- Butter on the Polish market
- Butter - what butter is real?
- Butter - calories and nutritional values
- Butter - the composition of conventional butter
- Is butter he althy? - research results
Butter is condensed milk fat that is obtained from the cream of cow's milk. Butter sold in Poland is divided into four groups: extra, delicacy, choice and table butter. It is a completely natural product, but not everyone can eat it. What are the nutritional values of butter? How many calories does it have and what are the ingredients? Is butter he althy?
Contents:
- Butter on the Polish market
- Butter - what butter is real?
- Butter - calories and nutritional values
- Butter - the composition of conventional butter
- Is butter he althy? - research results
There has been a heated debate around thebutterfor some time now. Some avoid it altogether, following the fat theory that saturated fatty acids from butter and red meat cause heart disease, atherosclerosis and heart attacks.
Others are fans of butter - adherents of fatty diets add it to their morning coffee and fry it in clarified butter, claiming that it is a very he althy fat. What's the truth? As always, it lies somewhere in the middle.
It is now known that food cholesterol is not a real cause of high blood cholesterol, and that trans fat is a much greater risk to your he alth than saturated fat.
At the same time, an excess of saturated animal fats is not recommended, and replacing it with vegetable oils (low in omega-6 fatty acids!) Promotes the overall well-being of the body.
Following the position of scientists at Harvard University: "The results of new research suggest that butter should not be as demonized as before. However, at the same time, it should not be used as a means to good he alth. "
Butter on the Polish market
Butter is a high-fat dairy product obtained from milk - mostly cow's milk. From a technological point of view, it is a water-in-fat emulsion with a minimum fat content of 80% (most often 82% in Poland), a water content of no more than 16% and up to 2% of non-fat solids.
The additives authorized for use in butter are carotenes E 160a (except sheep and goat milk butter), sodium carbonates E500, phosphoric acid E338, phosphates E339-343, diphosphates E450, triphosphates E451, polyphosphates E452 (for butter obtained from sour cream).
Most often only carotenes can be found as an additive in butter, the role of which is to give a more yellow color.
There are 4 commercial descriptions of products containing milk fats without vegetable fat admixtures:
- butter - a product with a milk fat content of 80-90%, no more than 16% water and no more than 2% of the non-fat dry matter of milk,
- three-quarter fat butter (60% -62% fat),
- semi-skimmed butter (39% -41% fat),
- milk fat for spreads X%. Product with a fat content of less than 80% and more than 62%, less than 60% and more than 41% or less than 39%.
The butter has a characteristic sweetish aroma and its color ranges from light cream to light yellow. The color of the butter varies depending on the season and how the cows are fed. Butter from the milk of cows grazing in grasslands and eating grass is more yellow than that of forage-fed cows.
At room temperature, butter is a soft solid that solidifies when refrigerated.
The annual production of butter in the world is over 4 million tons, and in Poland it is about 170 thousand tons. A statistical Pole eats about 0.25 kg of butter a month, and 29% of respondents eat it daily.
Butter - what butter is real?
According to the European Union regulation, butter is a product consisting of milk fat in the amount of 80 to 90% and must not contain any vegetable fat.
Butter is one of the most frequently adulterated foods. In order to lower the production costs, vegetable fats are added instead of milk fat. Research on the Polish market shows that up to 40% of the butter cubes available in stores may be adulterated.
In butter mixed with vegetable fats, palm oil is most often added in an amount exceeding 5%, but there are even cases of products sold as butter in which the amount of palm oil was 50%.
Another step of producers, aimed at manipulating the customer, is the use of packaging suggesting that it is butter for fat mixes, in which milk fat is often only a few percent. When buying butter, be careful and aware.
Butter - calories and nutritional values
Butter is a food product with high nutritional value, but at the same time very high in calories, as it consists almost exclusively of fats. 100 g of butter provides about 740 kcal.
It contains 82 g of fat, 50 g of which are saturated fats - mainly palmitic, stearic, myristic and lauric fats. About 20 g / 100 g are acidsmonounsaturated fats - mainly oleic acid. Short-chain fatty acids, the length of which does not exceed 8 carbon atoms in the chain, are very important in terms of he alth.
They are burned very quickly, they do not accumulate as spare adipose tissue, and even some sources suggest that they promote the acceleration of metabolism. Short-chain fatty acids are extremely important for nourishing intestinal epithelial cells and are their primary source of energy. Moreover, they exhibit antifungal and antibacterial properties. Butter contains about 8 g of short-chain fatty acids per 100 g.
Butter is also a source of CLA - conjugated linoleic acid dienes with anti-cancer, anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory and anti-atherosclerotic properties. However, it must be remembered that CLA is found mainly in butter from naturally fed cows - grazed in the meadows.
In winter, the CLA content during cowshed feeding constitutes 0.49% of total fatty acids, and in summer - 1.2%, which corresponds to 0.4 g / 100 g in winter to 1 g in summer.
Phospholipids are a very important fraction of milk fat, the most important of which are lecithin and sphingomyelin. These compounds have a beneficial effect on the human nervous system, the ability to remember and concentrate, and facilitate the rapid regeneration of the body during intense physical exertion.
Milk fat contains 0.6 to 1.0% of phospholipids. In addition to fat and water, butter contains small amounts of carbohydrates (0.7 g / 100 g) - lactose and proteins (0.7 g / 100 g).
Butter is a source of fat-soluble vitamins - vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E and vitamin K.
Butter - the composition of conventional butter
| Butter ingredient | Contents per 100 g |
| Energy | 744 kcal |
| Fat | 82, 38 g |
| Water | 16.02 g |
| Fat-free dry mass | 1.55 g |
| Protein | 0.63 g |
| Carotenoids (relative to petroleum ether) | 4,3 |
| Vitamin A (retinol) | 574.94 μg |
| α-tocopherol | 2.76 mg / 100 g |
| Cholesterol | 243.3 mg |
| Saturated fat | 49.44 g |
| Monounsaturated fatty acids | 18.73 g |
| Polyunsaturated fatty acids | 2.01 g |
| Omega-3 fatty acids | 0.63g |
| Omega-6 fatty acids | 1.38 g |
Is butter he althy? - research results
A meta-analysis published in 2016 in the journal PLoS ONE showed the relationship between butter consumption and the risk of heart disease, diabetes and overall mortality.
The authors checked 9 databases in different languages for scientific articles on butter consumption and its he alth effects. The studies we analyzed included a total of 636,151 people, and during the analysis, 28,271 deaths were found, including 9,783 from cardiological causes and 23,954 from diabetes.
Based on the analyzes, it was found that the consumption of 14 grams of butter daily does not affect the incidence of cardiological events - heart attacks and emboli, is very weakly associated with an increase in overall mortality and very weakly reduces the risk of death from diabetes.
The authors of this review study emphasize that butter is a neutral product to he alth. It should not be completely eliminated from the diet, and at the same time it is worth using other sources of fat. This analysis also concluded that blaming fat for multiple diseases and advocating low-fat diets was a flawed theory that did more harm than good.
The elimination of fat is associated with an increase in carbohydrate consumption, and years of observation have shown that a high-carbohydrate diet is more harmful to he alth than a high-fat diet.
As research from the last decade shows, fat consumed in the daily diet in rational amounts (for spreading on bread, for frying, etc.) does not adversely affect he alth and weight gain. On the contrary.
Many publications indicate that eating full-fat dairy products is better for your he alth than eating carbohydrates such as white bread, rice, pasta, and of course sugar, sweets and sweetened drinks.
A large body of research has confirmed that sugar and processed carbohydrates cause diabetes, heart disease, and weight gain. It has also been proven that a diet rich in fat promotes weight control, regulates blood glucose levels and prevents type II diabetes.
The authors of the cited study suggest that it is time to change our thinking about the impact of food ingredients on he alth from individual analysis of, for example, the effect of calcium, saturated fats or simple carbohydrates on a holistic view. Because we eat cheese, butter, pasta, chocolate, etc., not isolated ingredients.
Dariush Mozaffarian, one of the authors of Is Butter Back? A SystematicReview and Meta-Analysis of Butter Consumption and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes, and Total Mortality, underlines; "Vegetable oils, fruits, and nuts are he althier than butter, but on the other hand, low-fat turkey meat, bagels, cornflakes, and sodas are worse for your he alth."
Butter and generally saturated fatty acids from animals are believed to raise blood cholesterol levels. However, the cholesterol theory has been refuted many times, and it is now widely accepted that cholesterol from food has no real effect on blood levels of this nutrient.
This is because the liver makes 70-80% of the total cholesterol needed by the body. There is a balance in the food-liver system. The more cholesterol we eat, the less the liver produces, and vice versa. Indeed, saturated fatty acids from butter raise blood levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol, but at the same time raise levels of "good" HDL cholesterol, so the he alth effect is completely neutral.
Opponents of eating butter and animal fats often focus only on the LDL fraction, not taking into account the overall he alth effect of these foods.
The 2014 publication of the Association of Dietary, Circulating, and Supplement Fatty Acids With Coronary Risk: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis presents an overview of studies showing the relationship between consumption of various types of fatty acids and the risk of heart disease. The analysis included 32 observational studies of dietary fatty acid intake (512,420 participants), 17 studies of fatty acid biomarkers (25,721 participants), 27 randomized controlled trials of fatty acid supplementation (105,085 participants).
The analysis of the available material shows that saturated fatty acids affect the risk of heart disease as much as unsaturated fatty acids. The consumption of omega-3 fatty acids has a protective effect, and the consumption of trans fats - increases the risk of morbidity and cardiovascular events.
The authors of the study conclude: "Currently available scientific evidence does not support the recommendations of cardiological societies to encourage the consumption of increased amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids and the reduction of consumption of saturated fatty acids."
Read also:
- BUTTER or MARGARINE - which type of fat to choose?
- Clarified butter (ghee): properties and effects on he alth. Recipe for clarified butter
Aleksandra Żyłowska-Mharrab, dietician Food technologist,dietitian, educator. A graduate of Biotechnology at the Gdańsk University of Technology and Nutritional Services at the Maritime University. A supporter of simple, he althy cuisine and conscious choices in everyday nutrition. My main interests include building permanent changes in eating habits and individually composing a diet according to the body's needs. Because the same thing is not he althy for everyone! I believe that nutritional education is very important, both for children and adults. I focus my activities on spreading knowledge about nutrition, analyze new research results, and make my own conclusions. I adhere to the principle that a diet is a lifestyle, not strict adherence to meals on a sheet of paper. There is always room for delicious pleasures in he althy and conscious eating.
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