My Grandmother’s Superfood Is Now a 4-letter Word

When I was a kid growing up in Kentucky, I loved spending Sunday afternoons in my grandmother’s kitchen. That’s where she baked her pies…

The sweet aroma would fill the entire house. I still remember the special way she trimmed the edges of the pie crust and let me eat the delicious leftovers.

I’ve never had a better pie. And unlike the pies of today, this pie was healthy. It was loaded with:

✓ DHA

✓ Vitamin A

✓ Tocotrienols

✓ Vitamin D

What was her secret ingredient that made her pies health and delicious? It was simple — homemade lard.

Good old-fashioned lard is one of the healthiest natural fats you can get.

It’s a true powerhouse superfood. But for most today, lard has become just another 4-letter word…

After World War II faulty science linked saturated fats with heart disease. Big food companies pushed the saturated fat myth to sell their fake foods like margarine and Crisco. Lard was dubbed an “artery clogging” fat.

But the truth is that saturated fat is good for your heart…

The famous Nurses’ Health Study followed more than 80,000 nurses for 20 years. It found that saturated fats had NO impact on heart disease risk.1 A review of 21 studies in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition evaluated data from more than 350,000 people over 23 years. It found no evidence that saturated fat increased the risk of heart disease or stroke.2

In another study, London researchers analyzed fat found in clogged arteries. It turns out only 26% of it was saturated. The other 74% was unsaturated. That’s the same type of fat you find in “heart healthy” polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) found in vegetable oils.3

In other words, PUFAs — not lard — are more likely to give you heart disease

. In the Sydney Diet Heart Study, Australian researchers followed 458 heart patients for seven years. They instructed half the patients to reduce saturated fat in their diet to less than 10% of calories, and increase PUFAs to 15% of calories.

The results showed that people eating more PUFAs and less saturated fat had HIGHER death rates overall. They also had higher death rates from cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease. In fact, the death rate for the so-called “healthy” fats was about 70% higher.

The researchers estimated that replacing 5% of your saturated fat calories with “heart healthy” vegetable oil increases cardiovascular risk by 35%. And it increases risk of death from all causes by 29%.4

You see, vegetable oils with PUFAs are not stable. They break down and become oxidized. In your body they cause free radical damage and inflammation that leads to all chronic diseases.

But saturated fats like lard are very stable. The bonds between their molecules are very strong. They don’t break down or oxidize even at high heat.

Lard has very low levels of PUFAs. Instead it has 40% saturated fat and 50% monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs). MUFAs are the same heart healthy fats you find in olive oil and avocados. They help balance your blood sugar, reduce belly fat and inflammation, and protect your cholesterol from becoming oxidized.

Besides being rich in healthier fats, lard is also the second highest food source of vitamin D after cod liver oil. Just one tablespoon of lard gives you 1,000 IUs of vitamin D.

I advise my patients to avoid so-called vegetable oils like corn, soybean, canola, cottonseed, and sunflower oils. Instead, go back to the traditional fats like lard that our grandmothers used. But be careful when you buy this superfood…

Most lard you find in the supermarket comes from animals raised and processed in factories. Instead, look for lard from pastured hogs. It contains the highest levels of vitamin D since the pigs have access to sunshine. Purchase lard from your farmer or butcher so you know for sure it comes from pastured animals.


Make Your Own Old-Fashioned Lard

You can also “render” your own lard. Rendering lard means gently heating the fat to separate out protein strands. And you can use it in place of butter or oil in any recipe. Here’s how to make it at home:

  1. Ask your butcher for back fat from a pastured hog. Or get some pork belly, or other fatty cuts like the shoulder or butt. Store in the freezer until ready to use.
  2. Cut the back fat or meat into one-inch cubes and place in a roasting pan. The smaller the pieces the faster it will render. Add 1/3 cup of water to the pan for every pound of fat.
  3. Place the uncovered roasting pan in a 2500 F oven. Stir every 45 minutes as the fat melts.
  4. When the fat cubes begin to brown, remove the pan from the oven. Strain the fat from the cubes using a colander lined with cheesecloth. Return the remaining cubes to the roasting pan and put back into the oven.
  5. Repeat, extracting and draining off the fat until the only thing remaining in the pan are the browned “cracklings.”
  6. Store the lard in the refrigerator for up to a year or in the freezer for longer.

Use lard for high heat cooking. It has a very mild taste and won’t overwhelm whatever you are baking or roasting. Or use it to scramble eggs, sauté vegetables, baste chicken and roast meat.

To Your Good Health,

Al Sears, MD

Al Sears, MD, CNS

1. Simin Liu, Walter C Willett, Meir J Stampfer et al. “A prospective study of dietary glycemic load, carbohydrate intake, and risk of coronary heart disease in US women.” The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Volume 71, Issue 6, 1 June 2000, Pages 1455–1461.
2. Patty W Siri-Tarino, Qi Sun, Frank B Hu, Ronald M Krauss. “Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease.” The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Volume 91, Issue 3, 1 March 2010, Pages 535–546.
3. Felton CV et al. “Dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids and composition of human aortic plaques.” Lancet. 1994;344(8931):1195-6.
4. Ramsden CE et al, “Use of dietary linoleic acid for secondary prevention of coronary heart disease and death: evaluation of recovered data from the Sydney Diet Heart Study and updated meta-analysis.” BMJ. 2013;346:e8707. doi: 10.1136/bmj.e8707.