Spread the news: butter’s back

[Gifted Gourmet]

article on butter from The Times UK

Although some of this idea of butter versus the "spreads" is addressed in the context of the thread on the South and Butter here, this thread will focus upon the much larger question of the disposing of some particular food item because of erroneous beliefs ... eggs and butter are prime examples ...

Spread the news: butter’s back, says nutritionist Jane Clarke. After years in the sin bin, we now know a little of what you fancy does you good

My nutritious lifestyle, which includes animal fats such as butter, can confuse those who think that animal fat equals bad, vegetable fat equals good, and that we should avoid saturated animal fats and only consume foods made with polyunsaturated vegetable fats.

Have your eating habits changed when you stopped to rethink your earlier beliefs? Are you adding back things like eggs? like butter? How about other things?

[jackal10]

Heavens, they will be saying carbs are bad and fat is good next!

I believe there is some evidence that fat protects from some forms of cancer. There is quite a lot of evidence that fat is only an indirect rather than direct contributor to heart atatcks and other cardio-vascular disease. Certainly the stress induced by following a diet is not good for you.

Of course,all the gunk they put in margerine is distinctly doubtful

[Gifted Gourmet]

Thanks, jackal, for the advice! I feel less guilty already (see "for the sin which I have commited in treating butter unfairly") ... which you yourself know ...

but as for me, "give me butter or give me death" ...

[andiesenji]

As I have mentioned on many other threads, I never abandoned butter! Or, any other of the foods I like and for more than one reason.

Firstly, I had before me (or behind me) the evidence of my exceptionally long-lived family members who ate, (according to the pundits) all the wrong things, and should (from their predictions) all have died in their 40s or 50s.

Instead, most lived into their 90s and a few over 100, remaining vigorous to the end.

My grandfather passed away in his early 80s but had had a kidney removed in the late 30s following a gunshot wound (hunting accident) and that shortenend his life. His brothers lived to 97, 101 and 108, his sisters to 94 and 101.

On the other side of the family, my dad's eldest sister is 98 and still doing her own gardening - the last time I visited she was digging postholes for a fence to keep the rabbits out of her garden.

She laid out a breakfast similar to the farm breakfasts from my childhood. Ham, gravy, fried potatoes, eggs, biscuits, etc.

At that time she was complaining about having to get used to a new doctor as the "young fellow" who had been treating her for some time had passed away (at 61).

My family has a very low incidence of cancer, stroke, other cardiovascular diseases, no Alzhimer's (but the rare family members that have been a bit "peculiar" all their lives. Not enough to be locked up in an attic, but enough to keep them mostly at home, not out on their own. )

I have developed diabetes, probably from carrying around too much weight and not exercising enough for a number of years, and I have adjusted my diet to keep that under control.

However my cholesterol has always been low, and the HDL (good cholesterol) to LDL (the bad stuff) ratio is excellent 84:16, which, according to my internist, is astonshing.

I still think it is mostly genetic and not dietary.

In any event, as far as I am concerned, life is too short to spend too much of it worrying about things like this. I put off enjoying what I really like and might be in an accident on the freeway and never get the chance.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Life is, of course, a crap shoot ... my own dear grandmere succumbed at the ripe old age of 104 ... her daughter, my mother, is now 93 and in perfect health, having eaten all manner of sugar and fat (always in the same dish topped with Hershey's syrup!) ... aunts and uncles in their nineties as well .. all have buried their spouses ... years ago ...

heredity is the blessing conferred upon us without our selecting any options ... and it is, as I say, a crap shoot ...

Of course, lots of smoking and drinking and wild, wild women don't always help ...

[ghostrider]

Yep, I never gave up butter either, because I was always suspicious of margarine.

I don't eat that much butter anyway, except during corn season, & I'll be darned if I'll put anything else on my corn.

Eggs, I never ate that often, just not a big appeal. Since my heart attack I have them even less frequently. I'll still make an omelette once in a while & not worry about it. As always, I think moderation is the key.

Smoking & drinking I can understand, but wild wild women don't help? Please explain further!

Edited October 23, 2004 by ghostrider (log)

[Carrot Top]

It has been my motto over the years to never believe 'studies'.

Because for every study that says one thing...just wait three years and they will have another come up that shouts out the opposite at you.

Butter always seemed better, to my eyes and nose. Fresh...sweet...delicious.

Margarine always seemed rather frightening. Packed up in plastic day-glo packages with gamboling cows smiling gleeful grimaces. Oily. Tasteless or else tasting of vaseline.

Eggs? Who would ever choose an egg white over a perfectly golden yellow yolk, waiting to overflow happily onto your tongue?

And who would ever believe those things in cardboard pour boxes are anything like eggs?

Butter. Eggs. Yes.

[andiesenji]

Life is, of course, a crap shoot ... my own dear grandmere succumbed at the ripe old age of 104 ... her daughter, my mother, is now 93 and in perfect health, having eaten all manner of sugar and fat (always in the same dish topped with Hershey's syrup!) ... aunts and uncles in their nineties as well .. all have buried their spouses ... years ago ...

heredity is the blessing conferred upon us without our selecting any options ... and it is, as I say, a crap shoot ...

Of course, lots of smoking and drinking and wild, wild women don't always help ...

←

Never smoked, drinking not an option due to an allergy developed late in my teens which causes laryngeal edema and closes my airway. Never had a chance to experience drunkeness or hangover. - Mixed blessing? Wild, wild women not in my pervue, too old for similar in opposite sex, however I certainly could be lured off the straight and narrow (or not so narrow in my case) by someone offering to cook something special for me, fois gras, lobster, pheasant or ???????

Come to think of it, I cook and eat all those things already. No lure needed.....

[Daniel Rogov]

One question and one comment......

The question - has there been life worth living without butter?

The comment - the Greeks have a wonderful word - metriopatheia. Simply stated, moderation.

[Gifted Gourmet]

One question and one comment......

The question - has there been life worth living without butter?

The comment - the Greeks have a wonderful word - metriopatheia.  Simply stated, moderation.

←

In answer to the first, no, life is only worthwhile when butter is present ... ghee, did I actually say that!? perhaps I ought to clarify ...

Moderation in all things, as they say, mostly in moderation ...

[StudentChefEclipse]

I never abandoned butter, mostly because in out household margarine was seen as the industrial lubricant it is. We similarly kept to real eggs, cream and sugar in many forms.

Was it Plato or Aristotle who talked a lot about the Golden Mean? Moderation, ya know.

[Carrot Top]

The question - has there been life worth living without butter?

←

Well, yes. There has been...but only in places where there is lots of sunshine, good olive oil and garlic.

Other places, with rain and cold and just onions and turnips, need butter to make life worth living.

[bloviatrix]

My mom used margerine (because of kashrut) and when the news about egg yolks came out, she cut back on those. I, on the other hand, say BAH to all that. I love butter, and the higher the butterfat, the better. Right now I have 3 different butters in my fridge.

You should have seen the look on my mother's face when I offered to make her an omlette for breakfeast. I beat three eggs, added a bit of cream, threw some butter into the pan, etc. She wanted to know if I was trying to kill her.

I'm reminded of the Woody Allen line "it turns out that everything my mother said was good for me turns out not to be." The fact is these scolds need to justify their existance. So, scaring people into believing certain foods is just self-serving.

Edited October 24, 2004 by bloviatrix (log)

[Carrot Top]

So tell me.

How could 'Last Tango in Paris' have been made without butter?

I ask you.

[arielle]

I think that overall it's about eating EVERYTHING that you enjoy in MODERATION. Others have posted about this and I agree with them. I grew up in ahouse that rarely had butter, because of allergies, but I've come to know the level of dairy that I may consume without ill effect.

I also went through a period where I consumed next to no fat......became waaaayyy too thin....I'm over that now. But I have to admit that my diet now is very healthy for 99% of the time, and I save my indulgences as such; so no, I don't have butter or duck fat etc every day. I enjoy them when I do, and I eat lots of fatty fish and olive oil to give me the fats (and minerals therein) that I need.

As for the rest: I exercise a lot, have a good metabolism, and blood pressure that is at the extremely low end. I also have a low standing heart rate.......but that's more exercise related.

I understand the hereditary aspect.......but my parents and brother are all very healthy, as for the rest of the family, we have those who live 'til they're 95, and those who die of (with?) diabetes at 58.......so I'm doing what I can.

Edited October 24, 2004 by arielle (log)

[fifi]

I have to say that I grew up with margarine. My family being basically "Southern" cooks, that is curious. There is this discussion running over in the Southern Food Culture forum on this subject. I suspect that the shortages of the war and the bleating about how "healthy" this margarine glop was influenced my mother for a while. Sometime in the mid 50s, my mother started being really suspicious of this margarine thing and started adding butter to the mix. By the time I got all grown up and scientific, I started really wondering. About 20 years ago, I decided that margarine couldn't be a good thing. This decision was not based on data, just an instinct that natural foods were better. I am gratified that my instinct may actually be correct. There is no margarine now in my fridge. Living alone, I go through a pound of butter in maybe 6 weeks so I must be applying the moderation principle. Perhaps if my bread consumption went up it would be more than that.

BTW... I also cook with fresh rendered lard that I do myself.

[jackal10]

The denigration of butter as "unhealthy" is a nice example of the current climate of fear. Following the teaching of Leo Strauss and other neo-conservatives, politicians and others have stopped promising better tomorrows and extolling postive benefits, as such promises are mostly discredited by a cynical public. Instead they preach fear of today, and exagerate the threats. This gives them power. Leo Strauss even suggested that lies about the threat are legitimate, so as to lead the mass of people to a "higher truth". In this By persuading us that butter is bad, margerine is promoted.

Strike a blow for individual liberty! Eat more butter! Tastes good too!

It is a sad day where our choices are defined not by which tastes better, but by which we believe does less harm to ourselves (never mind the planet, the farmer etc), especially where that belief is artificial. Taste, at least we can determine by our own senses..

Edited October 24, 2004 by jackal10 (log)

[scott123]

The denigration of butter as "unhealthy" is a nice example of the current climate of fear. Following the teaching of Leo Strauss and other neo-conservatives, politicians and others have stopped promising better tomorrows and extolling postive benefits, as such promises are mostly discredited by a cynical public. Instead they preach fear of today, and exagerate the threats. This gives them power. Leo Strauss even suggested that lies about the threat are legitimate, so as to lead the mass of people to a "higher truth". In this  By persuading us that butter is bad, margerine is promoted.

←

Economics, I think, has played a HUGE role, at least here in U.S. What are our two biggest crops? What's margarine made out of? Do you really think it's a coincidence that butter's gotten a bad rap? Why do you think our food pyramid looks the way it does? It's not about consumer health, it's about dollars in someone's pockets.

Vive le Beurre!

[Carrot Top]

Leo Strauss even suggested that lies about the threat are legitimate, so as to lead the mass of people to a "higher truth".

←

Didn't this used to be called 'sophistry' in studies of rhetoric?

And wasn't it considered...just plain wrong and inethical...to use sophistry in any rhetorical argument?

[jgarner53]

Growing up, we always had butter and margarine both, but my dad was the only one who ate the margarine for his high cholesterol. He's one of those healthy-as-a-horse types who just happens to have high cholesterol, and since he's 74 and still going strong, I'm not too worried about it.

But about the time I graduated from college, I jumped on the low-fat bandwagon: low-fat cheese, egg beaters, margarine (for as little as I used anything at all), reduced-fat cookies, etc. I cooked almost exclusively out of Cooking Light magazine, but I wouldn't turn down a fast food hamburger or pizza.

Nowadays, I've shunned margarine because it tastes like crap. Baking is full fat, with whole eggs (though I don't eat much of it myself), and I wouldn't eat low-fat cheese on a dare. I want real cheese that melts, thank you very much. Since I bake all our cookies now, the reduced-fat varieties are long-gone.

I still cook out of Cooking Light when a recipe appeals to me, but I don't use it exclusively anymore.

[Jinmyo]

So tell me.

How could 'Last Tango in Paris' have been made without butter?

I ask you.

←

Duck fat.

[Dr. Funk]

Interesting thought - but now I'm going to end up dreaming about it and my wife's going to question me tomorrow morning.

[Carrot Top]

So tell me.

How could 'Last Tango in Paris' have been made without butter?

I ask you.

←

Duck fat.

←

Better choice than schmaltz, I guess.

But then it would have to be called 'Last Tango in Rouen', no?

[Carrot Top]

Interesting thought - but now I'm going to end up dreaming about it and my wife's going to question me tomorrow morning.

←

We women always want explanations. Preferably lengthy and detailed ones.

The only thing to do is show her, obviously. For actions speak louder than words, I've heard.

(All this should be done under the aegis of furthering the art of gastronomy, of course. Education, is important.)

[Mottmott]

I have never used margarine (Yuck) and never abandoned butter in dishes that require it. What I have done, however, is to shift my diet to include more foods that aren't butter based and reduce the amount of meat I eat generally.

In general, I think we make a mistake by disregarding all studies on food. Unfortunately most of us get our information from popularizing sources that skim off the most sensational aspects of a study, overstating them and ignoring qualifying information. And some studies may be simply faulty. It's also true that even good studies may naturally tend to contradict each other over time as new work is done and new information added. The overall drift of all I've learned about is that nutrition, body function, health are revealed as more complex the more we learn. Final answers are not in. But what we do learrn indicates that excessive amounts of even beneficial foods may be harmful.

Common sense tells me I benefit from a very varied diet that is high in fresh fruits and vegetables, moderate amounts of animal foods, and an avoidance of highly processed foods. I acknowledge this is sometimes honored in the breach.