Butter FAQs
Real Food Living FAQ series DISCLAIMER: The Real Food Living FAQ and reprints are provided as information only. The comments contained in the FAQ are the opinions of our readers. Before making any radical changes in your diet, please talk with your personal health care provider. Vickilynn Haycraft, Editor
1. What is "better butter" and why is it better? 1. What is "better butter" and why is it better? A. "Better Butter" is regular butter mixed with oil and sometimes lecithin to soften it and make it easier to use at the table. Butter is a real food, made from milk with no harmful changes made to it, yet still needs to be used sparingly (wisely). Better butter is basically a mix of oil, sometimes water or milk and butter together. The oils generally used can be safflower, olive or canola, with maybe some lecithin and/or flax seed oil added in. This way you end up not eating quite so much butter (i.e. FAT) which is much too high in most American diets. If you use flax seed oil, do not use the Better Butter for cooking, as flax seed oil should not be heated. 2. Why is margarine "bad" for you? A. When margarine or shortening is manufactured, vegetable oils are stabilized to a more solid form by a process called "hydrogenation". This is simply adding one hydrogen molecule to each fatty acid molecule of the vegetable oil. By changing the molecule's structure, the oil becomes solid or semi-solid. This takes a "good" thing (the fatty acids our bodies need) and makes them "bad". Recent studies published in the JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) showed that margarine and other hydrogenated vegetable oils not only raise your "bad" cholesterol levels (LDL) , they lower the "good" cholesterol levels (HDL). 3. But I want to cut saturated fats out of my diet. That's why I've been buying margarine! A. Don't worry, you're not alone. You actually have it half right. You DO want to cut down on your total fat intake. The USDA now recommends that healthy adults (on a 2,000 calorie per day diet) consume less than 65 grams of fat per day, no more than 20 of them should be saturated fat. You want to try to consume mostly unsaturated fats. Some examples of unsaturated fatty acids in oils are corn oil, cottonseed oil, safflower oil, peanut oil, soy oil and olive oil. 4. Does it matter what kind of oil I use ? Fat is fat, isn't it? A. Well, not exactly. There are fats and there are fats! Our bodies need two essential fatty acids: linoleic acid (omega-6) and linolenic acid (omega-3), which are both polyunsaturated fats. Linoleic acid is found in several vegetable oils, such as safflower and corn oil. Flax seed is the richest source of linolenic acid. Oleic acid is a mononusaturated fat, which is not an essential fatty acid but is not as susceptible to oxididation caused by high heat of cooking as polyunsaturates, nor does it go rancid as quickly as polyunsaturates. Flax seed oil, sunflower oil, corn oil, safflower oil, soybean oil are all high in essential fatty acids; olive oil and canola are high in monounsaturated fats. In processing, oils can be treated with caustic soda, lye, or other strong alkalis. They also may be bleached,then deodorized at high temperatures. Vitamin E is destroyed and rancidity occurs easily. In choosing an oil, it is best to look for cold-pressed or expeller pressed unrefined on the label to better insure that solvents and excessive heats weren't used in its processing. Also, keeping your oils in the refrigerator is advisable. 5. But isn't butter a source of cholesterol?
A. Yes. However, in the grand scheme of things, it is now believed that the hydrogenated fats in margarine actually have greater health risks for you than butter does, when used in moderation.
6. OK, OK, I'm convinced. Do you have a recipe for Better Butter?
A. There are several versions of this recipe. Here are some tried-and-true
versions from members of the digest:
4 sticks (2 cups) butter, softened
BETTER BUTTER (version 2)
4 cups butter, softened
BETTER BUTTER (version 3)
1 pound butter, softened
BETTER BUTTER (version 4)
I pound of butter, softened
BETTER BUTTER (version 5)
1/2 C. (1 stick) butter, very soft
A. Below are some for Honey Butter, and Soy Butter.
1 cup butter
Blend until smooth. Refrigerate.
SOY BUTTER
1. Mix together 1/2 pint water and 2 tablespoons soy flour. Put in a frying pan.
Boil 5 minutes or until thickened. Strain into a mixing bowl.
2. Pour in 1 pint of soy oil, very slowly as in making mayo, beating constantly.
A. Yes, you can freeze it! Be sure to use clean containers with airtight lids. It should work well in all of your regular recipes, however, some people have problems with versions of Better Butter which have a lot of water in them. It can tend to make your toast a little soggy and cause your baked goods to not turn out as nicely.
NOTE:
Return to:
© 1995-2007 Vickilynn Haycraft
No distribution of this material in any form without prior written consent from Vickilynn Haycraft: vickilynn@realfoodliving.com |