Butter is one of the best additives for food which can make even the blandest meals very delicious.
Over the past few decades, butter has been blamed for numerous issues and conditions, from obesity to heart diseases.
Lately, people have recognized butter as a healthy food, which has helped this ingredient come back in people’s kitchens.
The following seven reasons will show you why butter is good for you.
Butter is Rich in Fat-Soluble Vitamins
Butter contains a number of fat soluble vitamins, including vitamins A, E and K2.
We are not going to spend many words on vitamins A and E, as probably you get enough of them already if you eat a healthy diet that includes animals and plants.
But we do need to say something more about vitamin K2, a vitamin pretty rare in the modern diet, which is also still unknown to many people.
This vitamin has a potent impact on the health. It is closely involved in the metabolism of calcium and if one does not take vitamin K2 in sufficient amounts, they become prone to many serious diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis and cancer.
Dairy products from cows which have been fed on grass are especially rich in vitamin K2.
Bottom line: butter is rich in fat-soluble vitamins, and grass-fed butter is especially rich in those vitamins, K2 in particular. This is very important thing to know about butter, as it makes it highly beneficial for our health.
Butter Contains a Lot of Healthy Saturated Fats
Bad science caused the ‘war’ against saturated fat.
Actually, it was never scientifically proven that saturated fat has caused any harm.
According to recent studies, there is no link at all between saturated fat and cardiovascular disease.
Saturated fats increase the levels of HDL (the good) cholesterol and alter the LDL from small, dense (very bad) to large LDL cholesterol, which is benign.
Furthermore, butter contains sufficient amount of short and medium chain fats… which are not metabolized the same as other fats. These fats contribute to improved satiety and increased fat burning.
Bottom line: recent studies indicate that there is no link between saturated fat and heart diseases. The types of fat butter contains – medium- and short-chain fat – are actually beneficial.
Butter Lowers Heart Attack Risk Compared to Margarine
The mainstream guidelines for nutrition go wrong and have the completely opposite impact from what they are supposed to have.
One of the key examples for this is the suggestion of these mainstream nutrition guidelines that we should replace butter with margarine. This is what we have been told to do for a pretty long time.
This became reality and everyone replaced the butter, a healthy food with the margarine, a food that contains highly processed trans fat which are downright toxic and cause various diseases.
The Framingham heart study has tested the effects of butter and margarine on cardiovascular disease.
The study results showed that margarine considerably increased the risk of cardiovascular disease, while butter had no effect at all.
Another research has shown that high-fat dairy consumption lowered the risk of heart disease by a surprising 69 percent, most likely due to increased intake of vitamin K2.
Bottom line: margarine increases the risk of heart attacks, while butter does not, as it is natural. Moreover, grass-fed butter even lowers the risk of heart attack, thanks to the high content of vitamin K2.
Butter is a Good Source of The Fatty Acid Butyrate
When exposed to dietary fiber, the bacteria in the colon produce the 4-carbon fatty acid butyrate.
This is probably the most important reason why humans need to consume food that contains fibers.
However, there is another ingredient that is an excellent dietary source of butyrate, and this ingredient is butter. There is about 3-4 percent of butyrate in butter. Actually, even the name of the fatty acid itself confirms this, indicating that butyr-ate derives its name from butter.
Rat experiments have shown that butyrate supplementation prevents weight gain on an unhealthy diet by increasing energy expenditure and by reducing food intake. This substance also improves the function of the mitochondria and reduces fasting triglycerides and insulin.
In people, butyrate has anti-inflammatory effects, as well as protective effects on the digestive system.
Bottom line: butter is one of the best sources of 4-carbon fatty acid butyrate, a compound known to have different health benefits.
Butter is Rich in Conjugated Linoleic Acid
Butter, grass-fed butter in particular, is an excellent source of a fatty acid called Conjugated Linoleic Acid.
This fatty acid strongly affects the metabolism and is in fact commercially sold as a weight loss supplement.
The Conjugated Lunoleic Acid has been proven to have anti-cancer features and to lower the body fat percentage in people.
Nevertheless, some researches on conjugated linoleic acid indicate that there is no effect on the body composition.
Bottom line: the Conjugated Linoleic Acid form the grass-fed butter has been shown to improve the composition of the body in a few studies.
Butter is Associated With a Lower Risk of Obesity
The nutrition authorities frequently say that we need to opt for dairy products that are low in fat.
This is said to be better because our body in his way can get the calcium in needs without the ‘bad’ fats and calories.
However, even though high in calories, high-fat dairy products are not linked with obesity.
Actually, a review paper was published in 2012, which tested the effects of high-fat dairy consumption on obesity, cardiovascular disease, and other metabolic disorders.
These tests and examinations found out that high-fat dairy products did not increase the risk of metabolic disease and were linked to a considerably reduced risk of obesity.
Butter is Delicious
Everyone loves how good butter tastes. This is a sufficient reason for all of us, right?
Source: http://livingtraditionally.com/