TO COOK WITH BUTTER OR NOT TO COOK WITH BUTTER – THAT IS THE QUESTION

THE ANSWER: Yes, cook with butter.

 

Here are some reasons why you should cook with butter, coconut oil and ghee, and avoid cooking with margarine, canola oil or other vegetable oils.

Your body needs some dietary fat to keep you healthy. Fats are used by your body to build and repair your cell membranes, to help you absorb your fat-soluble vitamins, make hormones, and keep you fueled with good energy. Fats also make food taste great and have the added benefit of helping you feel full after a meal. Fats come in 2 main varieties: saturated and unsaturated fatty acids.  You need both types of fats in your diet, but it matters how they are treated in your food preparation. So…

1.)   Cook with butter, coconut oil, and ghee* because they taste great and are very stable fats and won’t easily become oxidized or go rancid. This is because their Fatty Acid profile contains high amounts of Saturated fats. Chemically speaking, saturated fats do not contain any double bonds that would make them reactive. Fats that have double bonds are called “unsaturated fats” and these fats are highly reactive when exposed to heat, light, and oxygen. Canola oil, margarine and vegetable oils are all examples of polyunsaturated fats. Think about this: if you are cooking something, then you are exposing your cooking fat to heat, light, and oxygen. If you are choosing polyunsaturated vegetable oils to cook with, you run the risk of ingesting damaged fatty acids. Damaged fats can lead to tissue degradation in your body. Therefore, when roasting, baking, frying or sauteing, you want to use the most stable fats available so that your food does not contain oxidized or rancid fats.

2.)    Most vegetable fats are polyunsaturated (meaning more than one double bond) and are liquid at room temperature. Unfortunately, many types of oils on the market today have gone through a highly industrialized process. Margarine or solid vegetable lard are examples of the most industrialized fats on the market. Usually, margarine is made by taking an unsaturated oil such as canola oil and putting it through a process called hydrogenation. This process artificially eliminates the double bonds (by adding hydrogen atoms) and produces a solid fat that mimic’s butter. These industrialized hydrogenated fats are not healthy choices for cooking even though they are more stable after going through the hydrogenation process, because they have been exposed to multiple chemicals as well as heat, light, and oxygen in the hydrogenation process. These fatty acids are damaged and can eventually lead to tissue damage.

Do you need to overhaul your cooking techniques to get the most nutrition from your food?  I can help guide you in the right direction! Contact me for a free initial consultation.  I look forward to talking with you! ginny@mainenutritherapy.com, or https://mainenutritherapy.com/

*Ghee is clarified butter where the milk solids have been removed from the butter.