marrow and fats

Question
QUESTION: I notice you wrote that you eat marrow frequently -- about how much do you eat, and how often? Is this "safe" health-wise? I would not be eating it raw, but cooked (beef, bison marrow) would I still get health benefits? How much is "safe" to eat if you could give me an idea? I also eat animal FAT (such as rind on steak etc, but also fat that I get from my butcher) This is also cooked (I cook till it crisps up a bit like bacon) All of these are grass-fed. Was wondering if I am still getting nutritional benefits, what you think of the pure fat/rinds and also advice on amounts of marrow

ANSWER: Marrow is perfectly "safe" to eat. In the past, I've eaten marrow in the form of 4 to 6 inches of bones(with the bone consisting mostly of marrow not bone)every other day, which would easily cover much of a whole plate(but don't eat more than  a few tablespoonfuls of marrow, at first). These days, I eat less of it, it just varies, as some months I'll eat raw suet or raw tongue or raw muscle-meat fat, instead etc, for my fats.

Eating meat cooked greatly reduces any benefits gained therefrom. For one thing, cooking greatly reduces the amounts of healthy nutrients found in the food, secondly, and worstly, cooking creates a huge number of heat-created toxins such as advanced glycation end products, heterocyclic amines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, to name just a few(all such toxins greatly contribute to diseases in later life such as coronary heart disease etc.)

Now, of course, by cooking only lightly, one can reduce the risks to some extent, but it doesn't do much good in the long run, IMO. If you're just being cautious and want to start off eating cooked meat before, eventually, going onto the raw stuff, that's fine(many people go rawpalaeo that way), but, in the long term, eating cooked animal food is a big no-no, as study after study shows that eating cooked animal food is the quickest way to reduce one's lifespan.



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I *do* cook the marrow at this point -- is it still fine and do I still get some of the health benefits? I am also cooking all my meats, and the "rinds" are broiled till "crisp"/brown. It is a start, as it is grassfed meat only. Will I still get SOME of the benefits (clas, omegas, etc) even if cooked and will "browning" the fat/rinds of the grassfed lamb bison etc be harmful to health?

Answer
You'll get some of the benefits re CLAs/omega-3s etc., but as to whether the benefits will be enough, that all depends on your situation. I mean, I've heard of a cooked, palaeolithic diet(such as what you're currently doing?) being able to help relieve people, to some extent, of symptoms of various auot-immune diseases such as multiple sclerosis etc, but such cooked diets are never as effective as raw diets. I suppose what I'm saying is that if you eat a lightly-cooked palaeolithic diet and are only suffering from various mild health-problems(such as acne or mild diabetes), it mightt well work. But if you're suffering from more serious health-problems(chronic fatigue/cancer/heart-trouble etc. etc.), then you are unlikely to get much benefit unless you, sooner or later, turn to raw meats. You see, it's not just a question of nutrients being damaged by heat, there's also the fact that raw foods contain bacteria needed by the digestive system, enzymes which help predigest raw foods, and the fact that they don't contain the heat-created toxins found in cooked foods.

Another obvious point is that animal fats are the worst-affected by heat/cooking, more so than even animal protein and definitely more than cooked plant-food.

At any rate, if you do decide to go in for cooking your meats, make sure to cook them as lightly as possible so that you gain at least a few of the benefits(well-done meat would be a watse of time, IMO).

HTH,
RPG

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