Vitamin D source - suet/tallow?

[Techydude]

Well I happen to be a New Yorker and when it gets to be Winter apparently research says that there isn't enough sun to sustain our optimal level of vitamin d during this time of year so we have to get it from other sources.

Now I know vitamin d rich sources include seafood: sardines, salmon, halibut, mackarel, crabs, oysters, mussels, clams, shrimp, scallops

But what about suet/tallow? I've heard vitamin D is stored in fats and this is a good fat and I heard it is indeed rich in it. But i'd like numbers and cold hard facts. Can anyone confirm this? My instincts tell me yes but i'd like to be sure.

[kurite]

I know there is none in beef fat. In pig fat there is some and in eggs. Best to get a lot of sun when its available.

[TylerDurden]

It makes far better sense to get hold of raw seafood instead. I've just checked the usda nutrient database and raw mackerel shows a vitamin D level that is a bit over 6 times the amount of vitamin D found in tallow(couldn't find a mention of vitamin D in the 1 raw  suet entry).

Here is the data for the vitamin D in rendered tallow:-

"Meat drippings (lard, beef tallow, mutton tallow)":-

Vitamin D (D2 + D3)    

   
2.5mcg(Value per
100 grams)
   

Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol)    

   
2.5mcg(Value per
100 grams)
   

Vitamin D    
IU
   
100 IU (Value per
100 grams)

[Hannibal]

AFAIK there isn't much vitamin D in fat of the land mammals.
Duck egg yolks are quite good, as they contain 6 time more D than chicken ones.
But my main source is Blue Ice - 2000 IU a day

[turkish]

AFAIK there isn't much vitamin D in fat of the land mammals.
Duck egg yolks are quite good, as they contain 6 time more D than chicken ones.
But my main source is Blue Ice - 2000 IU a day

strangely, i did not do well on blue ice. carlson vit-d drops seem to work for me.

[TylerDurden]

I do think that vitamin D requirements are highly exaggerated. I mean if one has dark skin and lives in more northerly latitudes and goes fully clothed almost all the time, it might well be a problem if one is on a nutrient-deficient SAD diet. But  those with pale skin who spend a lot of their summer holidays with much of their skin exposed to the  sunlight  should be fine.

Whatever the case, eating some raw seafood in the winter would easily get rid of any possible issues. New York, being on the coast, should have easy access to cheap raw seafood.

[Hannibal]

I do think that vitamin D requirements are highly exaggerated.

I don't think so.
Lots of people do benefit when they get a sufficient amount of vitamin D. A lot of diseases are cured by that vitamin.
10.000 IU a day is the proper amount.

[TylerDurden]

I don't think so.
Lots of people do benefit when they get a sufficient amount of vitamin D. A lot of diseases are cured by that vitamin.
10.000 IU a day is the proper amount.

Excessive vitamin supplementation doesn't work. But anyway, there's a study suggesting that only 5-10 times the daily us rda amount(ie 5 or 10* 400 IU) is ever needed during winter, if that:-

http://newsletter.vitalchoice.com/e_article001649196.cfm?x=bfGrWQm,b7b1jv7h,w

[turkish]

New York, being on the coast, should have easy access to cheap raw seafood.

Those living in NYC/NJ,  where do you procure your raw seafood from?

[Hannibal]

Excessive vitamin supplementation doesn't work.

I didn't mean supplementation.
10.000 IU is the amount of vitamin D3 that is produced daily thanks to the sun (higher than 45 degrees above the horizon). The body works the best when this requirement is met.

[TylerDurden]

I didn't mean supplementation.
10.000 IU is the amount of vitamin D3 that is produced daily thanks to the sun (higher than 45 degrees above the horizon). The body works the best when this requirement is met.

But what about people in the Palaeolithic era who lived in the Arctic where it is 6 months night?

[Hannibal]

But what about people in the Palaeolithic era who lived in the Arctic where it is 6 months night?

Eating lots of marine mammals and fatty fish enables to meet those requirements.
But nevertheless - when the sun is high I feel the best. 

[turkish]

But what about people in the Palaeolithic era who lived in the Arctic where it is 6 months night?

i believe excess of it is stored in the body, so i guess they would be accumulating in the summer.

[Dima]

Those living in NYC/NJ,  where do you procure your raw seafood from?

Asian foodmarkets usually have an extensive selection of fresh seafood. Lots of wildcaught products too. There are several in my area.

[turkish]

Asian foodmarkets usually have an extensive selection of fresh seafood. Lots of wildcaught products too. There are several in my area.

Dima,
 thanks, i will ask around.

[Bowen]

Well I happen to be a New Yorker and when it gets to be Winter apparently research says that there isn't enough sun to sustain our optimal level of vitamin d during this time of year so we have to get it from other sources.

Now I know vitamin d rich sources include seafood: sardines, salmon, halibut, mackarel, crabs, oysters, mussels, clams, shrimp, scallops

But what about suet/tallow? I've heard vitamin D is stored in fats and this is a good fat and I heard it is indeed rich in it. But i'd like numbers and cold hard facts. Can anyone confirm this? My instincts tell me yes but i'd like to be sure.

hi guys,,,
    Suet is basically a traditional cooking fat.It's the fat found inside a cow's intestinal cavity.It can be rendered into tallow.It is not as such a healthy food but as you now so many other foods that are rich in vitamin D.Try to go for one of them.

[djr_81]

Those living in NYC/NJ,  where do you procure your raw seafood from?

I buy from a fisherman at a Farmer's Market in Westchester. His goods are a mix of what he's fished as well as things he's purchased at the Fulton Fish Market. You could just take out the middleman and go to the fish market yourself one morning.

[kurite]

I just found out that 3.5 oz of liver contains 10-15% vitamin D requirements.

[TylerDurden]

Now, tallow is mostly fed to birds and feedlot cows.

   Feeding rendered animal fats like tallow to animals directly led to the rise of BSE, so it shows just how unhealthy tallow can be.

[Sally]

I go to a tanning bed a couple times a week.  I find it helps my energy levels.  My boyfriend doesnt like me to eat raw fish after fukoshima.

[LePatron7]

   Feeding rendered animal fats like tallow to animals directly led to the rise of BSE, so it shows just how unhealthy tallow can be.

I think it was specifically feeding cow to cow that led to the BSE, not so much the act of eating tallow.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/bse/

"Research indicates that the first probable infections of BSE in cows occurred during the 1970's with two cases of BSE being identified in 1986. BSE possibly originated as a result of feeding cattle meat-and-bone meal that contained BSE-infected products from a spontaneously occurring case of BSE or scrapie-infected sheep products. Scrapie is a prion disease of sheep. There is strong evidence and general agreement that the outbreak was then amplified and spread throughout the United Kingdom cattle industry by feeding rendered, prion-infected, bovine meat-and-bone meal to young calves."

For someone on a cooked diet, tallow is one of the better options for fats if it comes from healthy animals.

[Projectile Vomit]

Tallow is a nice way to get good quality fat, and it doesn't really have to be 'cooked' in the sense of other cooked meats. You just need enough heat to melt the fat out of the tissues, and I can usually get away with keeping the temp in the rendering vat well below boiling. I render fat from bear, cow, deer and sometimes moose or sheep each year, so i have a range of tallows to choose from. Their fatty acid profiles and nutrient contents are all different, so their textures and colors are all different too. Variety seems a good bet, from my perspective.

[TylerDurden]

I think it was specifically feeding cow to cow that led to the BSE, not so much the act of eating tallow.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/bse/

"Research indicates that the first probable infections of BSE in cows occurred during the 1970's with two cases of BSE being identified in 1986. BSE possibly originated as a result of feeding cattle meat-and-bone meal that contained BSE-infected products from a spontaneously occurring case of BSE or scrapie-infected sheep products. Scrapie is a prion disease of sheep. There is strong evidence and general agreement that the outbreak was then amplified and spread throughout the United Kingdom cattle industry by feeding rendered, prion-infected, bovine meat-and-bone meal to young calves."

For someone on a cooked diet, tallow is one of the better options for fats if it comes from healthy animals.

  All quite wrong. Most of the foods fed back to cattle were rendered beforehand, which is why specifically rendered animal foods were banned after the BSE crisis. Rendering does not protect much as BSE and scrapie are extremely heat-resistant apparently.

Also, tallow is one of  THE worst types of foods out there,  as regards cooked foods. Not only is it routinely made into biodiesel, candles and soap, rather an indication of its uselessness as food, but it is also a fact that  animal fats produce much higher amounts of heat-created toxins after being cooked, compared to plant foods  or lean meats.

[Projectile Vomit]

...tallow is one of  THE worst types of foods out there, as regards cooked foods. Not only is it routinely made into biodiesel, candles and soap, rather an indication of its uselessness as food, but it is also a fact that  animal fats produce much higher amounts of heat-created toxins after being cooked, compared to plant foods  or lean meats.

It seems as though you're begging to be called out on your ignorance, so I'll bite.

The fact that tallow can be used for other things says nothing about it's nutritional value. Any fat or oil can be turned into biodiesel, and any fat that's solid at room temperature can be used to make candles or soap. Just because they have multiple uses doesn't mean food isn't one of them.

Further, you speak of cooking as if all styles and temperatures of cooking are the same. That's obviously not true. High temperature cooking creates the most toxins. If you cook meats or fats at lower temperatures, i.e. cook gently rather than harshly, toxin production is much less of an issue. Fats that are highly saturated, including most animal fats, are quite temperature stable and can whether the gentle heating common to a rendering process without much damage, if any at all.

If you prefer to avoid eating rendered fats (i.e. tallows), feel free to abstain. But don't act as if your preferences carried some sort of heightened moral authority.

[TylerDurden]

Hmm,  I somewhat doubt that avocado fats could be easily made into candles, for example. The point is, though, that since tallow is so much more easily turned into soap/candles etc. than other types of fat such as olive oil or whatever, that it is more suited for these purposes  than as food.

I am afraid you are being quite ignorant, here. Sure, the higher one cooks a food, the worse the effect, but  the various food-tables still show high levels of heat-created toxins for  (low-)heated foods very high in saturated fats such as pasteurised butter and correspondingly much lower levels of toxins in plants cooked at the same temperature level.  Since pasteurisation typically involves temperatures below boiling,  it is quite clear that claiming that animal fats are hardly  ever harmed except by very intense heat such as frying or grilling, is absurd nonsense. Oh dear, this reminds me of that old ridiculous  argument by william that tallow could not possibly be toxic since it could not be altered at all by any heat below 300 degrees Celsius!