66.
Why Butter Is Better
By Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, PhD
When the fabricated food folks and apologists for the corporate farm realized that they couldn't block
America's growing interest in diet and nutrition, a movement that would ultimately put an end to America's biggest and most monopolistic industries, they infiltrated the movement and put a few sinister twists on information going out to the public. Item number one in the disinformation campaign was the assertion that naturally saturated fats from animal sources are the root cause of the current heart disease and cancer plague.
Butter bore the brunt of the attack, and was accused of terrible crimes. The Diet Dictocrats told us that it was better to switch to polyunsaturated margarine and most Americans did. Butter all but disappeared from our tables, shunned as a miscreant.
America's growing interest in diet and nutrition, a movement that would ultimately put an end to America's biggest and most monopolistic industries, they infiltrated the movement and put a few sinister twists on information going out to the public. Item number one in the disinformation campaign was the assertion that naturally saturated fats from animal sources are the root cause of the current heart disease and cancer plague.
Butter bore the brunt of the attack, and was accused of terrible crimes. The Diet Dictocrats told us that it was better to switch to polyunsaturated margarine and most Americans did. Butter all but disappeared from our tables, shunned as a miscreant.
Processed dairy products, cereals, refined sugars, refined vegetable oils, and alcohol make up 72.1% of the total daily energy consumed by all people in the United States, these types of foods would have contributed little or none of the energy in the typical preindustrial diet. An impressive range of processed foods like cookies, cake, bakery foods, breakfast cereals, bagels, rolls, muffins, crackers, chips, snack foods, pizza, soft drinks, candy, ice cream, condiments, and salad dressings are dominating the typical US diet, apart from of course factory farmed meats.
~Anna, Jan 14 2013
This would come as a surprise to many people around the globe who have valued butter for its life-sustaining properties for millennia. When Dr. Weston Price studied native diets in the 1930's he found that butter was a staple in the diets of many supremely healthy peoples.1 Isolated Swiss villagers placed a bowl of butter on their church altars, set a wick in it, and let it burn throughout the year as a sign of divinity in the butter. Arab groups also put a high value on butter, especially deep yellow-orange butter from livestock feeding on green grass in the spring and fall. American folk wisdom recognized that children raised on butter were robust and sturdy; but that children given skim milk during their growing years were pale and thin, with "pinched" faces.2
Does butter cause disease? On the contrary, butter protects us against many diseases.
Does butter cause disease? On the contrary, butter protects us against many diseases.
Butter & Heart Disease
Heart disease was rare in America at the turn of the century. Between 1920 and 1960, the incidence of heart disease rose precipitously to become America's number one killer. During the same period butter consumption plummeted from eighteen pounds per person per year to four. It doesn't take a Ph.D. in statistics to conclude that butter is not a cause. Actually butter contains many nutrients that protect us from heart disease. First among these is vitamin A which is needed for the health of the thyroid and adrenal glands, both of which play a role in maintaining the proper functioning of the heart and cardiovascular system. Abnormalities of the heart and larger blood vessels occur in babies born to vitamin A deficient mothers. Butter is America's best and most easily absorbed source of vitamin A.
Love the taste of butter and my "gut" just knew that it wasn't a "bad" thing. I leave a stick at a time out in a butter dish to easily slather on whenever. Been doing this for many years and never a problem with it going bad. It doesn't sit out too long because it's used regularly.
Satisfies those night time cravings....Wheat toast or english muffins with organic butter and a small glass of cold raw milk, then to bed.
I'm 60 and people think I'm 50 and I rarely get sick. Moderation, common sense, and listen to what the body tells you.(Mine wants butter!) I'm not a big meat eater at all, so that's how I justify it.
~ Anna, Ottawa, January 2013
Butter contains lecithin, a substance that assists in the proper assimilation and metabolism of cholesterol and other fat constituents.
Butter also contains a number of anti-oxidants that protect against the kind of free radical damage that weakens the arteries. Vitamin A and vitamin E found in butter both play a strong anti-oxidant role. Butter is a very rich source of selenium, a vital anti-oxidant--containing more per gram than herring or wheat germ.
Butter is also a good dietary source cholesterol. What?? Cholesterol an anti-oxidant?? Yes indeed, cholesterol is a potent anti-oxidant that is flooded into the blood when we take in too many harmful free-radicals--usually from damaged and rancid fats in margarine and highly processed vegetable oils.3 A Medical Research Council survey showed that men eating butter ran half the risk of developing heart disease as those using margarine.4
Butter also contains a number of anti-oxidants that protect against the kind of free radical damage that weakens the arteries. Vitamin A and vitamin E found in butter both play a strong anti-oxidant role. Butter is a very rich source of selenium, a vital anti-oxidant--containing more per gram than herring or wheat germ.
Butter is also a good dietary source cholesterol. What?? Cholesterol an anti-oxidant?? Yes indeed, cholesterol is a potent anti-oxidant that is flooded into the blood when we take in too many harmful free-radicals--usually from damaged and rancid fats in margarine and highly processed vegetable oils.3 A Medical Research Council survey showed that men eating butter ran half the risk of developing heart disease as those using margarine.4
Pasteurization and its effects...
After a great deal of research about the effects pasteurization has on milk, I found that once this process is done, the nutritional value is destroyed and all that is left is a delicious sanitized liquid of oxidized fat that causes more health problems than the miraculous elixir of raw milk ever did. Simply put, the reasons why pasteurization regulations were put into law was because, as the demand for milk consumption increased so did the proper cleanliness of the cows and the milking plants. Reckless care in cleanliness within those milking plants, the cows, as well as the employees were not regulated and inspected like say, a restaurant is today. Food establishments are required to have the proper permits, pass inspections and employees must go through a procedure, get the proper education, and obtain a food-handler health card. Smart, common sense cleanliness and strict guidelines would allow the elixir of raw milk to once again be served as the miraculous nourishment it is in its natural state. But you must understand that the huge milk producers love the pasteurization process because rather than having to deal with strict guidelines of cleanliness and proper food-handling it's just more convenient and more profitable and safer (yeah, whatever) to cook the nutritional life out of it.
~Glenn, Ontario
Butter & Cancer
In the 1940's research indicated that increased fat intake caused cancer.5 The abandonment of butter accelerated; margarine--formerly a poor man's food-- was accepted by the well-to-do. But there was a small problem with the way this research was presented to the public. The popular press neglected to stress that fact that the "saturated" fats used in these experiments were not naturally saturated fats but partially hydrogenated or hardened fats--the kind found mostly in margarine but not in butter. Researchers stated--they may have even believed it--that there was no difference between naturally saturated fats in butter and artificially hardened fats in margarine and shortening. So butter was tarred with the black brush of the fabricated fats, and in such a way that the villains got passed off as heroes.
Actually many of the saturated fats in butter have strong anti-cancer properties. Butter is rich in short and medium chain fatty acid chains that have strong anti-tumor effects.6 Butter also contains conjugated linoleic acid which gives excellent protection against cancer.7
Vitamin A and the anti-oxidants in butter--vitamin E, selenium and cholesterol--protect against cancer as well as heart disease.
Actually many of the saturated fats in butter have strong anti-cancer properties. Butter is rich in short and medium chain fatty acid chains that have strong anti-tumor effects.6 Butter also contains conjugated linoleic acid which gives excellent protection against cancer.7
Vitamin A and the anti-oxidants in butter--vitamin E, selenium and cholesterol--protect against cancer as well as heart disease.
The Land Of Food Inventions.... And The Land Of The Sick In the United States, chronic illnesses and health problems either wholly or partially attributable to diet represent by far the most serious threat to public health. Sixty-five percent of adults aged ≥20 years in the United States are either overweight or obese, and the estimated number of deaths ascribable to obesity is 280184 per year. More than 64 million Americans have one or more types of cardiovascular disease (CVD), which represents the leading cause of mortality (38.5% of all deaths) in the United States. Fifty million Americans are hypertensive; 11 million have type 2 diabetes, and 37 million adults maintain high-risk total cholesterol concentrations (>240 mg/dL). In postmenopausal women aged ≥50 y, 7.2% have osteoporosis and 39.6% have osteopenia. Osteoporotic hip fractures are associated with a 20% excess mortality in the year after fracture. Cancer is the second leading cause of death (25% of all deaths) in the United States, and an estimated one-third of all cancer deaths are due to nutritional factors, including obesity.
~ CDC figures
Butter & the Immune System
Vitamin A found in butter is essential to a healthy immune system; short and medium chain fatty acids also have immune system strengthening properties. But hydrogenated fats and an excess of long chain fatty acids found in polyunsaturated oils and many butter substitutes both have a deleterious effect on the immune system.8
Butter & Arthritis
The Wulzen or "anti-stiffness" factor is a nutrient unique to butter. Dutch researcher Wulzen found that it protects against calcification of the joints--degenerative arthritis--as well as hardening of the arteries, cataracts and calcification of the pineal gland.9 Unfortunately this vital substance is destroyed during pasteurization. Calves fed pasteurized milk or skim milk develop joint stiffness and do not thrive. Their symptoms are reversed when raw butterfat is added to the diet.
Butter & Osteoporosis
Vitamins A and D in butter are essential to the proper absorption of calcium and hence necessary for strong bones and teeth. The plague of osteoporosis in milk-drinking western nations may be due to the fact that most people choose skim milk over whole, thinking it is good for them. Butter also has anti-cariogenic effects, that is, it protects against tooth decay.10
Doctor just told me to go back to eating butter. I laughed and he said he'd had it with all this food nonsense and recommended just eating natural foods ie. food from my farm! Ha, ha...
~James, Oregon, July 2012
Butter & the Thyroid Gland
Butter is a good source of iodine, in highly absorbable form. Butter consumption prevents goiter in mountainous areas where seafood is not available. In addition, vitamin A in butter is essential for proper functioning of the thyroid gland.11
Butter & Gastrointestinal Health
Butterfat contains glycospingolipids, a special category of fatty acids that protect against gastro-intestinal infection, especially in the very young and the elderly. For this reason, children who drink skim milk have diarrhea at rates three to five times greater than children who drink whole milk.12 Cholesterol in butterfat promotes health of the intestinal wall and protects against cancer of the colon.13 Short and medium chain fatty acids protect against pathogens and have strong anti-fungal effects.14 Butter thus has an important role to play in the treatment of candida overgrowth.
Butter & Weight Gain
The notion that butter causes weight gain is a sad misconception. The short and medium chain fatty acids in butter are not stored in the adipose tissue, but are used for quick energy. Fat tissue in humans is composed mainly of longer chain fatty acids.15 These come from olive oil and polyunsaturated oils as well as from refined carbohydrates. Because butter is rich in nutrients, it confers a feeling of satisfaction when consumed. Can it be that consumption of margarine and other butter substitutes results in cravings and bingeing because these highly fabricated products don't give the body what it needs?.
The Rosickys had been at one accord not to hurry through life, not to be always skimping and saving. They saw their neighbours buy more land and feed more stock than they did, without discontent. Once when the creamery agent came to the Rosickys to persuade them to sell him their cream, he told them how much the Fasslers, their nearest neighbours, had made on their cream last year. "Yes," said Mary, "and look at them Fassler children! Pale, pinched little things, they look like skimmed milk. I'd rather put some colour into my children's faces than put money into the bank."~Passage from “Neighbor Rosicky”, by American author Willa Cather
Butter for Growth & Development
Many factors in butter ensure optimal growth of children. Chief among them is vitamin A. Individuals who have been deprived of sufficient vitamin A during gestation tend to have narrow faces and skeletal structure, small palates and crowded teeth.16 Extreme vitamin A deprivation results in blindness, skeletal problems and other birth defects.17 Individuals receiving optimal vitamin A from the time of conception have broad handsome faces, strong straight teeth, and excellent bone structure. Vitamin A also plays an important role in the development of the sex characteristics. Calves fed butter substitutes sicken and die before reaching maturity.18
The X factor, discovered by Dr. Weston Price (and now believed to be vitamin K2), is also essential for optimum growth. It is only present in butterfat from cows on green pasture.19 Cholesterol found in butterfat plays an important role in the development of the brain and nervous system.20 Mother's milk is high in cholesterol and contains over 50 percent of its calories as butterfat. Low fat diets have been linked to failure to thrive in children21 -- yet low-fat diets are often recommended for youngsters! Children need the many factors in butter for optimal development.
The X factor, discovered by Dr. Weston Price (and now believed to be vitamin K2), is also essential for optimum growth. It is only present in butterfat from cows on green pasture.19 Cholesterol found in butterfat plays an important role in the development of the brain and nervous system.20 Mother's milk is high in cholesterol and contains over 50 percent of its calories as butterfat. Low fat diets have been linked to failure to thrive in children21 -- yet low-fat diets are often recommended for youngsters! Children need the many factors in butter for optimal development.
I should add another reason for using butter - the nutrients in butter are essential for absorbing and utilizing the nutrients in vegetables, so butter those veggies!
Here in Australia I find that the battle is often lost to turn friends and family away from margarine mainly because of price. 250 grams of pasteurized butter can cost $1.97 up to $5 if it is “organic” whilst 1kg margarine is just $1.25 and the very few outlets for ‘natural organic butter’ charge around $12 a kilo.
However, we must keep on pointing out the truth, in the end the Truth will indeed set us free.
Doctors are the other problem
~ John, May 2010
Beyond Margarine
It's no longer a secret that the margarine Americans have been spreading on their toast, and the hydrogenated fats they eat in commercial baked goods like cookies and crackers, is the chief culpritin our current plague of cancer and heart disease.22 But mainline nutrition writers continue to denigrate butter--recommending new fangled tub spreads instead.23 These may not contain hydrogenated fats but they are composed of highly processed rancid vegetable oils, soy protein isolate and a host of additives. A glitzy cookbook called Butter Busters promotes butter buds, made from maltodextrin, a carbohydrate derived from corn, along with dozens of other highly processed so-called low-fat commercial products.
Who benefits from the propaganda blitz against butter? The list is a long one and includes orthodox medicine, hospitals, the drug companies and food processors. But the chief beneficiary is the large corporate farm and the cartels that buy their products--chiefly cotton, corn and soy--America's three main crops, which are usually grown as monocultures on large farms, requiring extensive use of artificial fertilizers and pesticides. All three--soy, cotton and corn--can be used to make both margarine and the new designer spreads. In order to make these products acceptable to the up-scale consumer, food processors and agribusiness see to it that they are promoted as health foods. We are fools to believe them.
Who benefits from the propaganda blitz against butter? The list is a long one and includes orthodox medicine, hospitals, the drug companies and food processors. But the chief beneficiary is the large corporate farm and the cartels that buy their products--chiefly cotton, corn and soy--America's three main crops, which are usually grown as monocultures on large farms, requiring extensive use of artificial fertilizers and pesticides. All three--soy, cotton and corn--can be used to make both margarine and the new designer spreads. In order to make these products acceptable to the up-scale consumer, food processors and agribusiness see to it that they are promoted as health foods. We are fools to believe them.
I was raised milking the cows, waiting for cream then taking it to the guy that pasturized it - it was far better tasting milk and butter and some of the fondest memories of childhood include taking the cream by finger when no one was looking - I refuse to let ANY tub of fake lard soy crap in my house, Thank for the info.
~Terry Evans, Denver
Butter & the Family Farm
A nation that consumes butterfat, on the other hand, is a nation that sustains the family farm. If Americans were willing to pay a good price for high quality butter and cream, from cows raised on natural pasturage--every owner of a small- or medium-sized farm could derive financial benefits from owning a few Jersey or Guernsey cows. In order to give them green pasture, he would naturally need to rotate crops, leaving different sections of his farm for his cows to graze and at the same time giving the earth the benefit of a period of fallow--not to mention the benefit of high quality manure. Fields tended in this way produce very high quality vegetables and grains in subsequent seasons, without the addition of nitrogen fertilizers and with minimal use of pesticides.
If you wish to reestablish America as a nation of prosperous farmers in the best Jeffersonian tradition, buy organic butter, cream, whole milk, whole yoghurt. These bring good and fair profits to the yeoman producer without concentrating power in the hands of conglomerates.
Ethnic groups that do not use butter obtain the same nutrients from things like insects, organ meats, fish eggs and the fat of marine animals, food items most of us find repulsive. For Americans--who do not eat bugs or blubber--butter is not just better, it is essential.
If you wish to reestablish America as a nation of prosperous farmers in the best Jeffersonian tradition, buy organic butter, cream, whole milk, whole yoghurt. These bring good and fair profits to the yeoman producer without concentrating power in the hands of conglomerates.
Ethnic groups that do not use butter obtain the same nutrients from things like insects, organ meats, fish eggs and the fat of marine animals, food items most of us find repulsive. For Americans--who do not eat bugs or blubber--butter is not just better, it is essential.
I stopped buying plastic maybe 1 1/2 year ago. We use ONLY butter. I leave some in the fridge and some in a butter dish for toast and such. You don't need as much and it tastes great, it adds a richness to our foods that many times you don't need to add dessert because you have already satisfied that area and you don't even realize it.
~ Sarah, Mar 02, 2010
Notes
1. Price, Weston, DDS Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, 1945, Price Pottenger Nutrition Foundation, Inc., La Mesa, California
2. “Neighbor Rosicky”, by American author Willa Cather.
3. Cranton, EM, MD and JP Frackelton, MD, Journal of Holistic Medicine, Spring/Summer 1984
4. Nutrition Week Mar 22, 1991 21:12:2-3
5. Enig, Mary G, PhD, Nutrition Quarterly, 1993 Vol 17, No 4
6. Cohen, L A et al, J Natl Cancer Inst 1986 77:43
7. Belury, MA Nutrition Reviews, April 1995 53:(4) 83-89
8. Cohen, op cit
9. American Journal of Physical Medicine, 1941, 133; Physiological Zoology, 1935 8:457
10. Kabara, J J, The Pharmacological Effects of Lipids, J J Kabara, ed, The American Oil Chemists Society, Champaign, IL 1978 pp 1-14
11. Jennings, IW Vitamins in Endocrine Metabolism, Charles C. Thomas Publisher, Springfield, Ill, pp 41-57
12. Koopman, JS, et al American Journal of Public Health 1984 74(12):1371-1373
13. Addis, Paul, Food and Nutrition News, March/April 1990 62:2:7-10
14. Prasad, KN, Life Science, 1980, 27:1351-8; Gershon, Herman and Larry Shanks, Symposium on the Pharmacological Effect of Lipids, Jon J Kabara Ed, American Oil Chemists Society, Champaign, Illinois 1978 51-62
15. Levels of linoleic acid in adipose tissues reflect the amount of linoleic acid in the diet. Valero, et al Annals of Nutritional Metabolism, Nov/Dec 1990 34:6:323-327; Felton, CV et al, Lancet 1994 344:1195-96
16. Price, op cit
17. Jennings, op cit
18. DeCava, Judith Journal of the National Academy of Research Biochemists, September 1988 1053-1059
19. Price, op cit
20. Alfin-Slater, R B and L Aftergood, “Lipids”, Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease, Chapter 5, 6th ed, R S Goodhart and M E Shils, eds, Lea and Febiger, Philadelphia 1980, p 131
21. Smith, MM, MNS RD and F Lifshitz, MD Pediatrics, Mar 1994 93:3:438-443
22. Enig, op cit
23. “Diet Roulette”, The New York Times, May 20, 1994.
1. Price, Weston, DDS Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, 1945, Price Pottenger Nutrition Foundation, Inc., La Mesa, California
2. “Neighbor Rosicky”, by American author Willa Cather.
3. Cranton, EM, MD and JP Frackelton, MD, Journal of Holistic Medicine, Spring/Summer 1984
4. Nutrition Week Mar 22, 1991 21:12:2-3
5. Enig, Mary G, PhD, Nutrition Quarterly, 1993 Vol 17, No 4
6. Cohen, L A et al, J Natl Cancer Inst 1986 77:43
7. Belury, MA Nutrition Reviews, April 1995 53:(4) 83-89
8. Cohen, op cit
9. American Journal of Physical Medicine, 1941, 133; Physiological Zoology, 1935 8:457
10. Kabara, J J, The Pharmacological Effects of Lipids, J J Kabara, ed, The American Oil Chemists Society, Champaign, IL 1978 pp 1-14
11. Jennings, IW Vitamins in Endocrine Metabolism, Charles C. Thomas Publisher, Springfield, Ill, pp 41-57
12. Koopman, JS, et al American Journal of Public Health 1984 74(12):1371-1373
13. Addis, Paul, Food and Nutrition News, March/April 1990 62:2:7-10
14. Prasad, KN, Life Science, 1980, 27:1351-8; Gershon, Herman and Larry Shanks, Symposium on the Pharmacological Effect of Lipids, Jon J Kabara Ed, American Oil Chemists Society, Champaign, Illinois 1978 51-62
15. Levels of linoleic acid in adipose tissues reflect the amount of linoleic acid in the diet. Valero, et al Annals of Nutritional Metabolism, Nov/Dec 1990 34:6:323-327; Felton, CV et al, Lancet 1994 344:1195-96
16. Price, op cit
17. Jennings, op cit
18. DeCava, Judith Journal of the National Academy of Research Biochemists, September 1988 1053-1059
19. Price, op cit
20. Alfin-Slater, R B and L Aftergood, “Lipids”, Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease, Chapter 5, 6th ed, R S Goodhart and M E Shils, eds, Lea and Febiger, Philadelphia 1980, p 131
21. Smith, MM, MNS RD and F Lifshitz, MD Pediatrics, Mar 1994 93:3:438-443
22. Enig, op cit
23. “Diet Roulette”, The New York Times, May 20, 1994.