Often misconceptions arise when it comes to the health attributes of certain fats. Over time we've taken foods such as butter and eggs, foods that for a large part of human history have been staples in the diet, and suddenly decided that they cause heart attacks. In our attempt to make for a healthy diet we often listened to so-called experts that are misguided in the way they analyze data from testing, and soon that information is taken as fact.
Butter certainly has a history as one of those foods. There was a time when pure, natural butter was in the diet of many societies. Then it was decided that the saturated fat in butter caused high levels of cholesterol, and the leap was made that butter produced heart attacks, even though there wasn't a lot of basis for that hypothesis. Only after we started manufactured butter substitutes, which produced margarine, did we start to really have issues. That certainly is the case with processed foods, as we now know that these foods with poisonous Trans Fats are the real cause of our prevalence of heart disease.
So where did all of this misinformation come from? A lot of the confusion comes from exactly what LDL cholesterol is, and what its impact is on our health. It is always been thought that high levels of LDL brings on heart disease, and this bad cholesterol tends to be raised by saturated fat. We now know that there are two very different types of LDL cholesterol: small, dense LDL and large, lighter LDL cholesterol. And we're now finding out that this second, lighter cholesterol is not bad at all.
But foods that are causing the dense LDL particles are found to have been increased by eating refined sugar and carbohydrates. Foods such as bagels, soda and bread, along with other highly processed foods are now being identified as the real culprits. You all are almost certain to be eating Trans Fats if you eat processed foods. You may think that when the label shows minimal or zero Trans Fats, you must be safe. But manufacturers get away from with this by identifying the portion sizes as so minuscule that the Trans Fat levels fall below the permissible limits, and as a result don't have to be listed on the ingredients label.
So we can conclude by saying that butter certainly isn't a food to be shied away from. Most chefs use it as a staple because of its culinary appeal, and if it is manufactured from high-quality sources it is truly nutritious. It is rich in vitamins A, E and K2, plus it is high in minerals such as selenium, chromium, manganese, zinc, copper, as well as a highly absorbable form of iodine. But the source of your butter will say a lot about how healthy it really is. The best quality of butter is from grass-fed pastured cows. Stay away from butter spreads, and of course any substitute such as margarine is strictly out of bounds.
Our goal is to inform those people who are trying to lose weight on comprehensive, realistic programs for weight loss. We are definitely not into quick-fixes, but programs that involve proper diet, cardio work, and muscle tone. Rich Carroll is a writer and health advocate now living in Chicago.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rich_Carroll
0 comments:
Post a Comment