A Chinese study finds that lard reduces fat and inflammation in mice

Beijing.- A study published this month in the scientific journal Science of Food concludes that a diet with a moderate proportion of lard reduced the accumulation of body fat and inflammation levels in laboratory mice, compared to diets based on certain vegetable oils.

The research, led by a team of Chinese scientists from the Hunan Agricultural University and cited today by the official People’s Daily on its social media, analyzed the effects of different types of fat when feeding various groups of mice with diets that included lard, tea leaf oil, and peanut oil.

According to the results, the animals that consumed butter registered a reduction close to 29% in total body fat compared to those that ingested vegetable oils, in addition to better indicators related to the inflammation of adipose tissue.

The work identifies the increase in bile taurocholate, a bile acid whose concentration rose significantly in mice fed with lard, as one of the possible explanatory mechanisms. According to the authors, this compound plays a dual role: on the one hand, it would favor the conversion of stored fat into energy by stimulating lipid metabolism; on the other hand, it would contribute to modulating the immune response by reducing inflammatory activity in adipose tissue.

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The study also points to an increase in certain cells with anti-inflammatory functions in the animals that consumed butter, an effect that reinforces the hypothesis that this type of fat, in controlled quantities, could have an impact different from that traditionally associated with animal fat in general. Researchers warn that the conclusions are based on experiments with mice and that the results cannot be directly extrapolated to humans without further studies. The authors suggest combining lard with vegetable oils such as soybean or rapeseed oil, instead of using a single type of oil. They also advise that an adult should not ingest more than 25 or 30 grams of fat each day.