Photos of recipes from the new book Tender Grassfed Barbecue
Photos of recipes from the cookbook Tender Grassfed Meat
Grassfed Saturated Animal Fat Should Not Be Taxed
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat and Tender Grassfed Barbecue
Taxing this lovely, artisan pork lard is a crime!
Denmark is a nation that is famous for its high-quality butter, cheese, and pork, which all contain large amounts of health-giving saturated animal fat. Now Denmark has decided to place a heavy tax on all foods containing saturated animal fats. The tax is scaled to the amount of saturated animal fat in the food, so lard would have a 35% tax on its consumption.
Saturated animal fat from healthy animals is a key part of the traditional Danish diet, but that was ignored.
Most of the Danish people oppose this tax, but that did not seem to matter to the Danish legislators, ninety percent of whom voted for the tax.
The legislators claim that taxing foods based on the amount of saturated fat they contain will force people to eat “healthier†foods, increase lifespan, and avoid disease. None of these things are true.
The basic human right of the Danish people to choose their own food was ignored.
Now, Finland, Britain, and Romania are all considering imposing a tax on saturated fat consumption. The goal is to force everybody to eat a “plant-based†diet.
Aside from the fact that no government has the right to control what we eat, this is a very bad policy. Saturated animal fat has been demonized, but is actually a vital nutrient needed by human beings. Since crucial vitamins such as Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, and Vitamin K are fat-soluble, our bodies need this fat to properly absorb the vitamins. Saturated animal fats contain substances that keep the mind sharp and functioning, and help the immune system. Saturated animal fats provide many other nutrients that our bodies need and expect, and modern vegetable oils just do not contain these nutrients. A detailed article explaining the truth about fats is The Skinny on Fats.
For most of human existence, humans ate a Paleo-style diet that was animal based, getting most of their nutrients from wild animals, fish, and shellfish, though many roots, fruits, nuts, and vegetables were also eaten. The whole animal was eaten, including all the organ meats, and the bones were chewed on and often made into broth. We and our bodies have evolved to thrive upon animal foods. All animal foods contain saturated animal fat, and that is what our bodies have evolved to use. By making it harder for us to afford the very food that our bodies need to stay healthy and thrive, the government will make people sicker and weaker.
The fossil record shows what moving to a plant-based diet can do. The skeletons of humans before the invention of agriculture showed tall, strong people with dense, healthy bones, often with no sign of disease. The skeletons of people after the spread of agriculture were often a foot shorter, with thin, fragile bones, and showed the mark of many diseases.
History shows that the ruling classes in agriculture-based societies often reserved meat and other animal foods for themselves, forcing the peasants to eat mainly grains and vegetables. Medieval Europe is a great example of this practice, where only nobles were allowed to hunt wild game, and most of the meat produced by agriculture was taken by the nobles, their soldiers, and the upper classes. The term “meat eater,†meant someone of importance. The meat- and fat-eating classes were taller, stronger, more intelligent, healthier, and lived much longer than the peasant classes, whose access to meat and fat were strictly limited. A common person who hunted wild game was considered a “poacher,†and would be hanged if caught.
The meat shortage in Europe persisted well into the nineteenth century, when the high cost of meat made it too expensive for most people. In contrast, meat was cheap and plentiful in early America, with plenty of wild game, no poaching laws, and many domestic animals who thrived in the new land. Many people immigrated to the United States because they heard that even poor people could afford meat there. Of course, the meat was high-quality wild game, wild fish, wild shellfish, and grassfed and pastured animals. The curse of factory meat had not yet been invented.
Writers at the time of the American Revolution noted that the Americans were much taller, stronger, and healthier than the poor classes in Europe. Americans, eating a diet full of animal fats and meat, were noted for their intelligence, inventiveness, and ability to innovate and get things done. “Yankee ingenuity†became a common phrase because of these qualities.
History shows us that eating animal foods, in the form of grassfed and pastured meat and fat, is very beneficial to human beings. It is the food that is most natural to us. Dairy-based fats such as butter, unprocessed milk and cheese, yogurt, kefir, and others, have also been shown to be very nutritious, especially when eaten in their traditional forms, and made from pastured dairy animals.
Bad laws such as the Danish fat tax are actually moving us back to the Middle Ages, making it harder for us to afford the foods we need to support the natural functions of our bodies, and pushing us towards a plant-based diet that may be fine for herbivores with four stomachs, but not for human beings.
This tax will benefit large industries, and nobody else.
The food industry will benefit because it makes much more money on plant-based refined foods, such as dry cereal, which are very cheap to produce.
The medical industry will benefit because more people will be sick because of inadequate nutrition, which will mean more profit from medical services and drugs.
If the call for a fat tax reaches your nation, it is important to fight it and preserve our rights to eat the foods our bodies need.
This post is part of Monday Mania, Fat Tuesday, and Real Food Wednesday blog carnival.
The Magic of Meat and Potatoes—and Fat
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat
Grassfed meat and organic potatoes roasted in grassfed beef fat.
Meat and potatoes were once so popular that the very term came to mean the very essence, the indispensible part of anything, the “meat and potatoes.†In terms of a good main meal, meat and potatoes were always there, and anything else was optional.
The attempts to ram grain and vegetables down people’s throats, as exemplified by the ridiculous food pyramid, changed this. Meat has been demonized as unhealthy in a myriad of ways. Potatoes, with their high glycemic index and starch content, have also come under attack, and are avoided by the low-carb movement.
Yet the combination of meat and potatoes is a very old tradition in Europe, one that goes back centuries, back to the introduction of the potato. It was the foundation of the diet (when people could get meat), and they thrived on it. However, the European tradition had a third component, perhaps the most important of all—fat. Fat that was almost always from animal sources, like butter, bacon, lard, beef tallow, lamb tallow, etc. Of course, animal fat is the most demonized food of all.
Demonization aside, the combination of meat, potatoes, and fat is one of the most nutritious and delicious combinations you can have in a meal. Most of our main meals feature this combination, and we thrive on it.
But it is crucial to use the right meat, the right potatoes, and the right fat. Together they create a wonderful balance, both in nutrition and pH balance, and are one of the tastiest food combinations.
The Right Meat Is Raised in a Pasture, Not a Feedlot
When most Americans think of meat, they think of the relatively tasteless, watery, mushy, greasy, nutrition-light factory meat that comes out of feedlots, having been fattened on GMO corn, GMO soy, and a variety of other unnatural feeds that can easily include rendered chicken manure. While this kind of meat is considered safe to eat, safe is not enough. This meat just will not work as part of the traditional trilogy of meat, potatoes, and fat.
Grassfed and grass finished meat, the same kind of meat that was eaten when the meat-potatoes-fat tradition began, is a very different substance. Grassfed meat has incredible flavor, has a nice meaty texture, is not greasy, and is nutrient-dense, having the right ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids, and a number of valuable nutrients that are often missing in factory meat.
Grassfed meat is the right meat.
The Right Potatoes Are Not Saturated with Pesticides
The potatoes eaten when the meat-potatoes-fat combination began were not sprayed with pesticides. Most potatoes in the United States are heavily sprayed with a multitude of pesticides, and are one of the most pesticide-heavy foods you can get. The only way to avoid this is to get organic potatoes.
Dr. Weston A. Price studied some of the traditional peoples of Peru, and found them to be free of chronic diseases and tooth decay. Organic potatoes were an important part of their diet, though they ate many animal foods and seafood as well.
The right potatoes are organic potatoes.
The Right Fat Comes from Animals, Not Factory Crops
The fat eaten when the meat-potatoes-fat tradition began in Europe was the fat of grassfed animals, or the fat from their milk. The one exception was olive oil, though olive oil was often combined with animal fats in cooking.
The fat that comes from modern vegetable oils just will not work for this combination, as it did not even exist when the meat-potatoes-fat combination began. These oils have a very high ratio of omega-6 fatty acids to omega-3 fatty acids, which is very undesirable. The fats that should not be used include: soybean oil, canola oil, corn oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil, cottonseed oil. An excellent article on this subject is Know Your Fats Introduction.
It is crucial that the fat comes from grassfed and/or pastured animals, eating their natural food, so the fat will be similar to the fat available when the meat-potatoes-fat combination began. This includes butter, full-fat cheese, full-fat milk, full-fat cream, full-fat yogurt, full-fat sour cream, full-fat cultured cream, natural unhydrogenated pork lard, grassfed beef tallow, lamb tallow, bison tallow, and the fat from pastured chickens, geese, and ducks. These fats are extremely nutritious and lend an incredible flavor to food.
The right fat is the fat of grassfed animals, the fat from their milk, and the fat of pastured animals.
Meat, Potatoes, and Fat Balance Each Other
I have come to understand that traditional food combinations stand the test of time because they are beneficial. Time and time again, science has confirmed the wisdom of these traditions.
For example, it is known that it is important to maintain a body pH balance that is not too acidic or alkaline, with slightly alkaline being ideal. Meat is acidic, and potatoes are one of the most alkaline foods you can eat. They are a perfect balance for each other. This may explain why the meat and potato combination was so popular, as traditional peoples always seemed to know what foods should be eaten together.
The adverse effects of the high glycemic index of potatoes are avoided when the potatoes are eaten with plenty of good fat. The fat changes the way that high glycemic foods are digested and absorbed. Again, traditional peoples seemed to know this. In Europe, potatoes were always eaten with plenty of good, natural, traditional fat. Potatoes were baked with cream and milk, fried in lard, fried in butter, fried with bacon, made into casseroles with butter and cheese, covered with sour cream or butter, and combined with cheese and baked into pies. These are just a few of the thousands of ways fat and potatoes were combined. Even the poor would dip their boiled potatoes into butter, or eat them with full-fat milk or cheese.
All of the potato recipes in Tender Grassfed Meat contain plenty of good fat, and they are intended to be eaten with meat, following the tradition.
The food trilogy of grassfed meat, organic potatoes, and natural fat provides the body with an incredible combination of nutrients—leading to satisfaction and contentment.
The taste benefits of meat, potatoes, and fat are just as incredible. I know because I eat this combination almost every day, in many delicious variations.
Here’s to meat and potatoes—and fat!
Related Post
Steak and French Fries—Still My Favorite Meal
This post is part of Monday Mania and Real Food Wednesday and Fight Back Friday Blog Carnivals.
Call It Medical, Not Mediterranean
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat
photo credit: Roby Ferrari
Most medical institutions, and organizations recommend what they call the “Mediterranean diet†as ideal for human health. There is no denying that many of the European peoples living on the Mediterranean are healthier than Americans, though that is not much of an accomplishment, given how much factory food is eaten here.
The problem is that the “Mediterranean diet†pushed by the medical establishment has almost nothing to do with the real diet of the European peoples who live on the Mediterranean.
The “Mediterranean diet†recommended by the medical industry is very similar to the horrid “food pyramid†advocated by our government (though there are a few differences). The real Mediterranean diet had nothing in common with the food pyramid.
Contrary to the propaganda, the healthy peoples of the Mediterranean prized fatty pork, lamb, and goat, ate large quantities of unpasteurized full-fat cheese and milk, made heavy use of salted fish and brined vegetables, salty and fatty sausages, used butter and pork lard copiously in their traditional recipes, looked down on whole grains, ate small quantities of pasta as a side dish, hunted wild game such as rabbits and small birds, often went without vegetables, and generally ate as much saturated animal fat as they could get their hands on.
What Is the “Mediterranean Diet�
There are a number of European countries and several large islands that border the Mediterranean Sea, including, Spain, Italy, France, Croatia, Serbia, Greece, Crete, Corsica, Malta, Sardinia, and Sicily. I have studied the traditional cuisines of all these countries, including their Mediterranean regions. While each cuisine is unique, they do have a lot of common characteristics.
The Medical establishment claims that the traditional diets of the Mediterranean peoples had the following characteristics:
- Low salt
- Low fat, rejecting animal fats in favor of fats like olive oil and canola oil
- Ate red meat in tiny portions, only a couple times a month
- Ate mostly fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains
- Ate fish at least twice a week
- Avoided all saturated fats
- Ate 9 or more servings of fresh fruits and vegetables a day
Basically, none of these characteristics are accurate.
Mediterranean Peoples Ate Lots of Saturated Animal Fats
Almost every peasant kept a small herd of goats, or sheep. These animals were raised mostly for their milk, which was drunk raw, made into curds, made into a huge variety of full-fat cheeses, and widely used in cooking. The milk was unpasteurized and always full-fat. These dairy products were a huge part of their diet. The meat prized by the Mediterranean people was not lean, but fatty, consisting mostly of pork, lamb, and goat. Butter and lard were widely used in cooking, along with olive oil. While olive oil was widely used, it was used in addition to, not instead of animal fats. Canola oil was unknown, not even existing until it was invented in the late 20th century.
Mediterranean Peoples Ate Lots of Salt
Salting food was the main way of preserving food, given the warm climate, and the Mediterranean peoples were masters of salting fish, cheeses, and meat. They had hundreds of traditional recipes for meat sausages, which were heavily salted to preserve them, and contained a large amount of animal fat. In the inland areas, most of the fish consumed was salted, and dozens of traditional recipes were developed for cooking salted fish. In fact, salted fish is still very popular, even though fresh fish is now widely available.
Mediterranean Peoples Ate Red Meat Whenever They Could Get It, Eating As Much of It As They Could
Meat is perhaps the food most prized by the peoples of the Mediterranean. Meat was often difficult to get, as the flocks of sheep and goats were needed mainly for their milk, and the people were often poor. Nevertheless, pigs were widely raised, and made into a multitude of sausages, which were eaten throughout the year. There are thousands of recipes for pork roasts, chops, stews, and braises. Lambs and goats would be barbecued whole for special occasions and holidays. The meat eaten on these occasions was not served in tiny portions, but feasted on. Various kinds of grilled lamb were a beloved specialty in every one of these countries. Veal was also a favorite, when available. Most peasants hunted the abundant rabbits, and various small birds, and ate them whenever possible.
Most of the people would have liked to eat meat much more often than they could. In fact, many of the immigrants that came to the USA from these countries were lured to the USA by the stories they had heard of cheap, abundant meat. But even in Malta, where most meat had to be imported and was very expensive, meat was eaten at least once a week.
Mediterranean Peoples Were Often Short of Vegetables, and Put Fat on their Bread
Because of the often arid climate, vegetables and fruits were only available in season, though many were preserved by drying. There were a number of times during the year when little fresh produce was available. Beans and potatoes were widely available, and often eaten. Grains usually meant bread, which was usually not whole grain, and usually eaten with butter, or olive oil, or pork lard. In fact, raw pork lard smeared on bread is a traditional combination in rural Italy.
Mediterranean Peoples Did Not Eat Fish at Least Twice a Week
Most of the people in these countries lived inland, often in the mountains, and avoided the coast, though there were some coastal cities and fishing villages. There were two reasons for this. First, many coastal areas were infested by malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Second, pirates were a real danger during most of the history of this region. These pirates specialized in raiding coastal villages, and most of the villagers responded by moving inland, to the easily defended hills and mountains. Most of the food in these areas was of animal origin. Fish was eaten (especially when meat was forbidden during Lent and other such religious events), but it was usually salted or dried. Because of the lack of roads, it was very hard to get fresh fish to the hills and mountains, even on islands like Corsica and Sardinia.
Mediterranean Peoples Did Not Eat Nine or More Servings of Fresh Produce a Day
As discussed above, the variety of available fruits and vegetables was limited, and seasonal. The supply of food was often limited, and it is doubtful that most people ate nine servings of anything a day. Most calories came from dairy products, the full-fat cheeses and milk produced by the herds.
The Origin of the Mainstream “Mediterranean Diet “Was Based on What the People Ate During a Wartime Food Shortage
The first doctor to write of the “Mediterranean diet†was stationed in poor coastal areas of Italy, in 1945, during the last days of World War II. Food—especially the most valuable foods such as meat and butter—were in very short supply, and the hungry people ate whatever they could get. If they ate their bread dry, it was because they could not find fat to put on it, because of the food shortage. To portray what they ate during this wartime food shortage as their traditional diet was a mistake.
The “Mediterranean Diet†Is Really the Medical Diet
The medical and food industries have tried to portray the low-fat, low-protein, high-carb diet they favor as being traditional. It is not traditional. In fact, no traditional people anywhere, in all of history, ever ate a diet like this. “Mediterranean†sounds a lot better than “medical,†but the diet they advocate is the medical diet. The only thing the medical diet has in common with the Mediterranean diet is the first three letters of their names.
This post is part of Real Food Wednesday, Fight Back Friday and Monday Mania blog carnivals.