I love cooking from scratch and yesterday I made lard.  Watch this quick video on how easy it is to make it.

Lard is a very healthy oil to cook with and makes food taste fantastic. It is my secret ingredient in a lot of my meals! I had a dinner party last week and the guests were just raving about my roasted potatoes and wanted my recipe (unfortunately I only had a very small piece). The recipe was absolutely delicious – thanks to the LARD! Sure you can substitute butter, but lard gives a very light and crisp texture to food that makes it so wonderful. This is why pastries are made with lard.

Lard is very healthy! It is a traditional fat that many grandmothers used to make and cook with. It is very heat stable, does not burn and does not oxidize easily. This is the reason lard will NOT give you heart disease.  Lard also contains vitamins D and E (Alpha Tocopherol).  Eating foods with healthy fats like lard will also help the body absorb fat soluble vitamins. And since Lard is fat, eating it will suppress hunger and appetite.

Making it at home is far superior to buying it in the store.  You can choose your source of fat and make sure that it is organic and raised in the fresh air and pasture.  Store bought lard is most likely hydrogenated so make sure to read the list of ingredients. It will probably not contain Vitamin D if the pigs have been deprived of sunshine.

Making organic lard is cheaper than butter. I can’t tell you how much I paid for this fat because it came with the half a pig that I purchased but I know that organic butter costs 9.50 per pound.  Using this lard is a great way to make my butter stretch a bit further as I substitute it in my recipes.

Comment and share your thoughts!

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Multiple Sclerosis is a diagnosis that someone in my family is dealing with. My mom had called me in a distressed tone of voice and grievance in her heart. Multiple Sclerosis has stricken my family twice. I have also seen a friend’s mom go through M.S. symptoms. It is debilitating and heart breaking.  Some of the symptoms of MS are loss of balance, vision problems, tingling in the limbs, slurring of speech, coordination problems, difficulty of walking because of muscle weakness. As horrible as these symptoms are, there is one thing that my mom mentioned and that is that MS has been shown to be preventable by higher Vitamin D levels.

Prevention

Vitamin D seems to be the new miracle vitamin. There are studies that show that it can help treat and prevent cancer, that it can increase immunity and prevent colds and flu’s (German’s were marketing vitamin D to prevent bird flu outbreak), it is essential for bone and muscle strength, preventing dental caries, regulating hormones such as insulin and estrogen, as well as healing depression.

Low Vitamin D Diseases

Studies have shown that Vitamin D levels were low in patients that had Sjogren’s Syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, thyroiditis, Crohn’s disease, Osteoporisis, Infertility, Cancers such as breast, colon, skin and prostate cancer, heart disease, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimers.
Wow!  This little vitamin can affect our health greatly.

Sources

The optimal source of Vitamin D is the direct sunshine on the skin but other sources are fish, Cod Liver Oil, pork lard, all types of liver, fresh egg yolk and butter. Notice that vitamin D is found in fatty food. It is an essential vitamin stored in fat. Hence Vitamin D is fat soluble and can only be utilized and assimilated by fat.  These are foods that we are told to avoid and yet we see a new wave of disease afflicting our nation.

Dosage

The Recommended Daily Allowance for an adult has been traditionally set for 400iu. That is good if you are trying to avoid rickets but not good enough for optimal health.  Today health professionals are recommending supplementing for children 2000iu and for adults 4000-10,000iu of vitamin D. So we need 10-25x the amount of vitamin D than the RDA!!  It is important  to note that you need to test your levels of vitamin D before starting to supplement with it in high doses. 

This video thoroughly explains the importance of knowing your Vitamin D levels to increase your health and prevent disease.

Tell me your thoughts. Have you been touched by Vitamin D deficiency?

To Your Health and Wellness,

Catherine Osthaus

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