100 Ways To Eat More Fat

Yes, you read that right. I said 100 Ways to Eat More Fat — not less.

The longer I study food and the history of cuisine, the more firmly I believe that this idea of eating low fat is complete and total fallacy.

How long have humans been eating? Oh, around 2.5 million years or so. And how long have we been eating “low fat”? Less than 50 years. (Source: How the Ideology of Low Fat Conquered America)

With this in mind, I’ve comprised a list of traditional dishes that celebrate and embrace fat — traditional saturated fats like lard, coconut oil and coconut milk, cream, butter, egg yolks, and beef tallow.

Did you know that the Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, and South American peoples traditionally cooked with lard (pig fat)? Did you know that, in addition to butter and cream, beef and horse tallow were traditional in France?

People have not been cooking with Crisco for centuries. We have not been using soybean oil or canola. These oils are experiments. Not only are they experimenting with food, they’re experimenting with human health.

Isn’t it interesting that heart attacks were unheard of in America prior to 1921? Just one decade after the introduction of Crisco.

And what if fat — traditional forms of fat — turned out to be really good for you? What if it was full of vitamins and actually prevented disease? Well, guess what? It does!

To be healthy, we need to eat more fat, not less.

100 Ways To Eat More Fat

Let’s look at a list of foods — some new, most old — all featuring traditional fats:

1. Homemade ice cream made with cream and egg yolks
2. French fries cooked in beef tallow or duck fat
3. Extra butter on your bread
4. Popcorn popped in coconut oil, topped with melted butter
5. Coconut cream pie made with coconut milk and real whipped cream
6. Pasta with Alfredo sauce made with cream and butter
7. Cream instead of milk in your coffee
8. Whole milk instead of 2% or (gasp) skim
9. Buttermilk ranch dressing
10. Baked oatmeal made with coconut oil
11. A little coconut oil in your coffee
12. Mayonnaise made with olive oil
13. Eggs Benedict with extra Hollandaise sauce
14. Deviled eggs made with homemade mayonnaise, topped with salmon roe
15. Pie crust made with lard or beef tallow
16. Homemade pesto with real olive oil, pine nuts, and Parmesan cheese
17. Bacon-wrapped dates, shrimp, scallops or aspargus
18. Chicken nuggets fried in lard, beef tallow, or expeller-pressed coconut oil
19. Lobster or crab dipped in melted butter
20. Potato chips fried in beef tallow or lard
21. Steak with melted butter on top
22. Bacon cheeseburgers
23. Chili cheese fries
24. Granola made with coconut oil
25. Grilled cheese sandwiches cooked in butter
26. Potatoes au gratin
27. Buttermilk fried chicken, fried in beef tallow, lard or expeller-pressed coconut oil
28. Coconut milk ice cream
29. Kefir smoothies with cream, coconut oil and egg yolks
30. Doughnuts deep fried in lard or palm oil
31. Oatmeal (soaked overnight) with butter, cream and maple syrup
32. Egg sandwiches with eggs fried in butter, bacon, and melted cheese on sprouted toast
33. Tamales made with lard added to homemade masa
34. Won tons fried in lard
35. Nachos with chicken cooked in bacon grease and topped with cheese, sour cream and guacamole
36. Thai soup with coconut milk, lemongrass and shrimp
37. Egg salad sandwiches made with homemade mayonnaise
38. Homemade egg nog
39. Egg rolls fried in lard
40. Refried beans made with lard
41. Risotto made with cream and Parmesan cheese
42. Milkshakes made with whole milk and ice cream
43. Tzatziki – Greek yogurt with cucumbers
44. Sugo all’amatriciana (pasta sauce, originating in Rome, made with bacon or pork and Parmesan)
45. Potato salad made with homemade mayonnaise and sour cream
46. Whipped cream on anything (ideally on chocolate cream pie)
47. Risotto fried in bacon grease or duck fat
48. Gougeres – French cheese puffs
49. Epoisse – my favorite French raw milk cheese
50. Steak with Béarnaise sauce
51. Enchiladas made with ground beef, cheese, sour cream and homemade corn tortillas fried in lard
52. Quiche Lorraine
53 Artichokes dipped in melted butter
54. Seared foie gras
55. Liverwurst
56. Brussels sprouts braised in cream with freshly grated nutmeg
57. Moules frites – mussels sauteed in butter and cream, served with French fries
58. A good British breakfast with fried eggs, sausage or bacon and toast with butter
59. Vegetable soup with crème fraîche
60. Scottish haggis made with sheep’s liver, heart and suet (fat)
61. Russian blini (crepes) with sour cream and caviar
62. British fish and chips, fried in beef tallow or lard
63. Potato latkes fried in lard or expeller-pressed coconut oil, served with sour cream
64. Clam chowder
65. Cantaloupe wrapped with Prosciutto
66. Hot chocolate with whipped cream
67. Salad with blue cheese dressing
68. Scones with clotted cream
69. Baked potatoes topped with butter, cheese and sour cream
70. Indian samosas deep fried in ghee
71. Spanish/South American empanadas fried in lard
72. Tuna melt (made with homemade mayonnaise)
73. Texas chicken fried steak – breaded steak pan fried in lard or tallow
74. Chicken or eggplant Parmigiana
75. Japanese tempura – breaded fish and vegetables fried in lard
76. Japanese tonkatsu — breaded pork, deep fried in lard
77. Bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches with homemade mayonnaise.
78. Italian gelato
79. French creme brulee
80. Baked beans cooked with bacon and a ham hock
81. Swiss chard fried in bacon grease
82. Spanish Serrano ham
83. Cobb salad with homemade blue cheese dressing
84. Sloppy Joes
85. Did I mention bacon?
86. Welsh rarebit – cheddar cheese on toasted bread
87. Thai curry with coconut milk
88. Spanish flan
89. Pizza with mozzarella, Parmesan, sausage and pepperoni
90. Corn on the cob with butter
91. Anything with crème anglaise
92. Hot buttered rum
93. Spätzle – dumplings made with flour and egg yolks
94. Cheesecake
95. Swiss fondue
96. Anything with a beurre blanc sauce
97. Huevos rancheros
98. Migas
99. Matzah brei – Jewish matzo fried with eggs in schmaltz (chicken fat) or butter
100. Croissants

I’ll stop here. But you know I could keep going. I’m just skimming the surface.

Here’s my question. If there are so many ways to eat fat around the globe, and this has been going on for centuries, how in the world can it be bad for you? How come people ate all these things for thousands of years and never got heart attacks?

Answer: It isn’t bad for you. Humans have been healthy eating large quantities of traditional fats for thousands of years. And we have thrived. This is the first time in history we’re advocating a low-fat diet.

I believe that modern diseases are caused by non-traditional foods like cottonseed oil and soybean oil, margarine and partially hydrogenated anything. Not butter and lard. If butter and lard were to blame, why wasn’t heart disease the number one killer in the 1800s? Have you looked at a cookbook from that era? Everything was fried in lard and served with melted butter or whipped cream.

So, I say, ignore the dieticians and so-called experts and stick with what’s tried and true: fat. Stick with traditional fats like butter, cream, lard, beef and bison tallow, coconut oil, palm oil, and olive oil.

Here’s what you want to avoid: newfangled fats like soybean oil, vegetable oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, Crisco, canola oil and margarine.

So eat your French fries — just make them at home with duck fat or beef tallow. And enjoy that croissant. It’s full of butter!