Tag Archive for: cows

In Case You Ever Wondered

/in /by

Many of you probably don’t remember William Proxmire, the U.S. Senator who criticized government-funded studies five decades ago. Another senator, Tom Coburn, picked up the mantle in 2010 by criticizing research on greenhouse gases from cows. (It’s bipartisan; we’ve got one Democrat and one Republican.) While the research was not about flatulence—cows don’t fart—it was about belching, which cows do, evidently a lot. The cows’ emissions were found to contribute to methane production, which can impact our atmosphere.

Not to be outdone on noxious emissions, the Australian researchers decided to ask the question: how many times per day do Australians pass gas? An Australian research group created an app where people could report their fart frequency. Seems ideal for a group of 8- to 12-year-old boys; they would make it a competition, especially when you call the app Chart Your Fart. Alas, the researchers must have realized that and set the lowest age limit at 14. The researchers promoted the app over various media to the extent that over 6,000 people qualified and participated in the study. The app is still available although the study is closed.

The average number of gaseous explosions? Five per day for both men and women (although some women may disagree with that number for their husbands). What was interesting is that flatulence followed several hours after eating. And the more fiber a person reported eating, the more gas was produced.

It makes sense. What does fiber do? Feed bacteria and other microbes that live in your gut. How do they make energy and perform their job? Fermentation, and fermentation produces gas. It’s completely normal. One more interesting result. The age group that farts the most is 26- to 45-year-old men. Knowing that, my life is now complete.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: JAMA Net. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.15637

Is Beef Tallow Good for You?

/in /by

Where’s the beef? Evidently, it’s making a comeback in the form of tallow. Beef tallow is processed fat from cows, but in reality it could be made from any type of animal fat. A number of health gurus have touted its benefit for skin care as well as a more natural form of fat for cooking than seed oils. Today we’ll take a look at consuming beef tallow and deal with skin care on Saturday.

There are no more health benefits than there have ever been from using beef tallow to cook. Beef tallow contains high amounts of saturated fat, the worst kind for your heart. That can impart better flavor in whatever is cooked or baked with it, but it’s still a saturated fat. That means it’s ideal for making cholesterol, especially LDL cholesterol in our bodies.

I’ve heard all the arguments about how carbohydrates were the real problem back when they decided to lower the fat intake in dietary guidelines back in the 1970s. That wasn’t true then and it isn’t true now. If we don’t have saturated fat in our diet, and we substitute sugars and other simple carbohydrates, we’ll make our own saturated fat. Why? Because we are animals, and we will make our own fat.

Should you ever use beef tallow for cooking? It’s like any other type of fat—and that includes the seed oils everyone is saying are bad for you. Beef tallow makes a darn good french fry, and nothing works as well as lard (pig fat) in pie crusts, so use it if you want when it will really make a difference. The rest of the time, just focus on the mono- and polyunsaturated fats.

As I’ve said over and over again, it’s not the food that’s bad; it’s the mass quantities we eat. Saturday we’ll look at the pros and cons of smearing tallow on your skin.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: British Journal of Nutrition (2024), 132, 1039–1050.