Read an excerpt from The Body Ecology Diet website:
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 1970′s, 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 well-being, and those of us that speak out against the anti-fat establishment are still largely ignored.
- Read more about the health benefits of butter in this post: Does fat make you fat? Part 1: Saturated fat, cholesterol and heart disease issues (and one little tid-bit about the role of fats related to sexuality)
- I’ve asked a similar question in the past (How difficult was it for you to give up the low-fat mentality?), but what about this: how difficult was it for you to eat butter without guilt? (Not a problem for me, I love the stuff and am so thankful that it’s good for me!)
- Read the entire article from the above excerpt: The 20 Health Benefits of Real Butter. (Thank you to a reader friend, Carla, who sent me this link!)
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I just bought a tub of raw butter and was JUST thinking of some ways I could try it so I could really taste it. Feels so nice to not be worried about it.
In cooking school (natural foods), my teacher says that any food less than 1000 years old is just an experiment. I guess that makes butter tried and true!
Amy
My mother was one of those 1950′s moms who heard about using oleo (I can’t call it margarine). She took the message to heart, but only for cooking. Butter was the spread of choice at the table. Oleo was used for general cooking and some baking (the cookies tasted fresher for a little longer with oleo than with butter). I use butter and real mayo as my spreads of choice. Unfortuately, my DH prefers a flax/olive oil/scientific blend he says is healthier. He bought into the brainwashing he received as a child about the terrors of saturated fats. DD follows Dad’s lead in taste. I’m working on that…..
Amy, what an awesome teacher!
Violet, we’ve all got things we’re still working on with our families, huh? (Or with ourselves, too, in my case!)
I love to cook with butter and put butter on everything I cook! I just learned the other day to butter a grass-fed steak before eating. It’s heavenly!
I’m blogging today about making cultured butter at home! Add a Piima or Buttermilk culture to the cream prior to making the butter is easy and yields a very tasty butter.
Julie
Love this post, and I love real butter. We use different types of real butter in our house – from raw butter from Baum Farm (www.baumfarm.com) in Vermont which I have shipped to my home, to Organic Pastures butter (which I can no longer purchase because they no longer ship raw dairy over CA state line), to Lurpak Butter (grass fed). I’m excited to start making my own, but we never really have enough milk left for that from our raw local source that we receive it here in Boise. I have been making yogurt, though! Thanks Kelly!
Raine Saunders
I couldn’t have said it better myself (so I won’t;-)and thanks again for sending us all the good research! I forwarded to many of my skeptic friends (yes, I still have some.) I’d also add ghee to the list – have been using it like water…OY.
Karen
Coming here is always a grounding experience — reminds me where my head is supposed to be, you know?
We’re butter devotees at our house. Great resources — thanks for collecting them in one place. Now I can just bookmark
lo
I believe that saturated fat became a culprit in the 1960′s. According to what I recently read in Mark Bittman’s Food Matters, some studies around that time showed a very weak correlation between saturated fat and health issues. This came just after some studies showed a very strong relationship between smoking and health issues, so people were primed to accept these sorts of results as absolute truth. And the fact that’s it called “fat” doesn’t help it’s cause much either.
I’m very glad to see this type of post being written to help make people aware that even saturated fat isn’t evil! People have thrived on diets with butter in them for hundreds of years!
Matt (No Meat Athlete)
Kelly, Well done! I am going to take off on this at the Journal soon. Thanks again for all your hard work– you are a natural.
Augie
Thanks Kelly!! I have been taking one thing at a time and just trying to gradually make changes. The idea of switching to real, 100% butter took some getting used to because of all of the “information” we had about “healthier” products (that are actually pretty scary, we learned!). I have wanted to up it a notch and switch to raw butter, but it’s so expensive! This is the kind of info that pushes me to the next level though; thanks
Jen@BigBinder
You guys are great. Soooooooooo many still believe the crap, so reading your comments is always refreshing!
Kelly the Kitchen Kop
Real butter on pancakes is just awesome. Warm syrup and melting butter….it’s the breakfast of dreams! No way I’d use margarin or that kind of thing. Real butter for me or nothing at all!
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