Maybe it’s the time of year as I am planning Thanksgiving dinner and imagining a mound of squash with butter dripping down the side or the flakey pie crusts, but I have had butter on my brain!
Butter is making a long overdue comeback in the whole/traditional foods world. For a time it got a bad wrap for wrongly being labeled the source of high cholesterol and heart disease.
A researcher by the name of Ancel Keys was first to propose that saturated fat was the source of high cholesterol and heart disease. Interestingly enough, at the turn of the century heart disease was extremely rare while at that time people were eating as much as 18 pounds of butter a year, which is 72 sticks mind you. By the 1960’s butter consumption was down to 4 pounds a year, and heart disease had become the number 1 killer.
As butter consumption was dwindling people started eating margarine as it was being touted as the healthy alternative because it lacked saturated fat. It more than made of for it’s so called benefits because people didn’t realize how toxic margarine was and still is. It is loaded with hydrogenated oils, toxins, colorings, preservatives, and fats that are normally found in a liquid state but altered so they can be spreadable.
Not natural by any means.
I remember as a kid going to my friend’s houses and being so happy to eat their margarine as it had a distinct taste. My mom would never let the stuff in our house, she was a smart woman, but feeling deprived as a kid I loved to get my fix when I was away from home. I remember once my mom let me buy some fake butter spray…ew….and I sprayed it on my mom’s homemade bran muffins in the morning thinking I was being SO healthy by saving calories and fat, oh how wrong I was!
Enough dwelling on how yucky and fake margarine is lets talk about the myriad of health benefits you will receive from eating butter. Remember though organic butter is best. Animals and people alike, store toxins in their fat, so if you are eating butter that is not organic you are getting more of the toxins and pesticides that the cow was exposed to. Raw, organic, grass fed sources of butter are optimal but not always practical so don’t feel too stressed if you can’t buy organic butter.
Non-organic butter is still better than the fake spreads so you’re still doing great.
15 Wonderful Benefits Of Butter
- Rich in Vitamin A in a very absorbable form (good for vision and endocrine (hormone) system, thyroid and adrenal glands)
- Contains anti-oxidants that protect you from free radical damage & strengthen arteries
- Good source of Vitamins E and K (especially when grass fed)
- Contains Vitamin D which is important for absorbing calcium
- Rich in selenium which is a powerful anti-oxidant
- Protects against tooth decay
- A highly absorbable source of iodine
- May promote fertility
- Cholesterol is so important for the healthy development of children’s brains. They need fat so their brains will be able to grow the fatty myelin sheath that surrounds their nerves.
- The short and medium chain fatty acids in butter strengthen our immune and digestive systems
- Butter contains the perfect balance of omega 3 to omega 6 fatty acids.
- Butter from grass fed cows contains CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid) which helps build muscle and protect against cancer
- Protects against arthritis and calcification of joints, arteries and pineal gland.
- Butter is used as energy, not stored as fat like the common misconception
- It strengthens your bones. You need vitamin A & D found in butter to be able to assimilate calcium
There you have it. 15 glorious benefits of butter.
Don’t feel bad this Thanksgiving when you go through a few pounds to make pie crusts, whipped potatoes and to spread on your turkey.
We’ve been trained to become afraid of fat. The reality is our bodies NEED fat, the right kinds of fat, to thrive and be healthy.
Here’s to butter!
Happy Thanksgiving,
~Hannah
You can read more here:
