Michael Pollan on Butter
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Here’s an interesting 10 minute video with Michael Pollan defending real food:
I agree with everything he is saying.
Except for when he says that you shouldn’t eat a lot of butter. Sally Fallon says butter is a health food. She said she eats half a stick of butter on her oatmeal every day — 4 full tablespoons. She actually said that she thinks vegetables are just a vehicle for good fats. I love that!
One thing Pollan says in this video is that we should look to history and tradition when making choices about food and nutrition.
Hence, the traditional foods movement — eat real foods that have not been contaminated, adulterated or processed: butter, raw milk, raw milk cheese, grass-fed beef, pastured poultry, naturally leavened breads, fermented foods, soaked and sprouted grains and nuts.
Traditonally, people have been eating butter. For centuries. LOTS of butter. Read any French cookbook from a hundred years ago and the amount of butter and heavy cream will blow your mind. Heck, just read Julia Child’s recipes!
So why does he say we should not eat very much of it? Why does he say it is not a health food? What is his evidence for that claim?
I also disagree with Pollan’s wacky assertion that we should, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
WTF?! Plants? Mostly plants?
Many radically healthy traditional populations lived on animal foods as the bulk of their diet. Traditional Swiss villagers lived almost exclusively on dairy — raw milk, butter, cream, and cheese — with naturally leavened bread and small amounts of meat and vegetables. Other cultures lived mainly on the meat from animals (the native American Indians and many African tribes) and still others lived mainly on fish (Polynesian tribes, Eskimos, Scottish fishermen). All of these people lived on a diet high in saturated animal fats — over 50%. The Eskimos ate about 80% saturated fats.
I can’t think of a single healthy traditional culture that lived on mostly plants. Can you? I challenge you to name one.
I wish Pollan would do his research on traditional diets and the health benefits of saturated animal fats. I agree with Sally Fallon — Pollan is in a position of power and he really should study more about nutrition so he can speak intelligently about it.
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21/03/2008 at 8:27 pm Permalink
Yes!!! It’s great to hear of other butter lovers! I am now consuming about 150-160 grams of fat per day (from coconut oil, ghee, cod liver oil, eggs, etc.) and I finally feel like I’m alive. I no longer have blood sugar issues, I don’t have to eat every hour and I don’t crave carbs anymore. Actually I only crave fatty things like eggs, homemade sausage, sauted veggies in a ton of fat, and more eggs. I can’t do dairy right now except ghee (starving my candida) but as soon as I can…mmm…bring on the kefir and cheese!
21/03/2008 at 8:55 pm Permalink
Yes, you know, one thing I thought was sad about this video is this mom complaining that her kids want white bread with butter. Let them have their butter!
Get them raw butter from pastured animals. And get them some sprouted bread instead of that gross white processed junk — get it out of your house. But don’t complain that they want butter. Butter is good!!!
22/03/2008 at 7:27 am Permalink
That is so weird– I just posted this link last night on our discussingNT yahoo group, and then today I see you have blogged about it. You and I have a lot of intersecting interests, Anne Marie. I like that we bloggers can all learn from one another and spread our united message of health to the world!
Jessica
http://www.practicalnourishment.com
22/03/2008 at 7:31 am Permalink
You’re the one I got it from, Jess! LOL!
Yes, we do have intersecting interests — it’s amazing to read on your blog about how excited you are about your garden. Even though you are half way across the country, we are excited about the same things.
I agree that blogging is very powerful. We have the opportunity to impact positive change on the planet. That’s why I do it. Why keep all this knowledge to myself?
Plus, I know how much it helps me when I read something on someone else’s blog — I get new ideas, and I’m encouraged to go on.
10/05/2008 at 9:41 pm Permalink
Hey this is a fascinating subject. You mentioned the Swiss eating a lot of butter, cheese and wonderful breads. My Norwegian ancestors at fresh butter, cheese, breads and milk. They also had a really amazing tasting cheese that was a mixture of half cows milk and half goats milk. It is heavenly!! They also ate a lot of wonderful cold water fish since they were right there next to the sea.
I think that the answer is that you are getting a lot of the nutrients from the plants when you eat the meat (beef, etc.) that has been eating grass. So you get the plants from the meat you are eating. Also the fish oils are produced from fish (especially salmon, mackerel and other cold water fish) eating the sea vegetation along the bottom and shallows of the sea. They eat a lot of sea vegetables and plankton as well. We get those omegas from those fish we eat.
The “mostly plants” is probably based on the theory that our early ancestors probably ate mostly vegetation (i.e. leaves, berries and nuts) and ate some meat from time to time. The grains we eat should obviously be whole grains like Spelt, Oats, Amaranth and other ancient grains. They have far more nutrients than most of our modern wheat that was bred and raised with quantity and profits as the motive as opposed to nutrients and quality.
14/12/2008 at 8:11 am Permalink
You are so right, I spent a very large proportion of my life thinking plants were the way to go, I was so unhealthy, no energy, acne, loads of other problems (I even think now that parasites had a chance to take hold) I live very near to that valley in Switzerland and I tell you, raw dairy is the way to go. The Swiss are the second longest living nation in the world. And they eat lots of chocolate.
So the phrase should be:
“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly good fats.” Is this politically incorrect?
14/12/2008 at 8:18 am Permalink
Ha, yes, Lune, I guess it is politically incorrect! But oh well!
Sally Fallon’s response to Michael Pollan was:
“Eat plants. Always with butter. Or cream.”