The 20 Health Benefits of Real Butter

[DynamicBalance]

Quality matters! Do your body a favor and choose the highest-quality butter you can find - raw or cultured butter from grass-fed cows is the best, but if you can't afford it, at least choose organic butter to avoid synthetic hormones. The color of butter is a good indication of the quality - if it's pale, it's probably lacking in nutrients. Click on the article link below to read the full list of the 20 health benefits of butter. There's a reason why I have a bumper stick on my car that says "Butter is health food!"

Laurel Blair, NTP
www.dynamicbalancenutrition.com

https://bodyecology.com/articles/ben...eal_butter.php

Excerpt:

At the turn of our century, heart disease in America was rare. By 1960, it was our number one killer. Yet during the same time period, butter consumption had decreased - from eighteen pounds per person per year, to four.⁴

A researcher named Ancel Keys was the first to propose that saturated fat and cholesterol in the diet were to blame for coronary heart disease (CAD).

Numerous subsequent studies costing hundreds of millions of dollars, have failed to conclusively back up this claim.⁵

Yet the notion that a healthy diet is one with minimal fat, particularly saturated fat, has persisted. While Americans drastically reduced their intake of natural animal fats like butter and meat, the processed food industry, particularly the low-fat food industry, proliferated.

When the baby boomers were children, concerned mothers began to replace butter with margarine. The margarine manufacturers told them it was the healthier alternative and mothers believed them. In those days no one asked, "where is the science to prove it? I want to know before I give this man-made, plastized stuff to my children. After all we humans have been eating butter for thousands of years?".

As a result, since the early 1970's, Americans' average saturated fat intake has dropped considerably, while rates of obesity, diabetes, and consequently, heart disease, have surged.

Reducing healthy sources of dietary fat has contributed to a serious decline in our well-being, and those of us that speak out against the anti-fat establishment are still largely ignored .

[Dynamique]

More than one alternative practitioner has mentioned that the perfect complement to a good whole-grain bread (home baked if possible) is a topping of raw butter.

There is another element to be taken in to consideration when looking at the change in our collective health between 1900 and today: the enormous drop in level of physical exertion and calories burned throughout the day just doing things like housework, laundry (those scrubbing boards were particularly good abdominal exercise), and getting places (we used to walk or ride a horse, now we sit passively in a vehicle for the most part).

While our diet has become almost entirely disconnected with the natural world and our bodies' needs, this is not the only contributing factor to our 'diabesity' epidemic.

Thanks for posting these informational articles!

Excerpt:

At the turn of our century, heart disease in America was rare. By 1960, it was our number one killer. Yet during the same time period, butter consumption had decreased - from eighteen pounds per person per year, to four.⁴

A researcher named Ancel Keys was the first to propose that saturated fat and cholesterol in the diet were to blame for coronary heart disease (CAD).

Numerous subsequent studies costing hundreds of millions of dollars, have failed to conclusively back up this claim.⁵

Yet the notion that a healthy diet is one with minimal fat, particularly saturated fat, has persisted. While Americans drastically reduced their intake of natural animal fats like butter and meat, the processed food industry, particularly the low-fat food industry, proliferated.

When the baby boomers were children, concerned mothers began to replace butter with margarine. The margarine manufacturers told them it was the healthier alternative and mothers believed them. In those days no one asked, "where is the science to prove it? I want to know before I give this man-made, plastized stuff to my children. After all we humans have been eating butter for thousands of years?".

As a result, since the early 1970's, Americans' average saturated fat intake has dropped considerably, while rates of obesity, diabetes, and consequently, heart disease, have surged.

Reducing healthy sources of dietary fat has contributed to a serious decline in our well-being, and those of us that speak out against the anti-fat establishment are still largely ignored .

[79paul]

I agree that butter is better tasting and better for you, but I must object to the statement "The color of butter is a good indication of the quality - if it's pale, it's probably lacking in nutrients. ".
Any classically trained French chef will know that butter (and eggs --if free-ranged, of course) have seasonal variations in the color. If you're looking for the neon yellow of margarine, buy some food coloring.


Excerpt:

At the turn of our century, heart disease in America was rare. By 1960, it was our number one killer. Yet during the same time period, butter consumption had decreased - from eighteen pounds per person per year, to four.⁴

A researcher named Ancel Keys was the first to propose that saturated fat and cholesterol in the diet were to blame for coronary heart disease (CAD).

Numerous subsequent studies costing hundreds of millions of dollars, have failed to conclusively back up this claim.⁵

Yet the notion that a healthy diet is one with minimal fat, particularly saturated fat, has persisted. While Americans drastically reduced their intake of natural animal fats like butter and meat, the processed food industry, particularly the low-fat food industry, proliferated.

When the baby boomers were children, concerned mothers began to replace butter with margarine. The margarine manufacturers told them it was the healthier alternative and mothers believed them. In those days no one asked, "where is the science to prove it? I want to know before I give this man-made, plastized stuff to my children. After all we humans have been eating butter for thousands of years?".

As a result, since the early 1970's, Americans' average saturated fat intake has dropped considerably, while rates of obesity, diabetes, and consequently, heart disease, have surged.

Reducing healthy sources of dietary fat has contributed to a serious decline in our well-being, and those of us that speak out against the anti-fat establishment are still largely ignored .[/QUOTE]

[DynamicBalance]

I agree that butter is better tasting and better for you, but I must object to the statement "The color of butter is a good indication of the quality - if it's pale, it's probably lacking in nutrients. ".

Any classically trained French chef will know that butter (and eggs --if free-ranged, of course) have seasonal variations in the color. If you're looking for the neon yellow of margarine, buy some food coloring.

Hi Paul,

That is absolutely true that pastured butter and eggs will have seasonal variations in color. The reason for this, however, is the variation in nutrient levels throughout the seasons. The levels of vitamins A and D vary with the diet of the animals. Butter and egg yolks tend to have the most vibrant yellow-orange color in the early summer and fall when the cows and chickens are eating rapidly growing green grass, and in the case of chickens, bugs. That said, butter and eggs from animals eating a natural diet will usually have a pretty nice color year-round, compared to the pale and tasteless products of factory-farmed animals. The eggs I buy from Felton Acres in Sebastopol and Salmon Creek Ranch in Bodega always seem to have nice orange yolks. Just buy the best you can find at the time. And whatever you do, don't use food coloring, ever! It's toxic.

Thanks for posting,

Laurel Blair, NTP
www.dynamicbalancenutrition.com

[DynamicBalance]

More than one alternative practitioner has mentioned that the perfect complement to a good whole-grain bread (home baked if possible) is a topping of raw butter.

There is another element to be taken in to consideration when looking at the change in our collective health between 1900 and today: the enormous drop in level of physical exertion and calories burned throughout the day just doing things like housework, laundry (those scrubbing boards were particularly good abdominal exercise), and getting places (we used to walk or ride a horse, now we sit passively in a vehicle for the most part).

While our diet has become almost entirely disconnected with the natural world and our bodies' needs, this is not the only contributing factor to our 'diabesity' epidemic.

Thanks for posting these informational articles!

Hi Dynamique,

You're most welcome! There are definitely many, many factors involved in the astounding decrease in our nation's health over the last century or so, including less physical activity, more stress in our lives, and bombardment with chemicals. I'm a nutritionist, so I tend to focus on the nutrition aspect the most, but the truth is that all of these factors affect each other a lot. For example, physical activity will reduce high blood sugar, and stress can rapidly deplete nutrients. That's why it's so important to look at health problems holistically, because there are nearly always multiple factors involved.

I think this article was just trying to demonstrate that saturated fat and cholesterol from foods like butter could not possibly be the cause of the obesity, cancer, diabetes, and heart disease epidemics, since our consumption of these nutrients has actually decreased over time, not increased. It saddens me that the USDA (and other organizations like the AHA and ADA) seems unable to revise their position on these important nutrients. My own health improved tremendously from including foods rich in saturated fat or cholesterol, like butter, egg yolks, liver, cod liver oil, coconut oil, fatty meats, and bone marrow: all foods the USDA tells us to avoid.

Since you mentioned home-baked whole grain breads, I'd like to mention that grinding your own grain is the way to go for the healthiest and freshest bread. Once whole grains have been ground, the oils they contain rapidly go rancid in storage. Rancid oils are a serious health hazard. Since there's no way to know exactly how long the flour at the grocery store has been sitting around, it's best to invest in a quality grain grinder if you eat a lot of bread. In Sonoma County we are also blessed to have the Grindstone Bakery, a local company that makes organic wheat-free and gluten-free breads and cookies made in the traditional way, with a slow natural fermentation. They grind their own grain right before making each batch, and they use only the best ingredients. Their products are also super yummy! Check them out: https://grindstonebakery.com/index.html

Laurel Blair, NTP
www.dynamicbalancenutrition.com

[2Bwacco]

shopping at the new Traverso's (high on the hill above Fountaingrove) saw they had some interesting butters (in the freezer)

scrumptious cream-filled fresh mozzerellas too (made in Calif.)

[Gene]

Saturated animal fat good for you ? ? ?

[Dynamique]

Yes, as a SMALL percentage of a balanced diet that also has lots of green leafy stuff and some fruits.

Saturated animal fat good for you ? ? ?

[podfish]

Saturated animal fat good for you ? ? ?

good enough for baby cows.... good enough for me. mmm... butter....

[DynamicBalance]

Yes, as a SMALL percentage of a balanced diet that also has lots of green leafy stuff and some fruits.

I respectfully disagree. There is no one diet that is right for everyone. We are all biochemical individuals, with different needs for different nutrients. Some people thrive on foods that others cannot tolerate for various reasons. So what exactly is a balanced diet? It could mean one thing for one person and something totally different for another.

There are numerous examples of healthy populations that ate large amounts of saturated fats in their traditional diets. Whether this was from animal or plant sources should not matter, because fatty acids are the same regardless of what foods they are part of. The isolated Swiss in Loetschental Valley thrived on high-fat (raw and grass-fed) dairy products as the main staple of their diet, along with sourdough rye bread, and meat about once per week. Cheese, butter, and raw milk were eaten liberally every day. They ate some vegetables in summer when they were available (they had a very short growing season), and no doubt preserved some for winter with lacto-fermentation.

The Maasai in Africa ate a traditional diet of meat, milk, and blood from their cattle, with various fruits and vegetables as they were available. It's worth noting that their breed of cattle produced exceptionally rich milk, much richer than modern cow's milk, and it wasn't unusual for an individual to consume 3/4 of a pound of butterfat or more per day. They definitely did not pasteurize or homogenize their milk either.

Diets of various isolated island-dwelling populations vary, but generally include lots of seafood (high in cholesterol), wild pigs (saturated fat), coconut products (extremely high in saturated fat), starchy tubers, and some tropical fruits.

Even the traditional Mediterranean diet is not actually low in saturated fat. That was a myth propagated by Ancel Keys to promote his Lipid Hypothesis. Beef, lamb, and pork sausages were used liberally, and lamb tallow and lard were used often for cooking. Rich cheeses and eggs were also very common in the diet. Some areas of the Mediterranean use lots of olive oil for cooking, while others do not.

France is a modern example, because the French eat more saturated fat than any other European country, and also have the lowest rates of heart disease in Europe. But a lesser-known fact is that this trend is similar throughout Europe, in that the countries that eat a higher percentage of calories as saturated fat have in general the lowest rates of heart disease, while those with lower saturated fat consumption have higher rates of heart disease.

In light of all of this information, I see no reason for restricting the amounts of saturated animal fat in the diet, especially when it tastes so good and often comes with a liberal supply of natural fat-soluble vitamins! Of course, it's always better to choose products from animals that eat a natural diet, as these will be healthier for us, for the animals, and for the planet.

Laurel Blair, NTP
www.dynamicbalancenutrition.com