One of my good buddies used to cook with lard because his mom did. He stopped doing that after his blocked artery almost shut off his heart and required a stint to keep him alive.
Eating saturated fat like lard actually has nothing to do with blocked arteries. Quite the opposite, really. Its a complete myth that fat causes heart disease. I know, its against the paradigm of 'modern' medicine these days, and many doctors still do not agree, but a growing number of doctors (particularly kidney specialists) are realizing this after many years of research. The so called modern diet of low fat and high sugar and refined carbs has led to high rates of insulin resistance, which causes obesity, heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease, and even dementia. Yeah, I can hear you all screaming already. But its an emerging paradigm that is replacing the old one. I flipped to a high fat low carb diet (with a lot of bacon, lard, butter, cheese, etc) and I lost 20 pounds in less than 2 months. I do not snack or crave carbs any more. I have kept the weight off since changing over to a low carb, high fat diet. I do not eat the candy, soda pop, cake or pie any more. I eat a lot of eggs. Yes, they are supposed to be bad, but in fact they are good.
There is an old saying in Russia that you need to eat fat to lose fat. Which is actually correct. When you eat sugar and refined carbs (which you rapidly convert to sugar) your body responds by producing insulin. When you have high insulin levels, you cannot (yes, CANNOT) burn fat. Insulin not only prevents you from burning fat, it forces you to store fat and make you even fatter. After eating lots of carbs and sugar, your body becomes more resistant to insulin. Then you start craving more food, particularly carbs and sugar, and you gain more weight because you cannot burn the fat off. It becomes a viscous cycle. People are literally starving while they stuff their faces with carbs and sugar and they get fatter and fatter. When you eat a low carb diet, your insulin levels remain low, and when insulin levels are low, you can burn off fat.
Yes, the commercial food industry has everyone convinced that consuming Coca Cola, Twinkies, Mars bars, pies, fruit loops, pizza, pasta, and bread are all great stuff. The FDA and USDA have their food pyramids with low fat and high carbs, and most grocery isles are full of high carbs and sugar laden foods. Its similar to the days when the tobacco industry convinced people that smoking cigarettes was good for you, and 4 out of 5 doctors recommended smoking Winstons. But they are simply wrong. Get off the sugar and high carb diet and you will do yourself a great favor. I can tell you that it is not easy though. Sugar is very addictive and it is a drug like no other. Another way to reduce your insulin resistance without giving up carbs is to only eat in a 8-10 hour window every other day. That will force you to burn up your carb and sugar stores (glycogen) and lower your insulin levels for 6-8 hours a day and then you will burn the fat off. Eating all the time causes your insulin levels to remain high. The idea of 4th meal (or 5th and 6th meals) and snaking all the time just causes you to want to eat more and gain more weight. Another vicious cycle.
There is much misinformation out there designed to keep you on a high carb diet. But there is emerging evidence that a higher fat lower carb diet is the key to a better life. As there is about not constantly snacking. If youwant to know more about low carb and time restricted diets, I would recommend that you watch anything by Jason Fung MD (a kidney specialist) like this one:
