxons, who generally don't have lactose intolerance, often do have milk allergy which can lead to fluid in the ears and fluctuating hearing loss as a result.

Give cow's milk to baby cows, that's what nature intended.

[Wolfie]

The fact that the majority of the world is lactose intolerant is why I get so mad that public schools make school children take milk at lunch, and breakfast too in our school system. We are an urban school district with 74% of our 42,000+ students being students of color. Many are immigrants who never drank cow's milk before. When a student sees me with a stomach ache I send a note to the teacher, no milk with lunch. I would like to see milk be an option, not a requirement but that will never happen with the powerful dairy lobby. And blue eyed anglo-saxons, who generally don't have lactose intolerance, often do have milk allergy which can lead to fluid in the ears and fluctuating hearing loss as a result.

Give cow's milk to baby cows, that's what nature intended.

Kind of funny compared to your avatar.....

Actually, usually kids can digest milk and it is as they reach adulthood that they become lactose intolerant. The NIH site says 1 in 5, other sites say something more like 1 in 4. Neither is a majority. It also isn't an "all or nothing" thing, so it's a sliding scale of how much a person can have.