【Fan Zhihong registered dietitian original content welcome forward】
The other day I discussed the issue of lard, but there are still people who continue to ask related questions.
A said: I watched an online video and said that lard is particularly high in nutrients. Not only is vitamin D rich, but there are also many B vitamins, which are higher than any oil!
B said: My family especially likes lard, but my father has coronary heart disease and high blood cholesterol, and the doctor does not allow him to eat lard, saying that it has high cholesterol content. Is it really that high?
C said: I heard that there are many additives in vegetable oil, but not in lard. Because lard is less commercialized, it has fewer pollutants, is purer and safer!
All right. Let's discuss the following three issues:
- Are there a lot of vitamins in lard? Which vitamin content is higher than vegetable oil?
- Is lard high in cholesterol? Is there cholesterol in vegetable oil?
- Is lard less commercially available than vegetable oil?
The first question: is there a lot of vitamin D in lard, and are there many B vitamins?
The online video only gives this eye-catching statement, but does not provide evidence for these claims.
I'll help you find the data. To say what is high and what is low, it is better to speak with data.
The vitamins most likely to be contained in oils and fats are fat-soluble vitamins. There are 4 types of fat-soluble vitamins, including vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E and vitamin K.
Let's start with vitamin A.
Vitamin A is only found in animal foods, so there is no vitamin A in vegetable oils. Some vegetable oils have a yellowish color and contain small amounts of carotene (provitamin A), but after refining, the content decreases. So vegetable oils are not an effective source of vitamin A.
According to the data in the continental food composition table (standard version), 100 grams of refined lard contains 27 micrograms of vitamin A.
This is indeed higher than most vegetable oils, but it is not so significant.
It is known that animal liver is the most vitamin A-rich food. Because, no matter what animal, the liver is the storehouse of vitamin A in the body. Vitamin A supplementation with chicken liver, duck liver, foie gras, pork liver, and sheep liver is all good. The specific amount in the liver depends on the amount of vitamin A or provitamin A provided by animal feed.
According to the data in the continental food composition table, the liver of 100 grams of broiler chickens contains nearly 3,000 micrograms of vitamin A.
In addition, orange-yellow and dark green fruits and vegetables can provide provitamin A.
- For example, according to the data in the food composition table, 100 grams of Chinese cabbage can convert 154 micrograms of vitamin A in the human body.
- Eating 100 grams of refined lard, you will eat 897 kilocalories, but only get 27 micrograms of vitamin A;
- Eating 100 grams of chicken liver, the calories eaten in it are only 121 kilocalories, but you can get nearly 3,000 micrograms of vitamin A;
- Eat 100 grams of cabbage, the calorie value is only 14 kilocalories, and you can also eat 154 micrograms of vitamin A.
If you calculate the nutrient density of vitamin A, that is, divide the content of vitamin A by the caloric value, then the values of chicken liver, Chinese cabbage and lard are 24, 11 and 0.03 respectively.
Obviously, eating lard to supplement vitamin A is really not cost-effective.
According to the latest version of the dietary nutrient reference intake in mainland China, the recommended daily intake of vitamin A for healthy adult men is 770 micrograms of retinol equivalent.
If you eat 25 grams of lard a day, you can only get 6.75 micrograms of vitamin A, which is only a negligible fraction of 770 micrograms.
If you must supplement vitamin A by eating oil, you must also choose cream (butter), whose vitamin A content is 10~30 times that of lard, and it is the undisputed champion of vitamin A content in fat.
Let's talk about vitamin D.
Vitamin D is found almost exclusively in animal foods, so the amount in vegetable oils is zero.
Vitamin D, like vitamin A, is mainly stored in the liver, and theoretically, animal fat is not a storage place for vitamin D, and its content is not high, so the content in lard is unlikely to be high.
The online video is rumored to contain more than 1,000 IU of vitamin D in lard, but no data source is provided.
There is no vitamin D data on lard in the Chinese food composition table. I searched the USDA's food nutrition database and found only 102 IU of vitamins D2 and D3 in 100 grams of lard.
According to the recommendations of the dietary guidelines for Chinese residents, the amount of cooking oil per day should be controlled within 25~30 grams.
Even if you use lard for your dishes, eating 25 grams of lard a day will only provide 25 IU of vitamin D.
1 IU VD = 0.025 mcg vitamin D3. So, 25 IU, only 0.625 micrograms.
According to the mainland nutrient supply standard, adults should supply an average of 10 micrograms of vitamin D per day, and the elderly over 65 years old should supply 15 micrograms.
If these 10 micrograms of VD are supplied with lard, you need to eat 392 grams of lard per day. It is estimated that no one can afford to eat.
Therefore, cooking with lard is of little significance to supplement the VD required every day.
Let's talk about vitamin E.
Refining lard does contain vitamin E, which can reach 5.2 mg, but vegetable oil has a crushing advantage in vitamin E content compared with animal oil.
For example, according to the mainland food composition table data, 100 grams of rapeseed oil contains 60.9 mg of vitamin E, and 100 grams of soybean oil contains 93.1 mg of vitamin E. This is because oily plant seeds generally contain high levels of vitamin E.
Then compare vitamin K.
Vitamin K is commonly found in vegetable oils, but the amount varies widely. The highest levels are soybean oil and rapeseed oil, followed by olive oil. Its form of vitamin K is chlorophyllone quinone, which is vitamin K1.
The vitamin K content in lard is extremely low, so low that it is almost impossible to fathom.
Finally, let's talk about B vitamins.
There is also a little bit of B vitamins in fatty meat, because it is not pure fat. However, the content of vitamin B1, B2, niacin and vitamin B12 in refined lard is very low and can be basically ignored.
This is also not incomprehensible, since all B vitamins are water-soluble and insoluble in oils.
To eat 8 B vitamins, you should eat lean meat.
In short, expecting to eat lard to supplement vitamins, that is thinking too much...
Second question: Is lard high in cholesterol? Is there cholesterol in vegetable oil?
Plants do not synthesize cholesterol, and vegetable oils are zero-cholesterol foods.
What plants can synthesize are plant sterols, including sitosterol, soybean sterol and rapeseed sterol.
For example, 100 grams of sesame oil contains 588 mg of plant sterols, and 100 grams of soybean oil contains 317 mg of plant sterols.
In the process of digestion and absorption, plant sterols will compete with cholesterol, so eating more plant sterols, the absorption rate of cholesterol in food will be low, and the level of human blood cholesterol may also decrease.
Pigs are not plants, they do not synthesize plant sterols, but cholesterol. So, lard does contain cholesterol.
According to the continental food composition table, 100 grams of lard contains 110 mg of cholesterol. Is this number high or low?
If you eat 25 grams of lard a day, you will eat 28 mg of cholesterol. For healthy people, this amount is not a concern.
For people who control blood cholesterol, the daily cholesterol limit is 200 milligrams. 28 mg accounts for 14% of 200 mg, so you still have to worry about it.
Therefore, it is recommended that people with high blood lipids try not to use animal oil for cooking, including lard. Wouldn't it be better to spend a limited share of cholesterol on fish and shrimp and lean meat?
The third question: is lard less commercialized than vegetable oil?
It can't be said that.
As one of the by-products of pork processing in slaughterhouses, lard has always been commercially available in large quantities, and can be bought everywhere in supermarkets and wet markets, and is also widely used in the processing of various snacks, snacks and dishes. In recent years, the price of refined lard per catty is usually more than 20 yuan, which is more expensive than soybean oil, rapeseed oil and palm oil, and there is no such situation as "lard is difficult to commercialize".
Some friends believe that vegetable oil contains food additives, while lard does not. Not necessarily.
In order to extend the shelf life and delay fat oxidation, synthetic antioxidants such as TBHQ, BHA, BHT, etc. may be added to commercially available vegetable oils, and natural antioxidants such as vitamin E may also be added. However, commercially available refined lard may also contain antioxidants. Although lard is more saturated than most vegetable oils, because lard is naturally much lower in vitamin E than vegetable oils, it also needs antioxidant protection.
Of course, if the family refines the lard by itself, there will be no problem of adding antioxidants.
However, home-made lard is often not as pure as commercially produced, and there are often trace amounts of water and iron ion residues, which are more likely to oxidize and deteriorate, and must be consumed as soon as possible after refining.
At the same time, when refining lard at home, because the fire power cannot be accurately controlled, overheating of fat meat will produce harmful heterocyclic amines, and may also produce polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon carcinogens. Look at the "oil residue". The darker the color of the oil residue, the stronger the fragrance, but it also means that excessive temperatures can produce harmful substances, as well as AGEs (advanced glycation terminal products) that promote aging. These ingredients also enter the lard from the oil residue.
Therefore, home-made lard, if eaten in large quantities, will not be more advantageous than vegetable oil from the perspective of pro-inflammatory and pro-aging.
Let's talk about environmental pollutants in grease.
According to the basic laws of ecology, for every increase in nutritional level, the indecomable polluting components will increase by about 10 times. For example, organochlorine pesticides such as 666, dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls and other polluting components, heavy metal components, the content in animals will be higher than in plants. Among them, organochlorines, dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls, etc. are easily soluble in oils and fats, and will also appear in animal oils.
From this point of view, compared with the same amount of consumption, the environmental pollutants obtained by eating lard will be higher than the amount of vegetable oil.
Finally, to summarize:
For hundreds of years, even decades ago, due to low living standards, the supply of vegetable oil was insufficient, as was the supply of meat. Ordinary households use fatty meat to refine lard, both to supplement the lack of cooking oil and to cook fragrant food. Lard and vegetable oils have always been complementary in Chinese diets.
As for which cooking oil should be used, as mentioned in the previous article, it depends on the physical condition, depends on the daily diet structure and fatty acid balance, and depends on the cooking temperature.
Simply put, people who eat less meat and eat more soy products are suitable for using some lard or butter, and people who eat more meat do not need to buy lard specifically for cooking. High-temperature frying is suitable for lard, and there is no need to use lard for steaming cold mix.
Don't be overly afraid of lard and think of it as poison, because it's not pure saturated fatty acids and cholesterol isn't that high. Similarly, it does not have to be treated as a nutrient, as the main stir-fry oil, because lard is not advantageous from the point of view of supplying vitamin E and vitamin K, as well as from the point of view of food safety.
When it comes to lard, you may also want to know: Is lard really nutritious? Who is suitable for eating lard?
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Fan Zhihong
Scientist of Beijing Food Nutrition and Human Health High-precision Innovation Center
Director of China Health Promotion and Health Education Association
The China Association for Science and Technology hired the chief expert of nutrition science communication
Ph.D. in Food Science, China Agricultural University