{"id":1999,"date":"2016-09-18T12:45:28","date_gmt":"2016-09-18T00:45:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/dietnet\/?p=1999"},"modified":"2021-05-18T09:39:49","modified_gmt":"2021-05-17T21:39:49","slug":"fat-glorious-fat-we-sing-your-praises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/dietnet\/2016\/09\/18\/fat-glorious-fat-we-sing-your-praises\/","title":{"rendered":"Fat glorious fat – We sing your praises!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dietary fat, that is, which makes our meals delicious. But which fats are good and which are bad?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I’ve been writing new articles recently about Real Food eating.<\/p>\n

My first post touched on the wide variety of so-called healthy diets out there and what the commonality is with them all: \u201cWhy I ate nothing but meat for a year and why I\u2019m eating plants again\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

The second one was about the travels of Weston A Price and his discoveries of what was included in a range of healthy diets: \u201cDietary lessons from world travel, or why your teeth stick out\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

The third one was going to be how to bring Price\u2019s discoveries into the 21st century, but it soon became clear that would be far too big a post. So I\u2019m just choosing one section.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I was inspired to write this post by my conversation with a staff member at Commonsense Organics near where I live. I was buying ghee and mentioned in passing that the fats I use most for cooking are ghee and the pork lard they also stock. He asked how I used them, and now he\u2019s keen to use them himself.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019m hoping this post will inspire you all to use real food fats, which are both delicious and beneficial.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll start by discussing which fats are good or bad. Then the more fun bit of what to use to create delicious meals (or feel free to scroll down to that part straight away).<\/p>\n

A good rule of thumb when deciding whether a fat is a real food fat is to ask \u201ccould my great grandmother have made this in her own kitchen?\u201d<\/p>\n

About 60 years ago, we started being told that saturated fat (found mainly in animal foods) was bad for us. This has never been proven and Price actually found most societies that were eating lots of animal fats were completely healthy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If we think about Grandma\u2019s kitchen, we can see that the fats she could have made were:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Lard and tallow (collected from a roast)
\n\u2022 Butter (made from cream and churned)
\n\u2022 Olive oil (olives readily give up their oil when crushed)
\n\u2022 and Coconut oil (will also give up some oil when crushed)<\/p>\n

But could she have made rice bran oil, canola oil, soy oil, etc? We can see she couldn’t. And Price found that the amounts of those oils were very small, as part of the whole food.<\/p>\n

In that context, those oils were beneficial, but in the modern context of extracted oils, they are not. There are two problems with them.<\/p>\n

\u2022 When we have large amounts of polyunsaturated plant oils, we have too much omega 6, which then is unbalanced with our omega 3 intake
\n\u2022 Extracting these oils is an industrial process which damages these fragile fats and makes them dangerous.<\/p>\n

This is a very quick overview \u2013 for more detail see my webpage here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Now we know which fats are safe to eat, how do we use them?<\/p>\n

Roasting<\/h3>\n

These are the fats I would use to make oven baked fries. These fries might be made from yams, kumera, sweet potato, pumpkin, butternut squash or even daikon radish. Or it might be a pan full of different roast vegetables including the ones I use for fries, or carrots, parsnips, beetroot (beets) and small onions or shallots. If you tolerate nightshades and starches well, you could also use potato, but we don\u2019t have those at our house. In the photo below (of veggies ready to go in the oven), I have used Mediterranean style veges \u2013 capsium, zucchini and eggplant.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Pork lard \u2013 this is a mild, stable fat which I can buy readily
\n\u2022 Duck or goose fat \u2013 I usually collect duck fat if I do a roast duck, and this gives a delicious flavour
\n\u2022 Lamb or beef tallow \u2013 also stable fats, and easy to collect from a roast, though they have a stronger flavour
\n\u2022 Coconut oil \u2013 I personally don\u2019t use it for roast veg, as I don\u2019t think the flavour goes as well with veg, but it\u2019s a good stable oil, so suitable for that reason<\/p>\n

Note that I don\u2019t recommend olive oil. Extra virgin olive oil has many great properties, but they can be destroyed by heat.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Stir or shallow frying<\/h3>\n

This category might include pan frying a steak or a fried egg, or an Asian style stir fry of some low starch veggies.<\/p>\n

Any of the previous fats would be fine for this category too, depending what flavour you were going for. But I\u2019m also very fond of, and probably use most often:
\n\u2022 Butter \u2013 who doesn\u2019t love the taste of butter?
\n\u2022 Ghee or clarified butter \u2013 a more caramel flavour than butter, and very stable
\n\u2022 If you making an Asian dish, you can also use a small amount of peanut or sesame oil for an authentic flavour<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Deep frying<\/h3>\n

We don\u2019t do any deep frying in our house, but if we did I would use this stable, traditional fat:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Lamb or beef tallow<\/p>\n

This is what they used in New Zealand fish and chip shops for years, till misguided political correctness forced them to change to toxic oils like canola or cottonseed (shudder).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Dressings for salads, coleslaw, cooked veggies, or any savoury dish really<\/h3>\n

Here\u2019s the ideal place to use your more fragile plant based oils, to make the most of their nutritional value. But we still want to minimise the ones high in omega 6s. So I only recommend:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Extra virgin olive oil
\n\u2022 Very small amounts of avocado, sesame or macadamia oil (for flavour)<\/p>\n

For an easy salad dressing, simply shake together in a small jar, till well mixed:
\n\u2022 2 Tbs lemon juice
\n\u2022 4 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
\n\u2022 Pinch of unrefined salt<\/p>\n

See more variations on my recipe website<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

For your cooked veggies, you can also top them with a generous dollop of butter or ghee.<\/p>\n

Note on extra virgin olive oil \u2013 some countries (especially Italy) export more olive oil than they grow olives (think about that for a moment). For that reason, along with the better flavour, I only buy New Zealand olive oil. Depending on where you live, you might need to do some research to find a good brand.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Baking<\/h3>\n

For cakes, muffins, biscuits (aka cookies), breads and other baked goods, these are my favourites:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Butter or ghee \u2013 as long as you tolerate dairy, you can\u2019t beat the flavour of these
\n\u2022 Coconut oil \u2013 but this is good if dairy doesn\u2019t work for you, or you want to incorporate more coconut into your diet
\n\u2022 Palm oil (not palm kernel oil) is also good, but usually farmed unsustainably
\n\u2022 Duck fat \u2013 for something not too sweet, such as a bread, this can work well<\/p>\n

The photo below is for my low starch Chrstmas morning muffins, inspired by a Nigella Lawson recipe.\u00a0\u00a0Visit my Recipe website for the recipe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Un-baking<\/h3>\n

By this I mean homemade bars or slices of some kind. Typically these might also include some dried fruit or maybe some protein powder, bound together with some good fats.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Coconut oil
\n\u2022 Creamed coconut
\n\u2022 Cocoa butter
\n\u2022 Nut butters
\n\u2022 Tahini<\/p>\n

To make the slice pictured below, beat together:<\/p>\n

\u2022 250ml (1\/2 jar) creamed coconut
\n\u2022 50g coconut oil -OR- cocoa (cacao) butter
\n\u2022 1 tsp vanilla essence or vanilla powder<\/p>\n

Then stir through 200gm of chopped dried fruit of your choice. Pour into a tray lined with baking paper and set in the fridge. Chop up and store in the fridge.<\/p>\n

This slice has dried currants, dried apple and freeze dried raspberries, but you can use many different combinations.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Smoothies or puddings<\/h3>\n

I use either dairy or plant based fats for these sweeter dishes:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Cream or full fat yoghurt or kefir \u2013 for those who tolerate dairy
\n\u2022 Avocado \u2013 good for savoury smoothies, or for a vegan chocolate pudding
\n\u2022 Coconut cream, creamed coconut or coconut oil
\n\u2022 Nuts can be made into milk for a smoothie base
\n\u2022 Chia seeds are good for thickening up a breakfast \u201cpudding\u201d
\n\u2022 A very small amount of flax oil can be added to smoothies<\/p>\n

Butter and coconut oil are sometimes added to hot drinks like tea and coffee as well.<\/p>\n

See my Chocolate blackcurrant smoothie recipe here.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Supplements<\/h3>\n

Supplementary oils that are beneficial include:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Fish oils
\n\u2022 Cod liver oil
\n\u2022 Flax oil
\n\u2022 Hempseed oil<\/p>\n

These are good sources of omega 3, but are generally only needed in small amounts \u2013 about \u00bd teaspoon a day. None of these should be heated, as they are very fragile.<\/p>\n

Now enjoy the benefits of incorporating these delicious fats into your day!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Originally posted on Steemit –\u00a0https:\/\/steemit.com\/nutrition\/@kiwideb\/fat-glorious-fat-we-sing-your-praises<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dietary fat, that is, which makes our meals delicious. But which fats are good and which are bad? I’ve been writing new articles recently about Real Food eating. My first post touched on the wide variety of so-called healthy diets out there and what the commonality is with them all: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,37,40,32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/dietnet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1999"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/dietnet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/dietnet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/dietnet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/dietnet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1999"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/dietnet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2121,"href":"http:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/dietnet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1999\/revisions\/2121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/dietnet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/dietnet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/dietnet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}