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/

Coconut- The misunderstood fruit

 I am a fish eating coastal girl. There is no doubt then  that, Coconut is my favorite fruit. Its sweet  creaminess, adds a different level of flavor to any dish.  And now that it is know to be good for you, I want to  share its benefits with everybody. Somehow, unlike  other fruits, over the past century, it has a got a bad  reputation. In India coconut has always enjoyed the  love and respect it deserves, but the western  brainwashing has made us believe otherwise.

 Coconut has earned a bad name, because of its high  content of Saturated fats. But, what has been over  looked is that there are different kinds of saturated  fats and different ways of classifying them. One such method is by the molecular size of the fatty acids. Most oils and fats coming from plant and animal sources contain Long chain fatty acids (LCFA). But the fat in coconut oil is Medium Chain fatty acid(MCFA), and it is differently metabolized by our body. MCFA does not have the ill effects on our health that LCFA have. It infact, protects us from heart disease and lowers the risk of Atherosclerosis (thickening of the artery walls). 

The coconut tree is superior to all other plantation, as each and every part of the tree comes of use to us humans; may It be the fruit the leaves, bark or husk. Coconut is highly nutritious and rich in fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Traditionally people have used coconut oil to cure a wide range of health problems and now, slowly modern scientists are relearning its powers and unlocking them.

There are many ways of using coconut in your food. Coconut oil has a high smoking point, which means it can withstand higher temperatures without going rancid, as compared to other oils and therefore is a good cooking medium. People from the coast like us, garnish every food with coriander and grated coconut. Coconut milk is a staple in our fish preparations. We use roasted dried coconut in our meat dishes. But, the latest addition to my ways of consuming coconut is Virgin coconut oil. This oil is cold pressed from coconut milk. It is the purest form for gaining the benefits of coconut and it has a host of health benefits that have been discovered. Other than heart problems and increased cholesterol levels, it helps depression, weight, digestion, weak immunity, metabolism, stops sugar cravings and last but not the least, helps manage Type II Diabetes.

Recent studies have found that coconut oil protects against insulin resistance, reducing the risk of Type 2 Diabetes. MCFA fats are small enough to be absorbed into the cells where they are quickly converted to energy. This process not only reduces the amount of fat we pack into storage, but also improves insulin sensitivity. I have started taking 2 tablespoons of Virgin coconut oil in the mornings, to regulate my blood sugar and help with weight loss. If you have found this information useful, please leave a comment.

Some Interesting links: 
http://www.philly.com/philly/health/Coconut_oil_water_milk_Healthy_or_hype.html
https://www.coconutsecret.com/coconuthealthsecrets2.html
http://undergroundhealthreporter.com/coconut-health-benefits/