Butter is a common ingredient of many delicious meals, and it can turn bland meals into masterpieces. However, butter has been avoided in the past two decades, since it was blamed for everything from obesity to heart disease.
Yet, it seems that things are coming back to normal now, and butter has been making a comeback as a “health food.” Here we will give you 7 reasons to not avoid it, as it is really healthy!
- Rich in Fat-Soluble Vitamins
Butter includes a lot of fat soluble vitamins in butter, such as vitamin A, E and K2.
A diet rich in animals and plants is also rich in vitamin A and E. But when it comes to Vitamin K2, we must conclude that it is fairly rare in the modern diet and many people don’t know about. This vitamin is extremely powerful and beneficially affects our health. It is intimately involved in calcium metabolism. However, its deficiency can lead to numerous diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and cancer.
Moreover, note that grass-fed butter is particularly rich in Vitamin K2, which can have important impact on health.
- Rich in Healthy Saturated Fats
Although it was never proven that saturated fat caused any harm, bad science opened a war against it. Now again, research suggests that there is no link between saturated fat and cardiovascular disease. Namely, these fats raise HDL (the good) cholesterol and change the LDL from small, dense (very bad) to Large LDL, which is benign.
Additionally, butter is also abundant in short and medium chain fats, which are metabolized differently from other fats, and they increase fat burning and cause improved satiety.
To sum it up, according to newest research, there is no link between saturated fat and heart disease. Also, butter includes short- and medium chain fats.
- Butter Reduces Heart Attack Risk Compared to Margarine
The sad truth is that the mainstream nutrition guidelines tend to backfire and have the opposite effect of what they were intended to do, so they may mislead us in the wrong direction.
Namely, according to them, one should replace butter with margarine, which contains highly processed trans fats. And that was what we did, we substituted butter, a healthy food, with something full of toxic and harmful components.
The effects of butter and margarine on cardiovascular disease were examined in the Framingham heart study. It found that margarine significantly increased the risk of cardiovascular disease, while butter had no effect.
According to another study, high-fat dairy consumption reduced the risk of heart disease by a whopping 69%, most probably due to increased Vitamin K2 intake.
Therefore, studies have shown that margarine raises heart attack risk, in contrary to natural utter. Due to the high Vitamin K2 content, grass-fed butter may even reduce heart attack risk.
- Rich in The Fatty Acid Butyrate
When exposed to dietary fiber, bacteria in the colon create the 4-carbon fatty acid butyrate.
This may be the main reason fiber has health benefits for humans. Another rich source of butyrate is butter. Actually, butyrate derives its name from butter. Butter contains about 3-4% butyrate.
Research conducted on mice showed that butyrate supplementation prevents weight gain on an unhealthy diet by increasing energy expenditure and reducing food intake. In addition, it improves the function of mitochondria and reduces fasting triglycerides and insulin.
In humans, butyrate is anti-inflammatory and has powerful protective effects on the digestive system.
Hence, butter is an excellent source of the 4-carbon fatty acid butyrate, which can have various health benefits.
- Rich in Conjugated Linoleic Acid
Conjugated Linoleic Acid has powerful effects on metabolism and is actually sold commercially as a weight loss supplement. Butter, especially grass-fed, is a great source of this fatty acid.
Studies have found that it has anti-cancer properties, and it can also lower the body fat percentage in humans. Yet, there are others which show no effect on body composition.
Thus, we can conclude that grass-fed butter contains Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA). According to several studies, this fatty acid can improve body composition.
- Lowers The Risk of Obesity
We are constantly advised to consume low-fat dairy products, in order to get the calcium we need, and avoid all those “bad” fats and calories.
However, despite the higher calorie content, the consumption of high-fat dairy products is not associated with obesity.
Namely, a study conducted in 2012 examined the effects of high-fat dairy consumption on obesity, cardiovascular disease and other metabolic disorders. Researchers found that high-fat dairy did not increase the risk of metabolic disease and was in fact associated with a significantly reduced obesity risk.
- Its taste!
We don’t think we should speak a lot about this. Butter is simply delicious! So, enjoy it!
Source/Reference: livingtraditionally.com
Other included sources linked in Living Traditionally’s article: authoritynutrition.com -- Original Article Source
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