When it comes to lard, the first thing that comes to mind is incense.
Memories of bibimbap, lard residue, lard stir-fry and so on will come to mind, and a taste of childhood will bloom in the depths of the taste buds.
However, in recent years, controversies over lard have also been common.
Some people say: "Lard is high in saturated fat, which is the culprit of cardiovascular disease, and if you can, you can't eat it!" ”
Someone said: "Chinese have used lard for generations, and now they don't eat lard, and heart disease has become the number one killer; Lard has the effect of detoxification, prevention of cancer and other diseases. ”
……
Is lard good or bad for the body?
Why is lard so fragrant?
On the one hand, it is because lard itself is an animal fat, and its fragrance has a unique flavor.
The fatty acid composition of lard is different from peanut oil and olive oil, and the content of stearic acid, oleic acid and palmitic acid in lard fatty acids is relatively high, and it will also produce a lot of aldehydes, furans, ketones, hydrocarbons and other aromatic substances.
白色背面蛋黄酱mayonnaise on white back
On the other hand, it is more important because of the effect of the "Maillard reaction".
Those who have boiled the lard should have the impression that the lard is heated with pork (mainly fatty meat) to boil out the fat in it. During the high-temperature boiling process, the carbonyl compounds in lard will react with amino acids (proteins) and other very common reactions - Maillard reaction.
The advantage of the Maillard reaction is that it produces many aromatic substances, including reducing ketones, aldehydes and heterocyclic compounds.
In addition, the fat oxidation reaction caused by high temperature will also produce some flavor substances.
At present, it has been found that lard contains 70 flavor components such as sulfides, pyrazines and aldehydes, which together constitute the aroma of lard.
Moreover, due to the effect of high temperatures, these aromatic substances become less volatile, and will remain in the lard in a low-key manner, and can only be smelled by us when the temperature becomes high. Therefore, the fried bibimbap with lard will be so fragrant that many people will linger.
In fact, the flavor of lard made from different parts, different boiling methods, and different water ratios will be different.
For example, some people think that the aroma of backfat oil is stronger, and the burnt smell of plate oil and net fat oil is heavier; There are also people who believe that the lard made from pork fat and lard at a ratio of 1:4 is better than the lard made from pork fat and lard at a ratio of 2:3. Therefore, the taste of lard in everyone's memory will be different.
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How nutritious is lard
Lard is fragrant and delicious, but what is the nutrition of lard?
In fact, as a kind of oil, lard also has its nutritional value. Like other fats, lard's main nutritional role is to provide us with fats and fat-soluble vitamins.
From the nutritional analysis, 100 grams of lard contains the most fat, with 88.7 grams, and about 4 grams of water; It is rich in fat-soluble vitamins, including vitamin A at 89 ug RAE, vitamin E at 21.83 mg, and of course cholesterol at 110 mg, and in addition to that, lard has less minerals, such as only 0.8 mg of zinc and 0.05 mg of copper.
Compared with peanut oil and rapeseed oil, which are commonly used for stir-frying, lard is characterized by more saturated fatty acids, so it is a semi-solid paste at room temperature; Use it to make food, and it can also be hidden in food in a solid state at room temperature, unlike when a lot of vegetable oil is added, it will seep out at room temperature, so that you can eat it very delicately but not too greasy. In addition, saturated fats are more thermally stable, so lard is also more suitable for high-temperature cooking such as frying.
So, should we eat lard or not? In fact, proper fat is just as important for the body.
You must know that our human body also needs some fat to synthesize important substances needed by the human body, such as prostaglandins, cholesterol, and some sex hormones; In addition to this, fats can also protect the skin, make up tissue cells, and much more.
From a nutritional point of view, the roles of fats and oils include:
1. Provide essential fatty acids: There is a class of unsaturated fatty acids that are necessary for the human body to regulate physiological functions, but the human body cannot synthesize itself and must be ingested from the diet, called "essential fatty acids" (EFAs), including linoleic acid and α-linolenic acid.
2. Promote the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins: such as vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E and vitamin K, they are insoluble in water and soluble in oil, and oil is needed as a carrier to be digested and absorbed by the body.
3. Composition of body tissues and protective components: Some fats are components of human tissues and cells; There are also some fats distributed in the subcutaneous tissue, mesentery, kidneys and intermuscular connective tissues, which play a role in supporting and protecting organs.
4. Provide calories: Dietary intake of fat is an important source of calories for the body.
Therefore, fats and fats are also good for the human body, and lard is no exception.
In the old days when supplies were scarce, lard was a good way to replenish energy and nutrition.
Decades ago, people bought pork willing to ask for fatty meat rather than lean meat, because fat meat can be used to boil lard, at that time Shanghai people liked to eat a kind of "lard vegetable rice", that is, using lard to fry green vegetables until half-cooked, then mixed into rice, and cooked in a rice pot.
Moreover, some city people who are sophisticated have the habit of mixing a little cooked lard into the rice bowl when they eat vegetable rice to increase the flavor of vegetable rice.
Lard is cardiovascular
Or does it hurt the cardiovascular system?
In fact, judging from the current research results in the nutrition community, eating too much lard is still more harmful to the cardiovascular system.
First of all, a large part of the fat in lard is saturated fat, accounting for more than 40%. Numerous studies have found that excessive intake of saturated fats increases triglycerides and LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol), increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease.
At present, the dietary guidelines of China and the United States, the World Health Organization, the American Heart Association, and many other cardiovascular-related guidelines and expert consensus recommend that people should limit their intake of saturated fat. It is currently generally recommended that saturated fats provide no more than 10% of total calories per day.
Secondly, eating too much lard and having too much total fat intake can increase the risk of obesity and is also not good for cardiovascular health.
Generally speaking, it is better to provide about 25% of the total energy required by the body from the fat we eat every day. If the proportion of fat for energy reaches more than 30%, it is easy to suffer from a variety of chronic diseases, the most common being cardiovascular disease.
Therefore, from a health point of view, we should still eat less foods rich in saturated fat, including not only lard, but also butter, palm oil, etc.
As for the claims that "lard can detoxify and remove toxins from marine fish such as puffer fish" and "eating lard can fight cancer", they are all nonsense without evidence, and everyone should not eat and drink nonsense because of superstition.
How to eat lard healthily?
Although it is not good to eat too much lard, lard does smell good.
The key to a healthy diet is to have the right combinations, and you don't need to completely shut out many delicious foods because you are worried about being unhealthy. It is recommended that you try to do the following when eating lard:
1
Pay attention to the right amount
Considering only the cooking oil used for stir-frying and cooking, it is recommended that everyone control it to no more than 25-30 grams per day.
The Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents 2022 recommends that adults consume no more than 25-30 grams of cooking oil per day; The National Health Commission's Bureau of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advocates that healthy adults consume no more than 25 grams of cooking oil per day. Therefore, it is best for healthy adults to consume no more than 25 grams of cooking oil per day, and at least 30 grams per day.
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If there are still meat dishes such as braised pork, braised pork ribs, and sauce elbow today, then you might as well try to use vegetable oil. If you eat bibimbap with lard, you may also want to eat more vegetables and fruits, and be more active after the meal.
2
Pay attention to the temperature of the oil and don't wait until it smokes before stir-frying
If vegetable oil is used, it is easy to undergo more oxidation, hydrolysis, polymerization and other reactions at high temperatures, which will lead to the loss of some vitamins and the generation of a lot of peroxides, which is not conducive to health. Even lard should try not to let the oil smoke a lot, and it is easy to produce a lot of harmful peroxides.
3
Change the oil often and eat
Although the lard is fragrant, but don't always eat one, it is recommended that you usually do different oils to eat, you can buy some other oils at home, the more recommended are peanut oil, corn oil, olive oil and rapeseed oil, suitable for common home use scenarios, can basically meet the usual family use.
4
Patients with cardiovascular disease should use lard as little as possible
Normal people will generally have no problem eating some lard, but patients with cardiovascular disease should try to eat less or no lard.
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Source | Popular Science China
Author丨Ruan Guangfeng, Director of Science and Technology Department, Kexin Food and Nutrition Information Exchange Center
Audit丨Song Shuang, Associate Researcher, Institute of Nutrition and Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention