What is butter good for? Why has butter become the object of controversy among scientists, or what are the benefits and harms of one of the most famous products? During pregnancy and lactation

Text: Olga Kim

Nowadays, many women, especially those who are in a state of “permanent weight loss,” avoid eating butter, despite its great health benefits. Meanwhile, any nutritionist is ready to confirm: moderate consumption of butter does not harm your figure at all. And sometimes even the opposite...

The benefits of butter, what are they?

The question arises: where does it come from? benefits of butter? After all, even the first association that arises when you mention butter is “fat.” Yes, this is true, but the correct fatty acids it contains are necessary for the normal functioning of the body. Butter also contains vitamins and a lot of useful organic matter. It is important to know that you can consume about 10-30g of this product per day, only this amount of butter per day will not only not harm your body and will not add extra centimeters to your waist, but will also enrich the cells of your body with essential microelements.

Perhaps the biggest cause for concern when eating butter is its cholesterol content. Scientists have elevated this substance to the rank of the most important enemies for our body, but they forgot to mention that not only is cholesterol itself produced in our body, but it is also necessary to consume it from the outside. Thus, cholesterol is involved in the formation of sex hormones that are so necessary for us. Cholesterol is also necessary for the normal functioning of cells, as it is one of the components during their construction. Also, without cholesterol, our brain reacts poorly to a substance such as serotonin, known as the “happy hormone,” and this inevitably leads to depression and a bad mood in general.

Vitamins A, B, C, D and E contained in butter have an extremely positive effect on the growth and condition of nails, hair, skin, bones and muscles. Thus, vitamin D takes an active part in the formation of nervous tissue and bones. Vitamin A is responsible for good vision, normal functioning of the mucous membranes, and also gives the skin a healthy appearance. Vitamin E also relates to the benefits of butter - it strengthens and promotes the growth of hair, muscles and nails.

The benefits of butter in folk recipes

People knew about the positive effects of oil even before it was scientifically proven, and managed to include it in recipes that help with various ailments and misfortunes:

• if you have small children and their teething is very painful, lubricate their gums with butter, this will calm them down and make the whole process easier for a while;


• butter You should eat it with sugar if you have a dry cough, hemoptysis or pleurisy; a similar mixture also serves as a diuretic;


• butter is used to lubricate the body for urticaria, lichen and various types rash;


• butter with soft-boiled egg cures pain in bladder;


• butter with wine helps with diarrhea;


• cup pomegranate juice with a spoon of butter helps with dysentery;


• Ghee applied to the skin at night makes it soft, clean and gives it shine;


• During an epidemic of colds, you can make homemade lemon oil and garlic oil. So, to prepare the first one you need 300g of butter, the juice of 1 lemon and 50g of finely chopped parsley. Mix all this, add salt and take a teaspoon every day. To prepare garlic oil, you will need 350g of oil and 20g of crushed garlic, also mix the ingredients and use a teaspoon daily.

Now you know about the benefits of butter not only as a source of cholesterol and vitamins necessary for our body, but also as one of the ingredients in the treatment of various diseases. The main thing is not to confuse butter with margarine, because only natural butter can contain all of the above beneficial qualities.

The first mention of such a product as butter dates back to 2000 BC. At that time, the Indians composed songs for him, but still the first who came up with the idea of ​​whipping milk until it became solid were the ancient Jews, because there are mentions of the product even in the Old Testament.

The product became popular among Russian people around the ninth century. It was prepared by whipping cream, milk and sour cream. And the most common method is to melt the cream in a wood-burning oven. The oily liquid was separated from the cream, collected in a separate vessel and whipped by hand. After the oil became solid, it was washed with water and consumed. Oil was rarely prepared, because the whole cooking process was not cheap and only rich people could afford to use it every day. In addition, the oil is not stored for a long time at room temperature, so it had to be melted again and again, as a result of which the entire product was divided into two parts: at the bottom there was a lean mass, and at the top, on the contrary, fat in pure form. It was collected in a separate container, and when it cooled, it crystallized. In this way, ghee was previously obtained.

In addition to ghee, in ancient times they also prepared salted butter, which today many consider harmful. Although it is in no way inferior to a regular cream product, it contains 81 percent fat and one and a half percent salt, but it is stored much longer than usual.

The benefits of butter

Butter is one of the most controversial products. Scientists and ordinary housewives have still not come to a consensus about what is more in oil: benefit or harm. Many women who want to lose weight have forever given up this useful and valuable product for the body. There is an opinion, supported by many famous scientists, that oil promotes the accumulation of harmful cholesterol in blood vessels and blood, because in the future this can lead to problems in the cardiovascular system.

For example, in England, doctors prohibit the use of butter, even to the point of completely excluding it from the menu. It is advised to cook dishes only in vegetable oil or, in as a last resort, replace it with margarine, and drink only milk with zero fat content. If you follow all the recommendations, then, according to doctors, you can reduce the mortality rate from vascular diseases, which today amounts to 200,000 people a year. But English farmers, on the contrary, protest against this, arguing that the oil contains a lot of useful and nutritious components that are simply necessary for humans. Most nutritionists agree with farmers that if you consume this product in moderation, it will only benefit the body.

For an adult healthy person You need to consume 10 grams of butter per day, sometimes this figure can be increased to 30 grams.

What are the benefits of butter:

1. Product digestibility reaches 98.5%. And the high calorie content provides the body with strength and energy.
2. With constant consumption of oil, the process of cell renewal in the human body is activated. This is especially true for brain cells.
3. The oil has a positive effect on the production of sex hormones, so it is useful for women planning a child.
4. Vitamin E, which the product contains in sufficient quantities, is very beneficial for hair, skin and nails. And also for those who build muscle mass in the gym.
5. Vitamin A maintains normal vision and restores the health of mucous membranes.
6. Vitamin D is necessary for a growing body and one that has problems with bones and teeth. These vitamins are fat-soluble, which means that they are absorbed by the body only together with natural fat, which is butter.

1. Residents of the North. In severe frosts, they always eat a little of this product and thereby protect their body from low temperatures.
2. For young children during a period of active growth. At this age, a lack of fat results in poor intellectual abilities, including delayed brain development. For schoolchildren, a lack of fat affects academic performance, memory and overall learning ability.
3. For those who also have a duodenum. In this case, you need to eat oil daily, but not more than 20 grams per day, then the wounds will heal.
4. For those who watch their weight and are on... No margarine can compare with butter in its properties. But to lose weight, MirSovetov recommends consuming it in very small quantities, no more than 10 grams per day.
5. If you have pain in the bladder, you need to eat butter as a bite with a soft-boiled egg, and you can mix butter with wine. For dysentery, drinking a glass of pomegranate juice with a teaspoon of butter will help.
6. During an epidemic and for colds, it is useful to eat garlic and lemon oil. To prepare lemon juice, you need to take 300 grams of butter, squeeze the juice from the lemon and finely chop about 50 grams of parsley. Mix all the ingredients, add salt to taste and you can eat no more than a teaspoon per day. And garlic oil is prepared like this: 350 grams of oil are mixed with 20 g of crushed garlic. Use by spreading on bread or adding to your favorite dishes.

Use of oil in folk medicine

Since ancient times, people have treated certain diseases with the help of this natural product. For example, for small children, when they only need to lubricate their gums with oil, after this the gums soften, pain and inflammation subside for a while and the whole process is much easier.

As a result, scientists around the world spent huge amounts of money on research into the dangers of butter, but no real evidence was ever obtained. One thing is certain - an excess of fat is fraught with human health, so everything should be in moderation.

Butter in our diet is a completely familiar natural product. But beneficial features butter is questioned by people who advocate healthy image life, arguing that butter, by increasing the level of cholesterol in the blood, causes the development of atherosclerosis in humans, and is often the cause of disability and death in people due to thrombosis, atherosclerosis, ischemia and heart attack.

Refusing butter, people go to the other extreme: eating spreads and various types of margarine, they claim that vegetable oils much healthier than animal fats.

Vegetable oil in its usual form - liquid, which is only used to season food, but is not fried in it, is, of course, a healthier product than butter. With margarine, everything is much more complicated. The melting point of margarine is higher than butter, and the body has difficulty digesting it. Almost all types of margarine contain palm oil, which is a source of cholesterol in the blood. Palm oil can “clog” human blood vessels with cholesterol plaques much faster than butter. Both margarine and spread contain hydrogenated fats, which have carcinogenic activity.

What are the benefits of butter?

Butter contains a huge amount of vitamin A, which is necessary to maintain vision, functions of the endocrine system, and the condition of hair and skin. Butter also contains a lot of vitamins D, E, and K.

Butter contains a huge amount of selenium, which is a powerful antioxidant that cleanses the body of free radicals. 1 gram of natural butter contains more of this important trace element than wheat or garlic. Butter is rich in iodine, which normalizes the activity of the thyroid gland.

Butyric acid contained in this product nourishes and stimulates the intestines. Butyric acid has powerful anti-carcinogenic properties. Lauric acid has antimicrobial and antifungal properties, linolenic acid will also protect the body from cancer. Fatty acids in butter are necessary for the synthesis of sex hormones and maintenance reproductive system person.

Oleic acid in butter normalizes the amount of cholesterol in the blood, helps normalize metabolism and fat metabolism in the body, and has anti-cancer properties.

Among the fatty acids in butter, glycosphingolipids should be especially highlighted, which have an important purpose - to protect the intestines from infections. These fatty acids are found in the cream of cow's milk. If you constantly drink skim milk, a state of predisposition to intestinal infection. Skim milk should not be fed to children on a regular basis.

Cholesterol, which is contained in butter, is necessary for the body to nourish the intestines, as well as the brain, nervous system. The absence of this type of cholesterol in food will invariably lead to pathologies in these systems. There is no need to be afraid of this cholesterol: butter, consumed in moderation, cannot have a detrimental effect on the condition of the joints. By the way: a huge amount of the same cholesterol is found in breast milk women.

How much butter can you consume without harm to your health?

Butter, as a natural and very rich product, needs careful dosage. Only if this product is consumed wisely will a person not have all those problems that “fighters for life without butter” are so fond of talking about. For children under 7 years of age, the daily intake of butter is 5-10 g per day, for teenagers and adults - up to 10-30 g. You need to eat butter by spreading it on bread, preferably from coarse varieties of grains, or seasoning vegetable dishes with it. , porridge.

Butter contains a lot of calories, but if you eat it correctly, in small quantities, then these calories are not stored as fat, but provide energy for the body. Children need butter: it nourishes brain cells and nervous tissue, and this contributes to the development of the baby’s mental abilities and intelligence.

Butter in the diet of a patient with gastric and intestinal ulcers promotes the healing of damaged mucous membranes. Such people are recommended to eat up to 20 g of butter per day.

During the period of flu and respiratory viral infections, doctors advise increasing the daily portion of butter to 60 g in order to protect yourself from infections and improve immunity.

Healthy butter recipes

1. Lemon oil for colds. Mix 300 g of softened butter with the juice of one lemon and 50 g of finely chopped parsley. The mixture can be salted. Use for morning sandwiches.

2. Garlic oil. Mix 300 g of butter with 20 g of crushed garlic. You can add parsley and salt to taste.

3. Carrot oil. Mix 300 g of butter with puree from one cooked carrot. It is better to make puree with a blender. This oil improves immunity and has a good effect on vision.

4. Herring oil. Chop the fillet of one herring. Add 50 g parsley and 400 g butter. This oil has anthelmintic properties.

5. Dill oil. Mix 300 g of butter with 50 g of finely chopped dill. This oil solves the problem of gas formation in the intestines.

6. Dessert honey butter. Mix 300 g of butter with 300 g of natural honey. You can store it at room temperature: butter will not go rancid in honey even if it is warm.

7. Apple butter. Bake 2 medium apples, rub through a sieve. Add 300 g of butter and 3 tablespoons of honey to the puree, beat well. This oil increases hemoglobin levels.

The beneficial properties of butter will help you and your family not to get sick, provided that you meet the norm for consuming the product.

Earlier butter was one of the main things in the diet of our ancestors, today this product has lost a little of its relevance; people often try to use it instead, for fear of harmful cholesterol.

In the next issue of our online magazine, we will try to figure out how justified such fears are, and is it possible to completely exclude this product from your diet? Is butter healthy and why exactly? Who can and even should eat it, and who should abstain?

Chemical composition of butter

It’s not for nothing that our ancestors loved butter: this product really has unique properties. It contains a lot (by the way, this vitamin is not found in vegetable oils). 50 grams of butter successfully replenishes one a third of the daily requirement vitamin A, which the body needs for good vision and proper functioning of the immune system.

Food and energy value 100 g butter:

Useful properties of butter

1. Butter in reasonable quantities is useful for pathologies of the gastrointestinal tract. It has a complex effect: vitamin A promotes the healing of small ulcers in the stomach, and the “lubrication” helps to quickly restore this organ.
2. Oleic acid reduces the risk of cancer.
3. All fatty foods are a good source of energy, for this reason it is recommended to use butter for people living in cold countries - it will help to warm up and give strength.
4. Fats that make up cells human body, namely, they are found in brain tissue and promote cell renewal.
5. Children should definitely consume butter, because if there is a shortage of it, the latter may experience decreased mental activity and poor academic performance.

Use in cooking

Unmodified oil is often used in the process of making sandwiches, in which case it can be mixed with other ingredients, for example, or.

Butter is quite popular in the confectionery industry; here it is used in various baked goods. Also, oil is an indispensable component for almost any (for example, , ) and ( , ), it’s not for nothing that the saying arose that you can’t spoil porridge with oil.

Together with flour, this product is binder for sauces. A small piece of melted butter in broth or soup makes its taste richer.

Butter and cheese go well together, but both are quite fatty product Therefore, you should not consume large amounts of the first and second foods at one meal.

Harm and contraindications

This product contains high amount of cholesterol, therefore, in case of excessive consumption, it may develop atherosclerosis.

Today we very often encounter not natural butter, but ersatz butter, which is replete with a variety of flavors, additives, dyes and emulsifiers. Of course, such a product cannot bring any benefit, although spreads have lower calorie content and contain transisomers– dangerous fatty acids that damage artery walls.

If speak about natural oil, then another aspect is relevant here - oil is quite high in calories and its excessive consumption promotes obesity, and, accordingly, all the diseases that accompany it. If consumed wisely, calories will not turn into fat, but will provide the body with the necessary energy.

Product consumption rate

Children under seven years old can eat daily from 5 to 10 grams of product, adults and adolescents - from 10 to 30 grams. Recommended for use by spreading on bakery products(best made from coarse flour), or season porridge and vegetable salads with it.

For intestinal and stomach ulcers, it is recommended to eat up to 20 grams of oil every day.

With the flu, as well as during respiratory viral infections you should increase the amount of oil consumed to 60 grams, this will help protect the body from infection and help improve immunity.

How to choose butter

1. You need to purchase only oil that is produced in accordance with DSTU or GOST ( state standard), and not according to technical specifications.
2. Before purchasing, pay attention to the product name. The following variant names are possible: “Peasant Butter”, “Butter”, “Butter”, but not “Maselko”, “Maslichko” and the like.
3. If in any doubt, refer to the composition. Natural butter may contain cow's milk products, that is, cream and milk fat. In the presence of vegetable fat– such a product can no longer be considered an oil, it is a spread.
4. It is not recommended to purchase butter by weight or in plastic films that do not contain any information about the manufacturer and ingredients.

In case of purchase oils at the market pay attention to its surface - it should shine slightly when cut, be dry with single small droplets of moisture. The color can vary from white to white-yellow shades, but it must be uniform. Availability yellow color edges is caused by natural oxidation of the product and is not a guarantee of quality. IN winter time the oil is usually white or slightly yellowish, since the cows do not consume fresh feed, but eat straw. IN summer time the oil is brighter yellow. Some companies specifically add dyes to the oil to make it look as natural as possible.

Can check the naturalness of the oil one good one folk method. To do this, you need to take well-frozen butter and split it with a knife. With a high-quality product, you will see uneven edges, and the spreads will closely resemble glass and they will also melt much faster than their natural counterparts.

How to store butter

The product can be stored in parchment packaging for 10 days. When stored in foil, this period increases to 20 days. The shelf life of butter can be up to 3 months if you keep it at a temperature between minus 12 to plus 6. This product is intolerant to air, light and moisture. It also absorbs various odors very well, so it is recommended to choose an impenetrable oil can for storing it.

And finally, it should be noted that butter, like any other product, is good in moderation, then it will not only be useful, but can even help cure very serious pathologies. But it is not recommended to exceed the measure in order to avoid various unpleasant consequences.

Have we not mentioned any fact about this product? Write about it in

Eg ? Surely there are quite a few such people. On store shelves you can see a huge variety of butter: sweet cream, Vologda, amateur, sour cream, salted and unsalted. There are also oils with additives: honey, vanillin, cocoa powder. Let's talk a little more about it in this article.

The benefits of butter

Butter appeared as early as the ninth century; sour milk, sour cream or cream were used to make it. For many centuries, no one considered oil to be a harmful product, but even today there are more benefits in it than harm. There are many different analogues: spread, margarine, but only butter made from natural heavy cream can be considered butter. To find out whether this oil is real in a beautiful package, you need to carefully study the composition. It is desirable that it does not contain preservatives, emulsifiers, flavors and dyes.

So, let's look at the beneficial properties of the oil, of which there are quite a lot of them.

• The cholesterol contained in butter takes direct participation in strengthening the walls of blood vessels.
• With the help of cholesterol, sex and other hormones are produced, due to which many representatives The fair sex suffers from infertility and cessation of menstruation and acidity.
• The oil contains vitamins D and A, calcium.
• Due to vitamin A, digestion improves, and the vitamin also helps with diseases of the bronchi and lungs.
• The oil strengthens the body, improves the immune system, and improves vision.
• Gives a boost of vigor and energy.
• Has a beneficial effect on people with gastrointestinal problems.
• Vitamin A promotes the healing of wounds and ulcers, so the oil is recommended in moderate quantities for people with cholecystitis and pancreatitis.
• Oleic acid contained in the oil prevents gene activity.
• Consistent consumption of the creamy product increases the growth and health of the nails, skin.
• Stabilizes the functioning of mucous membranes.
• Lauric acid helps the human body resist fungal diseases and cures candidiasis.
• Increases brain activity.
• Protects tooth enamel from destruction.
• During experiments, it was found that oil consumption stabilizes reproductive function in women suffering from infertility.

Harm of creamy oils

As already mentioned, there is much less harm in cream than good, but it is still present. At abuse This product can cause atherosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases. All of them arise due to the large amount of cholesterol contained in butter, which clogs blood vessels.

Allergic reactions to butter are possible, although they are quite rare. Above, you learned that oil packaging should be examined carefully. If the product is not natural, with dyes, flavorings and various additives, it can cause some diseases, since dangerous fatty acids damage the walls of the arteries.

Creamy recipe oils

If you want to be 100% sure that the butter is completely natural, without impurities or additives, then it is best to prepare it yourself. It will take very little time and products, and the result will stun you.

What you need to make butter:

• half a liter of the thickest natural cream;
• salt, herbs to taste.

How to cook :

1. Pour the cream into a deep bowl. It is best to cover with film, making small holes for the mixer beaters.
2. At the highest speed of a mixer or blender, beat the cream for 10-15 minutes.
3. During the beating process, oil will appear and liquid will separate, which must be drained and continued beating for a few more minutes.
4. Drain the liquid several more times, the oil should be thick. Gather it into a ball and leave for 10 minutes so that the remaining liquid comes out of it.
5. Lightly mash the lump with a spoon, drain all the liquid and place the butter on parchment. You can immediately put it in the refrigerator, or add a little salt to it and mash it. If desired, you can add herbs, spices, and other additives.
6. If you don't have a mixer, you can pour the cream into a plastic bottle, close it tightly and shake it with your hands for about 15 minutes.