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What I am about to say will probably upset some people, shock others and may even cause one or two to throw the paper down in disbelief; but I speak the truth.\u00a0 Indeed as the good book says, \u201cThe truth will set you free\u201d.\u00a0 That is what I want to do this week, set you free from the fat free and taste deficient, self imposed prison that most of us have been in for decades.\u00a0 Fat free is a con, we\u2019ve all been conned and those extra lean chickens are coming home to roost so to speak.<\/p>\n
When I was a child, and I know that many of you will identify with this, Irish kitchens (indeed kitchens all over the developed world) had several types of fat to hand all the time.\u00a0 Lard, dripping, butter and suet were all commonplace.\u00a0 My granny used to keep dripping that she rendered herself, in a white ceramic pudding bowl; the white of the silky dripping blending seamlessly with the sides of its pottery home.\u00a0 Real butter was patted into small golden balls for the butter dishes several times a week and the wooden butter pats sat in a jug of water on a shelf in the scullery when not in use.\u00a0 Meltingly delicious suet pastry encased warm winter pies and rotund suet dumplings sat proudly on the top of aromatic, rich stews.\u00a0 Succulent roasts of creamy coloured fat marbled beef were a Sunday treat, there was often a squabble for the crackling from the pork joint and a scramble for the chicken skin; all of which today are considered taboo by the fat free gospel.\u00a0 Most dinners or main meals were accompanied by a cream soup to start and a dessert, usually with a cream or milk base such as rice pudding, semolina or apple tart and whipped cream. \u00a0 At teatime homemade scones or homemade shortbread provided a sweet afters treat.<\/p>\n
This was the norm for neighbouring houses and farms and therefore I\u2019m sure it was replicated throughout the country.\u00a0 Now here is the startling information; I don\u2019t remember any of them being particularly fat!\u00a0 I will admit that they were not the modern fashion suggestion of size 0, but they could not be considered fat by any standard and certainly not obese.\u00a0 They were all normal, healthy human beings.\u00a0 I urge you to think of your own ancestors and take a look at the photo album for clarification.\u00a0 I was having this \u2018fat\u2019 discussion with a female friend recently who would be of a similar age and country background.\u00a0 She concurred completely and verified by stating that she had some vintage dresses in her possession that had belonged to her own grandmother.\u00a0 They are too small for her despite having her current dress size on the labels!\u00a0 We\u2019ve been had and like sheep we have believed modern diet rubbish instead of thousands of years of actual human evidence of how to eat and how to live.<\/p>\n
It would seem that up until the last fifty years or so people instinctively knew how to grow and cook food.\u00a0 They understood the connection between food and the land and were aware of nature and the seasons.\u00a0 Knowledge of rearing animals and crops, gathering and preparing food was passed from one generation to another and the skills and traditions were valued and preserved.\u00a0 It still makes sense in today\u2019s modern world, but somewhere along the way we broke the link.\u00a0 It has lead to nonsense being trotted out as pseudo food science and the truth has been lost in the crossfire.\u00a0 We have so much information at our fingertips and yet instead of being healthier and more informed we are in fact heavier, unhealthier and, more so than ever in the history of man, totally confused.\u00a0 Some people don\u2019t know who to believe and so cherry pick bits of advice from several doctrines; such mixture is lethal.\u00a0 The end result is folly and we shouldn\u2019t be surprised that heart disease, diabetes, obesity, certain cancers and other diet related illnesses are on the rise.<\/p>\n
So what exactly happened when it came to fat and how did it become public enemy number one?\u00a0 Sadly, as with most of the modern world\u2019s maladies, the root is the love of money.\u00a0 In the mid seventies the American government endorsed a theory (and it was just that, a theory) that fat \u2018caused\u2019 heart disease.\u00a0 People were advised to reduce their fat intake for the sake of their health.\u00a0 Despite the fact that for millennia people were eating and thriving on animal fats, industry and science shouted louder than anyone and, moving away from nature moved into factories and concocted \u2018low fat\u2019 and \u2018non fat\u2019 foods.\u00a0 A particular boon was the discovery of how to extract oil from plants and, using the industrial process of hydrogenation, these man made fats were music to the food manufacturers\u2019 ears because they were cheap.\u00a0 Not only were they cheap but they extended the shelf life of many products; food industry gold and marketed as \u2018healthy\u2019 alternatives.<\/p>\n
We ate it all up, literally and then as consumers started calling for \u2018low fat\u2019 and \u2018lean\u2019 everything.\u00a0 Even farmers and breeders had to tow the line and start producing leaner animals; a crazy situation that would certainly cause our ancestors\u2019 brains to tilt sideways.\u00a0 You see our great grandparents knew that naturally occurring fat was an actual food group, necessary for good health and part of a healthy diet.\u00a0 They also knew that naturally occurring fat is what makes our food taste good, keeps it moist and stops it sticking to the bottom of the frying pan.\u00a0 I would go further and say Dr. Atkins and his infamous diet of a few years ago was actually on the right track, but again, there is a ditch on both sides of the road of life and taken to the extreme and out of balance it made no sense at all.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s time to stop the rot, let the crusade begin to bring back real fat, the stuff that\u2019s good for us.\u00a0 Let\u2019s eat it and enjoy it in moderation and reclaim our health, the taste of our food and some sanity.\u00a0 Finally I leave you with a quote I read recently on butter: \u201cButter is made by taking milk, centrifuging to separate the cream and then churning the cream. Margarine is made by taking vegetable oil, hydrogenating it in a vessel at high pressure and temperature in a hydrogen atmosphere, adding yellow colouring and some flavourings to make it look and taste something like butter\u201d. <\/em>Hmmm, I know which substance I would rather ingest into this precious, irreplaceable body of mine and, ultimately I know which tastes better too. \u00a0 I welcome your feedback to pat@jwb.ie<\/a>.<\/p>\n We hope you enjoyed reading this post by Pat Whelan of James Whelan Butchers. Pat is a 5th generation butcher, cook book author and the director of \u00a0James Whelan Butchers with shops in Clonmel, the Avoca Handweavers Rathcoole and Kilmacanogue, Dunnes Stores Cornelscourt, Rathmines and Swords in Dublin.\u00a0Sign up to our newsletter for more updates from James Whelan Butchers<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What I am about to say will probably upset some people, shock others and may even cause one or two to throw the paper down in disbelief; but I speak the truth.\u00a0 Indeed as the good book says, \u201cThe truth will set you free\u201d.\u00a0 That is what I want to do this week, set […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[25],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n