Setting at the dinner table and watching the joy on my grandpa’s face as he opened the butter platter full of glowing gold, I was clueless as to the war being waged over butter and margarine. 

Now, I must take a stand on this topic and defend this special food item cherished by our ancestors, and with good reason. Butter is better.

I am not saying that butter/dairy is good for everyone, as we are all bio-individuals with different needs, but for those who wish to include it in their diet, make sure you get the good stuff.

So, what is the best butter? The best butter is unpasteurized, cultured, and from cows grazed on chemical free pastures and are well cared for without synthetic hormones or continuous antibiotics. The natural gold color indicates its quality.

This type of butter is packed dense with nutrition, here is a brief list of the specifics:

Vitamins:

• Butter contains vitamin A in its easily absorbed form, which is needed to maintain good vision and endocrine health.

• Butter also contains vitamins D, E, and K2, which are all fat-soluble vitamins lacking in the modern diet.

Minerals:

• Butter has trace minerals such as manganese, chromium, zinc, copper, and selenium found in abundance.

• It is also a good source of iodine.

Fatty Acids:

• The short and medium chain fatty acids found in butter boost metabolism, support immune function, and fight pathogens in the intestines.

• Butter contains omega 3 & 6 in perfect balance, which is important for skin health, prostaglandin balance, and brain function.

CLA:

• The conjugated linoleic acid in butter helps protect against cancer and helps the body build muscle rather than store fat.

Glycospingolipids:

• These fatty acids help protect against gastrointestinal infections, especially in the vulnerable.

Cholesterol:

• That is right, cholesterol for health. Healthy cholesterol is necessary for intestinal, brain, and nervous system health.

Wulzen Factor:

• This substance is similar to hormones and prevents arthritis and joint stiffness. It does this by making sure that the calcium in the body is put into the bones rather than the joints or other tissues. This factor is only present in raw butter and cream and is destroyed by pasteurization.

**If you are unsure how to get this amazingly nutrient dense food, check out http://www.realmilk.com/real-milk-finder/.**

Now I will cover the reasons that margarine is waging war on your health. First off, anything that used to come as a mass of grey with artificial yellow dye is not appetizing in the least. People know innately that the rich yellow color of butter indicates quality and that is why the margarine industry copied it. Margarine was made as a cheap alternative to butter, and you get what you pay for. But aside from margarine bashing based on history, appearance, and marketing, let’s get down to the nutrition and health details.

Everyone knows that trans fats are not good for you. They are unnatural and form during the process of partial hydrogenation. This is what turns the vegetable oil into a solid. These trans fats contribute greatly to heart disease, cancer, bone issues, hormonal imbalance, skin diseases, infertility, and learning disabilities, among many other forms of health degradation. These types of fats are unsafe at any level and when you look at the amount contained in processed foods, it adds up fast.

In addition to trans fats, margarine also contains free radicals as a by product of the high temperature industrial processing of these vegetable oils. These free radicals are associated with both heart disease and cancer.

In an effort to add any nutrients to margarine, synthetic vitamins are added, such as synthetic vitamin A. These usually have unfavorable effects on the body in comparison to the real nutrients contained in butter.

There are other offenders added to margarine, like preservatives and emulsifiers. The safety of these additives is questionable, especially BHT.

In order to extract the oils, hexane or other solvents are used. These industrial chemicals have toxic effects on the body.

As mentioned before, the margarine is grey in color, so they bleach it and then add coloring. This does not sound like a process that should be used in something we consume! In addition to the unappetizing color, the taste is also unpleasant, so they add artificial flavorings to mask it.

There are other “spreads” out there which tout to have “lower” amounts of trans fats. These contain the trans fats monoglycerides and diglycerides, which are not required to be listed on the label. In order to give these spreads body, highly processed soy protein isolate is added. This actually contributes to thyroid dysfunction, digestive disorders, and many other health concerns.

Manufacturers often add sterols, which are estrogen compounds, that lower cholesterol levels. These cause endocrine disorders and have been shown to cause sexual inversion in animals.

Please, go ahead and eat the good stuff that our ancestors enjoyed and prized for generations upon generations, real and unpasteurized butter.