Cats Know Margarine Is Not Food. Do You?

What is margarine? It shows up in the food aisle at your local grocery store, but does that make it food? My cats don't think so. And neither do I.

What is Margarine? A Message from the Barn Cats

I don't buy margarine. I used to many, many moons ago (back when I was scared of butter). But now that I know saturated fat is good for you, nary a stick or tub of margarine has entered my kitchen for some years now. That is, until a house guest left a package in the fridge a few weeks ago.

I didn't even realize it until the guest had left. And there it is. A yellow and blue box full of oddly colored yellow sticks of margarine. It doesn't look like the creamy, gold butter of summertime. It's a fake yellow, food-dye yellow. Ick.

I call my husband over to the fridge. "What do we do with it?" I ask.

"Well, we can't eat it," he says. "That's gross."

I am so glad he agrees with me.

"Should we throw it away?" I hesitate. "I hate wasting food."

We stare, deep in thought, at the yellow and blue box.

"We could feed it to the cats?" I finally suggest. But I'm not sure. Would that be right?

We have several barn cats who live outside and protect our chickens from various pests and predators that roam our woods. They love snacking on the occasional scrap food, especially when I am kind enough to pass a little liver, a fresh egg, or shrimp tails their way. Perhaps this explains why they follow me around the yard, making figure eights around my feet as I walk. They want to know if I have any tasty tidbits for them to sample.

But this was different. Margarine could hardly be equated with real food like liver or eggs.

My husband finally answers slowly, "I guess so." He also sounds hesitant. We are not sure if this could be considered animal abuse.

With doubt weighing heavily on my mind, I pull each yellowy stick of margarine from its plastic wrapping and put in into a bowl. Now I love butter, but this clearly isn't butter as it turns my stomach even looking at a whole bowlful of the stuff.

I take the bowl out to my cats, who immediately begin the figure eight ritual in anticipation of their treat. I set the bowl down in front of them, and all of them pounce at the easy prey.

But then they stop. They sniff the margarine gingerly and then look up at me as if to say, "Where's the real food?"

Not even the greediest of my barn cats will take a nibble. I am perplexed, because I have seen these cats eat some strange and rather disturbing things over the years. I decide to leave the bowl and see if they don't develop a hankering for it.

I return two hours later to fetch my empty bowl. Only it isn't empty. In fact, the margarine hasn't been touched at all. I am floored and I bring the bowl back into the house to show my husband.

Neither of us can believe it, but our cats flat-out refused to eat even a nibble of margarine. If only the general population were so wise. We marvel at the instinctual knowledge of wild beasts while I scrape the margarine into the trash can. I vow to never try and feed this fake-food-stuff to my animals ever again.

Sorry barn cats. My bad.

Moral of the story: I now realize you aren't actually wasting food when you throw margarine away. Because what is margarine? The answer is clear: it is not food!

And for all future house guests: if you leave margarine at my house, I will throw it straight into the garbage can and perhaps dare to lecture you on how even my cats won't touch it. I am sure my cats endowed me with this experience for a good reason. I must spread the word about real butter.

• Confused about margarine and butter? Check out this post to learn why I use REAL butter on my toast and what kind of butter is the BEST to eat!

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10 Reasons Why I Love Butter

How do I love thee, butter? Oh, let me count the ways...


1. Butter is real.

I love food that doesn't need an ingredient list. And butter is as simple as it comes: cream. That's it. No hydrogenation necessary, no flavor additives, no preservatives. Just my style.


2. It's delicious.

When it comes down to it, healthy food should taste amazing. And butter definitely fits that bill. Who doesn't like butter? Granted, I'm sure there are some folks out there who don't... but I've yet to meet one personally. Not only does real butter taste a million times better than any "buttery" spread out there, it also makes other food taste great too!

My number one cooking tip? Use real butter. Everything you make will taste better.


3. It's got vitamin A.

Forget carrots! Beta-carotene is so yesteryear--and it's hard for many people to convert beta-carotene into useable vitamin A anyway. Get some super bioavailable vitamin A from real butter instead. It's great for your eyes, your skin and so much more. Learn more about the vitamin A in butter here. 


4. It's got saturated fat.

Eek! I feel like I said a dirty word. But saturated fat is not the health demon portrayed in the media. In fact, the fats in butter are some of the most life-giving fats on the planet. The short- and medium-chain saturated fatty acids in butter protect against cancer, boost immunity, fight fungal overgrowth and provide a steady source of energy for your body. Read more about the health benefits of saturated fat here. 


5. It's low in PUFAs. 

I don't like to demonize food groups, but polyunsaturated fatty acids (commonly known as PUFAs) aren't your friend. I don't believe a little cod liver oil or some peanut butter now and then is something to worry about, but the fact that so much of our food is drenched in vegetable oil these days has caused a serious imbalance in our diets. When you consider that polyunsaturated oils have been linked to cancer risk among other health problems, it makes sense to cut back on those PUFAs and consume a more balanced ratio of fatty acids.

Enter butter. Butter's fatty acid profile depends on the source (grass-fed obviously provides more benefits), but overall butter contains an awesome balance of fats:

• 65 percent saturated fat
• 30 monounsaturated fat
• 5 percent polyunsaturated fat

6. It's got vitamin K2.

Vitamin K2 is the most beneficial form of vitamin K. It's easily absorbed and utilized by the body. Vitamin K2 works in synergy with other fat-soluble vitamins like vitamin A, vitamin D and vitamin E to improve your health in a number of ways. Vitamin K2 is even associated with a lower risk for cancer and heart disease! Find out more about the vitamin K2 in butter here.


7. It's got butyric acid.

Butyric acid (also known as butyrate) is a beneficial fatty acid that has been shown to improve cholesterol levels, lower triglycerides, promote healthy body weight, and restore gut health. It can even help reverse cancer. Read more about these benefits here.


8. You can make your own.

Yes, you can! And it's incredibly easy. I've made my own butter by shaking fresh cream in a jar (tiresome, yes, but also a great arm workout!) and by mixing it in my Cuisinart food processor.

Food Renegade did a great post about making butter here (check out the comments--lots of helpful tips and questions there).


9. You can make it raw.

Raw dairy has some fantastic benefits because it contains the natural enzymes and co-factors that aid in the absorption and utilization its nutrients. Although raw butter can't be found in most stores, you may be able to find it from a local farmer or you can make your own if you have access to raw cream.


10. You can make it cultured.

Culturing the cream before making raw butter is a great way to increase the bioavailability of the nutrients found in butter. Simply leave your raw cream out at room temperature for about 7 hours to let it culture and then make your butter as usual. You can also find cultured butter in some stores and farmers markets.


I'm sure I could go on, but now it's your turn: do you love butter? Tell us in the comments below!

This post is part of Fight Back Friday.

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Is Butter Healthy? Part Two: Vitamin A Benefits

Are you eating butter yet? Earlier this week we explored the benefits of butyric acid in butter, and today we're going talk about the vitamin A benefits.

Is Butter Healthy? Vitamin A Benefits

Weston A. Price found vitamin A to be a missing component in the modern diet compared to the diet of traditional cultures at the time. He noted that the cultures eating tradition foods consumed far more vitamin A than people who lived on modern fare. Here are just a few of the many vitamin A benefits:

• Vitamin A is a powerful antioxidant, meaning it protects us from free radical damage in the body.
• Protein digestion is improved by vitamin A.
• Vitamin A supports bone health.
• It is vitally important for thyroid health.
• Vitamin A enhances RNA production.
• According to Dr. Campbell-McBride in Gut and Psychology Syndrome, vitamin A is also crucial for healing the gut.

But I Get My Vitamin A From Carrots!

Do you? The principle form of vitamin A in carrots (and other plant foods) is beta-carotene. The body cannot use beta-carotene as it is--it has to convert it to a more usable form of vitamin A. And not everyone can make this conversion easily. Particularly infants, children, the elderly, diabetics, and those with poor thyroid function may not be able to make the conversion as needed. The vitamin A in animal foods is in a far more bioavailable form.

Vitamin A and Butter: The Perfect Paring

Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin, so it needs fat to be fully utilized. This make butter a truly synergistic food: it combines vitamin A with important fatty acids all in one package.

Another reason to love the vitamin A in butter? It's so darn delicious! Let's face it: it's not easy for everyone to eat organ meats and seafood (both excellent sources of vitamin A). Butter, however, is something most everyone can appreciate. It's easy to pile it on homemade bread, cook scrambled eggs with it, blend into mashed potatoes... you get the idea.

The Best Butter for Vitamin A

Maybe you've noticed: butter from grass-fed cows has more vitamin A than conventional butter! I've found that most commercial butters have about 6% of the RDA of vitamin A per serving. Higher-quality butter has 8% and I've even seen as high as 10% if find a really good brand. So remember: you get your money's worth when you buy better butter (yes, that is a tongue twister).

Now we're starting to get some traction on the road to finding the answer to our theme question: is butter healthy? Are you a believer yet? If not, stay tuned. We'll be talking lots more about butter during the next few weeks!

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop!

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Is Butter Healthy? Part One: Butyric Acid Benefits

Ah, butter. The old-fashioned fat. The perfect partner for a baked potato. My misunderstood friend. It's creamy, flavorful, and downright delicious on toast. But is butter healthy?

I started out writing a post on why butter is healthy, and quickly realized the merits of butter are so far-reaching it will take more than one post to even begin to delve into this controversial subject. After all, most of us have been told for decades that butter belongs on the top of the "do not eat" list. It takes more than one simple blog post to undo years of USDA propaganda.

 Is Butter Healthy? Butyric Acid Benefits

So today I want to start by addressing butyric acid (also known as butyrate). Butter is the richest dietary source of butyric acid (3-4%), a short-chain fatty acid which is proving to be highly beneficial.

Butyric Acid and Metabolic Health

A very interesting study demonstrated the benefits of butyric acid in mice. Researchers found that feeding these mice butryic acid could reverse several harmful metabolic affects. The mice who received butyric acid in their diet were leaner and did not have a tendency to overeat. They also had lower cholesterol, triglyceride and fasting insulin levels--all pointing to better metabolic health and a decreased risk of developing metabolic syndrome.

Butyric Acid and Gut Health

The gut actually uses butyric acid as an energy source. Butyric acid has been shown to benefit those with gut disorders like ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. That's because this short-chain fatty acid helps restore the integrity of the gut lining while also reducing inflammation.

Butyric Acid and Cancer

Studies have demonstrated that butyric acid has the ability to cause cancer cells to mature into normal cells. This is a unique property, since most anti-cancer substances either kill the cancer cell or cause it to kill itself. Butyric acid, however, appears to preserve the life of the cell by normalizing its function.

Is Butter Healthy?

In the end, the degree of health-giving properties in any given food is dependent upon an individual's tolerance or dietary needs. In other words, your mileage may vary. But after today's post and as we continue to explore butter's health benefits, I hope that we can end the tyrade on this traditional fat and learn to appreciate what butter has to offer.

Is Butter Healthy? Part Two: Vitamin A Benefits

Is Butter Healthy? Part Three: Vitamin K2 Benefits

References:
http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/58/7/1509.abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1612357
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18346306
http://www.ralphmoss.com/html/tributyrin.shtml

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Get Saturated: Four Reasons Saturated Fat is Healthy

Some of my homemade butter.

I recently wrote an article for Natural News about the health benefits of saturated fats. Already my inbox is flooded with emails (supportive and not-so-supportive, but always fun to read). Here's an excerpt from the article:

"Today we are caught between two philosophies: one says saturated fat is killing us; the other says these fats are necessary for true vitality. There is a heated back-and-forth, a constant tug-of-war scenario, with society caught in the middle like a child caught between two parents in a nasty divorce.

But fortunately, we are adults who can take a step back from the madness and look at the facts - all of the facts - before coming to our own conclusions. The trouble is finding anything but propaganda regarding saturated fats. Corporate food industry and government agencies are quick to demonize these fats, but in traditional cultures saturated fat was revered and even coveted as a source of vital energy."

You can read the full article here: Get Saturated: Four Reasons Saturated Fat is Healthy. There's some interesting comments to read there, too.

 

Want to hear more about butter? Check out this post about why I love butter.

 

Speaking of saturated fat: have you entered the ghee giveaway yet?

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How Much Fat is Enough? 7 Reasons to Eat More Good Fats

Many of you know I was part of the low-fat craze a couple years ago. I was a die-hard low-fat/fat-free nut. And when I say "nut" I’m not kidding, because being on a low-fat diet was making me crazy. I could eat an entire carton of ice cream in one day--fat-free ice cream of course. I would slather fat-free buttery spreads all over my food, trying to quell my cravings for fat.

I did recognize my body was craving real fat. I just thought my body was wrong, mistaken, misinformed. I figured these medical experts and their handy charts must know better than my own body, so my body was wrong. Never mind that it was also depressed, tired, nervous, pasty and blemished--it was wrong!

When I first realized fat was good for me--that butter was good for me--something just clicked. It suddenly made sense. So I dared to raise my daily fat intake to about 40% of my calories. I thought this was extremely high at the time. I've experimented with levels between 40-80% fat in my diet, but I find that I am most satisfied and even-keel with about 40-50% of my calories coming from fat (though my eating patterns do fluctuate from time to time).

7 Reasons to Eat More Good Fats


#1 - Reduced carb cravings. 

Now I’m the first to admit I still crave sugar from time to time. But now that I’m on a high-fat diet it’s not a 24/7 will-run-someone-down-in-my-car-to-get-it sugar craving. Let me explain: two years ago if there was a carton of ice cream in my freezer in the morning, it would be gone by noon. I would eat a low-calorie, low-fat breakfast and then a couple hours later my cravings would be so monstrous I couldn’t take it and would down the whole thing.

Dr. Schwarzbein (author of The Schwarzbein Principle series) describes it as "noise" in your head telling you to eat carbs and sugar. I don’t have this "noise" anymore, just a quiet, even feeling--with an occasional sweet tooth (and I still give in to it sometimes--I’m not perfect by any means!). But there’s an ice cream carton in my freezer that's been in there for two weeks and I haven’t touched it. Not once. To me, that’s a miracle. 


#2 - Feel full. 

I mean actually satiated. On a high-carb, low-fat diet this feeling almost never happens. You can eat a box of pasta and still be left unsatisfied. Now try eating some cheese and nuts, add coconut oil to your smoothies, or veggies topped with butter. That’s satisfying. And you probably won’t be hungry again in an hour, either. This is the kind of food that turns off your hunger and allows you to take a break from food once in a while without feeling empty. 


#3 - Stable energy. 

The right amount of good fat can help keep your blood sugar stable by lowering the glycemic load of your meal. Without huge blood sugar spikes, you don't suffer from extreme lows and will have a more stable, steady feeling of energy.


#4 - Experience happiness and contentment. 

Did you know your body needs plenty of fat to make hormones and neurotransmitters? Without enough fat, your body doesn’t have the material it needs to build these vital substances that regulate everything from moods to body temperature. Want to balance your hormones and improve your mood? Start with fat. And plenty of it.


#5 - More protein. 

When you’re free to eat more fat, it’s easy to add high-protein favorites like cheese and beef back into your diet. High-quality protein (not soy protein or processed proteins) is essential for the repair of lean body tissue--like bones, muscles and organs. Fat also helps the body utilize those proteins, so on a high-fat diet your lean body tissues thrive instead of withering away. 


# 6 - Get lean. 

The title of Eat Fat, Lose Fat sums it up. A body running on fat doesn’t store fat: it sheds it! When you you eat a balanced diet that contains good fats, you're satiated and blood sugar is stable. This decreases cravings and overeating. You also provide the body with the essential nutrients it needs, which switches you out of starvation mode and revs up your metabolism. It’s like a natural weight loss pill you can spread on toast. 


#7 - Build immunity. 

Fats are an important building block for a healthy immune system. Part of this is because fat soluble vitamins like A, D, E, and K can’t be used properly without plenty of fat. All of these vitamins are crucial for immune function. Vitamin D has been in the headlines lately as an immunity-booster, but without enough dietary fat your body isn’t going to benefit much from a higher vitamin D intake. So boost your fat, boost your immunity. 


How much fat am I supposed to eat? 

I imagine this number differs for everyone, since some of us do better on more fat than others. Someone with blood sugar problems may need more fat and less carbs than someone who doesn’t. There is no magic number when it comes to how much fat you should eat. Some feel great on 30-40%. Others feel their body functions better eating a diet of about 50-70% fat. Do what feels right for your body. The point is not to be afraid of good, natural fats! 


What if eating fat makes me feel sick? 

This is not uncommon. When our bodies have been deprived of fat for a long time, the art of digesting fats is forgotten! You can help pump up your digestive juices by taking 1-2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar before meals, digestive bitters after a meal, or eating lacto-fermented foods like sauerkraut with your meal. If you’ve been seriously low-fat dieting for a long time you may also want to introduce fats slowly over a period of weeks until you reach the right amount. 


Just keep in mind you want to be eating the right fats: mainly quality butter, coconut oil, ghee, lard, and tallow, plus some olive oil, nuts and seeds. Stay away from vegetable oils and processed foods that contain them. Eating a diet high in those fats is a big no-no. Read more about that here.

Find high quality sources of healthy fats and oils here on my Resources page.

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Three Strikes for Vegetable Oils

The change I’m addressing today is fairly simple, but don’t let how easy it is fool you: this is one of the most important changes you can make in your diet. I’m talking about cutting out polyunsaturated oils. Cheap vegetable oils aren’t benefitting your health in any way, and here’s why:

The main difference between polyunsaturated fat and other fats (like monounsaturated and saturated) is the structure. For example, monounsaturated fatty acids are linked by one double bond, but polyunsaturated fats are linked by multiple double bonds. This structure is very unstable and wreaks havoc on the cells in your body. It contributes to oxidation and free radical damage, which is linked to heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, autoimmune diseases and premature aging (just to name a few).

Strike One. The instability of polyunsaturated fats is especially volatile during any kind of processing. Even small amounts of light, moisture, air or heat damage polyunsaturated fat. These oils can’t withstand exposure to heat when used for cooking, and yet these oils are the most popular choice in packaged foods and most restaurants. These oils are also typically bleached and deodorized with hazardous chemicals. Damaged oils equal damaged health, period.

Strike Two. A top concern about consuming high levels of omega-6 fatty acids (a main component of polyunsaturated oils) is they can interfere with the body's production of prostaglandins. This can cause many adverse conditions in the body, including blood clots, sterility, poor immunity, indigestion, and cancer.

Strike Three. Too many omega-6 fatty acids can also interfere with the use of the very important omega-3 fatty acids in the body. And since polyunsaturated oils are used almost exclusively in conventional processed foods, it's very easy for people to take in far more omega-6 fatty acids than their body can use. The omega-6 fatty acids in these oils essentially crowds out the omega-3's, which can be devastating to your health.

Here’s how you can avoid eating damaged polyunsaturated fats:

Avoid vegetable oils. Don’t use soy, corn, cottonseed or canola oils. These are the worst of the worst, even if the label claims “unrefined.” Very small amounts of expeller-pressed sesame, peanut and flax oil are okay, but keep the focus on eating plenty of natural saturated fats.

Eat real butter. Margarine and other spreads are made with vegetable oil (sometimes the hydrogenated kind - yuck!). Stick with good ole butter with no additives.

Change your cooking oil. Polyunsaturated fats are simply too unstable to heat. Switch to butter, coconut oil, ghee and other stable saturated fats like lard and tallow. Using olive oil for cooking on occasion is safe, too. Find high quality sources of healthy cooking oils here on my Resources page.

Avoid processed foods. Unhealthy vegetable oils are just another reason to avoid packaged food products. Stick with the real thing and you’ll have more control over what fats are involved.

Fortunately, these changes can be very easy to make. Cooking with healthy saturated fats is simple and healthy. Since saturated fats are more solid at room temperature, you may have to gently melt them to use them in some recipes. This is a very small inconvenience, however, considering how beneficial the change is!

For an in-dept article about vegetable oil and healthy fats, read The Oiling of America at the Weston A. Price Foundation website. You can also take a look at Mary Enig's book Know Your Fats, or Eat Fat, Lose Fat by Mary Enig and Sally Fallon. The DVD Fat Head also has some interesting commentary about vegetable oils and saturated fats, for those of you who'd like a break from the books!

Need to find a source for healthy fats? Check out my Resources page here!

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Nourishing Foods for Beginners: Eat Your Saturated Fat!

Today I want to put some emphasis on a hot topic: eating fat! And not just any fat. I’m talking about the vilified saturated fat, the kind shunned by the medical community and most dietitians. The kind blamed for heart disease, diabetes and all sorts of other debilitating conditions.  

The kind that's absolutely essential to good health.

I’m not kidding. We need--desperately need--saturated fat to be healthy, to be happy, to have energy, to live! These are the most natural fats on the planet, and have been plentiful in the human diet since time began. That cannot be said of modern vegetable oils, which have only recently been engineered to infiltrate our food supply. These oils ushered in the modern age of disease, not the healthy saturated fats our ancestors used with such enthusiasm.

Here’s a list of benefits taken from the Weston A. Price Foundation’s The Skinny on Fats:

“Saturated fatty acids constitute at least 50% of the cell membranes. They are what gives our cells necessary stiffness and integrity.

They play a vital role in the health of our bones. For calcium to be effectively incorporated into the skeletal structure, at least 50% of the dietary fats should be saturated.

They lower Lp(a), a substance in the blood that indicates proneness to heart disease. They protect the liver from alcohol and other toxins, such as Tylenol.

They enhance the immune system.

They are needed for the proper utilization of essential fatty acids.

Elongated omega-3 fatty acids are better retained in the tissues when the diet is rich in saturated fats.

Saturated 18-carbon stearic acid and 16-carbon palmitic acid are the preferred foods for the heart, which is why the fat around the heart muscle is highly saturated. The heart draws on this reserve of fat in times of stress.

Short- and medium-chain saturated fatty acids have important antimicrobial properties. They protect us against harmful microorganisms in the digestive tract.”

Read more about healthy fats in these posts:

• Is Butter Healthy? Part One: Butyric Acid Benefits

• Is Butter Healthy? Part Two: Vitamin A Benefits

• Is Butter Healthy? Part Three: Vitamin K2 Benefits

• Get Saturated: Four Reasons Saturated Fat is Healthy

• How Much Fat is Enough? 7 Reasons to Eat More Good Fats

Simple Ways to Eat Healthy Saturated Fats

Today we’re talking baby steps, so I want to propose just a few very simple changes for those of you who are just beginning to discover the merits of traditional foods:

• Switch to butter and coconut oil. Toss out all those fake spreads filled with vegetable oils and trans fat (even the ones without trans fat aren’t healthy!). Use real butter and high quality coconut oil: they are both delicious, healthy and easy to use.

• Drink whole milk. Raw milk is best, but if you’re going to buy pasteurized milk, still choose whole (and if possible, non-homogenized). The vitamins and minerals in milk are located primarily in... the fat! That's why low-fat and nonfat milk have to have these nutrients added back in (usually in synthetic form, which is less bioavailable).

• Buy whole-milk dairy products. Choose full-fat cheese, yogurt and sour cream. Low-fat and no-fat versions typically contain all sorts of additives and chemicals that try to mimic the real version's consistency and flavor. Low-fat is simply not natural!

These three steps above are basically effortless to make and don't usually cost much more than what you already buy.

A note about quality fats: Now, if at all possible, it’s important to get these foods from grass-fed or pastured animals who are free from antibiotics and artificial hormones. However, I will not get into that in depth today because we are talking small changes for beginners. I understand that it can be really discouraging in the beginning, and my main point is to encourage you to take baby steps if that’s what helps you move in the right direction!

A note for digestion: If you have been eating low-fat for years, it may be helpful to slowly incorporate high-fat foods into your diet. Digestive enzymes, probiotics, swedish bitters and naturally fermented foods can help you comfortably digest the extra fats, too.

Need to find healthy real food ingredients like coconut oil? Check out my Resources page!

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Why I Use REAL Butter on My Toast

I have to say, my friends look horrified when they learn I spread genuine butter on my vegetables, my toast, my potatoes and even - dare I say - my grass-fed steak. Yes, I love real butter. It's one of my favorite foods.

"But aren't you worried?" they say. "About your heart? Your cholesterol must be through the roof!"

I just smile. I'm not worried in the least. And here's why:

#1 - No hydrogenated or vegetable oil!

I'm surprised they still make margarine with hydrogenated oil considering the (well-deserved) bad press trans fat has received. But even the "buttery" spreads made without hydrogenated oils are not healthy! They are filled with vegetable oils which can cause loads of free-radical damage in the body. (Have you read "The Oiling of America?").

#2 - Plenty of saturated fats.

Wait. Aren't those bad? Actually, no. In fact, the fats in butter are some of the most life-giving fats on the planet. Butter is comprised mostly of short- and medium-chain fatty acids. These protect against cancer and boost immunity. They're also antifungal. Short and medium chain fatty acids are also more easily broken down for energy, which means its actually less likely that the fat in butter will be stored in the body (good news for dieters).

So, no, butter doesn't make you fat. And it won't give you a heart attack, either. For instance, did you know that heart disease has increased as our butter consumption has decreased? Zip over to read "The Skinny on Fats" for some really good commentary on why saturated fat is our friend.

#3 - Fat-soluble vitamins.

Need I say more? Our modern diet is seriously lacking in these important nutrients. Butter is filled with essential vitamins and antioxidants in their most natural and absorbable state. Butter is actually a better source of vitamin A than carrots, especially for people who have trouble converting the beta-carotene in carrots into vitamin A (many, many people can't make this conversion easily).

You can also find vitamin E and selenium in butter. These along with vitamin A actually protect the heart from free-radical damage, which is a factor in weakened arteries. On the other hand, fabricated spreads filled with rancid and refined vegetables oils can cause free-radical damage. Are you starting to see why butter makes me smile?

#4 - Butter tastes GREAT.

This may not sound like a health benefit at first, but I can't remember the last time healthy food tasted so intoxicating. Have trouble getting the kids to eat their veggies? Try adding a generous pat of butter and watch those greens disappear. And scrambled eggs just don't taste the same to me if they aren't fried in butter. It's just plain easy to eat butter.

So, what's the best butter to buy? Here's an idea:

BEST:

- Grass-fed, organic butter made from raw, cultured cream (you'll probably have to make this one at home).
- Grass-fed, organic butter made from raw cream (depending on where you live, you might have to make this at home, too).

GOOD:

- Grass-fed, organic butter made from pasteurized cream (available in some stores and online).
- Regular, storebought organic butter (can be found almost everywhere).

ACCEPTABLE:

- Regular, storebought non-organic butter.

Keep in mind ALL of the above choices are much, much better than the fake margarine spreads on the shelves. Just switching to plain old supermarket butter is still a better alternative to vegetable oil spreads. But if you can spring for organic and especially grass-fed butter, then that's even better!

This was one of the easiest changes for me to make on my journey to a nourished life. Switch over to butter today for better health and a better life!

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