Butter is better than you think

Butter can add sparkle to food, just the way, make-up can add to a beautiful face. Most foods can be improvised with the addition of a dash of butter. Butter has always taken a back seat to cheese, but the fact is that butter is much more versatile and adds just as much charm. It can be added to foods of all cuisines. A biryani, or kabob, steak or mashed potatoes, stews or pastas, French sauces, pastries or breads, all baked goods, chocolate sauces or stewed fruits. If you are cooking for a party, finish almost every dish with a dollop of butter and see the difference.

So far, the health food industry has blamed butter for a host of diseases. And all this, without any solid research backing it. Margarine manufacturers pushed it to us as an healthier alternative to butter. And, for a decade we have buttered our toast with margarine. I wonder, if it is even right to call it buttering? Margarine, healthier than butter!This could not be further from the truth. Butter is a natural food, consumed for thousands of years and it is essential to our body. It has Vitamin A,E,K and D, lauric acid, lecithin, essential for cholesterol metabolism, linoelic acid and long list of other goodies. Saturated fats in butter are actually better for you, than the ones in margarine. Butter contains medium and short chained fatty acids like Butyric acid, which are metabolized differently and have various health benefits, like protection from cancer, metabolic disease and gut health. Dr. Aseem Malhotra a cardiology specialist at the Croydon University hospital, London, writes in the British Medical Journal, that trans-fats, and not the naturally found saturated fats, are the culprits. In fact, saturated fats have been found to be protective to our body.

So is it wise to start eating tubs full of butter? Of course not! Every food should be eaten in moderation. Only then can we balance our nutrition. If we start filling ourselves with broccoli alone, however healthy it is, we will not get complete nutrition. A blend of oils and fats when consumed moderately, gives the maximum benefits. The best way of eating butter, is home made from organic milk, by using culture. Butter can be churned from, organic cream alone or by adding culture to the cream, letting it get sour and then churning butter from it. This is a more superior form of butter. This butter when heated on low flame to make Ghee, gives the pure form of ghee, which is recommended for all medicinal purposes in Ayurveda. In my next article I will write about Ghee. Please leave your comments, if you find the article interesting.

Some links:

http://www.sott.net/article/219981-Is-Butter-Healthy

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2274747/At-truth-Butter-GOOD--margarine-chemical-gunk.html

http://authoritynutrition.com/7-reasons-why-butter-is-good-for-you/