Repeat after me: Saturated fats are good.

It is really tiresome how mainstream media does not get the fats right. In the February 2007 Readers Digest, there is an article about 10 steps for a healthy heart. No. 7 is Eat no more than 20 grams of saturated fat a day and as little trans fat as possible. They have the trans fat correct, but then they say "trans fats .... are probably at least as bad as saturated fats and maybe a little worse." No, trans fats are a lot worse, they are synthetic, almost the same as plastic. Saturated fats are natural. Humans have been eating them for millions of years.

You can read up on fats at the Wise Traditions website. It bugs me no end that the grocery store sells lard, but it is hydrogenated, turned into trans fat, so they don't have to keep it refrigerated. They could just sell it with the meat in the meat cooler like they used to. And yes most of your baked goods have partially hydrogenated oil so they have better shelf life. They had to do this because coconut oil was demonized as a dreaded saturated tropical oil, when really it is one of the most stable and healthful oils, great for baking and popcorn making.

For a while there 15--20 years ago, I used margarine for cooking, baking, everything, because it was so cheap--4 lbs. for a dollar the cheapest brand. Hopefully, I wasn't too damaged by that ignorance.