Healthy Eating

I just found this piece on the website of the LLandinabo Farm Shop. My first thought: thank goodness some food scientists are finally doing research that sheds light on why those Palaeolithic meat-eaters didn’t all die of terrible diseases leaving the earth with no human beings on it. But the enduring thought is that we’ll never know what’s healthy and what’s not. A colleague said to me yesterday: ‘My grandmother lived to be 96 and she didn’t have a healthy lifestyle. I’ll probably live to 115 because I exercise and eat healthy food’. Hmmm… I’d say that living to 96 is evidence that her grandmother’s lifestyle was healthy enough for her, and we don’t really know whether everyone needs lots of exercise and whether what we believe to be a healthy diet really is. In other words…

​A Fat Lot We Know…
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On most of the stock we deal with, there is more fat on the meat than would be found in the supermarket and most High Street butchers. Again, when all fat was considered bad, this mitigated against these old British breeds and helped cause their decline. However, recent scientific discoveries in America and now at Bristol University have shown that the fat on animals that have been grazed extensively (which ours have) is high in Omega 3 fatty acids, the same health enhancing factor found in oily fish. The difference at the moment however is that the farming of rare breeds is actually more sustainable than the fishing in the seas around Europe.

Fat is also important in cooking good food. The fat itself bastes the meat while it cooks and imparts succulence and flavour. Without it, meat is often tough and tasteless. By all means, cut off the excess fat after the cooking is complete, if you prefer, but you don’t need to feel guilty about enjoying the fat on our meat.