“All disease begins in the gut” — Hippocrates
Animal fats have been part of human nutrition for all of time. Traditional meals were cooked in them, traditional diets were built on them, and people were healthy, active, and unremarkable in their heart health and body weight. So when did animal fat become the villain?
The Crisco story
Before the American Civil War, William Procter was a candle maker. His brother-in-law, James Gamble, made soap. They joined forces to compete with the other soap and candle businesses in Ohio, and called the company Procter & Gamble.
Candles and soap were traditionally made from lard and tallow — pig and beef fat. In the 1890s the meat-packing monopoly controlled the price of those fats, and therefore controlled P&G’s costs. The alternative they found was cottonseed oil: cheaper, and close enough. By 1905 they owned eight cottonseed mills in Mississippi. Working with a German chemist, they then developed hydrogenation — adding hydrogen atoms to the fatty acid chain so the oil would harden, much like lard or tallow.
Then electricity arrived and people stopped buying candles. P&G had a hardened cottonseed oil and no market for it. Since they had spent years making it resemble lard, the obvious move was to sell it to the public as a replacement for lard in food.
Crisco was released in 1911, advertised as more economical than butter and a healthier alternative to cooking with animal fat, and aimed squarely at housewives. A cookbook followed, full of recipes traditionally made with animal fats, now reworked around the new product.
The campaign did not argue that Crisco was as good as lard. It argued that lard was the problem. Julia Dulgerova
The marketing sold conviction as much as shortening: cleaner, more digestible, more economical, more modern. Mothers were shown as good wives with clean houses and well-behaved children. The company also went after religious communities — Crisco was certified kosher and could be used with meat, which made kosher cooking easier, and it moved quickly into Jewish households.
Crisco is a trans fat
The previous article in this series set out why trans fats should be avoided. Crisco is one. Nobody knew that at the time, P&G included. But when health problems began to appear — learning disorders, rising cancer rates, rising heart disease — the response was not to acknowledge the question. A scientist working for P&G was influential in steering the American Heart Association towards the conclusion that animal fats caused heart disease, on the strength of trials that did not support it.
For a very long time, we were persuaded that the fats humanity had survived and thrived on were suddenly harmful.
What animal fats actually do
Cholesterol is a vital component of every cell membrane and the precursor to a long list of hormones. It is not an optional extra.
- Fat-soluble vitamins. Animal fats are rich in vitamins A, D, E and K — immune function, bone health, blood clotting.
- Stability under heat. Lard and tallow hold up at cooking temperatures. Vegetable oils oxidise and produce harmful compounds.
- Arachidonic acid. It makes up around eleven per cent of the brain, and animal fat is where it comes from.
- Conjugated linoleic acid. Found in the meat and dairy of ruminants, with anti-inflammatory properties.
- Sustained energy. A concentrated source that, in the right quantities, supports rather than undermines a healthy weight.
Quality is the whole argument
None of this holds if the animal was badly fed. Toxins concentrate in fat — so an animal raised on a poor diet gives you meat and fat carrying that diet with it. What you are buying is the farming, not just the food.
Tallow is worth a particular mention. It is good internally and it is remarkably good on skin: its composition is close enough to human sebum that the body recognises it and knows what to do with it.