Guest guest Posted December 30, 2008 Report Share Posted December 30, 2008 Hello, I was having a conversation with my brother who mentioned that his wife eats horribly. She puts REAL butter on all of her vegetables! he said. =) When I explained that I actually didn't think that was a bad thing, he asked why the fats in olive oil wouldn't also allow for our bodies to fully utilize the vitamins and minerals present? Any ideas here? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 30, 2008 Report Share Posted December 30, 2008 --- <massaro@...> wrote: > I was having a conversation with my brother who mentioned that his > wife eats horribly. She puts REAL butter on all of her vegetables! > he said. =) When I explained that I actually didn't think that was > a bad thing, he asked why the fats in olive oil wouldn't also allow > for our bodies to fully utilize the vitamins and minerals present? , As you probably know, olive oil is mostly monounsaturated fat (about 73%). It is fairly low in saturated fat (14%) and that's why it's touted in the not-really-Mediterranean " Mediterranean Diet " . It also has about 11% polyunsaturated fat, which is a bit high, but not bad for occasional use. Ideally, it's best to keep polyunsaturated fat intake to no more than about 4% of long-term calorie intake. Butter is about 51% saturated fat and that is the only reason it has been vilified by naive and misguided " health experts " . Healthy people have been eating butter and saturated fats for thousands of years. There is no solid evidence that butter or saturated fat is unhealthful. In fact, butter is likely to be a great boost for health, because it also has substantial amounts of important nutrients that you won't find in olive oil, like the fat soluble vitamins A, D, and K2 (more so in butter from grass-fed pastured cows), as well as small amounts of other vitamins and minerals. Butter is only 3% polyunsaturated, so it works well for those of us trying to keep polyunsaturated fats to 4% of calories or less. Ironically, it appears to be polyunsaturated fats and artificial trans fats that are major culprits in heart disease and cancer, not saturated fat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 30, 2008 Report Share Posted December 30, 2008 That makes sense! Thanks for spelling that out for me, . =) > > I was having a conversation with my brother who mentioned that his > > wife eats horribly. She puts REAL butter on all of her vegetables! > > he said. =) When I explained that I actually didn't think that was > > a bad thing, he asked why the fats in olive oil wouldn't also allow > > for our bodies to fully utilize the vitamins and minerals present? > > , > > As you probably know, olive oil is mostly monounsaturated fat (about > 73%). It is fairly low in saturated fat (14%) and that's why it's > touted in the not-really-Mediterranean " Mediterranean Diet " . It also > has about 11% polyunsaturated fat, which is a bit high, but not bad > for occasional use. Ideally, it's best to keep polyunsaturated fat > intake to no more than about 4% of long-term calorie intake. > > Butter is about 51% saturated fat and that is the only reason it has > been vilified by naive and misguided " health experts " . Healthy people > have been eating butter and saturated fats for thousands of years. > There is no solid evidence that butter or saturated fat is > unhealthful. In fact, butter is likely to be a great boost for > health, because it also has substantial amounts of important nutrients > that you won't find in olive oil, like the fat soluble vitamins A, D, > and K2 (more so in butter from grass-fed pastured cows), as well as > small amounts of other vitamins and minerals. Butter is only 3% > polyunsaturated, so it works well for those of us trying to keep > polyunsaturated fats to 4% of calories or less. > > Ironically, it appears to be polyunsaturated fats and artificial trans > fats that are major culprits in heart disease and cancer, not > saturated fat. > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 31, 2008 Report Share Posted December 31, 2008 , > When I explained > that I actually > didn't think that was a bad thing, he asked why the fats in olive oil > wouldn't also allow for > our bodies to fully utilize the vitamins and minerals present? Any ideas > here? Colpo cites a 1965 study by Rose et al. in his book _The Great Cholesterol Con_ in which three groups were fed either butter, olive oil, or corn oil, and followed for two years. The corn oil group had four times the cardiac and total mortality as the butter group. I don't remember the exact numbers, but the olive oil group was, while in between, closer to the corn oil group than the butter group. A study done in my department at UConn by et al. found that carotene absorption was much lower when the fat provided was high in PUFA. One possibility is that oxidative stress in the intestine degrades carotenes and/or otherwise compromises their absorption. As pointed out, olive oil is much better than some of the other vegetable oils but it is still much higher in PUFA than butter. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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