On Wed, 26 Jan 2000, Diane wrote:

> you have mentioned something that's been puzzling me, maybe you or someone
> else can explain.  Why do some people on this list go out of their way to
> eat saturated fat,

What some people are doing is going out of their way to eat fat,
and that is because they want it for energy and don't want to eat
many carbs for that purpose.

> & does the saturated fat in pemmican affect us
> differently than eating saturated fat without processing it, as in fatty red
> meat, for instance.

The suet fat used in pemmican is more saturated than muscle fat,
which is why it resists spoiling.  In particular it is high in
the saturated fat stearic acid, which has this antioxidant
effect.  As for the way the saturated fats affect us, it varies
from person to person, and not all saturated fats are the same.
Some saturated fats cause an elevation of LDL cholesterol in some
people: the likely suspects are lauric, palmitic, and myristic
acid.  Stearic is neutral in this respect.

> My own practice so far has been to remove visible fat
> from meat, and only eat the leaner cuts--both for health & aesthetic
> reasons.  Even when I was a kid I was grossed out by fatty meat.  But I am
> willing to experiment with pemmican, etc. as long as someone explains what
> it will do for me.

It will provide you with a calorically dense, protein-adequate
food that stores and travels well.

> By the way, speaking of rendering, and this ties in nicely with the other
> thread of ethnicity, my traditional Jewish grandma used a lot of rendered
> chicken fat for cooking.  I always wondered why the traditional old people
> in my family lived such long, healthy lives (granny lived to be over 100, as
> did her mother), when they practically lived on chicken fat.  It tasted
> pretty good, too.

Chicken fat is considerably less saturated than beef tallow (30%
as opposed to 50%), a bit higher in monounsaturated fat, and a
lot higher in polyunsaturated fat (with, unfortunately, a w6:w3
ratio of about 20:1).  But they probably offset that ratio by
consuming a fair amount of salmon and other oily fish.

Todd Moody
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