Jeff:
>What worries me about animal fats is their tendency to accumulate
>toxic chemicals. This is new and was not a problem in my grandfathers
>time. Added to this are the use of nitrates and other chemicals to
>preserve meats....
Yes. It is important to keep in mind the differences between home produced
and commericially produced food. My family grew most of our food. We also
worked hard physically. We never heard the words organic or exercise, would
have considered such talk to be dilettantism.
In fairness to the discussion, my parents moved from the farm to suburban
life when they were in middle age. I believe their longevity--my mother
turned 87 on Tuesday--is due to decades of growing and eating homegrown
food, then later shopping and eating intelligently, not genetics. My father
was second oldest of five, my mother was first-born of five. Both have
outlived all of their siblings save one much younger brother of my mother,
but she will outlive him as he has emphysema. Mother is in remarkably good
health.
