A Big Fat Sacrifice

It has been close to ten years since I learned that liberal amounts of fat are a very important part of the human diet and that low- fat diets are a disaster. And not just any fats but it is the saturated fats that our bodies need and were designed to use. Fats like butter, lard, tallow, chicken fat, duck fat, coconut oil, and palm oil. So when I read an article called "Sacred Fat" on the Well Fed Family blog I was thrilled to finally read about what I  had suspected was true-that God's prohibition in Leviticus against eating the "fat of cattle, sheep or goats" was about God commanding his people to sacrifice something very good not something very bad. I have read many commentaries on this topic and they all say kind of the same thing: fat is bad. The commentary I have at home, Believer's Bible Commentary, says this:

Besides the spiritual reason for not eating fat there is also a medical reason, as Dr. S. I. McMillen points out:

In the past few years medical science has awakened to the fact that the eating of animal fat is an important cause of arteriosclerosis.  This fat forms the tiny, fatty, cholesterol tumors within the walls of the arteries, which hinder the flow of blood.  Now in this decade, magazines, radio and T.V. are broadcasting the good news that we can reduce the ravages from man's greatest killer by cutting down our intake of animal fats.  Happy as we are with the fact that medical science has arrived, we may be amazed to discover that our ultramodern research is about thirty-five hundred years behind the Book of books. 

Oh my. Fortunately this theory has been, since the last printing of this commentary in 1995, thoroughly debunked (see this article Diet-Heart Myth). God made a wonderful food for us in the form of the fat of all kinds of animals and I sincerely hope that more people will do a little of their own research (just Google "cholesterol myth") and experiment a bit with cooking the way our great-grandmothers did (try some potatoes cooked in lard!).  Here is a link to the article "Sacred Fat" and I'm sure you will find it very eye-opening!

Posted by Ginny

     After going on the GAPS diet (really a protocol) 4 years ago I began to fall under the mistaken idea that  "grains are bad" although I can't say that Dr. Campbell-McBride (the author of the book Gut and Psychology Syndrome a.k.a. GAPS) ever actually said that in her book or anywhere on her website. But slowly over time I realized I was wrong. This article  To Gluten or Not to Gluten? Rethinking the Gluten-Free Craze explains it better than I.  It had come in my Wise Traditions For Food, Farming and the Healing Arts magazine just the other day after I had (again) sworn off gluten. So I am trying it again but more carefully and thought-out than before and with a more positive attitude rather than one of fear and I must say that so far so good. I can see that if I eat a small amount like no more than two pancakes and not every day then I am able to digest it quite well. Also I am trying to eat just Einkorn wheat, freshly ground although sometimes I succumb to the lure of organic whole wheat sourdough (made with real starter and nothing else). Now if I would just get a grain grinder I could work on making my own long-fermented sourdough like this recipe here Our Daily Bread!

Posted by Ginny