Can Butter actually make you HAPPY?

Last Updated 12/16/2021 • Posted in Real Food, organic pastures butter, organic pastures dairy, Kerrygold butter, Julia Child, Paula Dean, Omega 3, Calcium, benefits of butter, Sweat Cream butter, Butter, vitamin A

This may seem like a ridiculous question to most. However, taking a cue from the queen of butter herself, Julia Child and her modern-day counter-part, Paula Deen it would seem butter can actually make you happy! Perhaps it is butters richness that makes us feel like we are indulging or that all REALLY good pastries are made with lots of REAL-butter. I would contend that there might actually be some truth (from a nutritional standpoint) as to butter playing a role in your happiness.

All joking aside I would like to get it out in the open that ALL butter substitutes and imitation butter products are a crime and should be avoided.

In REAL-butter, the ingredients should be: CREAM. What, were you expecting more?? Nope, not in my butter...maybe salt, but usually I purchase unsalted and the ingredient is CREAM. What is in your butter?? I'll save you a trip to the fridge and tell you. If it's regular butter it generally has: sweat cream and natural flavorings, sounds good right? Not so fast, first, the dairy source of the butter leaves much to be desired, so the starting product (whole milk) is from cows not fed their natural diet of grass. Secondly, "natural flavorings" are ironically, not natural. In fact, often they are chemical additives needed to enhance the flavors lost from processing. If you want your butter to have "natural flavorings" buy REAL-BUTTER, which has natural flavorings, naturally!

Although you can still find margarine in stores, many people know to stay away from it, but what about the latest...imitation butter spreads like the famous "I can't believe it's not butter." Well, believe me baby, it's not butter and seriously does not even come close. Let's take a look at the ingredients (with my added notes in italics)...

Vegetable Oil Blend (Liquid Soybean Oil, Non-Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Liquid Canola Oil)-Even if you thought these oil were ok to consume do you really need 3 different types?
Water
Natural Sweet Cream Buttermilk
Salt
Natural Soy lecithin-Not so natural and used to improve spreadability
Vegetable Mono and Diglycerides
Potassium Sorbate, Calcium Disodium EDTA (Used to Protect Quality)
Citric Acid
Natural and Artificial Flavors-Again with the added flavorings, which we now know are not so natural
Vitamin A (Palmitate)-Butter naturally has vit. A, but here it is added in.
Beta Carotene (For Color)-REAL-butter should naturally have a yellow color from all the beta carotene in the cows grass diet.

Does anyone else find it odd that it takes 16 ingredients to make an imitation of something that only has 1 ingredient? That's just crazy and most of those 16 ingredients are not natural and not good for your body.

Whew, now that we took care of the logistics let's get back to BUTTER (yes, it deserves caps!).

Here are the facts on REAL-butter:

-Vitamin A: 10-14%, which is a significant amount of your daily value. Vitamin A is a mood stabilizer and is needed in many bodily functions, including support for your immune system and eye health. The best source of vitamin A is found in animal foods, so butter is an excellent choice (particularly since liver is not flying off the shelves anymore)

-Calcium: 1%, which does not seem like a lot, but when you consider that calcium requires vitamin A & D to be assimilated into the body, it's nice to know they are paired together in butter.

-Correct Omega 3 to Omega 6 ratio: this is only the case with grass-fed dairy cows, which in turn offers a nice yellow color of butter, instead of white butter from grain-fed cows.

-Allows for better digestion and vitamin assimilation-butter your veggies, your body will be able to better use and convert the nutrients from the veggies.

-TASTE, taste should count for butter's awesomeness. It tastes delicious, goes with just about everything and in most cases, there is no substitute.

Can butter actually make you happy? Perhaps; if it helps stabilize your mood, makes for better digestion and offers your body more nutrients when eaten with your vegetables, then yes, maybe it can. If nothing else, it makes me extremely happy when I eat a fresh muffin or 48 fresh sourdough toast, topped with butter!

My favorite brands: Kerrygold, sometimes you can find at Costco in bulk, Trader Joes, Whole foods, etc.. Organic Pastures ok this is the ultimate in Real butter! It's also raw and is AMAZING, my one problem is it's just not always feasible to feed a large butter-loving-family with Organic Pastures.