This week’s topic is one of my oft-mentioned ones. I talk about this all the time. Why in fact, if you were to ask what my favourite food is, I might have to say it’s this one.

ON BUTTER.

COLES’ NOTES:
1. Brilliant source of important nutrients to help reduce inflammation + support your immune system.
2. The catch: it has to be from pastured sources to reduce toxin load.
3. Butter is one of the cornerstones of how the good foods can help, especially in the issue of gut integrity!

Read on for a full exploration of the benefits of including this saturated fat on the daily. And listen, think butter isn’t for you because you can’t handle dairy? Look to ghee: it is lactose- and casein-free, not to mention free of whey. Strictly butter fat!

Butter is the new superfood.

Everything is better with butter.

Short and sweet. This is the subject of today's blog post.

It's true, everything really is better with butter. And there is good reason! The idea behind this next in the series of Monday Health Basics is meant to inspire you to reach for this super food more often, in order to support your very best self. Allow me to go over some of the good stuff.

Why I love butter

butter protects against many diseases
it is a rich source of those all important fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K)
you need vitamins A + D to help take up calcium in to the bones, so eating butter will help keep osteoporosis and tooth decay at bay
good source of antioxidant vitamins + minerals, warding off free radical damage (think heart protective, liver protective, skin protective, lung protective, brain protective, warding off cancers, whole body protective)
excellent way to get more of the animal version of vitamin K (K2!) shown to protect our hearts, our noggins, our teeth + bones and showing promise of helping protect against cancer
excellent source of the animal version of vitamin A, integral to the intestinal lining and all mucosal linings (think respiratory- good to protect against asthma!), also helping support your immune system
vitamin A is also integral to thyroid and adrenal health, so important in metabolism and your response to stress!
Selenium is also part of the nutritional profile here, further supporting your thyroid and also contributing to butter's antioxidant prowess (liver loving!)
provides a good hit of B12, the 'energy' vitamin
butter is a good source of iodine, a mineral integral to the function of your thyroid
a good source of saturated fats, helping to protect our heart and liver
helps to balance blood sugars, leveling them out which means staving off spikes and dips which is supportive to our mood, adrenals and energy levels
consuming vegetables cooked in butter (or steamed, then adding in a pat of butter) will ensure we are better able to assimilate the minerals found within the vegetables (fat supports this!)
butter provides your intestines with butyric acid, which has been shown to help bring down inflammation in the gut lining, protecting your digestive system
you'll get a good hit of CLA (conjugated linoleic acid), which has been shown to protect against some cancers
other good fats found in butter have been shown to kick candida in the patootie
butter provides you with short and medium chain fatty acids that have been shown to have strong anti-tumour effects and immune supportive
butter has a good amount of cholesterol (the good kind I assure you!) necessary to proper brain development in our littles, maintenance of cognitive function as we age
that cholesterol is also important in the development of a child's reproductive system, as well as supporting a healthy reproductive function in those looking to have babies (yay fertility!)
as if that wasn't enough, butter has the right ratio of omega 3 fatty acids to the omega 6 fatty acids, which helps our bodies keep inflammation at bay (which is really at the root of just about every chronic disease out there)
you'll also find lecithin in butter, an important nutrient essential to liver function and fat digestion
oh man, it's just delicious (did you really need another excuse?)

Good thing to know is that the lactose content in butter is much lower than that found in other dairy products. Some people with lactose intolerance can tolerate butter. If casein is a problem for you, or if you find it tough to stomach butter, you may want to try your digestive prowess with some clarified butter, also known as ghee. This clarified butter is only the butter fat content; all milk solids (proteins) have been taken out in a low/slow cooking process.

While researching the health benefits of butter, you'll come across the Wulzen factor. This refers to keeping stiffness out of the body. Consuming butter will help protect against the calcification of certain tissues in the body; think joints, glands, arteries, cataracts. Unfortunately this factor is deactivated when the milk or cream is pasteurized. Keep this in mind.

When it comes to choosing your butter, it's a question of good – better – best. Good = conventional butter. Better = organic butter. Best = butter from grass-fed cows. When the cows are out on the pasture consuming the diet they have evolved to eat, they are eating the diet Ma Nature intended them to eat, and hence have less inflammation going on in their bodies. When there is inflammation, when we have toxin build up in our bodies (happens when we’re eating foods we aren’t normally supposed to eat) those toxins build up in our fat stores. Reaching for butter from pastured animals will be of better service to you here - for that reduced amount of toxins.

The vitamins A, D, E and K2 are all found in conventional AND pastured sources. So buy what your pocketbook can afford! Consider going 50/50 if you can. This is one of those foods that are well worth the investment. The better the quality of the butter, the more the quality and quantity of the nutrients found within and the less inflammatory toxins stored for us to then take on.

Can you switch to butter from margarine? Are you able to alternate one week conventional butter, the other week organic butter, and maybe get one block a month of the grass-fed butter?

Incidentally, the butter coming from organic cows around this time of year in Canada will sometimes have a sticker on the packaging indicating the product is from grass-fed cows. Look for these, and stock up. The blocks of butter freeze beautifully! (It really is impossible to expect that all butter in our northern climate come from grass-fed cows all year long; it just isn't practical nor has it ever been done.)

Butter is the newest super food. Add a pat of the good stuff to your next bowl of soup or stew. Slather on a bit to your steamed veggies. Cook your vegetables in butter. Melt some butter and coat your next chicken before roasting. Put more butter on that snack/baked good/popcorn. Swap out the oils or margarines called for in your recipe and use butter instead. Mix 1 tbsp of butter with 1 tsp of honey or maple syrup, and call it frosting for fruit. Cook your eggs in butter! Add some butter to your morning coffee (butter coffee, anyone?)