Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Eat Butter!



  Over the past 40 or more years, butter has received a bad rap! It's been blamed as the cause for heart disease, increase in body fat, clogged arteries, and over all vilified! Basically, butter was the devil and you would be killing yourself over time with each brick you consumed. Recently, there have been a hand full of studies that have been released claiming the exact opposite. We're now learning that saturated fats are not the enemy, not the cause of heart disease, and the people who have spent all those years telling you it was, are now swallowing their pride and saying "We messed up, oops!". Not only is butter not bad for you, it can actually help keep you healthy, prevent heart disease, and improve your over all health! So just how did butter get such a bad rap, and what are it's specific benefits?

 The whole "butter is bad for you" claims came out of poorly executed studies that happened years ago. They failed to separate saturated fats and trans fats (which we all know are bad). This skewed the results and thus began the witch hunt on butter and other saturated fats. What a shame! These half-assed tests actually led to countless people missing out on the benefits of actually consuming high quality butter from organic grass fed cows. Just what are some the benefits to consuming butter and some details you might not know about? Let's take a look.

- We all know olive oil has been praised for it's health benefits, well 30% of butter is made up of monounsaturated oleic acid. The same fatty acid that makes up olive oil.

- While some saturated fats can lead to a slight raise in cholesterol, it's not all of them. Also, dietary fat intake is only responsible for 20-25% of the total cholesterol found in the body. Therefor any slight raise that might happen from consuming this saturated fat in your diet is not really something to worry about.

- Some saturated fats actually work towards lowing cholesterol! In fact, steric acid is abundant in butter and is the preferred fuel for your heart and also helps lower LDL.  LDL is the bad cholesterol that is one of the main culprits leading to heart disease.

- Lauric Acid found in butter has anti-bacterial agents

- CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) is anti carcinogenic and promotes a leaner physique.

- Butyric Acid in butter helps prevent colon cancer and helps act as a pro biotic, keeping your gut healthy.

- Butter is loaded with vitamins K, A, D, and E as well as iodine and antioxidants.

 That all being said I must stress that these benefits are from consuming butter that comes from organic cows that have been grass fed. If you're consuming butter from cows that are not organic and have been mainly grain fed, it will actually be lacking in Omega 3, contain no CLA, and will be rich in Omega 6 fatty acids. This leads to inflammation and other issues.

 Long story short, you need to eat Organic Butter! When pared with a Paleo Diet it helps reduce body fat, lower bad cholesterol, improve gut health, protect against disease, and provides you with tons of vitamins.

- Tim

WWW.JUNGLE-FIT.COM 



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