Butter or spread?

[Countrypaul]

I do find the Ultra Processed label irritatingly unhelpful though. Firstly, it's still more often the case that it's the ingredients that are problematic, not the processes.

The advice to avoid foods containing ingredients you wouldn't find in your own kitchen is more helpful.

I agree - I think we’ve all got a sense of what is not good to form a significant part of a healthy diet.

If you stick to a diet that is varied, uses fresh/simple ingredients (using this to include, mainly dried pulses) and avoids ready meals and takeaways is probably going to be ok.

AE touches on an ingredient that, I think, is going to be the next health crisis - emulsifiers.

I’m not fully sure what they are chemically, but, if there’s a long list of ingredients and it includes emulsifiers, avoid.

Some of the most common emulsifiers are mono and diglycerides of natural fatty acids. As the nme suggests they are used to allow "oil and water" to e mixed resuling in a mixture that remains stable. "Oil and water" in this context is a borad sectrum includes things such as fats. When your body breaks down oils/fats often the first products are mono and diglycerides.

One loophole regarding trans hydrogenation of oils/fats is that if trans oils/fats are converted to mono and diglycerides these are not treated as trans fats as they are considered as emusifiers (his may vary according to local law) though once disgested they are the same as the first product of digesring a trans fat.

[Fintray]

I'm glad that butter is mostly getting the thumbs up as I was at a bread making class yesterday and one of the breads we made was brioche.

[Moxi]

I'm glad that butter is mostly getting the thumbs up as I was at a bread making class yesterday and one of the breads we made was brioche.

Put the kettle I am on my way up !

Moxi

[Fintray]

I'm glad that butter is mostly getting the thumbs up as I was at a bread making class yesterday and one of the breads we made was brioche.

Put the kettle I am on my way up !

Moxi

With the amount of butter in it I think it would still be edible even if you were to walk up here!

[Mart]

Silly question, and I may be going mad, but on American programmes, films etc, it always looks to me that their butter is white(ish). Just me or is there a reason?

I think it is down to "national preferences." I think I remember that German butter was very white, and they have a preference for white-shelled hens' eggs besides pale yolks too. Commercial egg producers can specify the amount of colour precursor in the feed they buy to get the yolk colour they "need!" I have even seen colour plates the same as you can get for interior decorating...

Yep, it seems to be down to food (I went down a Google rabbit hole). UK cows eat much more grass, which leads to a rich yellow colour, but grain fed cows, especially Holsteins, which are the go to in the US, produce white butter. UK seems to be a mix of Friesian and Holstein.

And Lurpack is also 'proper' butter, despite a different colour.

Well, I live and learn.

[MikeNovack]

Yep, it seems to be down to food (I went down a Google rabbit hole). UK cows eat much more grass, which leads to a rich yellow colour, but grain fed cows, especially Holsteins, which are the go to in the US, produce white butter. UK seems to be a mix of Friesian and Holstein.

The techie explanation is carotene. Found in pretty much all plants, so less a matter of what cows eat. Some breeds of cow break this substance down better than other breeds. The latter breeds are excreting the stuff to get rid of it, so in their milk (Jersey, Guernsey, etc.) Animals can't make this substance, but we can use it (for example, to make vitamin A). Also used as a safe/natural food coloring, for example, put into marge to make it yellow.

Grass vs grain in a cows diet again a matter of breed BUT the economics of milk production means all will be fed quite a lot of grain UNLESS producing for the "grass fed" market (COSTLY milk). A Jersey might be able to produce 4-5K#/year on just grass rather than the 10+12 K#/year when fed grain. A Holstein would not be able to produce as much "just grass" as the much smaller Jersey but given as much grain as she will eat, 15-18K#/year. The economics comes in because milking is the major cost and it takes as long to clean, strip test, and hook to a machine to a Jersey producing 10 K#/year as to a Holstein producing 15 K#/year. Oh, and BTW, here in New England ALL cows are out on grass in season.

[Mart]

Thanks Mike.

It's always funny to look back over what I've learned each day on here, none of which I wake up in the morning, expecting to learn.

Funny how things go.

[Crastney]

we eat butter here, and have done for several years, but 'the boy' has started asking for low fat spread, or margarine, or something, as he has been lead to believe that it's healthier...
The Benecol, Olive Oil spread seems to be pushed as a healthy spread for reducing cholesterol, my parents have that.
I grew up on margarine, as it was seen as healthier than butter, as we all used to think that eating fat was bad for you.
turns out that eating fat doesn't make you fat. Your body actually needs some fat. 60%* of your brain tissue is fat.

If you know me, I'll often bang on about 'Whole 30' which is a diet thing for 30 days where you remove everything that 'might' be an issue and eat only 3 meals a day based on a plate being a portion of meat, a portion of healthy fat, and 2/3 plate of veg. Cut out all sorts of things, and then reintroduce one by one after 30 days once your body has 'forgotten' what those things do, and then pay careful attention to how you feel for each thing. So you might pick up that you have a slight intolerance to gluten, or dairy, or pulses, or whatever. it certainly makes you see sugar differently.
Anyway, one thing they say is to read all the labels on all the food that you buy, as you have to make sure that you're not eating none compliant things, and almost all food is processed in some way, and almost all of the at includes sugar, or palm oil, or emulsifiers, or flavourings, or whatever, and they say that if you don't know what an ingredient is, then you don't know what it's doing to your body, good or bad, and if you can't even pronounce an ingredient, you shouldn't be eating it.
It's amazing that when you go shopping for food while doing Whole 30, you can go to the fruit/veg section, and the meat section and that's pretty much the only aisles you need, you can just walk around the edge, and miss out so much of the 'food' that is for sale.

* percentage just checked online.

[Tinbum]

I always thought I had a reasonably healthy diet but because of all the symptoms I’ve been having with Long Covid I’ve been reassessing everything. Slowly I’m changing the family for the better but it's hard convincing my wife to go away from convenience foods but I think she is coming round.

I've never been one for taking tablets and am still very sceptical about everything but one I did decide to try, just for a short time, was one from the Glucose Godess on you tube, yes I know!! I've actually been amazed at the effect they have had. Gone are all my cravings for any snacks and I’ve certainly cut down on the size of food portions especially the carbs, simply because I feel less hungry all the time. I don't think its helped the long covid but I’ve lost about 9lb.

[Crastney]

my health has changed recently - I've taken amlodipine for years, the minimum dose, for 'high' blood pressure, but it's barely high enough to bother to be honest. Recently, someone suggested that I might be depressed, and benefit from antidepressants, so I started those, but the dose was too high to start with, and I had the ambulance out, but I'm ok now. Then after blood tests, GP said I needed to take Vit D supplements, and now they've said my cholesterol ratio is too high so I'm on statins as well. 4 tablets a day now, rather than 1 a day 6 months ago. Hopefully they're all ones that can be changed through diet and exercise, and they might all be temporary.