Real Butter is Best

Are you afraid to eat butter? You shouldn’t be, but you need to be aware of which type of butter is the best.

I am often asked whether the new trans-fat free margarines should be eaten instead of real butter. My question back is, “why do you want to avoid butter?” Butter is a time honored traditional food that has been consumed for thousands of years in cultures all over the world. Butter got a bad rap when it became a victim of something I call the Big Fat Lies (you can read more about the Big Fat Lies in my new book Plan-D: The Amazing Anti-Diet That Will Change Your Life Forever). Along with its close cousin coconut oil, butter was labeled as an “artery clogging” saturated fat, and we were told to avoid it like the plague. However, real butter made from the cream of grass-fed cows is an extremely healthy food brimming with essential vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fatty acids that are essential for maintaining good health.

When the Big Fat Lies started flying in the U.S. many people stopped using butter and switched to a man-made substance called margarine, which was supposed to be better for us than butter. Because we love the taste of butter so much (of course we do, it’s a good food), the processed food companies came up with concoctions of highly processed vegetable oils. To make margarine, manufacturers begin with the cheapest oils—soy, corn, cottonseed or canola—and mix them with tiny particles of nickel oxide. Hydrogen gas is then bubbled through the nickel-oil mixture in a high pressure, high temperature reactor. Next, soap-like substances, called emulsifiers, and starch are squeezed into the mixture to give it a better consistency; the oil is yet again subjected to high temperatures when it is steam-cleaned. This removes its unpleasant odor. At this point the color of the oil is an unappetizing gray (unbecoming of anything you’d want to spread on your toast), so the gray color is removed by bleach. Dyes and strong artificial flavors must then be added to the oil to make it look and taste like butter (they do such a good job of it that manufacturers were able to come up with gimmicky names like “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter”). Finally the mixture is compressed and packaged in blocks or tubs and for many years was sold as a healthy alternative to real butter!

Fortunately, we now know that margarine is bad for us and butter is back in style, as it should be. However, in order for the butter we eat to be healthy, it must be made from the milkfat (cream) of healthy cows that are fed their natural diet—grass. Because living grass is richer in vitamins E, A, and beta-carotene than stored hay or standard dairy diets, butter from dairy cows grazing on fresh pasture is also richer in these important nutrients. The naturally golden color of grass-fed butter is a clear indication of its superior nutritional value.

The butter that comes from grain fed cows is not necessarily good for us, which may be why butter got a bad a rap in the first place. 85–95% of dairy cows today are raised in confinement on a diet of grain, particularly corn, because it is cheaper and allows for mass produced cows. This grain-based diet changes the body chemistry of cows, which increases the need for the use antibiotics. Many of these dairy cows are fed a variety of growth hormones to increase milk production. And guess what, those antibiotics and hormones end up in the milkfat (cream) of the cows, which is then used to make the butter that is found in most grocery stores.

Furthermore, the changes in the cows’ body chemistry also change the ratio of omega-3 and omega-6 fats in the butter from grain-fed cows. Grain-fed butter is very high in the omega-6 fatty acids, which most people consume too much of (due to the fact that too many of our processed foods are loaded with them), and very low in omega-3 fatty acids (the type that most people are dangerously deficient in). A diet high in omega-6 fatty acids can lead to many diseases including cancer and heart disease. Milk from grass-fed cows has a much higher content of omega-3 fatty acids and a lower content of omega-6. The combination of more vitamins, trace minerals, and omega-3 fatty acids helps lower the risk of heart disease, and many types of cancers.

And you don’t have to be afraid of the cholesterol in butter. It’s actually an antioxidant responsible for maintaining the health of many of our bodily systems. It is also especially necessary in terms of a child’s development. Because real butter is completely natural and untampered with, the cholesterol it supplies comes in the exact proportion that the body needs.

But this doesn’t mean that you should go crazy with the butter and start slathering it on everything you eat. As it has throughout the ages, it should be treated as a premium food. A small pat on a baked potato, a dab melted onto vegetables, or spread on sprouted grain bread. That is how butter was meant to be enjoyed.

Butter from grass-fed cows is hard to come by these days, but there are some good sources available. Your local natural food market may carry Organic Valley (get a downloadable $1.00 off coupon from their website), and Tropical Traditions carries Anchor Pure New Zealand Butter and Pastureland Butter.

How to Decode Food Labels

In my upcoming book, Plan-D, I detail the importance of reading ingredient lists and help you navigate the grocery store to learn how to live processed-free in a processed-food world.

When you shop for food, you should not be particularly interested in whether or not the product is labeled “low-fat”, “low-cholesterol,” or “sugar-free.” And don’t give those wholesome claims of “Heart Healthy,” and “Trans-Fat Free,” on the front of packages a second glance. Bypass the Nutrition Fact Panel also. Instead, you should be scanning the package for only one thing: the ingredient list.

If the ingredients themselves don’t meet the mark of nutritional excellence, then there is really no point in checking out the calories or the fat grams. And if the ingredients are acceptable, meaning there aren’t too many of them and they are all whole food ingredients with names you can pronounce, then the numbers are probably going to be within a reasonable range.

Developing this kind of straightforward ingredient list reading savvy is essential for navigating even the natural food markets these days. There are more than 45,000 products seducing you with healthy claims on the packaging. Most of them are false or misleading. Margarines now claim to be “heart healthy” because they contain tiny amounts of vitamin E. Drinks fortified with vitamin A, antioxidants and other nutrients claim they support the immune system, even though they are loaded with sugar (a substance known to interfere with immune response). Cereals and breads boasting “Whole Grain” goodness actually contain more refined enriched flours than they do whole grains. This is why you have to know what to look for on ingredient lists.

When you read an ingredient list, you should only see real whole foods listed. For example, “beans,” “tomatoes,” or “chicken.” You should look for short lists too. Unless it’s sprouted grain bread with lots of different whole grains, there should only be five or six ingredients. More than that and you should put it back on the shelf.

One good way to cut to the chase: If it’s a lengthy list, look at the top first, then do a detailed read at the very bottom. If you don’t see any deal-breakers, in either of these places, it’s worth reading on to see whether you’ve found a truly healthy product—or if something nasty like hydrogenated oil (trans fats) has been sandwiched in the middle.

Here are some of the worst food additives that show up on processed food ingredient lists, and the ones you should be avoiding:

Sodium Benzoate – has been shown to damage mitochondrial DNA leading to Parkinson’s disease and cancers. Used in sodas, pickles, and sauces.

Potassium Bromate – causes cancer and has been banned in many countries but is still legal to use in the U.S. Usually shows up as “bromated flour” or “bromated vegetable oil.”

Partially Hydrogenated Oil or Hydrogenated Oil – also known as trans fats, these deadly oils destroy cell membranes and have been linked to obesity, diabetes and heart disease. They usually show up as partially hydrogenated soybean oil or cottonseed oil. Canola oil also contains trans fats, even if it doesn’t say partially hydrogenated canola oil. Just because a package claims that it is zero grams trans fat does not mean that it is free of hydrogenated oils. If the product contains less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving, then the package can claim zero grams. However, only tiny amounts of trans fat can do a lot of damage, so you need to avoid it at all costs.

Mono and Diglycerides – these are similar to trans fats. They’re unhealthy forms of chemically produced oils that should not be ingested by humans.

High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) – this is a chemically altered form of fructose that does not exist anywhere in nature. It has been linked to fatty liver disease and type 2 diabetes, and is likely responsible for the worldwide obesity epidemic. It’s just another form of sugar and you should avoid it at all costs. Beware, HFCS shows up in whole wheat bread, yogurt, cereals, crackers, soups, ketchup and other so called healthy foods. Read ingredient lists carefully.

Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)- this is used as an addictive flavor enhancer that affects the mechanism in our brains that tells us to stop eating. As a result of eating MSG, we eat more and we eat faster. Scientists use MSG to induce obesity in laboratory animals. Doesn’t it make sense that it would also induce obesity in humans? MSG can be hidden in other food additives, so even if you don’t see MSG listed, it may be contained in any other these following names: autolyzed yeast extract, natural flavorings, spices, soy extract, protein isolate, disodium inosinate, and disodium guanylate.

My new book Plan-D, has an extensive list of other food additives you need to beware of. The bottom line is that you need to become your own best advocate when it comes to packaged foods. Not all packaged foods are unhealthy or bad, but you have to know how to choose the good ones. There are some good sprouted grain bread products, canned beans, frozen organic meals, and nut butters that are truly healthy. But to pick the winners, you have to be prepared to read some fine print—and ignore a lot of fancy packaging claims.

The Dirty Dozen and The Clean 15

According to the latest government data, the peaches in most American supermarkets have the highest amount of pesticide contamination of any other fruit or vegetable. And there are 11 other highly contaminated produce on the list. Since you can’t tell just by looking at it, how do you know when it’s OK to eat conventionally grown produce and when it’s important to go organic? Read on and find out which fruits and veggies are the most contaminated with pesticides and how to still eat organic while staying within your budget.


The Dirty Dozen and The Clean 15

The Environmental Working Group (EWG), a non-profit advocacy group, just released the new updated 5th Edition of their classic Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce. This handy guide shows you the fruits and veggies with the most and least pesticides, so you know which to always buy organic and which are pretty clean even when conventionally grown.

Based on data from nearly 87,000 tests for pesticide residues in produce conducted between 2000 and 2007, the EWG developed their guide to help consumers reduce their exposure to pesticides. According to the EWG, eating their designated Dirty Dozen—the 12 most contaminated conventionally grown fruits and vegetables—will expose us to about 10 different pesticides per day! For those of us who have limited access to organic options or who are on a tight budget, the organization also identifies The Clean 15—the 15 least contaminated conventionally grown fruits and veggies, which will expose us to fewer than 2 pesticides per day.

The new 2009 Dirty Dozen are (listed from most to least contaminated): peaches, apples, sweet bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, kale, lettuce, grapes (imported), carrots, and pears. These you should definitely eat organic. The Clean 15 are (listed from least to most contaminated): onions, avocadoes, sweet corn, pineapples, mangoes, asparagus, sweet peas, kiwi, cabbage, eggplant, papaya, watermelon, broccoli, tomato and sweet potatoes. These are OK to eat conventionally grown if you are on a budget and cannot afford to buy all organic.

Reducing your exposure to pesticides is vital. Research has shown that even small doses of pesticides and other chemicals can cause lasting damage to human health, especially to unborn fetuses and young children. Pesticides have been linked to various disorders and diseases, including cancers of the reproductive, endocrine and immune systems.

The specific effects of many pesticides are still unknown. Pesticide manufacturers claim their products are safe, but the studies on these products are usually done with high doses, rather than testing the chronic low doses that people typically experience.

You may be wondering if washing and peeling your produce will help reduce your exposure. Maybe a little, but nearly all of the studies used to create the Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 lists were performed on produce that had been rinsed and peeled the same way you would do at home. Rinsing reduces but does not eliminate pesticides. Peeling helps, but valuable nutrients often go down the disposal with the skin. The best approach is to eat a varied diet, rinse all produce and buy organic when possible. Organic foods have fewer pesticides and the people who eat them have fewer pesticides in their bodies. There’s no evidence that pesticides are good for you, why take a chance if you don’t have to?

You can download a colorful printable version of the wallet-sized guide of The Dirty Dozen and The Clean 15 at www.foodnews.org. Carry it with you in your purse or pocket when you go shopping.

Calcium Deficiency: The Leaching of America

Americans are facing a serious health threat. More than 75% of Americans are calcium deficient, and more than one in 10 Americans either has, or is at risk of developing, osteoporosis or other bone diseases. Worse than that, calcium deficiency is responsible for nearly 150 different degenerative diseases, including obesity, arthritis, fibromyalgia, acid reflux, high cholesterol, hypertension, allergies, cancer, and others.

As an organic chemist for over 17 years and now a Diet Counselor, I am convinced the reason Americans are struggling with obesity and other health conditions is because they have no idea that consuming processed foods, including today’s sugar and flour, upsets body chemistry thereby depleting the most essential mineral necessary for maintaining long-term health.

I tell my clients that it is important to understand the role of calcium in the body, how it is absorbed, what conditions lead to its depletion, and how to ensure that they’re getting enough calcium for proper metabolism, weight loss, and good health. After my own lifelong struggle with obesity and obesity-related conditions, I lost 100 pounds and have kept it off for 17 years by staying away from processed foods including sugar, flour, and sodas (including diet sodas).

The most important use of calcium in the body is its role as the main buffer used to neutralize acids in order to maintain proper body chemistry. However, calcium is one of the more difficult minerals for the body to digest and absorb because it depends on several other conditions to be in place.

First, calcium needs an acid environment in the stomach to fully digest and dissolve (ionize) calcium from food or supplements. Drinking liquids with meals dilutes the enzymes and stomach acids that are crucial for maintaining this environment. Another unfortunate challenge is that people over the age of 60 produce only one fourth of the stomach acid they did when they were 20. Additionally, 40 percent of postmenopausal women lack sufficient stomach acid for proper ionization of calcium.

Once ionized, calcium absorption is totally dependent on the presence of vitamin D in the intestine. Without vitamin D, most of what calcium was ionized in the stomach will pass through the body unused. Vitamin D is not present in most food, so the body needs sunlight on the skin to create its own vitamin D. Staying indoors and out of the sun, or lathering up with sunscreen when out in the sun, prevents the calcium in our diets from being absorbed. Furthermore, vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin, which means that it can only be absorbed into the body in the presence of enough good fat in the diet. This is why I do not recommend low-fat diets.

Calcium absorption also depends on the presence of the amino acid lysine, and many other trace minerals, including magnesium and boron. The necessary ratios of these trace minerals are not present in most calcium supplements and are severely lacking in processed foods.


Inability to absorb enough calcium is only part of our problem. Consumption of processed foods—refined sugars and grains, sodas, fried foods and trans-fats, chemical preservatives, artificial sweeteners—and prescription drugs create a huge imbalance in body chemistry. As a result, a significant amount of stored calcium is leached from the bones to restore balance.

Sodas, especially diet sodas, may be the largest contributor to calcium loss due to their high phosphoric acid content. Diet sodas actually cause you to gain weight—not lose weight—because they leach calcium, which leads to slowing of the metabolism.

What can we do to replenish our bodies with calcium and maintain proper body chemistry? The simplest thing we can do is stop eating processed foods, drink plenty of water, and begin to eat more calcium containing foods. This means that we need to eat 6-8 servings of vegetables and 2-3 servings of fruit each day. It is important to eat real foods that contain calcium, because they have the other trace minerals needed for absorption. Vegetable choices should consist of dark green leafy types such as collard greens, kale, cabbage, and broccoli, for their high calcium content. Other food sources for calcium are almonds, asparagus, blackstrap molasses, buttermilk, carob, cheese, figs, filberts, goat's milk, kelp, mustard greens, oats, prunes, sesame seeds, tofu, turnip greens, watercress, whey, and yogurt. Food sources of lysine include cheese, eggs, fish, lima beans, milk, potatoes, organic meats, and protein powders.

For those with diminished stomach acid, add 2 teaspoons of raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar to a glass of water and drink it 30 minutes before meals. The acetic acid in the vinegar acts like stomach acid and improves digestion. Apple cider vinegar can also be sprinkled on vegetables or combined with olive oil to make a tangy vinaigrette.

You can take control of your own health by staying away from processed foods including sodas and today’s flour and sugar. If you do, you will prevent and even reverse calcium deficiency. As an added benefit, like myself, you will enjoy a permanently healthier and lighter you.

More Bad News About Vitamins

Newsflash: the largest study ever performed on the efficacy of multivitamin use in older women showed a dismal failure rate when it comes to preventing common cancers or heart disease. The results echo recent disappointing vitamin studies in men.

The study, which appeared in the February 9th, 2009 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, was conducted over eight years involving 161,808 postmenopausal women. The study focused on the effects of vitamin supplements on cancer and heart disease in particular because evidence that diets full of vitamin-rich foods may protect against those illnesses. The results of the study showed that vitamin use did nothing to prevent them.

The study's lead author, Marian Neuhouser of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, urges people to "Get nutrients from food. Whole foods are better than dietary supplements."

A synthetic vitamin supplement can never have the same preventative effects as the foods which contain those vitamins for one simple reason. The vitamins and minerals in real foods need the co-factors also contained in the foods--enzymes and phytonutrients--to activate, metabolize, transport, and bind them to the places in the body where they are needed. Taking a synthetic vitamin without all the necessary co-factors is like having two pieces of wood, but no spark to start the fire. The co-factors are the sparks that allow vitamins and minerals to be active and do their jobs.

Other studies have been done on whole food vitamin supplements, which are dehydrated real foods containing all of the necessary co-factors. Results from those studies show that, in addition to a healthful diet, taking whole food vitamins can ensure disease prevention, just as the foods themselves do. The final word on this topic is that there is no vitamin pill or supplement that can make up for a poor diet.

Read more on this topic below in my previous post called Are Your Vitamins Working?

Are Your Vitamins Working?

To supplement or not to supplement, that is the question. In our chemically polluted and stress-filled world, our nutritional requirements have been increasing, but the number of calories we require has been decreasing, as our activity level as a society has declined. This means we are faced with the need to get more nutrients from less food. At the same time, due to the cooking and processing of foods, which destroy most nutrients, getting even the Recommended Daily Allowance of vitamins and minerals from our modern diet has become difficult, if not impossible to achieve.

Additionally, because the nutrients in the soil that our food is grown in have been depleted over time, the food itself does not contain the amount of nutrients that it used to. For example, the apple your great grandfather ate had more nutrients in it than the apple you eat today, even if the apple comes from the same tree. That is because the soil that the tree is growing in has been depleted over time and the apple that it bears contains less nutrients as a result. And although the food itself has fewer nutrients in it in today's world, our bodies still have the same requirements for nutrients that our great grandfathers did in order to be optimally healthy. Consequently, in order to obtain the optimal amount of many nutrients, it is necessary to take them in supplement form.

The question then arises as to whether vitamin and mineral supplements in pill form are as effective as the natural vitamins and minerals that exist in apples, asparagus, broccoli, and other real whole foods. Moreover, is it possible that your vitamin supplement is more toxic than it is healthful?

Synthetic versus Natural Whole Food Supplements

The answer is—it depends. Vitamin supplements can be divided into two groups: synthetic and natural (also called whole food supplements). Most over-the-counter vitamin supplements like One-A-Day, Centrum, Kirkland, and many others are synthetic—meaning they are made in a laboratory from isolated chemicals that mirror their counterparts found in nature but are not from real food. Natural vitamin and mineral supplements are derived from real food sources, specifically vegetables, fruits, herbs, seaweeds and marine algae.

What is the difference between synthetic and natural vitamins and minerals? There is a world of difference between synthetic vitamins that are in pill form versus natural vitamins that are contained within nature’s foods. Although the chemical differences between a vitamin found in food and one created in a laboratory is slight, synthetic supplements contain the isolated vitamins only, while natural supplements also contain all of the other nutrients in foods not yet discovered, such as antioxidants and phytochemicals that help the vitamins do their jobs. Natural vitamins also retain the necessary enzymes that are specific to the foods they are derived from, which assist the body in utilizing the vitamins and minerals properly.
Another difference is that synthetic vitamins may also include coal tars, artificial coloring, preservatives and stabilizers such as maltodextrin, stearates and dioxides, sugars, and starch, as well as other additives. You should beware of such harmful elements.

Natural whole food supplements are made by condensing or compressing real whole foods and then evaporating off the water. The actual process is achieved by placing vegetables and fruits in a large blender and then dehydrating the mixture to evaporate the water at very low temperatures. The low temperature is crucial so as not to destroy the enzymes and cofactors contained in the foods. The enzymes are very important synergists that are required for digesting and assimilating vitamins and minerals. The remaining dried “powders” are then placed in capsules or combined with vegetable cellulose to form solid tablets.

If you are deficient in a particular nutrient, the synthetic chemical source will work to an extent, but you will not get the benefits of the vitamin as found in whole foods. Synthetic vitamins just do not work like foods, and foods are what our bodies were designed to use for healing, prevention and energy. There is no substitute, and no matter how you look at it, synthetic vitamins are an invention of scientists, so they are prone to cause side effects, be incomplete and lack what we need to overcome or prevent health problems.

For years synthetic vitamins have been sold and marketed as the “magic bullet” for all health conditions. The problem is that vitamins, when not still contained in their original food (oranges, bananas, spinach, broccoli, etc.) are merely chemicals. Our bodies do not recognize synthetic vitamins as nutrients, because they don’t work the same way as whole foods for these simple reasons:

1. Foods contain not just vitamins, but the co-factors (synergists) and helper nutrients that allow vitamins to work.

2. Foods are never found in high potency, so you won't suffer any toxic side effects that have been proven to exist with synthetic vitamin pills. The most recent example of vitamin toxicity was the report about vitamin E being toxic. Real foods never deliver toxic doses of vitamins.

3. Vitamins are just a small part of what our bodies require for health and healing. It is very
often that it is the other food properties that help us while the vitamins are secondary.

For these reasons, and more, synthetic vitamin pills, despite their use and overuse, are lacking the properties of real nutrition, which can only come from eating nature’s real, whole, raw foods. The ONLY supplement that someone should take, therefore, is a whole food formula WITHOUT any isolated (singular vitamin). In order to know whether your vitamin and mineral supplement comes from whole foods, you have to carefully read the labels. Instead of just names of vitamins and minerals on a label, you should be looking for the names of foods and herbs on the label, such as kale, dandelion, kelp, ginger, cinnamon, apples, carrots and broccoli.

It is a very common misconception that we need to take high dosages of vitamins to keep us healthy. Remember, real whole foods are never found in high potency, so don’t be fooled by high milligrams, high potency, standardization or any other such terms that just do not apply to real foods from nature.

Vitamin supplements are supposed to be just that—supplements. They are not intended to replace what you would get from eating the actual food. There is no vitamin pill or supplement that can make up for a diet that is lacking in variety and nutrients.

Sources:
Balch, James and Balch, Phyllis, Prescription for Nutritional Healing, 2nd Ed., Avery Publishing Group, New York, 1997.
Shayne, PhD, Vic, Symtpoms of Vitamin B Deficiency and Why Vitamin Pills Are Not Enough, 2005.