I've made my own lard on several occasions before. Unfortunately, it's not that easy to come by the necessary dat to do it with. I usually have to get it from a meat vendor at a farmer's market by special request.

Was thinking about this. I use butter and olive oil. kept draining and throwing away my bacon grease and was wondering if I could save it to cook my eggs or even steak. Using just some in moderation.

Also was wondering about the coconut oil. Really? No strange taste. How much do you use?

Yes, it is humorous how much of our health information ends up getting contradicted years later.

I pretty much take the position of avoiding all processed foods as much as possible and eating anything else in reasonable amounts.

I was glad I've been doing that when I read that the World Cancer Research Institute compiled the results of over 7000 studies on processed meats and determined they were so bad for you that you should never eat them. Even moderate consumption (2 times per week) increases your risk of cancer by 63%. Of course what do our school systems feed the kids? Almost 100% processed meats.

It's cheaper to avoid them also. When I was in my twenties, and on a budget, Sunday evening was when I cooked enough food for my lunches for the week. I'd boil or bake a chicken and a small roast, cut up the meat and put in the fridge for sandwiches, and make a pot of beans for bean salad, hardboil eggs for deviled eggs and egg salad, and chop up a ton of raw veggies to have ready for salads, etc. It's easy to avoid processed foods and cook healthy if you just do some preplanning. It's also fun.

By the way, you can get organic coconut oil and avocado oil shipped to you. Also, do a search on organic palm sugar. It's absolutely delish and a healthy substitue for refined, processed sugar.

It's absolutely delish and a healthy substitue for refined, processed sugar.

Agree with most of your comment Sue .. However sugar is still sugar..

I am loving the influx of low carb posts over the past two weeks.

I fell off the wagon hardcore over the weekend b/c it was birthday overload. I had two rolls dipped in garlic oil then some pizza. I felt like I had just murdered a litter of kittens afterward and was so pissed at myself for making a bad choice. It's back to the basics this week...gotta hit up the grocery store to get some green beans, stick of Boar's Head pepperoni, etc. so I don't have any excuses.

Thanks for the microwave bacon tip! I have only tried the method of using paper towels to cook bacon in the microwave. I love that it is so easy and splatter free compared to cooking on the stove, but I hate wasting all the bacon grease. I'm going to start experimenting with your method. mmm...bacon

Love the tips! I've been experimenting with lowering my carbs. I hate counting my food so I have no idea how many carbs I've been eating, but I cut out soda, sugared coffe, all grains and white potatoes. When I eat things like sweet potatoes, carrots, or fruit I eat them with a bigger meal. Other than that I eat lots of veggies and meat. The first week was freaky hell. I kept having this brain fog thing where I couldn't formulate thoughts and I'd look for things and not find them, only to come back later and see that they were right where I was looking before. When I tried this before and got to that stage I got scared and ate bread or sugar to get back to "normal", but this time I kept going. I really think in my 32 years on this planet I'd rarely been more than 6 or so hours without a sugar high and my body was freaking out. Then that passed (don't know how long that lasted, I was seriously OUT OF IT) and I started feeling "normal" but better in weird ways. I don't have to snack every 3 hours! I don't sit at my desk and think about bread, or candy, or soda, or sugar coffee, until I can't take it anymore and I run to a vending machine. I seriously don't get hungry until my stomach starts growling because it has been half a day since I ate last. Sometime I eat when I'm not that hungry because it is time to eat. I have NEVER felt that way before. And compared to other kinds of cooking this is so easy. For meals I pick a meat and I pick a couple of veggies and I cook them relatively quickly and then I eat them. No boiling beans for 8 hours. No waiting for a bread, rice or a lasagna to cook. I'm not losing tons of weight, probably because of the carbs I still eat, but the benefit of not constantly thinking about or searching for food is really awesome! Thanks for all your posts on this subject!

@Gretchen

Yeah, I fell off the wagon too...My lovely Starbucks girls told me that they still had the ingredients for my beloved Salted Caramel Mocha, so I've been indulging, sigh. But I get it Breve and it's my lunch and it holds me all shift, so I don't think I'm having a huge insulin response.

Joh Paukson,

Steak cooked in bacon grease is delicious. Vegetables roasted after a light tossing with bacon grease is the food of the gods, second only to tossing them with duck fat. Broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, asparagus, carrots, and parsnips are all awesome this way. Roast them at 350 until desired softness (about 20 min). You can also use bacon grease as the fat in homemade mayonaise.

As far as coconut oil goes it's pretty tasteless when you're using it to cook something. I mix a teaspoon in with my morning tea and I can detect a very faint coconutiness that way (due to the smell). Just enough to keep me from adding sugar. (Breakfast for me is two or three boiled eggs and a cup of tea with coconut oil. I don't get hungry again until dinnertime)

heh, I've gotten to the point where I believe less than half of anything, because we are all generally so far away from the person doing the research. Most research can be skewed so easily by someone with an agenda...

Steak is awesome with a huge pat of butter melted over it. Even better if you make your own flavored butter (I like garlic with maybe a little oregano thrown in - YMMV).

Coconut oil is great for sauteeing veggies. I love to cook up a little frozen spinach, add ham if I have it, and eggs and cheese for an omelette that is to die for.

I'm definitely going to take Elle's advice and try cooking my steak in bacon grease, though. That sounds fantastic!

Sorry about the double post, but Amy, have you seen Fat Head yet?

http://www.fathead-movie.com/

Great info and the guy's snark is awesome. It's on instant play on Netflix right now - I highly recommend it.

I absolutely second that recommendation for Fat Head!

I've fallen off the wagon, too. I just slapped myself in the head yesterday and reminded myself that I FELT BETTER when avoiding the carbs. I had to start to feel like crap again before waking myself up. Thankfully that is the best motivation, even better than any motivation to lose weight.

Few years ago got tired of finding out-seemingly every time you turned around- that the 'THIS is healthy for you!' crap being pushed actually had more problems than the old stuff, so stopped using it.

Olive oil for some things, peanut oil for frying and such. Butter for cookies and steak and other stuff, bacon grease in others and so forth. Just got the results back from blood tests, and my 'bad' cholesterol is high end of normal, my HDL(good) cholesterol is above the normal range, triglycerides are low-normal; the note from the doc says "Keep it up!" If he ever asks about my diet he'll probably go into shock.

You can get organic non-virgin coconut oil (I use Omega). It is neutral, without any coconut flavor at all. For people like me who don't like their eggs tasting even faintly of coconut.

I just wanted to report that I upped my fat intake over the past 2 days and almost immediately lost 2 pds. I've been struggling to lose weight, even following a very low carb diet, but I was mistaken about the ratios. A low carb diet is really supposed to be a HIGH FAT diet.

I don't know how I missed this (other than I can see why they don't call it a "high fat diet"). My emphasis was on getting enough protein and avoiding carbs. I knew you didn't have to count calories or fat, but I didn't know that I should strive to eat a lot more fat than protein.

Some on the LC boards are saying the ratio should be around 60% fat, 30% protein, and 10% carbs. All I know is that more fat is really working for me. I may go buy some lard...and definately the coconut oil and coconut milk too.

Oh, Amy, if you have not seen Fat Head you really need to. So damn funny! He makes Morgan Spurlock (Supersize Me) look like a total moron. SNARKTASTIC!!!

Tom graciously answered a couple of my random questions on his research one night with links and facts! OMG! Get Dr. Oz to do that!

Seriously, watch it. You'll love him even more.

Thanks for advice on the bacon grease and vegetables Elle but alas I have not oven. This country is very bad about having them. I am stuck to boiling and frying. Maybe George Forman grilling and a Microwaving later if I can find the room.

Fathead is a great movie--explains the whole Ancel Keys lipid hypothesis really well, as well as insulin's role in the body. Mary Enig and Sally Fallon from the Weston Price Foundation do a bang up job of making one wary of vegetable oils. (Up until very recently veggie oils were industrial lubricants only!!! For serious!!!) And of course the Eades make their appearances and explain various sciency things.

Yeah, anyway, it's a great movie and I hope he gets the funding he needs to remake it with higher production values.

A good, authoritative book on this topic is Mary Enig's "Know Your Fats." She comes down hard on vegetable oils, even those without trans fat. I avoid them entirely.