Does Butter Weigh Heavy on Your Heart?

A paddy of butter – is it all that bad?  Remember that we are talking about eating lifestyles.  Eating habits.  If we make a habit of placing butter on our bread, we don’t even think about it.  If we have always placed a glob of butter on our baked potato, we will do it again next time we eat one.  If a certain food that is medically known to bring harm to our arteries is placed on one side of a scale and a healthy food is place on the other side, you have to decide which one you are going to eat.  Make a habit of not eating the bad.  And butter falls into that category.  Butter has two of the sources of the bad kind of food you want to avoid.  It has both dietary cholesterol as well as dietary saturated fat. Many say to substitute margarine for butter because margarine doesn’t contain dietary cholesterol.  And they are half right but still half wrong.  Although margarine doesn’t have the dietary cholesterol butter contains, it still has about the same amount of saturated fat as butter.  Butter and margarine both fit into the “bad” picture that can raise those “lethal” LDL cholesterol splinters. So, quit putting either butter or margarine on your bread and your baked potato.  Rather, use substitutes like Benecol or Promise Active.  These are cholesterol-lowering spreads.   Also, use olive oil and canola oil in cooking.  They contain the good monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. If you want to put something on your bread, put some olive oil.  Many of the sauces put on the foods you order are butter or cream based. You may order grilled fish for your dinner but with it, comes a thick cream based sauce which is butter loaded.  Avoid the creamy Alfredo sauce and ask for a marinara or basil sauce instead.  Prescription For Life will teach you little rules that teaches you how to place two foods on a scale.  One good and one bad.  It will teach you which one to eat and which one weighs heavily on your heart.  (Heart arteries, that is.)