Animal fat

Fatsobtained from animalsources include:

• tallow(beeffat)
• ghee(butterfat)
• lard(porkfat)
• chicken fat
• blubber
• cod liver oil

In human nutrition—as far as regions where heart diseaseis a more common cause of deaththan starvationare concerned—animal fats are generally considered unhealthy due to their association with high cholesterollevels in the blood. Animal fat contains some cholesterol, but saturated fat (a large component of animal fat) stimulates cholesterol production in humans and so animal fat contributes in two ways to cholesterol levels. While elevated blood cholesterol levels have been linked to heart disease, it should be noted that there is no necessary relationship between cholesterol intake and blood cholesterol level. A properly functioning liverregulates the blood cholesterol level by storing and releasing as well as producing and excreting cholesterol as appropriate - primarily as bile. Even vegans, whose dietary intake of cholesterol is by definition essentially zero, have cholesterol in their blood.

See also: renderingfi:eläinrasva

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal+fat Wikipedia article Animal fat.