With the efficacy of “the low fat is best” message now being questioned by health professionals around the world, and the surge in popularity of “real food” and “paleo” food movements, Australians are getting a better understanding of the benefits of enjoying a higher fat diet based on real foods, cooked the way our great grandparents did.

Today we’re sharing our top 6 reasons why you should include fats as part of your healthy lifestyle.

Reason #1: Science says saturated fats don’t cause heart disease

In March 2014, a new meta-analysis published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, using data from nearly 80 studies and more than a half million people, found that those who consume higher amounts of saturated fat have no more heart disease than those who consume less.

Reason #2: It highlights, rather than overpowers the taste of food

Don’t fall victim to the flavour crime of using olive or coconut oil in everything you cook. After a while, that’s all you can smell and taste - what a waste! With animal fats, you can choose the fat that will compliment and enhance the flavour of what you’re cooking and the smell will be mouthwatering.

Reason #3: Fat doesn’t make you fat!

In fact, when paired with a good source of protein it can make you feel fuller for longer, curbing hunger and cravings. When you consume less carbs and more good fats it supports your metabolism and thyroid hormone function which is involved in body fat regulation. Low fat foods, tend to be higher in carbs and sugar (or sugar replacement) which mean you’re hungry sooner and are consuming calories with poor nutrient profiles.

Reason #4: Better skin and eyes

If you suffer from dry skin and eyes, one possible cause is a deficiency in fatty acids. Increase the lubrication within your body by getting enough saturated and omega-3 fats every day. Saturated fats are rich in the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K.

Reason #5: Stronger bones - especially as you get older

In order for calcium to be effectively incorporated into bone you need to have saturated fat. Dr Mary Enig, Ph.D - the foremost expert is dietary fats and human health suggests that as much as 50% of the fats in your diet should be saturated for this reason alone. You can drink as much milk as possible in an effort to improve your bone density but if you don’t include a good helping of saturated fat as well it’s not going to be effective.

Reason #6: Healthier brain function

Did you realise that your brain is made up mostly of fat and cholesterol? Most people are aware they should be eating more fish to get the unsaturated essential fatty acids found in cold water varieties, but many don’t realise that the majority of the fatty acids in the brain are actually saturated. Vitamins A, D, E and K are crucial for brain health and require fat to transport them around the body.

These are just some of the reasons why it’s important to include animal origin fats in your healthy diet. You no longer have to tolerate tasteless, unfulfilling low fat foods in order to be considered “healthy”. Your body needs good fats for optimal health so grab a block of dripping or lard from your local supermarket or a jar from www.yorkfoods.com.au

Hopefully by now the word is out about how brilliant animal fats are for your insides, but today we’re sharing something a little different. How you can incorporate lard into your beauty regime to keep your outsides looking and feeling great too.

To be completely honest, using lard as a natural moisturiser and in natural soaps is really very simple, the hardest part for most people is the mental idea of slathering themselves in fat when we’ve been conditioned to believe that oils are the cause of breakouts!

But when you think about it there’s really nothing more logical. Do you think our paleolithic ancestors were covering themselves in $200 serums to protect their skin from the elements? No, they would have used what was available to them; fats from the animals they’d caught themselves (ok we’re making an educated guess here but it makes sense).

If you’ve found yourself eating more meat and therefore handling meat more regularly you may have even noticed the difference in your hands already. It’s pretty common to hear from people switching to a more paleo way of eating.

So how does it work as a moisturiser? Simple. Just warm a small amount of lard in your palm until it’s spreadable (or soften in the microwave for a couple of seconds - BE CAREFUL NOT TO BURN YOURSELF!) and slather it all over your face, body, hands or feet after a shower. Be aware that there will likely be residue on your pillowcase or sheets so be sure to take that into consideration. If you’re using it on your hands and feet then popping on some socks or cotton gloves is a great idea to keep it contained. In the morning you can just cleanse your face as normal. There are even recipes out there for healing balms containing lard and your favourite essential oil!

What about making your own soap using lard? Your skin is your largest organ so why do we seem to have this compulsive need to coat ourselves in bodywash full of chemicals and preservatives that we can’t even pronounce? Making soap with lard as a central ingredient is pretty simple and creates your very own creamy, mild, moisturizing bar with the added benefit of knowing exactly what’s gone into it.

There are so many recipes and instructions available on the internet so have a look around but for a nice, simple beginners recipe you just need 3 ingredients - lard, water and caustic soda (aka lye) and some patience. This is a great tutorial showing you how to do it all, step by step.

Lard is a lovely, gentle ingredient for the skin, but there will always be some people who react to certain ingredients so be sure to try it on a small, inconspicuous area before lathering your whole body as a soap or moisturiser.

Ready to add lard to your beauty regime? Remember you can buy online here or in the chiller section of selected Coles, Woolworths and IGA stores Australia wide.

Christmas is a great time of year - family and friends coming together to celebrate and let’s be honest, food often plays a pivotal role. So why not impress your guests even more this year by including some good fats in your cooking.

Looking for some inspiration?

We shared some great Christmas pudding recipes last month that include suet that will leave your Christmas puddings moist and delicious in a way that butter and other options just can’t. November is the perfect time to get started with your puddings as the mixture is even more amazing if left to mature. You can find out more HERE

Mince pies are a Christmas staple in most households, but did you know they’re even better with the inclusion of suet! The moisture and flavour that is adds is incredible. HERE’s a good recipe for the mince.

Pork pies are something that isn’t as common here in Australia but is a popular addition to the Christmas table (and at any time of the year really!). Usually served cold with a delicious flavoured pork filling and pastry made using lard this is a great addition to your table. We recently created some videos to show you how to make your own pastry as well as the filling HERE.

Roast potato salad - everyone loves a potato salad. There’s rarely a picnic or BBQ where this salad doesn’t make an appearance so why not make it extra special this Christmas by roasting your potatoes before dressing them. By roasting them in lard you not only get that lovely golden colour and scrumptious flavour, you also get that an added crunch if you leave dressing until the last minute. THIS recipe here looks great. Just replace the oil with lard and add it to your roasting pan in the oven while it’s preheating.

Mini dessert pastries - Who doesn’t love a light, flaky pastry! Make your own pastry using lard, cut them into small circles, place in patty tins and blind bake until golden. Then fill with your favourite additions - lemon curd and cream, chocolate mousse or fruit salad are just some of the choices that mean your guests can have a little of everything. HERE is a great recipe for lime curd to add to your tart shells.

Boxing day fry up. Use up those leftover meats and vegies on boxing day morning by adding a generous tablespoon of dripping or lard to a pan and frying off those leftovers for a filling, delicious breakfast.

These are just some of the options to think about. We’d love to hear how you’re planning on using your York Foods dripping and lard this holiday season - just post on our Facebook page or send us an email. We LOVE seeing how you use our products!

Looking for some advice on the best way to incorporate dripping and lard in your cooking? Just get in touch with us, we’re happy to help.

Recipe for 8 people

Ingredients

• 170 grams brown sugar
• 200gram “fresh” bread crumbs
• 300 grams sultana
• 120 grams glazed orange rind
• 230 grams glazed cherries
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon dry ginger
• 1 teaspoon dry coriander
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 pinch salt
• 40 grams plain flour
• 3 eggs
• 60 mls French brandy
• 175 grams Wagyu beef fat
• Brandy butter
• 80 grams unsalted butter
• 80 grams pure icing sugar
• 30 mls French brandy

Extra

• Using a large stainless bowl – add brown sugar, glazed fruit and sultana. Wagyu fat, spices, salt and flour.
• Using a wooden spoon, combine all ingredients
• Add the eggs and brandy
• Line a stainless steel bowl with plastic / gladwrap paper – and pour the mixture in the bowl.
• Using a tea towel – wrap the bowl as demonstrated.
• Cook in a hot Bain Marie – simmer for 10 hours
• Cool down -before stabilising in the fridge – overnight.
• Warm the pudding again using a hot Bain Marie for 2 hours.

Make the brandy butter

• Cream soft butter and icing sugar
• Add the brandy – mix until smooth
• Remove the pudding from the bowl, remove the plastic wrap. Plate the large pudding on a beautiful serving dish or platter.
• Using the extra brandy – flame the pudding – before serving.
• 30 mls French brandy – to flame!

Reposted with permission from https://letresbon.com.au/chef-christophes-french-style-christmas-pudding/

Five tips that will work every time to take your cooking to the next level and impress your next dinner guests.

START ON THE RIGHT FOOTING-FRESH AND SEASONAL PRODUCE

Say no to out of season ingredients and hello to fresh and seasonal produce. Not only is it cost effective to use produce in season, saving you a lot on your weekly grocery shopping, the benefits also extend to adding richer flavor to any dish. Fruit and vegetables that are not in season locally are grown in a hothouse or shipped from other parts of the world then chilled and held in warehouses which means they don’t have a chance to develop their full flavor and you can definitely taste the difference. Not to mention that out of season fruit and vegetables have less nutrients than in season produce. So what are you waiting for? Find your local organic grocer and start stocking up on local fruit and vegetables for your next gourmet meal and cook or dab your veggies with dripping or lard to help those essential vitamins and nutrients be better absorbed by your body.

WORK ON THE RIGHT FLAVOUR COMBINATIONS

Once you have decided on using fresh ingredients, the next step for a Chef is to develop a dish that has complementary flavours. Are you curious why some ingredients seem to have a natural affinity for one another while others just don't work well together?

It’s also about unexpected ingredient combinations that show off the uniqueness of a dish and have your dinner guests asking for that secret ingredient. Welcome to a chef’s world of food pairing or otherwise known as “flavour combinations”- a growing ability to unlock new flavour combinations and expand your gourmet repertoire. It is estimated that smell determines 80% of our flavour experience leaving only taste and touch accounting for only 20% of the overall eating experience! So what is the secret to pairing the right agreements? If truth be told when two or more ingredients share the same aroma components then they are complementary and can work well in any dish that you develop (all other things being equal) - it’s that easy! Think about that incredible smell that wafts through your kitchen when dripping is being heated in the oven; it makes your mouth water and pairs beautifully with root vegetables and of course meats, enhancing their natural flavours.

HOW TO PERFECT A SAUCE

Whether it’s the perfect bolognaise sauce, hollandaise sauce or tomato sauce- if you are a frequent watcher of reality cooking TV shows you will know that the winners are always those that can perfect a sauce that raises the bar on any dish.

So how do you create that unforgettable sauce? The key is to season a sauce at the end and never during the process of making it. When your sauce has reached the proper consistency then is the right time to add salt not before.

There are plenty other ingredients to add to a sauce, not just salt to improve its flavour. If it’s an Italian sauce then fresh herbs like basil and oregano always lifts the taste or why not try adding some whole milk or heavy cream and allow to simmer in the pan for several minutes. If you feel like enhancing flavor to a roux, add lard to flour as a substitute for butter, fry off onion and garlic or spice mixes using dripping and get hooked on adding a twist to your sauce.

SETTING THE RIGHT TEMPERATURE

Have you ever moved house and tried a new oven only to find that it overcooks a roast or burns any of your baking attempts? Chefs know that you need to check appliances to ensure that they will deliver the results you are looking for in the kitchen.

For ovens, a foolproof way before you place anything in an oven, whether it’s a main meal or a dessert is to always use a thermometer and not just to rely on the temperature you set in the oven. That way you know absolutely, without question that you have the right temperature for cooking. Try it and see for yourself- particularly for all aspiring bakers, it’s the only fool-proof way to ensure perfecting baking.

USE FATS RATHER THAN OILS TO IMPROVE FLAVOUR (AND NUTRITION)

Quality animal fats are the healthy alternative to heavily processed cooking oils. If you really want to impress your friends and family, why not try our lard which we’re thrilled to see finally back in vogue with many chefs world-wide. Lard and dripping are slowly returning to being a secret weapon in the kitchen as they pack not just a flavor punch but also the incredible aromas that are so loved by many for transforming a plain dish into a gourmet meal!

At the end of the day, cooking in the 21st century is not only about a dish being cooked to perfection and in style, it is also about eating clean and knowing that you are putting your health first. This means improving the absorption of nutrients by serving your vegetables with a dab of healthy fats and choosing fat products that haven’t been overprocessed and stripped of all goodness. Take a step in the right culinary direction and you’ll feel (and taste!) the difference.

When most people think of dripping and lard they tend to think of warming dishes cooked long and lovingly. While this is of course one way to use these delicious fats, it’s certainly not the only way! Keep those jars at arms reach and use them for a variety of light dishes too.

Stirfrys are a great quick dinner all year around and with the addition of dripping to fry in you’ll get the most amazing smell, texture and taste. Just heat up a tablespoons worth of oil in your wok in place of synthetic oils or coconut oils and cook the same way you normally would. Hot and fast!

It doesn’t get much easier after a hot day than cooking up steak and chips for the family. Hardly any prep is needed and they only take a few minutes to cook so won’t heat up your kitchen.

How about starting a chip night each week? Team them up with steak, marinated chicken, fish or just a couple of slices of buttered bread for a quick, delicious meal.

Chip night doesn’t have to mean the same thing week in week out. When you’re making your own the only limit is your imagination!

Traditional french fries - they’re a classic for a reason. Here’s a video showing you how to make the most delicious french fries using dripping. You can use the same cooking technique for all the options below too.

Sweet potato fries - use the same fine cut as for french fries, or opt for a chunkier style. 

Curly fries - these are a favourite among the young and the young at heart! You just need a curly gadget from your local kitchen shop

Zucchini fries - lightly crumb fingers of zucchini for a healthier option

Eggplant fries - surprisingly creamy on the inside once cooked you can just lightly coat these in flour, salt and pepper.

Carrot fries - deliciously sweet they make a nice addition to the mix

Don't forget you can pick up blocks of York Foods dripping and lard from selected Woolworths, Coles and IGA or from the Our Products link above.

Goulburn business, York Foods has won the award for Best New Retail Product at the Fine Food Australia show in Sydney this week for its Wagyu oil product. Winning this prestigious award will help promote York Foods to a wider audience in the food  industry.

York Foods was one of a group of 16 businesses from regional NSW that showcased their food and beverage products on the Flavours of NSW stand funded by NSW Trade and Investment.

Exhibitors on the NSW stand were aiming to secure deals with domestic and international distributors, local retailers including delis, gourmet stores and supermarkets, as well as pick up business in the hospitality and food service industry.

York Foods from Goulburn has been feeding the world since 1935 and was a key supplier of beef dripping for Britain in the Second World War. The company's products now include Wagyu oil, beef dripping, pork lard, and mutton fat for use in cooking.

For more information on York Foods Pty Ltd, go to www.yorkfoods.com.au

Fine Food Australia is the nation's largest food and hospitality industry event. Fine Food Australia usually attracts around 24,000 trade buyers from the retail, food service, hospitality and manufacturing sectors.

Fine Food Australia was held in Sydney from September 5-7. For more information on Fine Food Australia, visit www.finefoodaustralia.com.au

It’s so great to see the clean eating, paleo and LCHF ways of eating becoming so mainstream and just as great to see so many people going back to traditional ways of cooking, just like their grandparents and great grandparents did.

Whether you’re completely new to this lifestyle or have been at it a while, you’ll know the importance of including healthy fats in your diet. But have you ever delved into why this is crucial?

Here are just a few of the reasons why good fat is a necessary part of your diet:

• Provide fuel - when you aren’t consuming sugars and grains your body looks to fuel itself on fats so it’s important you are eating the right amount of the right kinds of fats
• It keeps you satiated - because fat needs to be broken down through multiple processes and organs including the stomach, liver, gallbladder and small intestine, it stays in your body for a while which helps with hunger pangs
• Essential for proper functioning of nerves and the brain - Our brain contains a large amount of essential fats and fats form part of the material that wraps around nerves cells so they can send electrical messages
• Transporting fat soluble vitamins through the body - Vitamins A, D, E and K are all transported through our bloodstream with the help of fats

Now of course we are a fad driven society so when you think of fats, most people think of the new kid on the block - coconut oil. But for hundreds of years, long before the term “paleo eating” was conceived, people were eating delicious dripping and lard to maintain their health and make their food taste even better.

Now don’t get us wrong, coconut oil certainly has its place but if you want to avoid the same background taste and smell with every meal you cook as well as increase the flavour of your food and have the ability to use a fat that will enhance rather than overpower your meal - you can’t go past the variety that animal fat offers.

Still not sure exactly what fats you should be consuming? Here’s a few ideas:

• Lard - preferably free range
• Dripping - preferably organic and grass fed
• Duck fat
• Avocados
• Nuts and seeds
• Grass fed butter
• Coconut Oil

But of course not all kinds of fats are good for us. In fact the over processed oils on most supermarket shelves are doing us a lot more harm than good so should definitely be avoided.

What types of oils should you be avoiding?

• Canola oil
• sunflower oil
• Soybean oil
• Cottonseed oil
• Margarine

So it’s really not hard to increase the amount of good fats in your diet. With so many options available you really can add a little fat to every dish you make and enjoy the variety of flavours that will compliment your cooking.

Looking for inspiration? Check out the recipes page on our website. Want to find out more about the lifestyle benefits of good fats? Just click here

Athletes achieve their peak sporting performance through good diet, nutrition, and eating a variety of foods. The energy they need commonly comes from fats, carbohydrates, and protein, however the ratio of which athletes should consume these foods is often debated.

Carbohydrates should form the basis of the high performance athlete’s diet, that’s a given, however depending on the type of sports being performed, upping the inclusion of saturated fats should be considered.

The fat you consume will depend on the sport you play

This is because essentially, fat is at the core, fuel for exercise, and provides a higher concentration of energy than carbohydrates or proteins. If you are a sportsperson performing quick, intense activities - think sprinting or rowing - then high calorific fats won’t physically be accessible to you due to the way the body accesses stored energy. However, for the sportsperson undertaking endurance sports - cycling, cross-country skiing, or hiking - then ensuring your diet is high fat plays an important part in your performance.

How well trained you are impacts how quickly energy from fat is used

Other than looking at the sports being performed, it’s important to consider the athlete’s condition; that is, are they trained or untrained? This is because trained athletes use fat for energy far more quickly, than untrained. Trained athletes are able to metabolise the fat a lot faster than moderate exercisers due to the intense preparation that has been undertaken for competition.

As more research is undertaken in the area of sports performance and the relationship with fat intake, more and more evidence is coming to hand that sportspeople who restrict the amount of fats in their diet are actually hindering their overall performance.

Fat is important for pre- and post-event recovery

We also know that fats positively affect our hormonal functions, muscle growth, tissue repair, and immune system strength. This is obviously important for the sportsperson looking to get their body ready for peak performance, as well as recovering appropriately after their competition.

High performance athletes know what they want to achieve and need to ensure they have access to the right information to make the best, well-informed decisions in relation to diet and exercise. A training regime will help performance and even more so when a good diet, tailored to your sport and your level of athleticism is in place.

Get results using York Foods products

If you are looking for an easier way to achieve great results without undesirable weight gain, increasing your intake of natural slow release saturated fats and Omegas 3 and 6 in your diet is an effective option.

Using our drippings, oil or lard in your cooking is a simple way to achieve this. Have a look through our recipes and suggested uses sections for inspiration.

Taking a closer look at lard and dripping

Ask anyone over 50 and they will more than likely share fond memories of being served lardon bread when they were younger, or will try to explain to you the importance of the dripping pot in their home. This generation understood the benefits of including natural lard and dripping in their diet and we often hear grumblings from our older customers about how this has changed over the years.

This cultural shift against fats came about shortly after the second World War when low-fat diets emerged and corseted women became more self conscious about their waste lines. ‘Fat’ became the new taboo and many were encouraged to reduce the amount of daily fat consumed. This meant that the humble dripping pots were put away on top shelves never to be seen again, and lard and dripping were replaced with ‘healthier’ butters and margarines.

Fat is back!

Still to this day, the debate around the types of ‘healthy’ and ‘unhealthy’ fats continues and we are constantly bombarded with information from both sides of the fence telling us to increase monounsaturated fats one day, or decrease saturated fats the next, or even to eliminate trans fats altogether. It can become confusing and overwhelming.

We, at York Foods, advocate a healthy lifestyle and making wellbeing choices that are balanced and include full flavoured foods wherever possible. We love food and we’re not afraid to tell anyone that listens to us! That’s why we are glad to say that fat is back!

How to use lard and dripping in everyday cooking

Both lard and dripping are the result of rendered animal fat, but the difference lies in how this process is undertaken and sometimes the type of animal fat. Lard will always be produced from pig fat; however dripping can be from both Lamb or Beef.

Lard is best used as a substitute for butter or vegetable oils in baking, pastry, frying or cooking, where dripping can give a deep, meaty flavour when basting or roasting. Use both like you would butter - so add to the frying pan and heat before adding your food; or melt in the microwave before basting meats; or add to a roasting pan and melt in the oven before throwing in your vegetables. Both products have a high smoking point which means they have to get quite hot before they smoke or burn. This makes them great for high temperature cooking like stir frying.

Reuse your lard and dripping

Both fats can be reused when they have cooled. There are a couple of ways to do this and we talk about what to do and what not to do over on our dripping pot page on our website. We’re glad to say that the humble dripping pot is making a comeback!

Whether you’re looking to add depth of flavour to roasts or want to relive your memories from your youth when grandma baked Sunday dessert, we really can’t stress enough that a jar of lard and dripping should be added to your larder.

Fun fact: the term ‘larder’ came about as the place where generations before us stored their lard.

Head on over to our website to find out more about our products.

Many families have tried and true recipes for Christmas puddings that have been passed down through the generations. Over the past 60 years or so though, way too many of these recipes have been changed to adopt the “low fat is best” mentality - much to the detriment of the flavour and texture of those classic puddings our great grandmas used to make.

So today we’re talking about Suet! This delicious fat is the secret ingredient to a moist, flavoursome and light Christmas pudding.

How you may ask? Why can’t you just use butter? Suet has a higher melting point than butter which means the pudding is able to cook for longer before the suet melts. If you think about a steamed pudding cooking away, if you’re using butter it will melt as soon as the mixture gets warm and amalgamate with it.

With suet, it’s usually broken up into quite small pieces which spread throughout the mixture. The pudding is able to cook for a while and start to set before the suet slowly melts into the surrounding pudding, creating little pockets of air that make the pudding lighter.

Think butter = potentially greasy and heavy pudding, Suet = light, moist and delicious.

Does it make my pudding taste “beefy”? That’s a valid question but the answer is no. When you’re dealing with strong other flavours of fruit, brandy and zests the very mild suet flavour is non detectable.

When should you ideally make your Christmas puddings? The suet in a traditional pudding helps to keep it rich and moist so you can make it around 5 weeks before Christmas and leave it to mature in a cool, dry place.

So now is the time to start planning for your Christmas puddings. If you don’t have a traditional recipe that uses suet, the internet is a fantastic resource. Here are a couple of recipes we’ve discovered that you can use your York Foods Grass Fed Beef Suet Drippings in - be sure to take some photos and put them on our Facebook page!

• Traditional British Christmas Pudding Recipe
• Nigella Lawsons Ultimate Christmas Pudding

Our Grass Fed Beef Suet Dripping are available in 200g and 900g jars ready for you to start your Christmas planning.

If you’re lucky enough to still have your parents or grandparents around, ask them the first thing that comes to mind when you say the word “dripping” and you can bet that most of the time, the first thing they’ll do is smile.

A typical afternoon tea throughout the 40’s and 50’s (for the average family that is) was homemade bread spread with beef dripping. It was delicious, filling and cheap. Every home had a dripping pot that was added to with each roast dinner. 

Then in the 70’s a (now all but debunked) paper was written telling everyone that saturated fats were bad and we should all start eating margarine and processed oils if we wanted to be healthy. Governments got on board with this message and the low fat movement took the world by storm.

Fast Forward to the last 2-3 years and we’re finally able to see the effects this horrible way of eating has had on our society. Heart disease and diabetes are running ramped and the western world has become the most overfed and undernourished they’ve been in history. Seeing this trend, more and more people are going back traditional styles of cooking using real, nutrient rich ingredients that are minimally processed and as close to nature intended as possible.

Love of cooking and cooking skills are often passed down through families, so the knowledge and skill of how to cook using traditional oils has been another victim of the low fat movement. We’re hoping to change that by giving you some basic tips, tricks and ideas to get you started in the hope that you’ll pass them onto your children and the tradition will continue.

The Basics 

When it comes to using dripping the perfect place to start is in the oven. Use it to roast your vegetables and enjoy not just an incredible aroma that will get your mouth watering, but the result will be crispy and delicious veg that you just can’t replicate with synthetic oils. Simply add a couple of tablespoons to the bottom of a baking tray and place in the oven while you’re preheating it. When liquid and hot there should be enough to generously cover the bottom of the pan. Just pop in your prepared potatoes and give a gentle swirl to coat and bake, turning once or twice for about an hour or until crisp and cooked.

The other place that dripping shines is in the frypan. Use a small amount to grease your pan before cooking a steak. Use a little more to coat the pan before cooking a frittata and enjoy the extra flavour boost that enhances rather than overpowers what you’re cooking.

Take it up a notch

We came across this delicious recipe for Panna cotta with roasted rhubarb and dripping cake on the BBC website that we had to share with you. Impress your family or guests with this rich, sweet cake paired with a light panna cotta. 

We recently added some great new videos to our website, including some yummy recipes using our beef dripping. You can check them out HERE.

If you ask any good chef they’ll tell you that when it comes to making light, delicious, flaky pastry it has to be made using lard or dripping. For too many years we’ve been told that shortenings like the american Crisco product are much the same thing but this couldn’t be further from the truth. If you want scrumptious flavour you can’t go past this good old fashioned traditional favourite. 

Most recipes for shortcrust pastry call for a combination of both butter and lard which adds an additional flavour boost while taking advantage of the lards special texture and higher melting point. For puff pastry on the other hand, most chefs tend to stick with just lard or dripping which is the way it’s traditionally been done for hundreds of years and produces superb results.

We recently shared with you a video showing you how to make your own shortcrust and puff pastry at home. Chef Chistof uses beef dripping to make a delicious puff pastry and lard for a lovely shortcrust which he uses to make an incredible pork pies. Check it out below.

Chef Christof says he loves to use fat for several reasons: 

• Use the fat of the animal to cook the animal - if you’re cooking a pork pie then shortcrust with lard is the perfect combination
• Flavour - it’s much better to use animal fat than other kinds when it comes to flavour

Popular chef Heston Blumenthal has been quoted saying how he much he loves using beef dripping in his cooking ‘I use beef dripping every time’ 

Making pastry is really much more simple than you’d expect. Of course it takes a little time and love than just buying ready made sheets from the supermarket, but the incredible flavour (not to mention bragging rights) you’ll get when you make it yourself as well as knowing exactly what’s going into your body will make the effort well rewarded.

What are our perfect pastry tips? 

• Don’t overblend the lard or dripping and the flour. You want to see those delicious flattened out bit of fat in there. They’re what makes the pastry flaky!
• Make sure your water is ice cold
• Make sure your lard is cold but not frozen solid. You need to be able to manipulate it
• Remember that if you’re adding butter as well as lard the pastry will be heavier than if you just use lard
• Keep your hands cool if they tend to run warm

Chef and food stylist Jennifer McLagan's new cookery book even starts with “I love fat,” as she remembers growing up in the 1960’s here in Australia with a fridge full of butter, dripping and lard. *

So from humble grandma’s cooking up a storm to award winning chefs and authors, everyone is in agreement that when it comes to unbeatable flavour and the flakiest pastry around, you can’t look past dripping and lard!

*excerpt from http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/fat-is-back-rediscover-the-delights-of-lard-dripping-and-suet-1642912.html

We’ve loved seeing the surge in knowledge surrounding good fats becoming talking points in mainstream media over the last few weeks but like anything, there will always be business’ out to make a quick buck who will try and cash in on this by either relabelling their inferior products to market to the “good fat” crowd or by creating cheap products from sub par ingredients that they try and pass off as the real deal.

With lower quality fats becoming available, it made us really sad to think how many people, just trying out dripping for the first time, would try these because they’re slightly cheaper and be disappointed, just assuming that’s the quality and taste they should expect so never trying another and therefore missing out on the York Foods difference.

Please don't be fooled by these “new” fats or repackaged fats looking for your business. Not all fats are created equal! Do not settle for something cheaper or “new and exciting” as chances are you will not be satisfied.

Here at York Foods we have been making fats for your kitchen for over 3 generations, we survived the lows and then the extreme lows but we are still here because we make the best, 100% pure, products on the market and we make them right here in Australia!

We are a small family owned company that knows the texture, smells and taste of all our fats, we will NOT put inferior raw materials into your product or look for fast opportunities to make the fat which compromise the quality, like hydrogenation, deodorizing or homogenising. We are 100% pure and natural. Quite simply, nothing else compares.

Making quality fats for your kitchen is not a business it is who we are, we live and breath the world of Lard and Dripping and have done so for 3 generations, with your continued support we would like to see this continue.

Support York Foods by purchasing our 250g blocks of dripping and lard from your local Coles, Woolworths or IGA supermarket or larger jars from our website, sharing the word about our products via your social media platforms and help to not just #bringbacklard and #bringbackdripping but ensure that people new to this kind of eating know to try the best quality products possible!

Winter is well and truly upon us and for most this means a yearning for warming, hearty food that fill your home with delicious smells and brings the family together.

But have you ever stopped to ask yourself why you crave these heavier foods in the cold months? The answer is surprisingly simple. Higher fat foods take longer for your digestive system to break down which not only leaves you feeling satiated for longer, it means that your body is working on them for longer which elevates your internal temperature and keeps you warmer.

The reduced daylight hours during the winter months can also result in many people lacking in Vitamin D (which is necessary for metabolism and mineral absorption) as sunlight is the best source of this particular vitamin. But that doesn’t mean you have to miss out on this vital vitamin as Lard is another great source!

So today we’re sharing with you a great winter recipe to fill your stomach with a good, wholesome, nutritious meal. This one is especially easy because it uses the slow cooker to create a great result with the added benefit of coming home to a house that smells incredible!

This recipe is a perfect one to gather than family around the table to enjoy a meal together. Have all the components on the table and let everyone add their own “extras” to suit their tastes. Kids especially love this one with the flavoursome meat and taking part in making their meal. Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas

Ingredients

• 2kg pork scotch fillet (or neck if you can get it - ask your butcher)
• 1 tbs ground cumin
• 1-2 tsp chilli powder (more or less depending on your preference)
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp ground cloves
• 2 dried bay leaves
• Generous pinch salt
• 250g York Foods Lard (yes, it’s a lot but trust us, its absolutely necessary and creates the most delicious, moist pork!)

Instructions

1. Put your pork fillet into the slow cooker
2. Combine all the spices and using your hands, rub the spices all over the pork so it’s well coated
3. Cut up the lard into cubes to help it melt faster and put them around the pork in the slow cooker
4. Cook on low setting for 6-8 hours
5. Pull out the bay leaves
6. Shred the meat with a fork (it should just fall apart, if it doesn’t, give it a little longer)
7. Don’t drain all that glorious liquid. The pork will soak up a lot of it once it’s been shredded.

Serve in warm tortillas topped with a selection of chopped corriander, diced onion, diced tomato, guacamole, chilli, sour cream and/or homemade refried beans. Also delicious on rolls with coleslaw the next day.

We’d love to see your photos if you cook up this dish! Just share them on Facebook or Instagram with the hashtags #yorkfoods #bringbacklard

Some athletes claim that following a low carbohydrate diet — with a greater proportion of energy coming from fat — has allowed them to consume less carbs during exercise without any loss of performance. Not only that, but they’ve seen additional benefits to overall health and body fat levels.

In a recent blog post successful endurance coach, veteran athlete and author Joe Friel noted:

“The bottom line is that last fall I lost 8 pounds in 9 weeks by eating more fat and less carbohydrate. That was 5% of my body weight (160 pounds – at the time I was well on my way to my normal winter weight). I was never hungry. In fact, it seemed like the more fat I ate, the more weight I lost.”

To understand why this is interesting we first need to look at existing approaches to fuelling athletic performance.

The traditional approach: carbs = performance

There’s been plenty written on CyclingTips in the past about the importance of carbohydrates in training and in race situations. These recommendations stem from research showing that the reliance on carbohydrate (as opposed to fat) to provide energy increases with the intensity of the exercise.

Studies have shown that beginning endurance exercise with more carbohydrate stored (as glycogen in muscles and the liver) improves performance when the duration is more than 2 hours long and when the exercise is performed at a moderate-high intensity.

Consuming additional carbohydrate during exercise further improves performance by adding to the total amount of carbohydrate available to the muscles.

A recent study showed that increasing the amount of carbohydrate consumed during endurance exercise (2 hours of constant moderate intensity cycling followed by a 20km time trial) improved performance (see Table 1, above right).

Sports scientists and dietitians working with pro cycling teams have adopted these recommendations, with the pros often consuming upwards of 90g/hr carbohydrate on the bike.

The need for such volumes of carbohydrate stems from the need to avoid running out of muscle glycogen during periods of high-intensity training or racing. When this occurs (without additional carbs coming in from food) the muscles draw on blood glucose as the only remaining source of carbs in the body. If the body draws too much then blood glucose levels fall, resulting in hypoglycaemia.

Most of us know this as ‘hitting the wall’ or ‘bonking’, and the longer and more intense the event, the more likely carbs will become key in how much power you can produce.

You might remember Cadel Evans’ implosion on stage 17 of the 2002 Giro d’Italia, which possibly cost him the overall win. And then there was Lance Armstrong’s fade on the last climb of the 16th stage of the 2000 Tour de France showing, if nothing else, that even EPO cannot prevent a performance loss if you’re completely glycogen depleted1.

Low-carb diets and energy production

At lower-intensity exercise our body requires very little energy to move the bike forwards. When the body can keep up with demand for oxygen, fat can be used as the major energy source.

Our body’s stores of fat are far greater than carbohydrate — this is likely the result of evolution because one gram of fat provides 38 kilojoules of energy, whereas one gram of carbohydrate only provides 17kJ (and requires water to be stored along with it). This makes fat a far more weight-efficient way of carrying stored energy in the body.

So while the body’s glycogen stores are fairly limited, fat stores are near inexhaustible for any given period of continuous exercise. If we could better access this pool of energy at higher exercise intensities we might be able to reduce our dependence on carbohydrate (dietary and stored) and prevent bonking during a race.

Several factors affect the body’s use of carbohydrate and fat as energy sources:

• Genetics — Some people appear to be much better suited to using fat as opposed to carbohydrate as an energy source at any given exercise intensity
• Training adaptations — Any exercise training that improves cardiovascular fitness will reduce the reliance on carbohydrate as an energy source at any given power output
• Diet — Avoiding carbohydrate prior to and during exercise also reduces the body’s use of carbohydrate as a fuel source. Studies from several labs have shown that training with less carbohydrate available to the muscles increases the body’s ability to use fat at higher exercise intensities.
• Disease states — Type 2 Diabetes, in particular, has a dramatic effect on the body’s flexibility to change between using mostly fat or mostly carbs for energy.

Terms such as “metabolic efficiency” have been thrown around by people who eat low carbohydrate diets, to describe the goal of preferentially using more fat than carbs at any given exercise intensity. They’re also often described as being “fat adapted”.

Examples

The following data are taken from my (Joe’s) lab at the Auckland University of Technology, and show how individuals differ dramatically in their use of fat and carbohydrate as fuel sources.

In both cases the athletes rode for 20 minutes at 100 watts; thereafter the wattage increased by 25W every 5 minutes with heart rate and blood lactate measurements taken at the end of each 5 minute stage.

The 20-minute warm-up was used to allow the athlete to increase their reliance on fat as a fuel. This was at a very low intensity (100W) in which athletes reported 7/20 score (extremely light) on the Borg’s Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) scale.

As you can see in figure 1, the first athlete preferentially used greater relative amounts of carbs over fat even at low intensities, despite not eating for four hours prior to the test. At best this is a contribution of 72% carbs and 26% fat. It is fair to say that Athlete 1 is heavily carb dependant even at lower intensity exercise.

Figure 1: Percentage fat and carbohydrate use during incremental cycling exercise in Athlete 1.

Very different findings are seen with Athlete 2, tested under the same protocols (figure 2). You’ll notice a greater use of fat as an energy source in the early to mid-stages of the assessment.

The Total Energy Expenditure (TEE) was very similar for both athletes, however the substrate (fat or carbs) contribution to TEE is markedly different (figures 3 and 4).

Figure 2: Percentage fat and carbohydrate use during incremental cycling exercise in Athlete 2.

As well as Athlete 2 having a 50W higher peak power output, it is obvious that they use a far greater percentage of fat as an energy source compared to Athlete 1. To this end, Figures 3 (fat comparison) and 4 (carbohydrate comparison) compare the two athletes’ data by way of percent VO2max given that this is a relative measure.

Note that ~70% VO2max represents a moderate exercise intensity, around 85% VO2max represents closer to a tempo type effort (representative of a hard bunch ride). Here the difference in “metabolic efficiency” is very clear between the two athletes, and may be due to differences in genetics, training status (especially given the different peak power outputs) and daily diet.

Figure 3 (left): Percentage of fat utilisation vs VO2max. Figure 4 (right): Percentage of carbohydrate utilisation vs VO2max.

Why would low carb diets be beneficial for endurance athletes?

Being dependent on carbohydrate as the major energy source during exercise has some obvious limitations (limited supply, depletion results in hypoglycaemia), and therefore adapting the body to utilise more of our body fat stores to fuel exercise makes practical sense.

This may not be achievable at very high exercise intensities, as athletes usually approach 100% reliance on carbohydrate at 100% VO2max. But if we are able to increase “metabolic efficiency” and reduce carbohydrate use at moderate intensities, then we may be able to avoid the dreaded bonk while also reducing the requirement to eat during exercise, carry less food, reduce the likelihood of gut issues and the cost of buying or making gels, bars and sports drinks.

It’s important to note that even though Athlete 2 in the example had better “metabolic efficiency” than Athlete 1, neither of them were consuming a low-carbohydrate diet at the time of this initial assessment. Both have subsequently done so, and the following article in this series will present findings and individual anecdotes from their journey to becoming more “fat adapted”.

So how might being “fat adapted” benefit you? Other than the benefits mentioned above, people devoted to this approach (athletes and non-athletes) have anecdotally reported:

• weight and body fat loss (because they can get away with eating less total calories/kilojoules each day, partly due to the effect of low carb diets on appetite)
• a perception of increased and sustained energy throughout the day
• improved sleep patterns
• improvement in blood lipid profiles. A greater intake of (unsaturated) fat has lead to a decrease in LDL (so-called bad cholesterol) and an increase in HDL (so-called good cholesterol) and a reduction in total cholesterol
• no afternoon “crash” that may be due to a reduction of blood glucose levels
• no change (reduction) in VO2max or peak power
• reduced or complete cessation of craving sweet foods

Fat adaptation and cycling performance?

While the concept of fat adaptation and low carb diets for athletes has only risen to prominence recently, research in this area goes back almost two decades. In 1995 the term “fat loading” was described as potentially “the next magic bullet” for endurance performance.

Five years later a string of studies on the topic were conducted by husband and wife team John Hawley (RMIT University, Melbourne) and Louise Burke (AIS Sports Nutrition). In 2000 they published data showing that as little as five days of a high fat, low carb diet altered the body’s use of fat and carbohydrate during exercise, although there was no benefit to performance. Several papers followed in the next few years, all showing the same result.

They also found that athletes struggled to perform high intensity training intervals after a period of high fat, low carb eating. A review paper on the topic at the time concluded:

“

“Overall, there is evidence to suggest that endurance performance at best can only be maintained after long term adaptation to fat-rich diets when compared with carbohydrate-rich diets, and therefore long-term fat diet usage cannot be recommended as a tool to improve endurance performance”.

The issue of lowered carbohydrate availability in training re-surfaced in the mid-late 2000’s, this time looking at the effect of performing every second training session with low glycogen stores, over a period of 10 weeks. Again these studies found evidence of fat adaptation, but no difference in performance at the end of the training block.

They also noticed that athletes who undertook every second session carb-depleted actually performed less work in training, but interestingly performed just as well at the end of the training block.

It can be argued that studies such as these didn’t change the athletes’ diets for long enough, and didn’t restrict carbohydrate severely enough to see the true benefits of “fat adaptation”. Some people who support the approach acknowledge it’s actually not about improving performance, but about other health benefits that can be achieved without a loss in performance compared to the traditional high carb approach.

Here’s Joe Friel again:

“

“Eating a LCHF [low-carb, high-fat] diet has not directly improved my performance. I’m not faster now than I was before. This is common in the research I’ve read on the topic. What it has improved is getting to and staying at race weight without calorie counting or hunger.”

But until someone completes well controlled studies of low carb diets, over longer periods of time and with a variety of performance measures (i.e. long, evenly-paced time trials as well as high intensity sprint or hill climb efforts following a prolonged ride) no-one can say for sure whether “fat adaptation” is the next evolution in endurance sports nutrition.

My talk and more at Low Carb Downunder Melbourne

I’m just back from presenting at the low carb downunder in Melbourne.  What a great opportunity to see what the Aussies are up to and connect up with the movers and shakers on that side of the Tasman.

The whole gig was organised and lead by Dr Rod Tayler, a Melbourne anaesthetist with an interest in LCHF. Rod had many of the presenters around to his place for a pre-conference dinner where we chewed the fat (literally of course).  Its an interesting lot in Australian LCHF and related paleo type people. There are few, if any, dieticians or anyone from a medical or health field directly related to chronic disease prevention or treatment. That part of the system seems to have it’s head completely in the sand.

That said, these guys are highly credible and experienced medical guys, who are standing up to their own.  An extra interesting spin is the involvement of the Aussie sporting elite. This, especially cricket and AFL, is a big deal in a country like Australia.  I’ll write more below about this, especially Dr Peter Bruckner and the Aussie cricket team.

The youtube of my talk is now up for viewing.  I was pretty happy with e delivery.  See what you think.

Here’s a quick summary and a few comments on the presentations.

“Should We All Be on a Ketogenic Diet?” - Dr Zeeshan (Zee) Arain. Zee is in General Practice in Melbourne. He is the club doctor for the Melbourne Demons AFL team.  He talked about the process of keto-adaption with the ins and outs of the physiology, biochemistry and practice.  Should we all be on a ketogenic diet? Well we mostly could if we wanted to be and would not be harmed, and mostly would get some benefit. It’s a no brainer for the metabolically dysregulated.

“Can Elite Athletes Eat LCHF and Win?”.  Dr Peter Brukner. Peter  is a widely published Sports Medicine Physician. He is the doctor for the Australian Cricket Team. He has also been head of sports medicine at Liverpool Football Club, and across several elite Aussie sports teams. Look, this was fascinating to learn that half the Aussie cricket team is on LCHF. They (the fatter guys) have all lost significant amounts of weight. One guy who was on serious anti-athritis medication ($15k worth of drugs per year) and really couldn’t train or play properly has had a complete remission and takes no medication and is training and playing freely.  He is 24 years old.  So that’s a big deal and if we can see results like that across other sports then this will raise the importance of the LCHF whole food approach.

Take home message – elite sport and LCHF whole food can mix very well.  More research needs to be done though as we are just geting started here.

“I Manage my Type 1 Diabetes Eating LCHF” - Dr Troy Stapleton. Troy is a Sunshine Coast radiologist who was diagnosed with type 1 Diabetes 13 months ago. The guy is a guru and really used his very sharp mind to articulate the obvious problems for Type 1 diabetes and higher carb diets.  This guy will make a massive difference in the long run.  He’s a radiologist but already knows more than virtually every endocrinologist in Australia.  Listen to his recent ABC radio piece here.

“The Fat Revolution—Saturated Fat is Good for You!” - Christine Cronau. Christine is a Nutritionist, Bestselling Author and Speaker. Here’s her latest book: The Fat Revolution. This was talk which tells a great story about the conspiracy and problems with the lipid hypotheses, as well as Christine’s emergence from being overweight and sick on a low fat vegetarian diet.  Take home message after talking with and listening to Christine and watching her at the dinner table – eat more fat!

“Low Carb and Public Health” Professor Grant Schofield. Me – video here.

The Flawed Science of Nutrition—Convenience, Politics and Dollars” - Dr Gary Fettke. Gary is a Launceston Orthopaedic Surgeon (nofructose.com). He is the medical expert for Sarah Wilson’s ‘I Quit Sugar’ program.  This guy is really cool and a very articulate presenter.  He just spun a nice story about his life and times, and the life and times of the refined dietary carbohydrate. Take home message – if you eat crappy carbs then all bets are off for good health outcomes.  Get rid of them!

“That Sugar Film” Damon Gameau.  Damon is an actor and film-maker (gameauland.com) and is finishing up his sugar film.  A really cool story and presentation, this film will be a must see for us in this community when it comes out mid 2014.  Go Damon.

“Toxic oil” - David Gillespie. David is a Brisbane lawyer, Bestselling Author of Sweet Poison, and an anti-sugar activist.  Another good talk by David, this time on the polyunsaturated fatty acids and how they have crept in and overwhelmed us and our health.  Good to keep up with this.  Take home messsage – chuckout everything except coconut oil, olive oil, and butter. Maybe keep your avocado and macadamia oils.

Overall it was it really a great day out in St Kilda town hall with 400 there to share the fun.  A take home message – don’t wait for the government or the NGOs to come to their senses with nutrition advice.  Act yourself and get those around you into the science and reality of whole food LCHF.  Encourage others to do the same when they get some benefit as well.  Ground up, we will sort this!

Endurance athletes find success with paleo diets.

What do professional cyclist Dave Zabriskie, ultramarathon runner Timothy Olson, and gold-medal triathlete Simon Whitfield have in common? All of these elite endurance athletes have pushed away the time-honored plate of pasta in favor of a "paleo" approach to nutrition. They've dialed down the carbohydrates and replaced them with copious amounts of healthy fat. And as multitudes of paleo converts claim (and anecdotal evidence suggests), this may be the key to optimizing performance and extending careers into the late thirties and beyond.

But it requires a leap of faith. "It's like NASA," says conditioning coach Jacques DeVore on the trepidation he felt sending Zabriskie into the 2013 racing season on an unproved diet. "You can test everything in the lab, but then you put it up in space and sometimes things don't work out."

The 34-year-old American cyclist started working out at DeVore's Santa Barbara gym in October. No stranger to experimentation, Zabriskie competed in the 2011 Tour de France on a mostly vegan diet.

Once he overcame his initial lipid phobia (cyclists live in horror of gaining even trivial amounts of weight), Zabriskie upped the fat in his diet to upward of 60 percent of his caloric intake.

A typical food-log entry listed 3,800 total calories. His meals that day included coconut oil, avocados, eggs, almonds, cashews, chicken breasts, beef jerky, string beans, onions, and protein powder. The nutritional breakdown was 323 grams of protein, 239 grams of fat, and 147 grams of carbohydrate.

He coupled his new dietary approach with high-weight, low-repetition resistance training in the weightroom, as well as hill repeats, jumping squats, and other forms of high-intensity interval training.

The idea behind eating and training "primally" (embracing animal fats, eliminating grains, minimizing carbohydrate intake, and eschewing "chronic cardio" for short, explosive efforts) is to gain strength without gaining weight, train the body to run on fat as a primary fuel source, and naturally maintain high levels of testosterone.

Typically the carbohydrate-heavy diets of pro cyclists coupled with massive amounts of mileage lead to a lowering of testosterone, and by extension, less power on the bike. This explains the appeal of illegally supplementing the hormone – to aid in recovery in multiday stage races.

The results for Zabriskie were impressive, DeVore says. Over the course of their time together the 6-foot cyclist dropped his body weight from 168 pounds to 154 while improving his dead lift from 150 pounds to 245. This while increasing his power on the bike by about 15 percent. He performed well in the Volta a Catalunya, an early-season Spanish stage race, before dropping out in the last stage due to illness.

"I don't think he ever thought he would improve this much," DeVore said. "For a guy who's as elite as he is, and we've added that much power on the bike in one off season? That's huge."

Paleo guru Mark Sisson, former Ironman triathlete and author of the bestselling 'The Primal Blueprint,' used to think that it wasn't possible to be a world-class endurance athlete on a paleo diet – that you just couldn't overcome the need for copious amounts of glucose in the form of carbohydrates without crashing and burning.

"The assumption has always been that glucose was the preferred fuel with regard to performance," Sisson says. "I used to joke back in my days of sugar burning that, ideally, you would hang an IV bag off the back of your bike and just drip glucose into your bloodstream the whole way."

But Sisson has changed his mind. He says that one of the problems with the few studies conducted on low-carb performance to date is that they were done on athletes who had not yet fully adapted to burning fat as a primary source of fuel, a process that can take weeks, if not months. These flawed studies made paleo a tough sell. "This is a leap of faith that a lot of athletes are unwilling to take," he says. "Imagine you've been doing things a certain way for five or 10 years. And all of the sudden some guy comes along and says he thinks there's a better way. But there's no guarantee."

Dr. Stephen Phinney, a professor emeritus at UC Davis, has spent three decades studying low-carb performance. The mainstream consensus has been that you need carbs to do anything other than very moderate intensity exercise. But after a period of adaptation, the body will switch over from carbohydrate to fat as its main fuel for exercise with equal or better performance. That makes an athlete essentially "bonk-proof," says Phinney.

Phinney cited the example of Timothy Olson, who won the 2012 Western States 100, a 100-mile footrace through the High Sierras, in record time on a low-carb, high-fat diet: "He's so skinny it looks like he can take a shower in a shotgun barrel. But even if he's seven or eight percent body fat and only weighs 140 pounds, he still has 25,000 to 30,000 fat calories. If you're about to undertake an event that's going to cost you 14,000 calories, which tank would you like to be hooked into?"

Another benefit of the paleo diet is that it may help extend athletic careers by counteracting the deleterious effects of aging, Phinney says. Typically, below 50 grams of daily carbohydrate intake, the body responds by producing a fuel source from fat called ketone bodies, which also have anti-inflammatory properties that combat oxidative stress.

"As you push performance and training to their limits, you're running up against cumulative oxidative stress that leads to aging," says Phinney. "So if you can use a strategy that counteracts that, it buys you a window of opportunity into longer periods of high-intensity competitive athletics."

Canadian triathlete Simon Whitfield can only laugh when he looks back on his nutrition before linking up with Sisson and dropping carbs early in his career.

"It was so long ago, I can only think about it in general terms," Whitfield says. "But I was like, 'If low fat is good, then no fat must be better.' I thought carb loading was the way to go."

Now his diet includes such paleo staples as coconut oil, bacon, and ghee butter, with a focus on quality fats and proteins and "adequate" carbohydrate supply. He credits the switch with much of his professional success, which consists of 10 consecutive Canadian Triathlon Championship titles, gold in the triathlon at the 2000 Summer Olympics, and silver in 2008. It's also played a role in his athletic longevity: "I think it's a testament to the fact that I'm still doing it at 38, and I'm healthy and injury-free."

Sisson points out that athletes have already done all they can in the realm of who's willing to hurt more. Now they're looking to nutrition. "The next breakthroughs in human performance, in events lasting longer than two hours, will come from this exact method."

Article writen by Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, PhD

When the fabricated food folks and apologists for the corporate farm realized that they couldn't block America's growing interest in diet and nutrition, a movement that would ultimately put an end to America's biggest and most monopolistic industries, they infiltrated the movement and put a few sinister twists on information going out to the public. Item number one in the disinformation campaign was the assertion that naturally saturated fats from animal sources are the root cause of the current heart disease and cancer plague. Butter bore the brunt of the attack, and was accused of terrible crimes. The Diet Dictocrats told us that it was better to switch to polyunsaturated margarine and most Americans did. Butter all but disappeared from our tables, shunned as a miscreant.

This would come as a surprise to many people around the globe who have valued butter for its life-sustaining properties for millennia. When Dr. Weston Price studied native diets in the 1930's he found that butter was a staple in the diets of many supremely healthy peoples.1 Isolated Swiss villagers placed a bowl of butter on their church altars, set a wick in it, and let it burn throughout the year as a sign of divinity in the butter. Arab groups also put a high value on butter, especially deep yellow-orange butter from livestock feeding on green grass in the spring and fall. American folk wisdom recognized that children raised on butter were robust and sturdy; but that children given skim milk during their growing years were pale and thin, with "pinched" faces.2

Does butter cause disease? On the contrary, butter protects us against many diseases.

Butter & Heart Disease

Heart disease was rare in America at the turn of the century. Between 1920 and 1960, the incidence of heart disease rose precipitously to become America's number one killer. During the same period butter consumption plummeted from eighteen pounds per person per year to four. It doesn't take a Ph.D. in statistics to conclude that butter is not a cause. Actually butter contains many nutrients that protect us from heart disease. First among these is vitamin A which is needed for the health of the thyroid and adrenal glands, both of which play a role in maintaining the proper functioning of the heart and cardiovascular system. Abnormalities of the heart and larger blood vessels occur in babies born to vitamin A deficient mothers. Butter is America's best and most easily absorbed source of vitamin A.

Butter contains lecithin, a substance that assists in the proper assimilation and metabolism of cholesterol and other fat constituents.

Butter also contains a number of anti-oxidants that protect against the kind of free radical damage that weakens the arteries. Vitamin A and vitamin E found in butter both play a strong anti-oxidant role. Butter is a very rich source of selenium, a vital anti-oxidant--containing more per gram than herring or wheat germ.

Butter is also a good dietary source cholesterol. What?? Cholesterol an anti-oxidant?? Yes indeed, cholesterol is a potent anti-oxidant that is flooded into the blood when we take in too many harmful free-radicals--usually from damaged and rancid fats in margarine and highly processed vegetable oils.3 A Medical Research Council survey showed that men eating butter ran half the risk of developing heart disease as those using margarine.4

Butter & Cancer

In the 1940's research indicated that increased fat intake caused cancer.5 The abandonment of butter accelerated; margarine--formerly a poor man's food-- was accepted by the well-to-do. But there was a small problem with the way this research was presented to the public. The popular press neglected to stress that fact that the "saturated" fats used in these experiments were not naturally saturated fats but partially hydrogenated or hardened fats--the kind found mostly in margarine but not in butter. Researchers stated--they may have even believed it--that there was no difference between naturally saturated fats in butter and artificially hardened fats in margarine and shortening. So butter was tarred with the black brush of the fabricated fats, and in such a way that the villains got passed off as heroes.

Actually many of the saturated fats in butter have strong anti-cancer properties. Butter is rich in short and medium chain fatty acid chains that have strong anti-tumor effects.6 Butter also contains conjugated linoleic acid which gives excellent protection against cancer.7

Vitamin A and the anti-oxidants in butter--vitamin E, selenium and cholesterol--protect against cancer as well as heart disease.

Butter & the Immune System

Vitamin A found in butter is essential to a healthy immune system; short and medium chain fatty acids also have immune system strengthening properties. But hydrogenated fats and an excess of long chain fatty acids found in polyunsaturated oils and many butter substitutes both have a deleterious effect on the immune system.8

Butter & Arthritis

The Wulzen or "anti-stiffness" factor is a nutrient unique to butter. Dutch researcher Wulzen found that it protects against calcification of the joints--degenerative arthritis--as well as hardening of the arteries, cataracts and calcification of the pineal gland.9 Unfortunately this vital substance is destroyed during pasteurization. Calves fed pasteurized milk or skim milk develop joint stiffness and do not thrive. Their symptoms are reversed when raw butterfat is added to the diet.

Butter & Osteoporosis

Vitamins A and D in butter are essential to the proper absorption of calcium and hence necessary for strong bones and teeth. The plague of osteoporosis in milk-drinking western nations may be due to the fact that most people choose skim milk over whole, thinking it is good for them. Butter also has anti-cariogenic effects, that is, it protects against tooth decay.10

Butter & the Thyroid Gland

Butter is a good source of iodine, in highly absorbable form. Butter consumption prevents goiter in mountainous areas where seafood is not available. In addition, vitamin A in butter is essential for proper functioning of the thyroid gland.11

Butter & Gastrointestinal Health

Butterfat contains glycospingolipids, a special category of fatty acids that protect against gastro-intestinal infection, especially in the very young and the elderly. For this reason, children who drink skim milk have diarrhea at rates three to five times greater than children who drink whole milk.12 Cholesterol in butterfat promotes health of the intestinal wall and protects against cancer of the colon.13 Short and medium chain fatty acids protect against pathogens and have strong anti-fungal effects.14 Butter thus has an important role to play in the treatment of candida overgrowth.

Butter & Weight Gain

The notion that butter causes weight gain is a sad misconception. The short and medium chain fatty acids in butter are not stored in the adipose tissue, but are used for quick energy. Fat tissue in humans is composed mainly of longer chain fatty acids.15 These come from olive oil and polyunsaturated oils as well as from refined carbohydrates. Because butter is rich in nutrients, it confers a feeling of satisfaction when consumed. Can it be that consumption of margarine and other butter substitutes results in cravings and bingeing because these highly fabricated products don't give the body what it needs?.

Butter for Growth & Development

Many factors in butter ensure optimal growth of children. Chief among them is vitamin A. Individuals who have been deprived of sufficient vitamin A during gestation tend to have narrow faces and skeletal structure, small palates and crowded teeth.16 Extreme vitamin A deprivation results in blindness, skeletal problems and other birth defects.17 Individuals receiving optimal vitamin A from the time of conception have broad handsome faces, strong straight teeth, and excellent bone structure. Vitamin A also plays an important role in the development of the sex characteristics. Calves fed butter substitutes sicken and die before reaching maturity.18

The X factor, discovered by Dr. Weston Price, is also essential for optimum growth. It is only present in butterfat from cows on green pasture.19 Cholesterol found in butterfat plays an important role in the development of the brain and nervous system.20 Mother's milk is high in cholesterol and contains over 50 percent of its calories as butterfat. Low fat diets have been linked to failure to thrive in children21--yet low-fat diets are often recommended for youngsters! Children need the many factors in butter and other animal fats for optimal development.

Beyond Margarine

It's no longer a secret that the margarine Americans have been spreading on their toast, and the hydrogenated fats they eat in commercial baked goods like cookies and crackers, is the chief culprit in our current plague of cancer and heart disease.22 But mainline nutrition writers continue to denigrate butter--recommending new fangled tub spreads instead.23 These may not contain hydrogenated fats but they are composed of highly processed rancid vegetable oils, soy protein isolate and a host of additives. A glitzy cookbook called Butter Busters promotes butter buds, made from maltodextrin, a carbohydrate derived from corn, along with dozens of other highly processed so-called low-fat commercial products.

Who benefits from the propaganda blitz against butter? The list is a long one and includes orthodox medicine, hospitals, the drug companies and food processors. But the chief beneficiary is the large corporate farm and the cartels that buy their products--chiefly cotton, corn and soy--America's three main crops, which are usually grown as monocultures on large farms, requiring extensive use of artificial fertilizers and pesticides. All three--soy, cotton and corn--can be used to make both margarine and the new designer spreads. In order to make these products acceptable to the up-scale consumer, food processors and agribusiness see to it that they are promoted as health foods. We are fools to believe them.

Butter & the Family Farm

A nation that consumes butterfat, on the other hand, is a nation that sustains the family farm. If Americans were willing to pay a good price for high quality butter and cream, from cows raised on natural pasturage--every owner of a small- or medium-sized farm could derive financial benefits from owning a few Jersey or Guernsey cows. In order to give them green pasture, he would naturally need to rotate crops, leaving different sections of his farm for his cows to graze and at the same time giving the earth the benefit of a period of fallow--not to mention the benefit of high quality manure. Fields tended in this way produce very high quality vegetables and grains in subsequent seasons, without the addition of nitrogen fertilizers and with minimal use of pesticides. Chickens running around his barnyard, and feeding off bugs that gather under cowpaddies, would produce eggs with superb nutritional qualities--absolutely bursting with vitamin A and highly beneficial fatty acids.

If you wish to reestablish America as a nation of prosperous farmers in the best Jeffersonian tradition, buy organic butter, cream, whole milk, whole yoghurt, and barn-free eggs. These bring good and fair profits to the yeoman producer without concentrating power in the hands of conglomerates.

Ethnic groups that do not use butter obtain the same nutrients from things like insects, organ meats, fish eggs and the fat of marine animals, food items most of us find repulsive. For Americans--who do not eat bugs or blubber--butter is not just better, it is essential.

Notes

• Price, Weston, DDS Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, 1945, Price Pottenger Nutrition Foundation, Inc., La Mesa, California
• Representative of American folk traditions about butterfat is this passage from "Neighbor Rosicky", by American author Willa Cather: [The Rosickys] had been at one accord not to hurry through life, not to be always skimping and saving. They saw their neighbours buy more land and feed more stock than they did, without discontent. Once when the creamery agent came to the Rosickys to persuade them to sell him their cream, he told them how much the Fasslers, their nearest neighbours, had made on their cream last year. "Yes," said Mary, "and look at them Fassler children! Pale, pinched little things, they look like skimmed milk. I'd rather put some colour into my children's faces than put money into the bank."
• Cranton, EM, MD and JP Frackelton, MD, Journal of Holistic Medicine, Spring/Summer 1984
• Nutrition Week Mar 22, 1991 21:12:2-3
• Enig, Mary G, PhD, Nutrition Quarterly, 1993 Vol 17, No 4
• Cohen, L A et al, J Natl Cancer Inst 1986 77:43
• Belury, MA Nutrition Reviews, April 1995 53:(4) 83-89
• Cohen, op cit
• American Journal of Physical Medicine, 1941, 133; Physiological Zoology, 1935 8:457
• Kabara, J J, The Pharmacological Effects of Lipids, J J Kabara, ed, The American Oil Chemists Society, Champaign, IL 1978 pp 1-14
• Jennings, IW Vitamins in Endocrine Metabolism, Charles C. Thomas Publisher, Springfield, Ill, pp 41-57
• Koopman, JS, et al American Journal of Public Health 1984 74(12):1371-1373
• Addis, Paul, Food and Nutrition News, March/April 1990 62:2:7-10
• Prasad, KN, Life Science, 1980, 27:1351-8; Gershon, Herman and Larry Shanks, Symposium on the Pharmacological Effect of Lipids, Jon J Kabara Ed, American Oil Chemists Society, Champaign, Illinois 1978 51-62
• Levels of linoleic acid in adipose tissues reflect the amount of linoleic acid in the diet. Valero, et al Annals of Nutritional Metabolism, Nov/Dec 1990 34:6:323-327; Felton, CV et al, Lancet 1994 344:1195-96
• Price, op cit
• Jennings, op cit
• DeCava, Judith Journal of the National Academy of Research Biochemists, September 1988 1053-1059
• Price, op cit
• Alfin-Slater, R B and L Aftergood, "Lipids", Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease, Chapter 5, 6th ed, R S Goodhart and M E Shils, eds, Lea and Febiger, Philadelphia 1980, p 131
• Smith, MM, MNS RD and F Lifshitz, MD Pediatrics, Mar 1994 93:3:438-443
• Enig, op cit
• "Diet Roulette", The New York Times, May 20, 1994.

About the Authors

Sally Fallon is the author of Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats (with Mary G. Enig, PhD), a well-researched, thought-provoking guide to traditional foods with a startling message: Animal fats and cholesterol are not villains but vital factors in the diet, necessary for normal growth, proper function of the brain and nervous system, protection from disease and optimum energy levels. She joined forces with Enig again to write Eat Fat, Lose Fat, and has authored numerous articles on the subject of diet and health. The President of the Weston A. Price Foundation and founder of A Campaign for Real Milk, Sally is also a journalist, chef, nutrition researcher, homemaker, and community activist. Her four healthy children were raised on whole foods including butter, cream, eggs and meat.

Mary G. Enig, PhD is an expert of international renown in the field of lipid biochemistry. She has headed a number of studies on the content and effects of trans fatty acids in America and Israel, and has successfully challenged government assertions that dietary animal fat causes cancer and heart disease. Recent scientific and media attention on the possible adverse health effects of trans fatty acids has brought increased attention to her work. She is a licensed nutritionist, certified by the Certification Board for Nutrition Specialists, a qualified expert witness, nutrition consultant to individuals, industry and state and federal governments, contributing editor to a number of scientific publications, Fellow of the American College of Nutrition and President of the Maryland Nutritionists Association. She is the author of over 60 technical papers and presentations, as well as a popular lecturer. Dr. Enig is currently working on the exploratory development of an adjunct therapy for AIDS using complete medium chain saturated fatty acids from whole foods. She is Vice-President of the Weston A Price Foundation and Scientific Editor of Wise Traditions as well as the author of Know Your Fats: The Complete Primer for Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils, and Cholesterol, Bethesda Press, May 2000. She is the mother of three healthy children brought up on whole foods including butter, cream, eggs and meat. See her website at http://www.enig.com/trans.html.