(Guide to a Healthy Lifestyle)

Butter Is Healthy For You

If Alexander Graham Bell could see what has evolved from his early telephone he would be stunned out of his wits. We now have tiny cell phones which can fit in our ears and worn all day.

The first computer was a room-sized monstrosity with huge heat-generating vacuum tubes. My laptop is many times more powerful and functional than all of those early models combined. We have indeed come a long way.

By and large, technology has made our lives easier by improving electronic and mechanic devices. It has come to our rescue with everything with the exception of food.

It was thought by food engineers that foods manufactured in a laboratory could correct perceived health issues with natural food. Case in point is margarine. Due to the flawed work of Ansel Keys in 1953, researchers thought that the saturated fat in red meat, eggs, and butter was damaging to heart health.

As a result, health officials within the government mounted a highly successful campaign to get the public to eliminate, or at least reduce, the amount of red meat in their diets; they also recommended that Americans reduce their consumption of eggs. Margarine was invented through a process known as hydrogenation to totally replace butter.

Clinical studies have demonstrated that saturated fat does not lead to heart disease. As a matter of fact, saturated fat from healthy, grass-fed cows is very good for you. A Medical Research Council survey showed that men eating butter ran half the risk of developing heart disease as those using margarine (Nutrition Week; 03/22/91.)

Studies have now shown that the real food that our great-grandparents and grandparents ate was much better and healthier than that which modern food technologists have manufactured. As a matter of fact, meat raised through factory farms and margarine are harmful to your health. Beef, pork, and chicken raised in factory farms are sick animals pumped up with growth hormones and antibiotics. The process of hydrogenation leads to products which can in turn lead to cancer and heart disease.

It turns out that butter is a nutritional powerhouse. It is a source of easily absorbed vitamin A. Among other things, vitamin A is necessary for the proper functioning of the thyroid gland.

Butter is a source of important trace minerals such as manganese, chromium, zinc, copper and selenium too.

Did you know that butter has more selenium per gram than wheat germ or herring? And selenium has been shown to be a cancer fighter.

Butter is also an excellent source of iodine. The form of iodine from butter is greatly absorbed by your body.

The Wulzen or "anti-stiffness" factor in raw butter and also Vitamin K2 in grass-fed butter, protect against calcification of the joints as well as hardening of the arteries, cataracts and calcification of the pineal gland. Calves fed pasteurized milk or skim milk develop joint stiffness and do not thrive.

Glycospingolipids in butterfat protect against gastrointestinal infection, especially in the very young and the elderly.

Butter that comes from grass-fed cows contains high levels of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA.) CLA can reduce body fat while at the same time enhance muscle. It is also rich in short- and medium-chain fatty acids. These fats or triglycerides help control body fat.

Like the majority of other processed and packaged foods, margarine is a chemical engineer's dream. The ingredients which make up the product, and that are used in processing, are mind-boggling. Many of these chemicals are not required to be listed on the label.

Margarine contains synthetic vitamins, man-made trans fats, emulsifiers and preservatives, artificial colors, hexane and other chemicals used in the extraction process, mono- and di-glycerides, bleach, soy protein isolate, and sterols (estrogen compounds.)

It's no wonder cancer, heart disease, autism, Alzheimer's disease is increasing. The body is inundated with this chemical soup from the hundreds of food products sold in fast food restaurants and supermarkets.

The best butter is raw butter from grass-fed cows, preferably organic. Next is pasteurized butter from grass-fed cows, followed by regular pasteurized butter from supermarkets. Even the latter two are still a much healthier choice than margarine or spreads.

The website realmilk.com can be used to locate sources of raw butter. If you want to make your own, go to positron.org.
Source: Weston A. Price Foundation.

Follow me on Twitter