How Yellow Is Your Butter?

Long before mass production of milk was in effect, cows happily grazed on an open pasture, listened to birds chirping from near by hill and gave praise to morning sun. Consuming raw milk was regular practice until increase in population lead to increase in demand of milk and thus changed the life of cows and quality of milk in America.

Cows were no longer grazing on an open pasture but confined in a little space and fed not fresh grass but grains. This change in life style and diet drastically changed the quality of milk. Because cows received minimal to no sunlight and ate grains instead of fresh grass,the amount of many nutrients including vitamin D and Omega-3 fatty acids, which are important nutrient in preventing heart disease and cellular health, drastically decreased and increased the amount of Omega-6 fatty acids, which counteract a lot of what Omega-3 does in your body.

Because cows were living in such unhealthy condition, they began to produce milk contaminated with tuberculosis that caused many deaths. After this epidemic, a law came in effect to pasteurize all cow milk. Pasteurizing is done through heating up milk to a certain degree to kill bacterias. This process, you may assume will be beneficial for us mlik drinkers, but not entirely so. Pasteurization actually kills good bacteria that are beneficial to our health. If cows lived the lives they are supposed to live: grazing on an open pasture, getting plenty of physical activity, receiving vitamin D through sunlight, consuming plenty of Omega-3 fatty acids through eating fresh grass...etc. this epidemic would never have happened, and there would be no need for pasteurization.

So where I am getting at, is that raw milk that is from pasture grazing cows, is better for you. It has many nutrients that will keep us healthy, including beneficial bacteria for better digestion. So when milk goes through less pateurization, more nutrients it will have. And if cows live like how they are supposed to, more benefitial nutrients it will have. When butter is made from milk that has more nutrients,the darker the hue will be. More yellow the butter, better it is for you. So next time when you are about to spread that butter onto your crunchy toast, take a look at your butter and determine how yellow it is. If it is almost white, chances are, you are eating nothing but empty calorie with anti-nutrients that may be detrimental to your health. You will benefit more by switching to other brand. Afterall, butter coming from a happy cow that lives under sunlight and eating fresh grass taste much better than the butter that come from cows that live in a factory.

Some links to creamery I recommend:

http://strausfamilycreamery.com/

http://www.kaleidoscopeint.com/fanc/index.html

Real Food

So I have been really into reading about diet and food politics. I am currently reading a book written by Nina Planck, called "Real Food". In her book, I read an interesting fact about olive oil that I want to share with you.

So according to Planck, there are different types of olive oils and they all differ in nutritional value as well as taste. She classifies olive oil in three different types: plain, virgin and extra-virgin.

The healthiest and tastiest is extra virgin olive oil because it comes from the first pressing of the fruit, "has no defects in taste or smell, and has acidity of 1 percent or less." To make the best of it, try to find extra virgin olive oil that is unfiltered to retain all its nutrients and flavor. And try to look for oils that are in dark bottles for minimal oxidation.

The worst kind of olive oil you can find on market is plain. According to Planck, most commercial olive oil is plain. Plain olive oil is picked by machine which causes bruising further leading to oxidation of the olives. The olives are pressed repeatedly with heat which "diminishes nutrients and flavor".

Planck also notes that heating of olive oil causes oxidation, so it is advised to use half butter and half olive oil for minimal oxidation of oil, which may cause certain type of cancer and heart disease.