butter (was Re: Infertility info)

[Guest guest]

> :

>

> Since I am focussing my attention on one word of your post, I

thought

> it would be ok to change the subject line.

Good idea. :-)

>

> From your various posts, it is easy to see how highly you regard

> butter. Could you please elaborate your personal view on butter?

Why is

> it specifically good for infertility issues?

When I first learned about Weston A. Price and the research he did,

it was through Ron Schmid's book " Traditional Foods Are Your Best

Medicine. " The most salient concept I took away from that book was

that the fat-soluble vitamins (A and D, in particular) were

TREMENDOUSLY IMPORTANT to our general health, and to having healthy

babies in particular. Minerals are important, too, of course, but if

you don't have sufficient vitamin A and D, you will probably not make

the best use of the minerals.

For Americans, butter is the single most accessible source of real,

preformed vitamin A--according to Schmid's book. (Since then, I

learned about WAPF and NT and learned the value of cod liver oil, but

Schmid didn't leave me with the impression that CLO was a must-have

nutrient for good health and reproduction, as he did with butter.)

We hear a lot about beta carotene, but it turns out that if you're

hypothyroid or diabetic or have other health impairments, you will

not convert beta carotene into enough vitamin A to meet your needs.

I learned about how valuable butter is back in the late 1980s or

early 1990s, about the time I got married. I read Schmid's book

about that time. Also about that time, DH told me about hearing over

shortwave radio that transfats are bad for you. All he could tell me

was that they are in hydrogenated fats and oils--including the

margarine that both he and I had grown up eating. Well, we decided

we would switch from Parkey margarine to butter, and from Crisco oil

and shortening to olive oil. I didn't really have a good substitute

for Crisco shortening except butter sometimes, and olive oil

sometimes. Of course, now I use coconut oil instead of shortening

most of the time.

That was when I was in my early 30s and he was in his late 30s.

Well, when I was 40 and he was 46 we had our daughter. Beautiful,

healthy, intelligent, energetic and strong--all the good stuff.

She's 9 years old and already wearing the size shoe I didn't get into

until I was 13 years old. This kid is our pride and joy. We

wouldn't trade her for anything.

In the meantime, my older sister (who is only 14 months older than I)

had a hysterectomy at around age 30, due to endometriosis. They

tried everything to cure it, but nothing helped. And she was the

girl who had wanted to have 12 kids when she grew up. :-(

Her husband had been married before and had had a vasectomy, so they

adopted a newborn baby, my niece. She grew up as an only child.

Now, I figure if having gotten off transfats in my early 30s, after

having eaten them all my life, and switching to butter and less

processed food could be supportive of reproductive function to that

extent, it must be one of the best things a person can do. IMHO,

avoiding soy is one of the other best things a person can do if they

want healthy children.

Ours is not a story of having spent our life's savings going to

fertility clinics and such. I figure I got pregnant the first time I

ever could have. That's all I will say about that.

I figure my sister got the better set of genes, if you want to look

at it that way. And since I was conceived only 6 months after she

was born, there's no way my mom could have replenished her

reproductive stores in that time. I figure I got slightly inferior

genes, compared to my sis. But at least I was born before Ancel

Keys' theory about cholesterol causing heart disease became widely

promoted.

My 2 younger siblings were born after Ancel Keys' theory came out.

They had narrower faces and narrower dental arches than I and my

older sis. One was born 3 years after I was, and the other was born

7 years after I was. So you would think that would have been enough

time for Mom to have replenished her reproductive stores. But since

she was probably avoiding whole milk and butter all that time, they

were narrower, and child #4 really should have had braces.

I am the only one of my siblings (3 girls and 1 boy) to have produced

a child. Her last grandparent, my dad, died 2-1/2 weeks after she

was born. We showed her to him once, but he was in a nursing home

after brain surgery, and he was so drugged up that I was not sure he

even knew we were there.

> I suppose that butter

> alone wouldn't do the work, would it?

If the rest of your diet is all junk--chips and pop and fried fast

food and sweets, I doubt that just butter will fix you up! ;-) But

it's easy to remember " BUTTER " , and people who are stressed out over

being infertile probably won't retain much about the other WAPF

recommendations--soaked grains, kefir, CLO, etc.

I tell them to avoid soy--and to look at labels to see how much soy

gets put into processed and packaged foods. They will usually just

slide into eating fresher food when they start avoiding soy.

And I encourage them to eat meat with its attached fat. I tell them

not to be afraid of cholesterol and natural fat. You need the

attached fat to help properly digest the meat.

> What kind of butter is the best

> in your opinion?

I have never been able to spend a lot on food. I buy the Wal-Mart

house brand, unsalted. I did buy some organic butter one time, and

it was a bit nicer, I guess, but too costly for continued use. What

I use is still about 3 times more expensive than cheapo margarine,

but it works for us.

The ingredient list is very short: cream. LOL

> And how can you use it best?

I cook with it whenever I can. I use it every morning to fry our

eggs. Lately, I've been making DH a 3 egg omelet with a filling and

topping of chopped tomatoes, green pepper, onion, garlic, lime juice,

salt and pepper. It's almost a fresh salsa. And usually sharp

cheddar cheese, grated.

And I make my 2 free range eggs over easy in butter.

I bake with butter whenever it suits the recipe, like in pancakes or

muffins or bread or cake (not very often, though, since I've been

trying to minimize the starch I eat). (But if I need to use oil

instead of a solid fat, I usually use coconut oil.)

I made DD a birthday cake in June 2004 and took it to choir rehearsal

so we could have a sort of party. It disappeared pretty quickly. I

made the cake with coconut oil and the frosting with butter.

I might saute veggies or livers in butter + olive oil for something

quick, but I cook fried potatoes in beef tallow + a little coconut

oil.

I like butter on steamed veggies. That's a good way to get more

without eating lots of bread.

> Maybe it is a heresy to

> say this, but I generally think of butter in association with

bread.

I don't think that's heresy. If I didn't have some weight to lose, I

would eat more homemade bread with butter. And if I didn't think DH

and DD might benefit from a gluten free diet. We're not there yet,

though. I have to find more time to cook. DH is active, so he can

use the carbs from bread, but cheap commercial bread makes him feel

achey and flakey if he eats very much of it. We eat way less bread

and starch than we used to. And what we do eat is eaten with butter

or other fat. I don't believe fat-free starch is good for us because

it can lead to a greater release of insulin than starch with

fat/protein/fiber. There's a really interesting 4-part article on

Mercola's site about the problems with insulin.

> Is it all right to use butter for cooking?

Sure!