Last night I heard a lecture by Jennifer McLagan, author of the book Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient With Recipes. The audience members were mostly foodies, who have really embraced fat in the past few years, but Jennifer gave an impassioned lecture on why they should embrace even more fat and throw out industrial oils. She talked about how the government, lobbied by industry, encouraged people to substitute "healthy" oils and margarine for animal fat, but how our health since has gotten worse, not better. 

She revealed how many vegetable oils are so highly processed that you can't even tell if they are rancid or not, and she said most of them are. It makes sense, as in processing they are exposed to heat, and then stored in clear bottle so they are exposed to light. Heat and light are the agents of rancidity. Consuming rancid oils is highly linked to inflammation and to make the deal worse, most of the oils are high in omega-6, which is also inflammatory. She told us to use animal fats from pastured animals, which hold up well to cooking and have a ratio of omega 3 to omega 6 appropriate for humans.

Jennifer talked about the least appreciated animal fats, suet and tallow, and how we are missing out on hearty flavorful foods featuring them. Personally, I just discovered tallow and it's harder to cook with than lard because of its strong flavor. However, when used in a way that accents and offsets that flavor, it is absolutely delicious.

I was shocked to hear that milk laws in Canada, where she lives, do not allow for the production of artisan butter! Jennifer talked about the wonderful complex flavors in grass-fed butter and how much our health has declined since we have discarded it in many baked goods for oil and more sugar to offset the loss of flavor.

What can we do to bring fat back? Jennifer said we all have to lose our irrational fear of animal fat and start cooking with it. She said the loss of home cooking is what has really destroyed our diets, making us serfs of companies that simply use whatever is cheapest. Most people don't know what tallow is and they certainly don't know how to use it.

It's a little distressing in the paleo community how oil still reigns. Even if it's the healthier oils, coconut and olive, they still wouldn't have been a part of our ancestor's diets. Learning how to render and use these fats is something everyone on any diet can benefit from. Her cookbook is a wonderful resource for overcoming fat-phobia. It's also wonderfully appropriate as a gift for friends. It's not preaching a diet, it's just celebrating the wonders of fat.

While paleo dieters eat diverse diets that can include a wide variety of vegetables, the main dish is usually meat. While I think this diet is an optimal one, good meat is expensive and some people just don't feel comfortable eating lots of meat from an ethical, visceral, or spiritual standpoint. My father is a big proponent of paleo, but my mother has told me she doesn't want to eat so much meat. 

This comment on Whole Health source got me thinking about those people:

To restore health, we move our nutritional approach back through time. First stop, Mesolithic. With the elimination of anti-nutrients (wheat, etc.) and the increased variety of food, nutrition becomes near optimal for most. Fat-soluble vitamins are at sufficient levels, either through the inclusion of specific foods (seafoods, organ meats) or supplementation. 

This move to Mesolithic nutrition would likely resolve the vast majority of nutrition-driven health issues in the world today, essentially returning us to the lifestyle and health observed by Dr. Price in the 30's.

I have the limitation of illness, so my attempt to eat traditionally prepared grains and dairy products was not successful, but many people can thrive on this diet, which is espoused by the Weston A. Price Foundation. 

For people interested in improving their diet this way, I recommend these books:

Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon is a seminal cookbook and textbook on the value of preparing grains, legumes, and dairy the traditional way, as well as getting an abundance of fat soluble vitamins. To get these you only really need to eat a very small amount of high quality animal fat in the form of organ meats, oily fish, and raw dairy. 

Full Moon Feast by Jessice Prentice is another great cookbook that adds on spiritual, social, and local aspects to eating traditionally.

Real Food by Nina Planck is a book that does a great job of spreading the word that eating traditionally is vital for the health of future children. 

Why Some Like It Hot by Gary Nabhan or anything by Gary really. He is a big proponent of traditional crop varieties and much of his work is about how devastating it has been for native peoples to lose their traditional diets. 

These books provide a wealth of valuable information no matter what traditional diet you follow. I own them and use them often. 

I packed the foods that would make up my lunch carefully: bright green arugula, crispy kale, a few clementines. I knew I had bacon from The Piggery in the fridge at the office and I envisioned a delicious stir fry. But somehow I managed to leave the entire bag on the table as I rushed to work.

I work in Midtown and while some street vendors make delicious and cheap food, it usually makes me feel kind of sick later. There are a smattering of healthy eateries, such as The Pump and Free Foods, but they require you exchange your entire paycheck for a measly salad. For the price of their food I could buy a bag of groceries....and I would, but unfortunately Midtown Manhattan does not have any real grocery stores.

Fortunately they do have some smaller stores, like Yamagura on 41st. While I'm not crazy about their greasy cafe, they have a wide selection of fresh vegetables. For under $10 I bought organic beech mushrooms, wakame seaweed, pretty tiny Japanese yams, black sesame seeds, red pepper flakes, and some flavorful greens. They might not have locally grown food, but everything is nutritious.

The bacon from The Piggery is perfect: not too salty, so it can actually be paired with nearly anything. I sauteed the mushrooms with bacon and made a delicious side salad of seaweed and greens sprinkled withsome sesame and red pepper. Today I roasted the yams in a toaster oven and topped them with bacon and ate that alongside the same tasty salad. I'm glad it's possible for me to back these kind of meals even if I am absent minded. I think more people would eat like this if offices encouraged cooking. All you really need is small plug in range and a toaster oven to make tasty meals.It might take time off of work, but healthy employees do better work and it might even save some money on health insurance.