Butter Is Better

By Dr. Mercola

In your musings about odd things, it may have occurred to you to wonder, if butter is basically made from the skimmings of milk, and milk is white, why is butter yellow?

When you think about butter making, it’s a multi-step process, starting with cows. Cows, in the best and most natural way, eat grass and flowers which contain the yellow pigment beta-carotene and store the pigments in their fat.

You get milk, cream, butter and other dairy foods from cows, and all (optimally) contain the fat with the beta-carotene, as well as the yellow pigment, but in different amounts. Even whole milk is mostly water; it has a little more than 3 percent fat.

The cream usually contains between 30 percent and 40 percent fat, but at least 80 percent of the butter content is saturated fat. A New York Times article explained:

“In the second half of the 1970s, margarine availability began trending downward, with a steeper decline starting in 1994. By 2005, margarine consumption had fallen below butter consumption, despite butter’s higher price ($3.28 per pound) compared with margarine (89 [cents] per pound).

Margarine availability continued falling to 3.5 pounds per person in 2010. In 2013, per capita availability of butter was 5.5 pounds. Butter may owe part of its increase in consumption to concerns about trans fats in margarine and more recent suggestions that saturated fat is not as unhealthy as once thought.”¹³

Which Milk Is Better — Pasteurized or Raw?

Like real butter, grass-fed organic milk tends to be yellowish as well, not pure white. Cows raised on dried grass or hay rather than fresh, green grass produce a whiter product, which is an indication that the carotenoid and antioxidant content is largely diminished.

Generally speaking, the less dairy products such as butter, milk, yogurt and cheese are “messed with,” the better they are for you. Those who believe that pasteurized milk is more advantageous to consume than raw milk from healthy, grass-fed cows don’t understand that the assertion that raw milk is dangerous to drink comes straight from the conventional dairy industry. The fact is, pasteurization destroys many valuable nutrients and enzymes in the milk.

Further, both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) maintain that raw milk can carry harmful bacteria, but fail to disclose that those bacteria may be most likely to result from the way industrial dairies raise diseased cattle in CAFOs, which often produce contaminated milk that must be pasteurized in order to be safe to drink.

One thing you may already be aware of is that you can make your own butter at home, and it’s remarkably easy. The benefits to your health may open you to further steps to optimal health.

Sources and References

• The New York Times Well October 14, 2016

• ^1, 2 The New York Times Well 2016
• ³ Science Daily April 12, 2016
• ⁴ Nutrition Journal February 2012
• ⁵ International Journal of Cardiology June 30, 2000
• ⁶ J Am Coll Nutr. 2008 October;27(5):547-552
• ⁷ J Nutr. March 1, 2002
• ⁸ Epidemiology. 1997 March;8(2):144-9
• ⁹ European Journal of Clinical Nutrition April 7, 2010
• ¹⁰ Diabetes. 2009 July:58(7);1509-1517
• ¹¹ Gastroenterology 1992 July;103(1):51-6
• ¹² FASEB J. 200 December;14(15):2380-2
• ¹³ USDA July 5, 2016

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