I was thinking of stocking up on pork skin, lard, suet, organ meats, and other more affordable cuts of meat because things are often out of stock due to supply chain disruptions.
However, I’ve heard that excessive fat and especially animal fat is unhealthy. Is animal fat and skin really bad for you especially in the long term?
Edit for clarification: I’m buying organic, grass fed or pasture raised. This limits what I can buy due to costs but it’s important to me to support independent businesses, farms, and fair compensation especially with inflation as it is.
I love dairy but sometimes have issues with cow dairy and still haven’t found goats milk nearby.
I subscribe to the new camp, which is I eat animal fats from certain sources, but with no refined carbs or sugars with the animal fats. I wish i had more time to go deep. I stay away from refined carbs and especially seed oils. Grass fed grass finished beef, wild game, heritage raised pork and foul are a large part of my diet. 3 eggs at least a day, and my markers have never been better.
The Heart foundation uses studies that have been dragged through the proverbial mud recently, especially when one follows the money.
Seed oils, IMO are probably the worst thing someone can put in their body, followed by sugar. The subject is highly nuanced, as the origin of “animal fat” matters (O6 vs O3 for example changes), as is the diet surrounding the consumption of fat, which is why meta studies are sloppy broad strokes at times, and so much new evidence is showing. A friend of mine who was a professor at Berkley caught the ire of the faculty by strongly arguing against seed oils (and by extension other BS health measures like Statins for cholesterol).
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https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0735109720356874
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/789204
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32562735/
You can also read people like:
https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/
He links studies upon studies that are a little up to date and not covered by the shadow of special interest groups like the sugar lobby, etc.
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Its an interesting field.
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PS. Dont get me started on the benefits of organ meets. The true superfoods.
Dietetic Intern here(User flair is really “almost a” registered dietitian.)
There is plenty of evidence that supports the idea that increased consumption of saturated fats (which come from mostly animal sources but coconut and palm oil are also saturated fats) correlates to an increase in risk for heart disease, hormone imbalance, and other compromises in metabolism.
Genetics, environment, past medical history, and current lifestyle modalities also contribute/play a role.
Everybody is different. Every body is different.
Absolutely- the science is irrefutable on this - especially in high volumes. You could do much better for price, your health, and the planet to stock up on plant-based proteins. Not advocating for vegan - just stating the facts.
Yeah in excess. It raises Apo-b which is the primary driver of athersclroris. And heart disease is the number one killer in modern society, which is why every major health institution on the planet recommends limiting it.
I think if you have blood work done and everything is in good ranges, you should keep on whatever you decide to do.
Everyone is kind of different and will process foods and fats differently, some people can eat a lot more fat than others-so it’s a difficult question to answer. I eat similarly to how you’ve posted you but- organic, grass fed dairy (and we also buy goats milk here where I am, my husband loves tart milk stuff lol) and we eat animal fat heavy meals once or twice a week, then the rest of the time high protein, lower carb and lower fats. We use avocado oil to cook in high temperatures as we have learned cooking with olive oil at high temps can create trans fat and we don’t want that. I believe eating animal fats can be just fine if you are balancing out your diet to include other things that help break it down and you are staying healthy.
Nope. I’d stay away from dairy (puss), but otherwise, animal fat from wild animals is ok.
There’s some nuance to the answer when you are talking about heavily marbleized, factory farmed steak (..and factory farmed chicken or farmed fish), but otherwise animal fat is fine.
The real problem is that most humans have never eaten a wild animal, which skews the science on what animal products even are. A doped-up, tortured animal has physiological changes that wild animals don’t experience.
Like everything else, this too should be in moderation.