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The top 20 health benefits of real butter

culture starter

If you’re worried about your health, learn more about the benefits of real butter.  Instead of eliminating butter, try adding in more good gut microbes, found in a delicious batch of CVs (cultured vegetables).

The origins of butter go back thousands of years to when our ancestors first started domesticating animals. The first written reference to butter was found on a 4,500-year-old limestone tablet illustrating how butter was made.1

In India, ghee (clarified butter) has been used as a staple food, and as a symbol of purity, worthy of offering to the gods in religious ceremonies for more than 3,000 years.2

Cholesterol found in butterfat is essential to children’s brain and nervous system development.

The Bible has references to butter as the product of milk from the cow, and of Abraham setting butter and milk from a calf before three angels who appeared to him on the plains of Mamre.3

For millennia, people around the globe have prized butter for its health benefits.

So, how did butter become a villain?

At the turn of our century, heart disease in America was rare. By 1960, it was our number one killer. Yet during the same time period, butter consumption had decreased — from 18 pounds per person per year to four.4

A researcher named Ancel Keys was the first to propose that saturated fat and cholesterol in the diet were to blame for coronary heart disease (CAD). Numerous subsequent studies, costing hundreds of millions of dollars, have failed to conclusively back up this claim.

Later research on the controversy showed that sugar, not saturated fat, appears to be to blame for our heart disease epidemic.5

Yet the notion that a healthy diet is one with minimal fat, particularly saturated fat, has persisted. While Americans drastically reduced their intake of natural animal fats like butter and meat, the processed food industry, especially the low-fat food industry, proliferated.

When the baby boomers were children, concerned mothers began to replace butter with margarine. The margarine manufacturers told them it was the healthier alternative, and mothers believed them. In those days, no one asked, “Where is the science to prove it? I want to know before I give this man-made, plasticized stuff to my children. After all, we humans have been eating butter for thousands of years.”

As a result, since the early 1970s, Americans’ average saturated fat intake has dropped considerably, while rates of obesity, diabetes, and, consequently, heart disease have surged.

Reducing healthy sources of dietary fat has contributed to a serious decline in our wellbeing, and those of us that speak out against the anti-fat establishment are still largely ignored.

For those times when organic, raw butter is hard to find: Make your own cultured butter instead.

Margarine’s not better than butter

This is a tragic myth. Butter is a completely natural food essential to your health — especially when you eat organic. Also, please make the extra effort to obtain high-quality organic, raw butter.

Margarines, on the other hand, are a processed food, created chemically from refined polyunsaturated oils. The process used to make these normally liquid oils into a spreadable form is called hydrogenation.

Margarine and similar hydrogenated or processed polyunsaturated oils are potentially more detrimental to your health than any saturated fat.6 For more information on why you should avoid all processed oils, read: Why the processing of consumable oils has devastated America’s health.

20 reasons to include real butter in your Body Ecology Lifestyle

As many of you already know, I’m a strong proponent of incorporating a variety of healthy oils and fats into your diet. Together, they work as a team to supply your body with essential fatty acids that may help support longevity, hormone balance, heart health, sharp vision, glowing skin, and energy.

This wonderful variety of oils and fats certainly includes organic — preferably raw — butter. Cultured raw butter is even better.

And why would I be so insistent you eat butter? Take a look at the long list of benefits of real butter:

  1. Butter is rich in the most easily absorbable form of vitamin A necessary for thyroid and adrenal health.4,7
  2. It contains lauric acid, important in treating fungal infections and candida.8
  3. It contains lecithin, essential for cholesterol metabolism.4
  4. And, it contains antioxidants that protect against free radical damage and weakening arteries.4
  5. It isn’t linked to a higher risk of heart disease and early death; it may even help decrease risk of type 2 diabetes.9,10
  6. It’s a great source of vitamins E and K.4,7
  7. It’s a very rich source of the vital mineral selenium.4
  8. Saturated fats in butter may have anti-tumor and anti-cancer properties.4,11
  9. Butter contains conjugated linoleic acid, which is a potent anti-cancer agent, muscle builder, and immunity booster.12-14
  10. Vitamin D found in butter is essential to absorption of calcium.4,7
  11. Butter protects against tooth decay.4,7
  12. It’s your only source of an anti-stiffness factor, which protects against calcification of the joints.7
  13. Anti-stiffness factor in butter also prevents hardening of the arteries, cataracts, and calcification of the pineal gland.7
  14. It’s a source of activator X, which helps your body absorb minerals.15
  15. And, it’s a source of iodine in highly absorbable form.4
  16. It may promote fertility in women.16
  17. It’s a source of quick energy and is not stored in our body’s adipose tissue.4
  18. Cholesterol found in butterfat is essential to children’s brain and nervous system development.4,17
  19. It contains arachidonic acid (AA), which plays a role in brain function and is a vital component of cell membranes.7
  20. It protects against gastrointestinal infections in the very young or the elderly.7

Believe me, this is only a partial list.

If a woman is pregnant, hopes to become pregnant, or is nursing her baby, I think it should even become a set guideline for her to eat butter for her baby’s developing brain, bones, and teeth.

Remember: Raw, organic butter is better

So, is real butter healthy? The best butter you can eat is raw, organic butter because pasteurization destroys nutrients. That’s where you’ll see the benefits of real butter.  Unfortunately, the sale of raw butter is prohibited in most of our 50 states.

You can, however, make your own healthy butter, and it’s easier than you think:

  • Look into our Body Ecology Culture Starter, which you simply add to organic cream.
  • After letting this mixture sit at room temperature for 24 hours, chill it and beat it with a whisk.
  • Voila! You’ll have healthy, probiotic butter that is delicious.

Cultured butter is full of health-sustaining good bacteria like Lactobacillus planterum and Lactococcus lactis. These microflorae are essential for a healthy inner ecosystem.

If you don’t want to culture your own butter, I recommend butter from grass-fed animals only. Or, get to know your local farmer for the best butter. Just remember all the benefits of real butter that we discussed.

Completely eliminating butter and other healthy animal source fats is not the Body Ecology Way of Living. It is not how our ancestors thrived and not what nature intended.

How much should you eat each day? Like sea salt, your own body will tell you how much to eat. If you crave it, eat it; your body needs it. If the quality is excellent, you can feel confident it will be good for you, and you’ll soon see the benefits.

If you’re following the Body Ecology Food Combining Principle and eating as we recommend (adding at least one source of fermented food or drink to your diet), you’ll see your body reach its ideal weight. Eating raw butter may also balance your weight, helping to reduce body fat and build more lean muscle.13

REFERENCES:

  1. “All About Butter.” American Butter Institute, 2020.
  2. S.S. Deosarkar. Butter: Manufacture. Encyclopedia of Food and Health
    2016, Pages 529-534.
  3. The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments. (2010). London: Trinitarian Bible Society.
  4. Fallon, Sally. “Why Butter Is Better.” The Weston A. Price Foundation, 2000.
  5. James J. DiNicolantonio, Sean C. Lucan, James H. O’Keefe. The Evidence for Saturated Fat and for Sugar Related to Coronary Heart Disease. Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases, 2015; DOI: 10.1016/j.pcad.2015.11.006.
  6. Azrad M, Turgeon C, Demark-Wahnefried W. Current evidence linking polyunsaturated Fatty acids with cancer risk and progression. Front Oncol. 2013;3:224. Published 2013 Sep 4. doi:10.3389/fonc.2013.00224.
  7. “Know Your Fats.” The Weston A. Price Foundation, 2020.
  8. Bergsson G, Arnfinnsson J, Steingrímsson O, Thormar H. In vitro killing of Candida albicans by fatty acids and monoglycerides. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2001 Nov;45(11):3209-12. doi: 10.1128/AAC.45.11.3209-3212.2001. PMID: 11600381; PMCID: PMC90807.
  9. Marcia C de Oliveira Otto Rozenn N Lemaitre Xiaoling Song Irena B King David S Siscovick Dariush Mozaffarian. Serial measures of circulating biomarkers of dairy fat and total and cause-specific mortality in older adults: the Cardiovascular Health Study. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2018 DOI: 10.1093/ajcn/nqy117.
  10. Yakoob MY, Shi P, Willett WC, Rexrode KM, Campos H, Orav EJ, Hu FB, Mozaffarian D. Circulating Biomarkers of Dairy Fat and Risk of Incident Diabetes Mellitus Among Men and Women in the United States in Two Large Prospective Cohorts. Circulation. 2016 Apr 26;133(17):1645-54. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.115.018410. Epub 2016 Mar 22. PMID: 27006479; PMCID: PMC4928633.
  11. Cohen LA, Thompson DO, Choi K, Karmali RA, Rose DP. Dietary fat and mammary cancer, II: modulation of serum and tumor lipid composition and tumor prostaglandins by different dietary fats:association with tumor incidence patterns. J Natl Cancer Inst.1986;77:43-51.
  12. Lee KW, Lee HJ, Cho HY, Kim YJ. Role of the conjugated linoleic acid in the prevention of cancer. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2005;45(2):135-44. doi: 10.1080/10408690490911800. PMID: 15941017.
  13. Kim Y, Kim J, Whang KY, Park Y. Impact of Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) on Skeletal Muscle Metabolism. Lipids. 2016 Feb;51(2):159-78. doi: 10.1007/s11745-015-4115-8. Epub 2016 Jan 4. PMID: 26729488.
  14. O’Shea M, Bassaganya-Riera J, Mohede IC. Immunomodulatory properties of conjugated linoleic acid. Am J Clin Nutr. 2004 Jun;79(6 Suppl):1199S-1206S. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/79.6.1199S. PMID: 15159257.
  15. Price, W. A. (2010). Nutrition and physical degeneration: A comparison of primitive and modern diets and their effects. Milton Keynes, U.K.: Lightning Source.
  16. Chavarro JE, Rich-Edwards JW, Rosner B, Willett WC. A prospective study of dairy foods intake and anovulatory infertility. Hum Reprod. 2007 May;22(5):1340-7. doi: 10.1093/humrep/dem019. Epub 2007 Feb 28. PMID: 17329264.
  17. Paola Sacchetti, Kyle M. Sousa, Anita C. Hall, Isabel Liste, Knut R. Steffensen, Spyridon Theofilopoulos, Clare L. Parish, Carin Hazenberg, Lars Ährlund Richter, Outi Hovatta, Jan-Åke Gustafsson & Ernest Arenas. Liver X Receptors and oxysterols promote ventral midbrain neurogenesis in vivo and in human embryonic stem cells. Cell Stem Cell, 2 October 2009.
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