Butter for Health

When I have a few extra hours, I like to churn my own butter.

There's nothing like good butter. It's a natural food made from cream -- no chemicals required, unlike all the margarines on the market. And that butter taste is essential in baked goods and yummy on steamed vegetables.

Making it the old-fashioned way is a good workout for the arms, and relaxing for the mind.

Okay, that's an April Fool's joke. I've never made my own butter, although I understand it's possible to make it in a food processor.

I do appreciate butter, though. I've always been averse to the chemicals they call margarine. And now science has caught up with me, finding that hydrogenated vegetable oils are harmful. Now they're making margarine without trans-fats, but it's still not food.

Butter is food. And it's actually good for you.

Ideally we would eat raw organic butter made from milk from grassfed cows. You'd think it would be hard to find, but Organic Pastures makes it at their dairy farm near Fresno. You can buy their raw dairy products at the Hollywood Farmers Market, and at Granny's Pantry on Arroyo in Pasadena. Also at the Hollywood Farmers Market you can get organic butter from Spring Hill Cheese Co. made from the milk of Jersey cows in Petaluma, CA. I often get regular organic butter at Trader Joe's. Even supermarket butter has health benefits.

Butter is a saturated fat. Twenty years ago this was a no-no, but science has realized that the saturated fats in butter have strong anti-cancer and anti-tumor properties.

It contains conjugated linoleic acid, which is a potent anti-cancer agent, muscle builder, and immunity booster.

The cholesterol found in butterfat is essential to children's brain and nervous system development. It contains arachidonic acid which plays a role in brain function and is a vital component of cell membranes. Butter can protect against gastrointestinal infections in the very young and the very elderly.

Butter is rich in anti-oxidants, selenium, vitamins A, D, E and K. It contains lecithin (essential for cholesterol metabolism) and a highly absorbable form of iodine. It also contains an anti-stiffness factor which protects against calcification of the joints and prevents hardening of the arteries and cataracts.

It helps your body absorb minerals. It's good for your arteries, thyroid and adrenals. It has nutrients that fight candida and fungal infections.

Best of all, butter is not stored in your body's adipose tissues.

So eat some butter. Spread it on your whole wheat toast, toss it with your steamed vegetables. And on special occasions, make butter cookies.

Easy Butter Bar Cookies
1 cup butter
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp almond extract
1 egg, separated
1/2 cup flaked almonds

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Grease 9"x12" baking pan.

Cream sugar and butter. Stir in almond extract. Add flour, stir until well combined, then beat in egg yolk. (This can all be done in the food processor.)

Press into greased pan. Brush the lightly beaten egg white over the top and sprinkle with almonds.

Bake 20 minutes. Let cool in pan, then cut into bars.