Exonerated

Who’s afraid of the big, bad butter? Not me, and I’m glad to report that the butter tide which has been out in recent years, is now flowing in.

“Butter is back” proclaimed a recent New York Times op-ed piece which cited a large study in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

The article reported that people who ate higher levels of saturated fat did not have more heart disease than those who ate less. One doctor stated, “I think future dietary guidelines will put more emphasis on real food rather than giving an absolute upper limit or cutoff point for certain macronutrients.” That doc sounds like he has been listening to Michael Pollan.

We never abandoned butter at our house. I concluded that a product that tastes so wonderful and has so few ingredients (pasteurized sweet cream, salt) could not be a total pariah.

To find out how butter got so maligned, simply follow the money. Big corporate food companies knew they could rake in the profits by making butter a health threat and then marketing their hyperprocessed replacements.

The lobbyists for the food giants must be working on overdrive at the moment to refute the new findings. Expect to see lots of anti-butter attacks in the upcoming media.

Now is the perfect moment to celebrate butter’s return to good graces. We can all rush out to our grocery stores and pick up that delightful seasonal treat, the Easter butter lamb. I think I’ll buy myself a flock this year.
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P.S.  Perhaps picking up your butter lamb at the grocery store won’t work if you are not a midwesterner. The tradition originated in Eastern European countries, especially Poland. If you are not lucky enough to have these butter creatures readily available,  consider butter sculpture.

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