Lard....Who Would Have Thought

White and globby and pure pork fat, it's been demonized for the last few decades as the cause of heart disease, obesity and clogged arteries. We were told it was better to use vegetable oil and then canola oil became all the rage, supposedly healthier. And then there is Olive Oil.

Yes, Olive Oil is unanimously a healthy oil, along with walnut oil and a few other nut oils. I like to use walnut oil to make my homemade salad dressing. Olive Oil is good from dipping with good crusty bread, finishing off some dishes and in some cases cooking. I like a good Olive Oil.

Unfortunately, a lot of oils today are made with ingredients that have been genetically modified, especially canola and vegetable oils. Nobody knows what the effect of consuming genetically modified products will have on our bodies, time will tell. But I, for one, want to start cutting out such foods as much as I can. It's not always easy to know which  ones have been altered. But corn is a BIG culprit. Small steps.....

Then there is lard. Who would have thought that it could be a "health" food? But not all lard is created equal, unfortunately.

About a year and a half ago I was talking to one of the farmers at the farmer's market and he was selling lard. He was singing the praises of the globby, porky fat. His animals are raised on pasture and the lard that he makes from his pigs is NOT hydrogenated, therefore, it has no trans fat. Most lard that you find in the grocery store is partially hydrogenated which means they have trans fats in them. And Crisco, that is a man made product and also hydrogenated and full of trans fats and we all know that trans fat is terribly bad for you.

The lard that this farmer sells is good for baking biscuits, piecrusts and cornbread. It's fantastic to fry chicken in and wonderful to pop popcorn in. It can be used in place of any other oil that you usually use. Unfortunately, this farmer is retiring and for the last year he has been selling off his products on a pre-order basis.  Today I picked up 20lbs of lard in 5, 4lb containers that will keep in my freezer for a very long time. I plan on ordering more from him before he completely goes out of business because I haven't seen anyone else selling this product, this all natural product.

I know you're probably thinking I'm a little crazy, but look up lard online, there are quite a few articles touting the healthfulness of using lard over vegetable or canola oils. People in other countries use it instead of butter on their toast although I don't plan on doing that. Lard has a lot of monosaturated fats, which are good fats, and as I said before NO TRANS FAT. I even saw Daphne Oz (daughter of Dr. Oz and we all know how healthy that family is) on the tv show The Chew talk about the benefits of using lard.

Of course, all things in moderation and none of us needs to be eating fried foods and homemade biscuits everyday. But along with a healthy diet and lifestyle, lard fits right in. Check it out online, you might be surprised, I'm a convert.

My babies.........

Kathy