"Today's young people don't understand anything, and they say that lard is not good for cardiovascular disease, do you know that everyone says that a spoonful of lard is equal to five pairs of medicine, which is good for the body!"
Lao Cheng, 57 years old this year, is a veritable "pork lover", who loves to the point that he must have meat for three meals a day, and "hard dishes" such as braised pork and elbows must also be eaten every other day.
Not only that, Lao Cheng only likes to use lard when cooking, he thinks that the vegetables fried in lard are not only fragrant, but also very beneficial to health, so no matter how his children oppose him to "eat lard", Lao Cheng is "just listen to it".
But in a recent physical examination, Lao Cheng was told by the doctor that his body mass index BMI was 30kg/㎡, and his abdominal circumference had reached 92cm, which not only belonged to the standard "obese person", but also was very likely to cause fatty liver, and advised him not to eat pork and lard and other such foods. In this regard, Lao Cheng fell into deep doubts.
In the final analysis, is this claim that lard is comparable to medicine true? and is lard beneficial to health or has certain potential risks?
1. Is 1 spoonful of lard really equal to 5 pairs of medicines? Don't be gullible, the doctor will reveal the truth to you
The lard we often say, simply put, is a kind of oil extracted from pork after boiling for a long time, and the reason why the people, especially the old people, think that "a spoonful of lard is equal to five medicines" is mainly because of the [nutrients] contained in lard.
In fact, lard does contain a variety of nutrients such as vitamin E, carotene, cholesterol, and glycerides, a saturated and unsaturated higher fatty acid.
In other words, lard not only plays a certain role in protecting the body's eyesight, anti-ultraviolet, anti-oxidation and improving the body's immunity, but also contains a large number of saturated higher fatty acid glycerides, which are one of the most important sources of energy for our human body.
After entering the body, on the one hand, it can play a good role in maintaining the integrity of the cell membrane, strengthen the normal function of the cell, and on the other hand, it can also reduce the bad cholesterol in the body and increase the level of good cholesterol, which is essential for cardiovascular health.
But having said that, although lard has so many nutritional effects, it is "food" in terms of its nature, and it can achieve at most a therapeutic or health effect, and cannot have the effect of treating diseases, let alone drugs that "specialize in curing diseases", so the statement that a spoonful of lard is comparable to five pairs of drugs is more or less distorted and exaggerated.
But although lard cannot achieve the purpose of "medicinal", since it has certain benefits for the body, does it mean that we can eat lard "unscrupulously"?
2. Is eating lard good or bad for the body? Reminder: Don't eat too much, be alert to cardiovascular diseases!
Moderate intake of lard can indeed bring certain positive factors to health, such as the following:
1. Boost metabolism
Lard contains a certain amount of vitamin A and vitamin B, and these nutrients, after entering the human body, can accurately repair the damaged tissues and mucous membranes in the human body, including the digestive system. In this way, it can speed up the elimination of "toxins" from the body and improve the body's metabolic capacity.
In addition, we said before that lard is rich in a lot of fatty acids, and these fatty acids, after entering the human body, can assist in "vitamin absorption":
All vitamins contain fat-soluble and water-soluble, and fat-soluble can not be well absorbed and metabolized by the body in view of the relatively "stable" texture, while the fatty acids in lard can just decompose fat-soluble vitamins, improve the body's absorption and utilization, and help the body to produce enzymes and speed up the body's metabolism.
2. Excellent effect on moistening the lungs
On the surface of our lungs there is a phospholipid substance, which plays a vital role in the proper functioning of the lungs.
The reason why lard can moisten the lungs is mainly because lard contains a large amount of saturated fatty acids, and this layer of active substances on the surface of the lungs is completely formed by 100% saturated fatty acids, so proper consumption of lard can promote lung health.
But after all, lard is a kind of "fat" food, and there are certain sides, that is, too much lard is harmful to the body:
1. Cardiovascular disease
It is very appropriate to use the phrase "fatty acid rancidity is also fatty acid" to describe lard, moderate intake of lard, the fatty acids in it are indeed beneficial to the body, but if you eat pork fat excessively, then too much fatty acids will aggravate atherosclerosis in the body.
The so-called atherosclerosis, simply put, is due to the excessive accumulation of lipid components in the body, so that a certain number of plaques are formed in the arteries, and this kind of plaque will not only cause the arterial wall to harden, but also aggravate the "brittle and narrowing" of blood vessels in the body.
When blood vessels are affected by atherosclerosis, the blood circulation and circulation dominated by all blood vessels in the body will be seriously impaired, and the heart will not be able to get sufficient blood supply, which will not only aggravate the risk of hypertension, hyperlipidemia and other diseases, but also lead to a greater increase in the probability of heart disease such as angina pectoris and myocardial infarction.
2. Obesity
If you eat lard for a long time and too much, the saturated fatty acids in lard will accumulate in the body and cannot be easily "broken down and digested", plus lard will increase appetite, under the action of two factors, it is easy to cause obesity.
Seeing this, many people will have a question, saying that the "disadvantages" of lard seem to outweigh its "benefits", so will we have to completely quit lard in the future?
3. Don't "reject" lard excessively! The latest mainland research tells you that eating lard like this is good for blood pressure and the liver
In 2023, Foods magazine published a related experiment jointly conducted by the General Hospital of the Chinese People's Liberation Army and Qingdao University.
The research team selected 334 participants with an average age of 33.5 years as subjects and intervened in the types of daily edible oil intake: after dividing 116 of the participants into a soybean oil group, 113 into a lard group, and the remaining 116 into a blended oil group of 50% soybean oil + 50% lard, the interventional controlled trial began.
In the whole trial cycle, the intake of nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats and proteins was completely consistent among the 334 subjects except for the difference in the type of edible oil consumed by 30g per day.
After conducting a 12-week experiment, the researchers conducted a monitoring analysis of all participants' physical indicators, the results of which showed:
• In terms of aspartate aminotransferase levels, the soybean oil group decreased by 0.3 U/L, the blended oil group decreased by 2.0 U/L, while the lard group increased by 1.0 U/L, while in the case of alanine aminotransferase, the soybean oil group decreased by 0.1 U/L, the blended oil group decreased by 4.5 U/L, and the lard group increased by 1 .8U/L.
It is important to know that aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase are two important markers to determine whether the liver is healthy.
In addition to this, the researchers also conducted a comprehensive monitoring of the subjects' blood pressure, and the results were:
• Systolic blood pressure decreased in all three groups, but the lard group had the lowest decrease at 1.25 mmHG.
• The blended oil group had the highest level of decline at 5.83 mmHG.
• The diastolic blood pressure of all three groups increased, with the lard group having the highest increase of 3.44 mmHG and the blended oil group having an increase of only 0.54 mmHG.
Therefore, in view of this latest research, lard, an edible oil, will naturally form a burden on the body if you eat too much, but it is not absolutely beneficial to the body to not eat it completely.
Therefore, it is recommended that you can adopt a "halved" mode in the daily intake of edible oil, mix lard and vegetable oil, and control the intake at 30g/day in accordance with the standard of the dietary guidelines for Chinese residents, so that you can really "eat right" lard, which has a beneficial effect on blood pressure and liver.
What the doctor has to say:
In short, moderate intake of lard will not have any negative effects on the body, and even has a certain positive significance for health, but in view of the presence of saturated fatty acids, it is recommended not to eat too much lard, and people with cardiovascular diseases try not to eat lard, otherwise it may not be conducive to the recovery of the disease.
bibliography
[1] Effect of lard or soybean oil on markers of liver function in healthy people: a randomized controlled feeding trial. Food Magazine
[2] Lei Lin. Research Progress on Medicinal Value and Application of Lard[J]. Clinical Research in Traditional Chinese Medicine.