Top 12 Health Benefits of Butter
butter a word that sends jitters in your spine as it reminds you of heart attacks, high cholesterol, and other problems. While there is no doubt of the fact that butter is one of those foods that can turn bland meals into divine lip-smacking dishes, butter has been blamed for everything from obesity to heart disease in the recent times.Completely eliminating butter and other healthy animal source fats is not the Body Ecology wants it to be. It is definitely not the way how our ancestors lived, and nor is it the way nature intended it to be.
Recent times has seen butter making a comeback as an excellent health food. Let's see why butter has now been called a health food.
Here are a Few Good Reasons why Butter Can be Good for Your Health, and why You Can Eat Butter in Moderate Amounts, Without Any Guilt:
1. Butter is Beneficial:
Butter is a very beneficial ingredient of a person’s diet that can improve your immune system, regulate your hormones, protect your vision, boost metabolism, increase brain function, reduce chances of heart disease and blood pressure, and protect you from cancer. Moreover, butter can protect you from gastrointestinal conditions, and ensure proper development of the brain and nervous system.
2. Butter is Rich in Vitamins:
Butter is extremely rich in fat-soluble vitamins. It is a rich source of fat-soluble vitamins, including Vitamins A, E, and K2. It is well known that Vitamin K2 is involved in calcium metabolism and a low intake of this vitamin has been associated with many serious diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and osteoporosis.Butter is rich in the most easily absorbable form of Vitamin A necessary for thyroid and adrenal health.
3. Butter Contains Healthy Saturated Fats:
Butter contains a lot of saturated fats that are good for your health. Recent studies suggest that there is no association at all between saturated fat and cardiovascular disease. Butter contains a considerable amount of short and medium chain fats, which are metabolized contrarily from other fats. This leads to improved and increased fat burning.
4. Butter Lowers Risk of Heart Attack:
It has been proved that butter considerably lowers the risk of heart attacks. Butter from grass-fed animals may even reduce heart attack risk due to the high Vitamin K2 content.
5. Butter is Rich in Conjugated Linoleic Acid:
Butter, especially from grass-fed animal, is a great source of a fatty acid called Conjugated Linoleic Acid. This fatty acid has a tremendous effect on the metabolism in the body.Conjugated Linoleic Acid is known to have anti-cancer properties as well as lowering the percentage of body fat in humans.Conjugated Linoleic acid is a potent anti-cancer agent, muscle builder, and immunity booster.
6. Butter and Obesity:
Butter has been associated with low obesity. Studies have revealed that high-fat dairy products are not associated with obesity. It was discovered that high-fat dairy products did not increase the risk of metabolic disease and was associated with a significantly reduced risk of obesity.
7. Powerful Antioxidant:
Natural butter contains high levels of carotene, an essential nutrient for human beings. Carotene contributes towards the production of antioxidants, which can boost to your immune system and promote cell regrowth and repair.
8. Cardiovascular Health:
Do you know that natural butter can actually work to improve the health of your heart? Butter contains HDL cholesterol - also called good cholesterol. This omega-3 fatty acid actually reduces the presence of omega-6 fatty acid or bad cholesterol) which can clog up arteries and lead to atherosclerosis, heart attack, and stroke.
9. Thyroid Health:
Our thyroid gland is definitely the most important part of our endocrine system, and has an important relationship with vitamin A. It has been found out that most of the people who have thyroid related diseases are also deficient in vitamin A. This helps the proper functioning and regulating of hormones to be created and secreted throughout the body.
10. Eye Health:
Beta carotene, which is found in high levels in butter, is known to boost eye health. It protects the eyes, stimulates additional cellular growth, retards the onset of cataract, and reduces the chances of macular degeneration. It also decreases the risk of angina pectoris and other eye-related conditions.
11. Bone Health:
Butter is very rich in essential minerals, like manganese, zinc, copper, and selenium, which are required for maintaining bone health and stimulating bone repair and regrowth.
12. Butter Contains Glycosphingolipids:
These are fatty acids that have a specific function to protect the stomach from gastrointestinal infections.
Here a Few Other Valid Reasons that Make Eating Butter One of the Healthiest Options:
Butter Contains
- Lauric acid, which helps in treating fungal infections and candida
- Lecithin that is essential for cholesterol metabolism
- Anti-oxidants that protect you from free radical damage
- Anti-oxidants that protect against weakening arteries
- The mineral selenium
- Saturated fats that have strong anti-tumor and anti-cancer properties
- Vitamin D that is essential for the absorption of calcium
- Anti-stiffness feature, which protects you against calcification of the joints
- Anti-stiffness feature, which also prevents hardening of the arteries, cataracts, and calcification of the pineal gland
- Activator X, which helps your body absorb minerals
- Iodine, which is essential for the body
- Cholesterol that is essential for the development of the children's brain and nervous system.
- Arachidonic Acid (AA), which plays an important role in brain function
You don’t need to have a reason to eat butter – eat it because it is delicious and tasty.Though butter is good, the best butter you should eat is raw, organic butter as pasteurization destroys nutrients. And, if you cannot get raw organic butter, you can make your own butter at home. Cultured butter made at home is full of health-sustaining good bacteria like lactobacillus planterum, and lactococcus lactis.
A Note of Caution
Though butter is healthy and has a number of health benefits, it is important to remember that it is still composed mainly of fats, which can wreak havoc on certain people, particularly those who are obese. Butter does contain unhealthy cholesterol, but if consumed in large quantities, it can lead to serious health issues such as heart disease, cancer, or obesity.