Its amazing that despite its best efforts, the margarine lobby has failed to convince us that its synthetic concoctions taste anywhere near as good as butter. People eat spreads on sufferance, having been browbeaten into believing butter is bad for us. But forgoing this versatile, natural fat that graces every food it touches is a misguided penance.
Toast with a thick layer of butter is the ultimate comfort food. Without butter, there's no golden crust on your gratin dauphinois, no dreamy bearnaise sauce. Shortbread made with margarine? Gruesome. Avoid spreadable butter: it often has oil in it, which spoils the taste and consistency.
Butter is an excellent source of vitamin A, D and K, essential for the efficient absorption of calcium and phosphorus, and therefore strong bones and teeth. Vitamin K also helps protect against bone calcification. Butter is rich in short- and medium-chain fatty acids, such as conjugated linoleic acids; these have a significant anti-tumour, anti-cancer action. Butter from grass-fed cows has more CLA than those fed grain, so organic butter is a wise choice. Butter has anti-fungal properties too.
Moreover, butter contains many substances that actually protect us from heart disease?! At the top of the list is Vitamin A, which directly and indirectly contributes to the health of the heart and cardiovascular system in general. For pregnant women, Vitamin A is essential for the proper growth and development of the baby’s heart. Butter contains also contains a substance called lecithin which assists in the processing and metabolism of cholesterol and other fats. Butter also contains a number of healthy anti oxidants that protect against the kind of free radical which damages arteries.
The nutritional gospel that saturated fat is unhealthy and fattening is melting away. A recent review published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition concluded: "There is no convincing evidence that saturated fat causes heart disease." A Medical Research Council survey showed that men eating butter ran half the risk of developing heart disease as those using margarine.
*Sources ~ https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jul/12/good-for-you-butter
https://docwellness.wordpress.com/2011/08/25/butter-vs-margarine/
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