[Sca-cooks] Schmaltz

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Also sprach jenne at fiedlerfamily.net:
>  >Let's face it, the traditional Ashkenazy diet has probably killed more
>>Jews throughout the centuries than Hitler and Haman combined, and much
>>more insidiously!
>
>Through the centuries? That's a bit much. Animal fats in _excess
>quantities_ are currently thought to be bad for one.  However, the
>quanitities in which animal fats are currently available to the average
>person in Western Civilization are far in excess of what they were even 75
>years ago. Animal fats in extreme moderation are considered pretty useful
>for the body, even by the most rabid of 'no modern people should ever eat
>animal fats again' diet doctors.

There's probably an aspect of genetically predisposed tolerance.
Think of the populations of, say, Savoy in Southwestern France, or
parts of Northern Alaska (in fact, most places north of the Arctic
Circle). These people don't die of heart attacks; anyone with the
genetic design to do so would have done so dozens of generations ago.
These populations tend to survive this type of diet quite well
(although, with changes to the traditional lifestyle of the cultures,
the lifespan seems to be slightly shorter), and then we are also able
to prolong the lifespans of people with weak hearts. People with such
weaknesses now live to breed to a greater extent than they used to,
and it may be that our population, overall, has become less resistant
to this type of diet.

I think central heating is another consideration. People in medieval
Europe had to generate more internal heat (climactic shifts
notwithstanding), and even clothing can't necessarily completely
compensate for having a standard room temperature in the winter of,
say, 50 degrees F. (Okay, so that number is plucked out of the air,
but just to make a point.) But it might be noted that in medieval
Northern Europe (or even, until comparatively recently), most of the
cooking and dietary fats _were_ saturated.

>Note that there are some contentions that margarine is actually worse for
>you than butter-- which would explain why, to the bafflement of my doctor,
>I don't have high cholesterol even though I use butter (in addition to
>canola and olive oils) to cook with and am definitely quite fat. So
>perhaps animal fats aren't killers for everyone.

I haven't eaten margarine intentionally for maybe 20 years; my blood
fat level is somewhat high, my cholesterol level is quite low, and
what's there is "good" cholesterol.

Adamantius

--
"No one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes
deserves to be called a scholar."
	-DONALD FOSTER