Pour on the duck fat, in moderation

Nutrition Lab

Foodies say it’s high in beneficial unsaturated fats and closer in composition to olive oil than butter. Though that’s true, experts say the health claims are overstated.

Plus, it’s delicious. “I love it,” said David Bazirgan, executive chef at the Fifth Floor restaurant in San Francisco. “It has a deep, rich flavor that coats the palate.”

But some experts say health claims about the fat are overstated. Though duck fat is among the healthiest of animal fats, it’s still a significant source of saturated fats, said Dr. Freny Mody, director of cardiology for the Greater Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Healthcare System.

“It may be a peg closer to olive oil, but it’s still miles away,” Mody said.

Duck fat’s popularity has surged in part because consumers are seeking all-natural, locally sourced alternatives to commercially produced items, said Melissa Abbott, culinary insights director with the Hartman Group, a Seattle-area market research firm. Compared with, say, margarine, duck fat has a single, minimally processed ingredient: fat taken from ducks. It’s available from local butchers and at farmers markets, though a few national retailers sell it as well.

Abbott said the fat had also gained some cachet thanks to the so-called French paradox — the observation that the French are thinner and have a lower incidence of cardiovascular disease than Americans despite enjoying a diet loaded in fat. The paradox has stumped researchers for decades, though some theories chalk it up to a number of characteristics of the French diet — including small portions, lots of red wine, and, of course, the consumption of duck fat.

While traditional French recipes can call for copious amounts of the fat (duck confit, for instance, involves cooking duck legs immersed in duck fat for 10 hours), the current vogue in the U.S. is to use it in more sparing amounts to make fries, to roast potatoes or to saute vegetables. Chefs treasure its dense, savory flavor and its resistance to breaking down at high temperatures. They also like that it’s a healthful fat, Abbott said.

That belief is based on its composition of saturated and unsaturated fats. According to the National Nutrient Database maintained by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, duck fat contains 62% unsaturated fat and 33% saturated fat.

Saturated fats raise blood cholesterol and increase the risk of heart disease, said Dr. Karol Watson, co-director of the UCLA Cholesterol and Lipid Management Center. At 33%, duck fat’s saturated fat content isn’t terribly low, she points out. In fact, it’s on par with chicken fat (about 30% saturated fat) and pork fat (39% saturated fat). All three are better than butter, which is about 51% saturated fat.

Proponents of duck fat prefer to highlight its unsaturated fat content. Studies have linked unsaturated fats — including both monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats — to lower blood cholesterol levels. Dutch researchers who reviewed 60 studies of the effects of dietary fat intake found that replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats reduced levels of bad cholesterol and raised levels of good cholesterol, which in turn decreased the incidence of coronary artery disease by 18% to 44%. Their findings were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2003.