# So what's so good about human fat? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 20, 2009, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-so-good-about-human-fat/518322 "2009-11-20T19:55:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2009, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-so-good-about-human-fat/518322/1 "2009-11-20T19:55:16Z")
[http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2413306/human\_fat\_sold\_on\_black\_market\_ever.html](http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2413306/human_fat_sold_on_black_market_ever.html) > [@](#): > > CBS News - quoting the AP – reports that Lima police officials arrested a Peruvian gang of black market profiteers that allegedly killed about five humans and then drained their fat. The human fat was collected - sometimes in soda bottles - and supposedly sold for as much as $60,000 What makes human fat so good for cosmetics vs. other animal fats that it should commands these prices? ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2009, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-so-good-about-human-fat/518322/2 "2009-11-21T01:28:10Z")
Well I can’t answer your question; mainly because I think there is a flaw in the assumption that human fat actually does demand such prices. I think the figure quoted supposedly came from the people in possession of the fat and I’m dubious that they could actually sell it for that. In fact I’m dubious that they had bottles of actual pure human fat, and I’m dubious in the method I read of how they collected it (heating bodies over candles and collecting the liquid fat runoff). ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2009, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-so-good-about-human-fat/518322/3 "2009-11-21T01:43:07Z")
Wouldn’t they get more fat easier by raiding dumpsters at a lipo clinic, _a la_ **Fight Club**? Peru is pretty austere, but if they don’t have such clinics, Colombia certainly does. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Hen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@Small\_Hen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Hen)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2009, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-so-good-about-human-fat/518322/4 "2009-11-21T02:40:13Z")
Is there anyone on this board who didn’t instantly think, “I’m selling their fat asses back to them!”? ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2009, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-so-good-about-human-fat/518322/5 "2009-11-21T04:18:48Z")
> [@](#): > > Cosmetic chemist and writer Amanda Foxon-Hill says if there is a modern day market for human fat, it is not in mainstream cosmetics. > > “I would think that the only marketing angle you could put on this is that capturing something other than the chemistry of the oils,” she said. > > “When people search for exotic oils from either the Amazon or the outer regions of the globe, they’re looking for something that they can market as a special angle and have special properties,” she said. > > “So I would have said that this has potentially some magic angle or some power angle to it which would not be based on science, that would be based on more of a superstitious angle.” > … > Professor Barrie Finnin from Monash University’s college of pharmacy says modified animal fats are used in cosmetics, but there is no scientific reason to use human fat. > > … > > “I know of no scientific basis that would lead you to believe that human fat is going to have any advantage over animal fat for this purpose.” > > He says he has never seen justification to use human fat for cosmetics. > > “There are reports, and small companies, European companies have been reported to have used human fat in their products before but I’ve never seen any real justification for it,” he said. > > "In the cosmetics industry everybody’s trying to get an edge so that you need to make new claims, and so that every few years a claim for a new ingredient - whether it’s colostrum that’s produced from human breast milk, or whether it’s human fat - these things will be fads. > **[ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation](https://www.abc.net.au/news)** > > Follow the latest headlines from ABC News, Australia's most trusted media source, with live events, audio and on-demand video from the national broadcaster. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2009, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-so-good-about-human-fat/518322/6 "2009-11-21T04:26:59Z")
Soylent Olay. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2009, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-so-good-about-human-fat/518322/7 "2009-11-21T05:06:14Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > Soylent Olay. Oil of Ollie. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2009, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-so-good-about-human-fat/518322/8 "2009-11-21T05:51:28Z")
It’s cheap, if not free. ---
**Author:** ![statsman1982](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e79b87/32.png) [@statsman1982](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/statsman1982)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2009, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-so-good-about-human-fat/518322/9 "2009-11-21T09:31:34Z")
Maybe it’s Mabel? ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2009, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-so-good-about-human-fat/518322/10 "2009-11-21T09:35:03Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > It’s cheap, if not free. Hard to believe that killing people and taking their fat entails less expense than using animals. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2009, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-so-good-about-human-fat/518322/11 "2009-11-21T11:54:41Z")
> [@](#): > > So what’s so good about human fat? Finger lickin’ good! I am so going to Hell for that… ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2009, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-so-good-about-human-fat/518322/12 "2009-11-21T12:13:04Z")
I’d have to go with somebody wanting it for the magic juju it contains. The person can absorb the persons strengths or some other wild ass belief of a person wanting the fat. A belief like [Countess Elizabeth Báthory](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_B%C3%A1thory) had that bathing in virgin’s blood would keep her youthful. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2009, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-so-good-about-human-fat/518322/13 "2009-11-21T13:40:37Z")
> [@Sigene](#): > > Well I can’t answer your question; mainly because I think there is a flaw in the assumption that human fat actually does demand such prices. Sometimes folk will pay stupid money for pretty much [any old crap](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_mercury#Saudi_Arabia). > [@](#): > > In April 2009 it was reported from Saudi Arabia that rumors that Singer sewing machines contained “red mercury” had caused the prices of such machines to massively increase in the Kingdom, with some paying up to SR 200,000 for a single machine which could previously have been bought for SR 200. Believers in the rumor claimed that the presence of red mercury in the sewing machines’ needles could be detected using a mobile telephone; if the line cut off when the telephone was placed near to the needle, this supposedly proved that the substance was present. > > There was little agreement among believers in the story as to the exact nature or even color of the red mercury, while the supposed uses for it ranged from it being an essential component of nuclear power, to having the ability to summon jinn, extract gold, or locate buried treasure and perform other forms of magic. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2009, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-so-good-about-human-fat/518322/14 "2009-11-21T17:18:48Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > I’d have to go with somebody wanting it for the magic juju it contains. The person can absorb the persons strengths or some other wild ass belief of a person wanting the fat. A belief like [Countess Elizabeth Báthory](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_B%C3%A1thory) had that bathing in virgin’s blood would keep her youthful. If it’s fat from an unbaptized child, they could use it to fly. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2009, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-so-good-about-human-fat/518322/15 "2009-11-21T17:45:33Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Finger lickin’ good![/SIZE] I was going to make a cannibal comment, but I didn’t. And then I started thinking: I wonder if anyone would eat his own fat? Maybe render it for gravy or something. Is it morally wrong to eat yourself? ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2009, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-so-good-about-human-fat/518322/16 "2009-11-21T17:53:08Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I wonder if anyone would eat his own fat? Maybe render it for gravy or something. Is it morally wrong to eat yourself? [Meatballs](http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21052655-13762,00.html). > [@](#): > > You are not a cannibal if you eat art :eek: ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2009, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-so-good-about-human-fat/518322/17 "2009-11-21T17:55:02Z")
> [@](#): > > You are not a cannibal if you eat art Poor Art! ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2009, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-so-good-about-human-fat/518322/18 "2009-11-21T18:04:51Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > [Meatballs](http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21052655-13762,00.html). Oh, my… ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2009, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-so-good-about-human-fat/518322/19 "2009-11-21T18:54:23Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Oil of Ollie. If you’re referring to the late Mr Hardy, there musta been a helluva lot of oil in that guy 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2009, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-so-good-about-human-fat/518322/20 "2009-12-04T17:16:19Z")
> **[Peruvian officials express doubt over alleged fat smuggling gang](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/dec/01/peru-human-fat-smuggling)** > > Group had been accused of killing peasants and draining human fat for sale in Europe Probably not going to make it to the front page of your news source. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-so-good-about-human-fat/518322.md?page=2)