Why Eat More Butter?
November 25, 2015
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Eat More Butter?
For years, maybe even decades,
experts told us to back away from the butter. Put down that horrible,
saturated, animal fat. Turns out, that advice was not necessarily the best. We
now know much more about butter and other animal fats and what kind of place
they can have in a healthy and well-rounded diet.
If you are a health food and super
food enthusiast and you like foods that taste delicious, it’s time to take
another look at butter. You may be asking right about now if butter can be a
tasty ingredient in smoothies. The answer is a resounding yes. Read on to learn
more.
What is Butter?
Butter is a dairy product made
from cream that has been separated from milk. Churning fresh cream separates
the butterfat from buttermilk. It’s a very simple process that involves shaking
or beating the cream until the fat separates.
The butter milk is filtered off
and the remaining butterfat can be shaped into the product you know as butter.
Modern techniques for making butter include pasteurizing, or heating, the cream
before churning it to make butter. Commercially-made butter is around 80
percent fat, while simple, churned butter usually has a lower fat content.
What about Margarine?
We have been taught to be
suspicious of butter and to instead reach for butter substitutes, like
margarine. Margarine, or oleo, and other butter substitutes are made with
vegetable oils, which are supposedly better for us, but they have been treated
in such a way that they are no longer healthful. To turn vegetable oils in to
solid butter substitutes, some of the natural unsaturated fatty acids are
turned into saturated fats and trans fats.
Trans fats are known to
increase the risk of heart disease, to increase levels of LDL, or bad
cholesterol, in the blood, to lower the functioning of the immune system, and
to increase the risk for developing diabetes. Tran’s fats are not the only
culprits in margarine, though. Butter substitutes also contain far more omega-6
fatty acids than omega-3 fatty acids. We need both of these to be healthy, but
in a certain ratio. The ratio of these two fats in the vegetable oils used to
make margarine is out of balance and this can lead to health problems, such as
heart disease.
Why Eat More Butter?
Margarine and other butter
substitutes are man-made, unnatural products that have been incorrectly
promoted as healthful options. At the same time, butter was vilified and we
have been convinced that this natural product will raise our cholesterol levels
and cause heart attacks and strokes. The truth is out now, and we know that
butter provides numerous health benefits:
Vitamin A. Butter is an
excellent source of vitamin A. Just one ounce of butter provides 14 percent of
your daily need of this important nutrient. Vitamin A is important for eye and
skin health and also for the proper functioning of the thyroid gland. Butter
also has significant amounts of vitamins E and K and the minerals selenium,
zinc, copper, and manganese.
Saturated
fats. Of course we know that butter is rich in saturated fats.
This is the
reason that we have been long told not to eat it. Saturated fats are supposed
to be bad for us and we are supposed to severely limit our intake of them. The
low-fat craze is over, though, and we now know that we need these kinds of fats
in our diet. The fats in butter are short- and medium-chain saturated fats.
These have been shown to raise levels of HDL cholesterol, help contribute to
weight loss, and lower the risk of stroke. These fats are even known to reduce
tumor growth. There is no evidence that saturated fats increase the risk for
heart disease.
This
short-chain fatty acid is found in butter in significant amounts and may be the
reason for the word butter. Butyrate helps to reduce damaging chronic
inflammation throughout the body and regulates the immune system, preventing it
from attacking healthy bacteria in the gut. People with Crohn’s disease and
colitis can benefit from the butyrate in butter.
Conjugated linoleic
acid (CLA)
Another important fatty acid in
butter is CLA. It can actually reduce body fat in people who are overweight and
following a restricted diet. It can also help the body better tolerate glucose
and fight cancer cells. CLA is mostly found in butter that comes from grass-fed
cattle.
Joint health
Butter has been shown to
protect joints against arthritis, but only when unpasteurized. The process of
heating the butter during pasteurization destroys whatever factors or nutrients
confer this protective effect.
Gastrointestinal
health
Butter contains a type of fat
called glycosphingolipids. This fatty acid protects the gastrointestinal system
from infections and irritation by acting on the inner, mucous membrane layer of
the gut. Eating more butter can protect you from infections, diarrhea, and
general stomach upset.
Makes your kids
beautiful/ handsome
If you want your kids to be
awesome, feed them butter. Kids will grow better on butter. In fact, vitamin A
is a necessary component to the healthy growth of children. People who’ve been
deprived of proper amounts of vitamin A (fat soluble vitamin in butter) during
gestation tend to have narrow faces and skeletal structure, small palates and
crowded teeth. Extreme deficiencies result in blindness, skeletal problems and
other birth defects. People who’ve gotten optimal vitamin A from the time of
conception have broad handsome faces, strong straight teeth, and excellent bone
structure.
Which Butter to
Choose (Types of Butter?)
Now you know all the wonderful
reasons that you should make butter a part of your diet. Unfortunately, you
can’t pick just any old butter out of the refrigerator section of your grocery
store and expect to get the benefits listed here.
To get all the benefits of
butter, you need organic butter from grass-fed cattle, not the butter that
comes from factory farms and grain-fed cattle. Butter from grass-fed cows has
all the important nutrients that are good for your health. In fact, studies
have found that people who eat grass-fed butter have a lower incidence of heart
disease compared to those consuming grain-fed butter.
So what’s the difference? Cows
that are fed in a pasture as opposed to a feed lot produce dairy with up to
five times the amount of CLA. Grass-fed cows also produce milk with a better
ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids. Grain-fed cows make milk with a ratio
tipped toward omega-6, which is unhealthy. Grass-fed butter has more vitamins,
particularly vitamin A and vitamin K2, which is responsible for helping the
body use calcium and prevents plaque formation in arteries.
Finding butter from a local
farmer whose cows are pastured and grass-fed is ideal. If that’s not possible, Kerry
gold is a good option that’s pretty widely available. There are other good brands;
just does a little research to ensure they’re legit.
Buttery Smoothies
Now you know why you should be
eating more butter, but the idea of putting it in your smoothie might still seem
a little strange. It may help to know that there are two main varieties of
butter: salted and sweet. Salted butter is great for spreading on your toast
and it will stay fresh longer. Sweet butter is simply unsalted butter and it’s
best for baking or in other recipes in which you want to control the amount of
salt. Sweet butter is rich, creamy, and buttery without being salty.
The good news about making
grass-fed sweet butter a part of your smoothies is that it works with any
recipe. Butter has a natural flavor that complements other flavors. It adds a
richness that goes with all other ingredients. If you use coconut oil you have
an idea of what adding a tablespoon or two of fat can do for your recipe. To
cover all your bases and to experiment with the differences in flavor in
texture, try alternating your recipes with butter and coconut oil. Here’s one
of my favorite buttery smoothie.
Chocolate Almond
Berry Butter Smoothie Recipe
The Ingredients
1 cup almond milk
1/4 cup fresh or frozen
blueberries
1/4 cup fresh or frozen
raspberries
1/4 cup almonds (ideally soaked
first)
1 tablespoon grass-fed butter
1 tablespoon cacao powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon vanilla powder or
extract
1 tablespoon honey to sweeten
(substitute maple syrup or stevia)
1 serving of your preferred
protein powder (optional)
The Add-ons
1/4 cup fresh or frozen
strawberries
1/2 tablespoon cacao nibs
1 cup spinach, kale, or other
leafy green
Grass-fed butter is a wonderful super food, but it doesn't mean that you should eat as much as possible. This is
a high-calorie food and it is rich in cholesterol, so don’t go overboard and
eat cups of it every day. One to two tablespoons, especially if you are
including other healthy fats in your daily diet should give you a good dose of powerful
nutrients.
It’s also a good idea to listen to your body. When it craves
something, you probably need more of it (processed junk foods being the
exception to this rule, of course). Now go enjoy your butter and better health.
Sources :
http://www.dairygoodness.ca/butter/the-history-of-butter
http://therealfoodguide.com/what-is-margarine-and-why-is-it-bad-for-you/
http://therealfoodguide.com/what-is-margarine-and-why-is-it-bad-for-you/
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