>Anyway, the new evidence is that most vegetable oils including the various refined varieties are releasing these aldehydes during cooking. Animal fats and pressed olive oil appears not to release as many aldehydes. In the tests, cooking with some vegetable oils released over 100 times as much aldehyde as the recommended upper limit. Butter, despite a relatively low smoke point, appears to have far lower levels.

Just trying to guess whether they knew all this when they pushed out lard and shoved vegetable oils on everybody 50-60 years ago. I guess they did, but didn't care. Any bad effects won't kill anyone within a few years (probably didn't), and when the heart attacks start multiplying, they'd blame it on lard and bacon, during this first decade of mixed. And I'm not even sure the motive was money in all cases - we had this policy here, and I guess the health authorities were just thinking they were taking good care of the people, following the latest science. And it also helped develop the industry - hey, about 2000 people in my city made living by producing edible oil (sunflower and corn germ - canola was there too but for railway lanterns only and as cattle feed).

The doctors would blame eclampsy on ham and bacon, and would actually yell at any pregnant woman who had a higher blood pressure (never mind that the pressure probably rose by waiting in line too long, or being insulted in some other manner).

> Lard is not the sort of thing you find in supermarkets these days. ;-)

Don't know about the whole sort (what else is in it?) but we did find it in regular supermarkets over there. May be a regional thing, as Smithfield was just a few miles away... and it's the pig capital of the East coast.