Butter is Good!

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Butter is not all fat; it also contains water, protein, vitamins A and D and potassium. I'm not claiming it's a health food, but as with so many things, it's fine in moderation. I think your reserved animal fats are pretty much just fat, though.

I wrote a paper in college about the psychology of marketing. I'm not easily taken in by that ;)

Ah, but did you know that pork fat contains less cholesterol than does butter? Lard, of course is made from rendered pork fat.

And just so we keep things in perspective, cars are more deadly than either butter or animal fat. And I can't' prove it, but mosquitoes are probably more deadly as well. They are on my mind right now because my left wrist and arm are eaching like crazy due to those little buggers. One of the bites is right under my watch band and is irritated by it. With all of the bug bites you get every summer up here in the U.P., you'd think you would develop a resistance. I need to start eating more garlic. It helps keep the mosquitoes away, but not the black flies, no-see-ums, or deer flies. And they all just ignor bug spray.

Ok, eveyone can get back on topic now. I'm through ranting about biting bugs. At least I've not been attacked by horse flies yet.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
Chief, get yourself an aloe plant. Break off a small piece, squeeze out the gel and the itching will stop immediately.

When I lived in Hawaii, Poo got some nasty skeeter bites and they became infected. His pediatrician recommended the aloe. Worked like a charm and the infections cleared up in 24 hours. After that Poo would take a piece off the plant right outside our door and take care of any bites on his own. :angel:
 
Chief, get yourself an aloe plant. Break off a small piece, squeeze out the gel and the itching will stop immediately.

When I lived in Hawaii, Poo got some nasty skeeter bites and they became infected. His pediatrician recommended the aloe. Worked like a charm and the infections cleared up in 24 hours. After that Poo would take a piece off the plant right outside our door and take care of any bites on his own. :angel:

I have 3 aloe plants, each of them very large. I never thought of using the juice for bug bites. I know it's good for burns. Thanks for the tip. I'll give it a try.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
My mother told me no one is more special than the members of your family. As a result once a week and special days we got to set the table with the best china, tablecloth and silverware. If they didn't get put away right after washing them, they got used again the next day.

I don't hate margarine, but I prefer food created naturally. Not a compound of chemicals. At the same time, I do understand the financial need for margarine. Butter can be very pricey. That is why I store up on it when it is on sale. One time Cabot Butter was actually cheaper than the house brand. My favorite brand of butter is Cabot's. I stocked up on it like the cows were going to close down any minute. I had more butter in my freezer than meat. :angel:

Butter is still created in a chemical lab. That the lab happens to be inside of a cow is just coincidence. Virtually everything you eat and drink is made up of various chemical compounds, even distilled water. Most of those are organic compounds, in the same class as gasoline, kerosene, asphalt, etc. After all, petroleum is mostly just organically repurposed plant and animal material.

Don't get me wrong, I use butter almost daily, but I also use margarine daily. I can't imagine my sunnyside up fried eggs cooked in anything but butter. Same when I do mushrooms sautéed in butter, garlic and white wine. I always keep a pound in the fridge, and another in the freezer for when the first one gets low.

But when I want a quick spread on bread or rolls, I'll grab the crock of soft, spreadable margarine.
 
Butter is still created in a chemical lab. That the lab happens to be inside of a cow is just coincidence. Virtually everything you eat and drink is made up of various chemical compounds, even distilled water. Most of those are organic compounds, in the same class as gasoline, kerosene, asphalt, etc. After all, petroleum is mostly just organically repurposed plant and animal material.

+1 :)
 
Butter is still created in a chemical lab. That the lab happens to be inside of a cow is just coincidence. Virtually everything you eat and drink is made up of various chemical compounds, even distilled water. Most of those are organic compounds, in the same class as gasoline, kerosene, asphalt, etc. After all, petroleum is mostly just organically repurposed plant and animal material...


So the natural food movement is a complete waste of time because natural and man-made are all the same??

I'm not ready to make the leap. Margarine was touted as the healthy alternative to butter until health science caught up with the guys in the lab and realized trans fats are a no-no. Now many margarines are trans fat free but who knows what the next discovery about margarine will be?

I use butter over margarine exclusively because I like the way it tastes, cooks and bakes.
 
I have 3 aloe plants, each of them very large. I never thought of using the juice for bug bites. I know it's good for burns. Thanks for the tip. I'll give it a try.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

You're welcome. It not only helps burns heal faster, it stops the pain almost immediately. There are times when Mother Nature knows best. :angel:
 
Must have butter for my chocolate chip cookies.
For a quickie cake, I used margarine because all my butter is frozen at the moment.
Saves me from making cookies which would just go to waist.
 
Butter may be made in a chemical lab where you are, but not where I live. It's still churned, and it still has the good and bad properties that it's always had. At least it doesn't have any of the the noxious ingredients that, say, maragine has, in my opinion. I go for the natural fats such as butter and olive oil. Sometimes sunflower oil. When I deep fry, I use half extra virgin olive oil and half organic sunflower oil. The results are excellent. But I always fry my eggs in butter, and you can't make a hollandaise sauce without butter, and neither can you make a decent cake without pure butter.And many other things besides, like a beurre blanc sauce. Like it or not, butter is indispensible in many classic recipes.

di reston

Enough is never as good as a feast Oscar Wilde
 
Butter may be made in a chemical lab where you are, but not where I live. It's still churned, and it still has the good and bad properties that it's always had.

di reston

Enough is never as good as a feast Oscar Wilde

So, butter doesn't come from cows where you are? Interesting! :rolleyes:
 
As usual, a very lively and interesting debate! To me, using some of the oils available in the market of today would be like cooking with petrol (gasoline?)!! I rigourously stick to butter for certain dishes, mostly cold pressed olive oil, and 50% each extra virgin olive oil and best quality sunflower oil for deep frying, for which I only use the mix of oils once or twice, no more. My criterion for testing when the temperature of the oil for deep frying is ready to use I do by putting a small piece of bread into the oil, and time how long it takes to become crisp and golden. It should be 2 mins. no longer, then it's ready to use. I use extra virgin olive oil for cooking certain dishes, many of them Mediterranean, and butter for others and then sunflower oil for yet others (Anything from countries in Asia to China - probably wrong, but I have to go with what's available here). But in each and every case I look at the pedigree of the fat I'm intending to use, and I ALWAYS check the labels before buying - after all, it's an investment in your good health! - Just like your vegetable garden is!.

My basic rule of thumb is, never buy foods where you don't know the provenance or where the processing is highly industrial.

I might still have a heart attack one day in spite of all these efforts (and in my little book of necessary criteria), but at least I will have lived well in the meatime!


Great read, thanks for that

di reston

Enough is never as good as a feast Oscar Wilde

I use butter in a different way
 
Ah, but did you know that pork fat contains less cholesterol than does butter? Lard, of course is made from rendered pork fat.
This fear of cholesterol is another one of those myths that just needs to go away. Dietary cholesterol does not contribute significantly to serum cholesterol. Period.

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/2015/02/why-you-should-no-longer-worry-about-cholesterol-in-food/

The Diet-Heart Myth: Cholesterol and Saturated Fat Are Not the Enemy

I'll let you in on a little secret. For breakfast I eat about 30 eggs per week, always fried in bacon fat, butter, or lard. Most days I put cheese in my eggs and full fat cream in my coffee. Furthermore, I haven't eaten a single "heart healthy whole grain" in many moons. According to everything we've been told, I should have keeled over a long time ago.

Guess what? I've been eating this way for almost 2 years now, and my cholesterol (which was never really high to begin with) has actually improved. In fact, my lipid profile is better now than it was back in 1988, when I was 28 years old.
 
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Just goes to show that animal fats aren't as people think they are. I like your argument, but I think you must be young. My husband and I are in our seventies and diet is crucial to our well being. You too will get there one day and when you do, you'll realise how important diet is. Everyone has his own perspective on daily life and what it is.!!

Wishing you all the best

di reston

Enough is never as good as a feast Oscar Wilde
 
Just goes to show that animal fats aren't as people think they are. I like your argument, but I think you must be young. My husband and I are in our seventies and diet is crucial to our well being. You too will get there one day and when you do, you'll realise how important diet is. Everyone has his own perspective on daily life and what it is.!!
Thanks, but don't patronize me. I don't appreciate it. ;)

I'm 56, so I'm not that young. And I absolutely realize how important diet is. I've lost 100 lbs and reversed my diabetes by eating the kinds of foods that people have eaten for thousands of years, long before the so-called "experts" came along and said we were doing it all wrong. You're welcome to eat however you like, but I fully believe that much of what we've been told for the last 50 years is utter nonsense, and the medical community is only now beginning to realize it.

At the same time, I believe there is no one-size-fits-all diet that works equally well for everyone. But this one works for me.
 
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Apologies to all for coming over as patronizing - it really wasn't intended at all. I have great respect for all of you, you're all really great in my eyes, and all I was doing was lamenting the fact that now I'm past my best, I can't do the things I used to do without thinking twice about it. Even maintaining the vegetable garden is difficult, but I can still cook, even though both I and my OH are supposed to do the diet that the doctor tells us to stick to. I have to say, however, that the Mediterranean diet really is healthy, and I put it down to that that I don't have wrinkles yet. There's an English saying: a little of what you fancy does you good. As for me, I frequently go 'off piste' as the French say. Now look how many 'I's' have been used in this post - 'I' this, 'I' that - but what really interests me is what YOU all have to say, because there's always a lot more you can learn!

Humbly, di reston

Enough is never as good as a feast Oscar Wilde
 
Stumbled across this today.

https://munchies.vice.com/en/articl...tter-isnt-bad-for-you-hidden-away-for-decades

The article behind the article:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160412211335.htm

While the article also states that "butter might not be a health food" I feel like it's only a matter of time before research will indicate otherwise.

I'll continue to enjoy it (along with lard) in the meantime. I don't need research to prove that butter definitely makes me feel better.
The "butter isn't as bad for you as you thought" theory has been going the rounds over here for quite some time. It stands to reason it has to be, compared with the mish-mash of chemicals listed on the side of your average pack of margarine (oops "healthy spread"). All butter is is cream and a sometimes bit of salt.

Admittedly, if we consume huge quantities of it it won't do us a lot of good but "a little of what you fancy does you good" as the rather naughty, Edwardian singing comedian, Marie Lloyd, used to sing.
 
Apologies to all for coming over as patronizing - it really wasn't intended at all. I have great respect for all of you, you're all really great in my eyes, and all I was doing was lamenting the fact that now I'm past my best, I can't do the things I used to do without thinking twice about it. Even maintaining the vegetable garden is difficult, but I can still cook, even though both I and my OH are supposed to do the diet that the doctor tells us to stick to. I have to say, however, that the Mediterranean diet really is healthy, and I put it down to that that I don't have wrinkles yet. There's an English saying: a little of what you fancy does you good. As for me, I frequently go 'off piste' as the French say. Now look how many 'I's' have been used in this post - 'I' this, 'I' that - but what really interests me is what YOU all have to say, because there's always a lot more you can learn!

Humbly, di reston

Enough is never as good as a feast Oscar Wilde
You absolutely do not owe me an apology. I did not feel you were being patronizing to anyone. I wrote a reply to that effect last night but mistakenly didn't submit it the interest of harmony. Given a choice between following the consensus advice of the medical community or the zealotry that arises over this or that diet craze, I'd go with the Doctor every time.
 
Addie;1468576[B said:
]My mother told me no one is more special than the members of your family. [/B]As a result once a week and special days we got to set the table with the best china, tablecloth and silverware. If they didn't get put away right after washing them, they got used again the next day.

I don't hate margarine, but I prefer food created naturally. Not a compound of chemicals. At the same time, I do understand the financial need for margarine. Butter can be very pricey. That is why I store up on it when it is on sale. One time Cabot Butter was actually cheaper than the house brand. My favorite brand of butter is Cabot's. I stocked up on it like the cows were going to close down any minute. I had more butter in my freezer than meat. :angel:
Here, here, Addie.

I can't remember when I last bought "marge" and we never ate it on bread when I was a little girl despite being on the tail-end of post-war rationing. "Marge" was reserved for baking (usually "Stork" margarine which was marketed in the '50s and '60s as having 10% butter in it) as it was supposed to make the best cakes (more advertising hype even back then).

I almost always bake with butter now as the flavour is better than margarine. Let's face it cake isn't the most healthy food in the world anyway but a little isn't going to kill us on the spot.

When I was very little and I banged my head a little dab of butter was rubbed on the sore part by Grandma - I was convinced that it made me feel better. Even worse was my Aunt who soothed all upsets, whether physical or emotional, with the corner cut off a "tin" loaf of bread and slathered with butter and dipped in sugar! I should be dead but I'm 67 and, in my doctor's words, "disgustingly healthy!
 
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