CC BY
6Butter
Eliseeva Tatyana, editor-in-chief of the EdaPlus.info project Yampolsky Alexey, nutritionist
E-mail: eliseeva.t@edaplus.info, yampolsky.a@edaplus.info
Abstract. The article discusses the main properties of butter and its effect on the human body. A systematic review of modern specialized literature and relevant scientific data was carried out. The chemical composition and nutritional value of the product are indicated , the use of butter in various types of medicine and the effectiveness of its use in various diseases are considered. Potentially adverse effects of butter on the human body under certain medical conditions and diseases are analyzed separately. The scientific foundations of diets with its application are considered.
Keywords: butter , benefits, harm, beneficial properties, contraindications Beneficial features
Table 1. Chemical composition of butter (according to Food+).
Main substances (g / 100 g): Butter contains (in 100 g):
Water 16.72 g
Carbohydrates -
Squirrels 0.49 g
Fats 78.3 g
Calories (kcal) 731 kcal
Minerals Mg / 100 g
Potassium 41
Calcium 23
Magnesium one
Phosphorus 24
Sodium 583
vitamins Mg / 100 g
Vitamin A 0.683
Vitamin E 1.37
Vitamin B2 0.064
Vitamin PP 0.022
Vitamin B6 0.008
Butter is the result of a phased processing of animal milk. Nowadays, we are talking mainly about the milk of cows, although in ancient times butter was made from the milk of sheep and goats. Even now, in some countries, yak or buffalo milk is taken as the basis.
Cream is obtained from milk, which, in turn, is churned or separated, resulting in an emulsion - fat (in the highest categories of butter, its share reaches 85%) with the inclusion of water (15-25% depending on the category and type).
In addition to fat and water, butter contains milk proteins and a small amount of carbohydrates. Of the fat-like substances found in butter, cholesterol and trans fats are of the greatest concern to healthy eaters. The share of the latter can be 3-6%, which usually exceeds the amount of trans fats in modern spreads.
The nutritional characteristics of cows in winter and summer periods are somewhat different, and this causes a slight difference in the composition of "winter" and "summer" oil. So, for example, in "summer" there is 2-4 times more vitamin D than in "winter". Also in the "summer" oil is about 0.170.55 mg / 100 g of carotene, which is artificially added as a food coloring to the "winter" oil at the production stage. In addition, butter contains 2 to 5 mg/100 g of tocopherols, biologically active compounds that are often grouped under the general name "vitamin E". This product is also rich in vitamin A.
Since butter is the result of a phased production process, some additional ingredients may appear in the composition along the way, regulated by regulatory documents that manufacturers are guided by. So, for example, oil can be additionally enriched with vitamins. Salt (sodium chloride) is almost always included in the composition to a greater or lesser extent, which acts both as a preservative and as a flavor enhancer.
Sour milk butter is made from fermented cream that has soured naturally during fermentation, when bacteria convert the sugar into lactic acid. Sweet cream butter is made from fresh cream. Fermentation is usually achieved by introducing cultures of bacteria and/or lactic acid into the pasteurized cream. As a result of fermentation, diacetyl and other aromatic compounds are formed, making the final product more saturated.
Medicinal properties
Butter is one of the most controversial products. It is sometimes criticized for the presence of saturated fats, sometimes it is rehabilitated for its high content of easily digestible fatty acids or, for example, for the ability to increase the level of "good" cholesterol.
As a result, on the one hand, there are reasonable and clear restrictions on the maximum allowable amount of oil consumed. On the other hand, there are studies that cast doubt on the causal relationship between butter consumption and increased mortality from vascular and heart diseases.
General WHO recommendations limit the intake of saturated fat to 10% per day (of total calories). In general, this means that eating about 15-25 grams of oil per day can stay out of the risk zone. But since there are other sources of saturated fat besides butter, it's best to focus on the lower end of the range. As an alternative, it is proposed to switch from butter to vegetable oils: soybean, rapeseed, sunflower, etc., rich in polyunsaturated fats.
In the UK, the daily allowance for saturated fat is around 30g for men and 20g for women - that is, up to 11% of calories. In the United States, as in the recommendations of the World Health Organization -up to 10%. And the American Heart Association reduces the upper limit in general to 5-6%.
At the same time, if you choose such an amount only with butter, then it may seem that the usual volume of its consumption can not be reduced - after all, 20 grams is about 2.5 tablespoons. However, when you consider that 20 grams of saturated fat is gained by just one hamburger with cheese or bacon and two or three sausages, then there is practically no place for butter in the diet.
However, in recent years, the voices of the defenders of butter have been sounding louder and louder. In a 2015 study, the effect of introducing a moderate amount of butter into the diet was evaluated in an experiment with 47 healthy women (70%) and men. For 10 weeks (with a two-week break) they added either butter or refined olive oil to their usual menu. [2]
At the end of the experiment, in the "butter" group, scientists recorded a more pronounced increase in total cholesterol and the concentration of "bad" low-density lipoproteins than in the "olive oil" group. At the same time, the butter increased the level of "good" high-density lipoproteins in the participants of the experiment. There were no significant differences in the concentrations of triacylglycerol, C-reactive protein, insulin and glucose.
This assessment of the role of butter is very illustrative. At the end of their article, the scientists voiced the conclusion that other researchers most often come to today: patients with hypercholesterolemia should reduce their consumption of butter to a minimum, and people with normocholesterolemia can introduce butter in moderation into their diet.
In a universal and simplified form, the assessment of the role of butter usually sounds like this: eating a lot of butter is harmful even to healthy people, and for those who have already found problems with the state of the cardiovascular system or gallbladder, it is advisable to use butter in minimal quantities. But few experts advise healthy people to completely abandon this product.
Such a relatively loyal attitude to butter is justified theoretically and confirmed by some large-scale observations.
As part of the theoretical justification, the protection of butter is based on the important and positive role of fats in human life, which are part of the cells of organs and tissues, participate in the formation of new cellular structures. With fats, substances with high biological activity enter the body: from vitamins A, E, K, D, and lecithin to essential fatty acids and the notorious cholesterol.
Lecithin, by the way, refers to anti-cholesterol factors. And although it is 5-7 times less in butter than in unrefined vegetable oils, it is still found there.
As for cholesterol, by itself it is necessary for the body. Thanks to it, the permeability of cell membranes is regulated, vitamin D is formed in the skin, sex hormones are synthesized, etc.
Butter does contain a lot of cholesterol, although much less than in egg yolks, black caviar or liver. Indeed, with metabolic disorders of various nature and damage to the inner walls of blood vessels, "heavy" fractions of cholesterol can be deposited in the vessels, becoming one of the causes of atherosclerosis.
However, the defenders of butter in this case remind that about 0.5 g of cholesterol is supplied with food daily, and the body synthesizes it in the amount of 1.5-2 grams at the same time - 3-4 times more. At the same time, a sharp rejection of cholesterol-containing products leads to an increase in its
synthesis by the body. So even with diagnosed cholelithiasis or atherosclerosis, one should not rush to completely exclude "cholesterol" products. It is believed that it is more expedient to simply reduce the amount of cholesterol intake to 0.25-0.3 g per day. In terms of "butter" it will be about 10-13 grams.
In support of butter, several studies have evaluated and re-evaluated the role of butter in increasing the risk of death from various heart diseases and stroke.
Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, dean of the School of Nutrition and Policy at Tufts University in Massachusetts, said the data from the analysis of previous studies "does not support the need for dietary advice to emphasize increasing or decreasing oil intake."
The very work of the group of scientists, which included Dr. Mozaffarian, was a meta-analysis of information from 9 previously published studies, which together described the dynamic health indicators of more than 636 thousand people from 15 countries. [3] The authors of those projects for a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 23 years observed the state of various groups of the population. During these observations, more than 28 thousand people died. 9.78 thousand were diagnosed with heart disease, 23.95 thousand had type 2 diabetes. The average amount of butter people consumed in the studies ranged from one third of a tablespoon to 3 tablespoons per day.
Comparing the amount of oil eaten with diagnosed diseases, scientists did not find a significant statistical relationship between the use of this product with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. In particular, when eating an average of 1 tablespoon of butter per day (about 14 g, which corresponds to one serving as determined by the USDA), the likelihood of dying from these diseases increased by 1%.
Moreover, referring to a 2015 analysis of nurses' health [4] , the authors note that in that study, replacing 8 grams of olive oil with an equivalent amount of butter was associated with an 8% reduction in the risk of type 2 diabetes. . Overall, the meta-analysis showed that various servings of oil (up to 3 tablespoons per day) reduced the incidence of type 2 diabetes in the observed groups. And eating the recommended 14-gram serving per day reduced the likelihood of developing diabetes by 4%.
These "percentages" allowed the scientists to suggest a relatively small or neutral overall association of the oil with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular mortality.
The role of butter in increasing the risk of coronary heart disease has also been revisited in another meta-analysis. [5]
The authors took previously unpublished data from a long-term 1968-73 study conducted as part of the Minnesota Coronary Experiment and placed these results in a new context, taking into account the rules for conducting modern randomized controlled trials. The scientists also evaluated the effectiveness of replacing some components of butter with theoretically safer alternatives.
Based on the results of a meta-analysis, replacing saturated fat in the diet with linoleic acid is effective in reducing serum cholesterol, but does not support the hypothesis that this leads to a decrease in the risk of death from coronary heart disease. In other words, the researchers found no evidence that saturated fat is the direct cause of coronary disease.
But there is a widespread opinion that a careless and ill-considered replacement of butter with other products can be more dangerous to health than the butter itself. People privately refuse "harmful" components, revising their diet in such a way that, as a result, the likelihood of developing other diseases that are also associated with an increase in mortality increases.
For example, blindly following the recommendations of nutritionists, people exclude butter from the diet, but switch to instant cereals and yogurts high in refined carbohydrates. As a result of exceeding the norm of sugar consumption, a lot of pathologies arise, the development of chronic inflammatory processes begins and, as a result, the state of the cardiovascular system worsens, among other things.
It is also quite risky to replace butter with classic margarine. Margarine itself does not contain animal fats, but during the manufacture of this product, vegetable oils are hydrogenated, leading to the appearance of transunsaturated fatty acids. But they just create the conditions for damage to the walls of blood vessels and the formation of blood clots. Trans fats also cause cancer. They are also called a factor that causes depression.
Margarine with a high content of milk fat is less harmful. Palm and coconut oils in the composition also practically do not form trans isomers during the hydrogenation process (unlike, for example, sunflower or soybean oils). But, in most cases, it is still impossible to call margarine a product more useful than butter.
In addition to private initiatives, there are examples of government programs to phase out butter in favor of safer products. Probably the most ambitious project of such a change in eating habits was the Finnish government program, known as "North Karelia". As part of this project, butter began to be gradually replaced with spreads.
The feasibility of replacing butter with spreads
Spread is a product based on butter and/or milk fat with vegetable oils included in various proportions. The spread is not as fat as butter (the total proportion of fat according to GOST must be at least 39%) and much softer and more plastic (in fact, the English word "spread" means "smearing"). Butter and spreads are similar in taste - especially creamy-vegetable spreads with 50% or more milk fat. But saturated fatty acids in spreads, respectively, are 2 times (and often 3-4 times) less than in butter. Many spreads contain no cholesterol at all.
At the same time, the spread also fundamentally differs from the classic margarine in that it mainly uses interesterified fats in its production. The absence of hydrogenated fats makes it possible to significantly reduce the percentage of trans isomers. Modern spreads of trans-fatty acids contain no more than 2%, which, as a rule, is even less than in butter. Approximately 50% spreads are ahead of butter in terms of the content of unsaturated fatty acids and almost 4 times in terms of the content of polyunsaturated fatty acids. All this gave reason to the Finnish authorities to try using spreads to change the eating habits of the population of North Karelia (a region of Eastern Finland).
The North Karelia project started in the 1970s. At that time, initial studies of risk factors were carried out through a sample survey of residents of North Karelia and Kuopio. Judging by the published results [6] , bread with butter in that period was preferred by 83% of the population. By the end of the project, in 2006, when a number of eating habits were changed, only 7% of the population spread butter on bread.
As a result of the project, a significant decrease in the number of deaths from a number of cardiovascular diseases and tumors was recorded:
• from coronary disease - by 85% in men and 90% in women,
• from cerebrovascular disease, which causes cerebrovascular accident - by 69% in men and 82% in women,
• from cardiovascular diseases - by 80% in men and 83% in women,
• from tumors and neoplasms of various nature - by 67% and 27% in men and women, respectively.
But, despite this, one cannot attribute the entire positive effect to the transition of the population from butter to spreads. As part of a program to change eating habits, about 70% of Finns:
• began 22 times more likely to cook food in vegetable oil,
• reduced the average consumption of full-fat milk by 6 times,
• began to eat 3 times more vegetables,
• reduced the amount of salt eaten, etc.
In addition, the level of social and medical security has changed since the 1970s.
Thus, most researchers of the beneficial and harmful properties of butter believe that it is still necessary to reduce the amount of saturated fat, although not necessarily by reducing the consumption of butter. More important is a comprehensive reduction in the intake of saturated fats with food.
In folk medicine
Butter has been used in folk medicine since at least the time of ancient Egypt. Then with its help they got rid of the consequences of burns and treated eye diseases. Although, most likely, the oil was used as a medicine much earlier.
In ancient Rome, it was also believed that butter helped well in healing wounds, but, in addition, they lubricated the joints to relieve pain, and were also added to various mixtures to get rid of coughs.
In modern folk medicine, there are also recipes for coughs and diseases of the respiratory system with butter in the composition:
• When coughing. Butter, honey, horseradish and garlic are mixed in a ratio of 1:5:0.5:0.5, respectively, and then aged for 10 minutes in a water bath. The resulting syrup is taken at 40-50 g until the symptom decreases or disappears.
• With tuberculosis. In a mixture consisting of butter, cocoa powder, honey, lard (unsalted), taken in equal proportions, 0.15 shares of aloe juice are added. This remedy is taken twice a day for three weeks by adding st. tablespoons of the product in warm milk (200 ml).
• With pleurisy. A melted piece of butter is mixed with melted sugar and taken after dinner, one tbsp. spoon a day.
In medieval Europe, butter was used to treat urolithiasis. In modern folk medicine, during the treatment of diseases of the genitourinary system, soft-boiled eggs are seasoned with butter.
In dysentery, loose stools are normalized by preparing a mixture of butter (30 g) and warm pomegranate juice (180 g), or a mixture of melted butter and warm red wine in the same proportion.
To relieve symptoms when heel spurs appear, an ointment is prepared based on a raw egg, which is poured directly with the shell with melted butter (100 ml) and vinegar essence (2 tsp). The ointment should be infused for 3 days before use. But you don't need to cook a lot for the future, since the "life" of the product is no more than a week.
As a general tonic for oral administration, traditional healers recommend preparing a mixture of butter, honey, walnuts, viburnum pulp, aloe juice in a ratio of 1.5: 1.5: 1.5: 1: 0.5, respectively. Store the mixture in closed form without light at a temperature of 0-3 ° C. And take - 2 tsp. three times a day.
in oriental medicine
On the scale of products "Yang-Yin" (from +3 to -3, respectively), butter has a rating of "-3". This means that with regular use, butter can cause imbalance and a strong imbalance of energy towards "Yin". This, like any process of creating an imbalance in a healthy body, is considered an unhealthy practice in Eastern medicine. However, some combinations of products can balance each other and not cause side effects.
This is how, for example, a combination of butter and hot water with the addition of honey works. This combination improves the state of memory, appetite, optimizes the "digestive heat", promotes the excretion of metabolic products. But the combination of oil with cold water increases the load on the digestive system of two heavy "products" and contributes to the formation of blockages in blood vessels, leads to the accumulation of fluid in the tissues.
In addition, it is believed that in the event of wind diseases, as a corrective measure, butter can be prescribed to some patients, taking into account their physiological data and body condition. For these purposes, "one-year-old" butter (aged for a year) is recommended. But fresh oil can be used for bile diseases. It is also useful for people with an unhealthy yellow complexion and red veins appearing on the skin.
It is dangerous to use rancid butter - this promises an exacerbation of Mucus diseases.
In Indian medicine, ghee is widely used to treat burns. According to the canons, first the wound must be treated with cold water, and then a lotion of healing herbs boiled in oil should be applied. The idea is to compensate for the excitation of the fiery dosha with an opposite "cold" ointment.
In scientific research
Research groups around the world are constantly working to improve the technology of oil production and improve its taste. But there is another interesting area of research activity, when butter is being studied, not in order to directly improve its consumer and medicinal properties, but in order to create a healthy alternative to it. And in these searches, scientists sometimes find very unexpected solutions.
For example, Belgian bioengineers have developed a technology to produce "insect fat" rather than cow's milk as an optimized substitute for butter. [7] Such a "butter", as well as a product more familiar to us, is easily absorbed by the body, has many additional beneficial effects (from antibacterial to antifungal) and has consumer properties very similar to those of classic butter.
At least groups of volunteers who tasted pastries made with butter and "insect" oils did not find a difference. Everything was identical: taste, smell, color, and consistency.
While the production of new oil is very expensive, but the increase in production volumes should correct the situation. In addition, the production of "fat from insects" would help reduce the burden on the environment and simplify logistical tasks.
Weight regulation
As a very high-calorie product, butter does not get along well with the idea of \u200b\u200bweight loss. The calorie content of the oil in the table above is 731 kcal, this is far from the limit. In addition, the oil is well absorbed by the body (90-91%). So if you strive to reduce the daily amount of calories consumed, then when oil is included in the diet, there will be little "space" for the rest of the products.
Theoretically, during a fasting day in the format of an extreme mono-diet, you can choose the entire reduced calorie intake exclusively with butter. But in practice, if it is possible to freely regulate the diet, it is more expedient to form a more balanced vitamin diet with the inclusion of proteins and "slow" carbohydrates.
In long-term dietary programs, when the menu is built for a long time so that the number of calories consumed exceeds the quantities consumed, butter can be included in the list of consumed products from time to time. However, this should be done, rather, to expand the range of products and avoid monotony.
You should also not blindly formally replace butter with vegetable oils, since all olive, avocado and flax oils that are popular among healthy lifestyle fans today are also very high in calories and also require a restrictive approach.
In cooking
As a very high-calorie product, butter itself can provide energy for a long time. Among European manufacturers, it is even a common practice to eat a small piece of butter throughout the working day -the size of a walnut. It is enough to maintain strength between breakfast and dinner.
But in general, as a self-sufficient product, butter is rarely used in cooking. Although, without butter, some dishes, of course, would lose their appeal, and the classic sandwich (German butterbrot as a combination of the words "butter" and "bread") would lose its meaning altogether.
In some countries, butter is positioned as a national delicacy and has its own unique name. Yemeni ghee - change (smen) - is richly seasoned with aromatic herbs and salt, and to give the product a deep flavor, it is smoked inside the pumpkin.
In North Africa, the oil of the same name is first boiled for a quarter of an hour (sometimes adding fenugreek or thyme seeds), and then buried in the ground to ripen. Ripe smen tastes like blue cheese. But the warmer the weather conditions, the longer the dish ripens. In the cool season, it takes about 1-2 months to cook.
In Tibet, butter from yak milk is mixed with barley flour and as such is positioned as a staple food. They also drink "butter tea", in which they put salt and rancid butter. Butter tea is also drunk in all neighboring regions: India, Nepal, Bhutan, etc.
Ghee plays an important role in the preparation of sauces in European (especially French) cuisine. For example, the famous Beurre noisette and Beurre noir sauces are heated until the melted butter darkens to golden and dark brown, respectively.
In Poland, pieces of butter are molded into decorations for other dishes or a festive table. So, for example, for Easter, Baranek wielkanocny is made - "butter lamb".
All categories of butter differ in taste. For fatter categories, the taste of boiled milk is characteristic. In less fatty ones - for example, in Krestyansky (72.5%), an additional nutty flavor may be felt. A little fermented cream has sour shades in taste, which are popular with the Germans. Some people like saltier kinds. But the most popular in our country is a slightly sweet product made from pasteurized fresh cream.
butter recipe
How to make butter at home? Homemade butter is still prepared today in compliance with the same principles that underlay the production technology thousands of years ago. Here is the simplest recipe suggested by popular British chef and promoter of healthy eating James Oliver:
1. 1 Chilled cream 33% fat (or more) is whipped in a mixer at maximum power for 10 minutes. From 400 ml of cream, about 150 g of butter should be obtained.
2. 2 The liquid separated during this time is drained, and the oily mass is whipped in the same mode for up to 5 minutes.
3. 3 The cycle of separating the liquid and whipping is repeated one more time for 2-3 minutes until the mass is compacted.
4. 4 The resulting oil is collected with a spoon in a "bun" and slightly crushed. Such a gingerbread man should "rest" a little in order to release a little more excess liquid.
5. 5 The butter ball is then rolled out on parchment and salted to taste. Finely chopped herbs or spices can be added to it. To mix well, fold it in half several times and roll it out again. In addition to mixing in this way, you can also get rid of residual moisture.
This modern homemade way of making butter is interesting to compare with the ancient, classic way of fermenting cream, shaking until the fat is separated from the water fraction (buttermilk).
For example, according to one of the classic artisanal technologies, the solid oil extracted from buttermilk had to be washed in cold water. So, among other things, the shelf life of the product increased. Moreover, it was necessary to rinse until the water became completely clean. And the water that was still held in the oil lump was knocked out, throwing the lump with force against a hard surface.
In addition, even at the stage of preparing the cream, they should have been filtered by passing through a dense bunch of grass or cloth. In the first case, a certain amount of lactic acid bacteria was added. In the second, bacteria spores collected on the tissue dried at the end of the season, which in the new "dairy season" gave rise to a new generation. Apparently, such tissues were dried in the dark -otherwise it is difficult to explain why the spores were not destroyed under the influence of ultraviolet radiation.
Fermented cream used to be also whipped, of course, not with a mixer. For whipping, they were usually poured into wineskins made of animal skin and swung vigorously, hanging a leather "bubble" on a tree branch.
In cosmetology
As a basis for masks, balms, creams and ointments, butter is widely used in home cosmetology. The resulting products are designed to improve the condition of the skin, hair, nails. Here are examples of recipes for home cosmetology for various purposes:
• For face. A whitening mask for dry skin is prepared from butter, heavy cream, and ground oatmeal in equal proportions - 3 tsp each. Before applying to the face, the mixture for the mask is infused for 10 minutes, and the mask itself is washed off with cool water.
• For hair. Dry, dull and brittle hair is smeared with melted butter and brushed along its entire length. After applying the mask, you need to cover your head with a scarf or cap for half an hour, and after this time, wash off the oil with shampoo.
• For nails. A combination of 4 parts of butter and 1 part of nettle decoction forms an ointment that must be rubbed into the skin of the fingers around the nail plates. This procedure makes the nails less brittle.
Dangerous properties of butter and contraindications
Since butter is a milk fat, it only retains traces of lactose, so moderate consumption should not pose a problem for people with lactose intolerance. However, people with allergies should avoid including butter in their diet, as butter retains enough protein to cause an allergic reaction.
The consumption of butter should be minimized for people with hypercholesterolemia and obesity. In addition, today, most experts suggest a connection between the development of cardiovascular diseases and the use of cholesterol-containing foods, which include butter. Therefore, people with vascular heart disease should also introduce animal fats into their diet with great care.
Selection and storage
When buying butter, the main difficulty is choosing a manufacturer that would not use anything in cooking except milk fats and cow's milk processing products.
According to Ukrainian laws and DSTU 4399:2005 [8] , vegetable fats cannot be added to butter. True, judging by the published results of inspections, manufacturers do not always adhere to the rules, and fake butter quite often, replacing cow's milk processing products with vegetable oils. Of the permissible additives in the composition of the oil may be lactic acid, natural dyes (for example, beta-carotene), vitamin A, salt.
Despite this, each new test proves that about half (and sometimes more) of manufacturers violate these requirements. But since it is impossible to independently identify the "extra" additive in the store, the buyer has to focus on the ratings of manufacturers.
It is also important to pay attention to the outlets where the oil is sold, since some of them may sell counterfeit and outright fakes under the guise of proven brands.
In Russian stores, the percentage of fakes is also high. According to Roskachestvo, oil with a fat content of 72.5% is most often falsified, by "overestimating" the real percentage or by adding vegetable oils. More than others, the producers of the Krasnodar Territory and Tyumen "sin" with this.
The minimum fat content of butter according to DSTU 4399:2005 is 61.5%. "Sandwich" oil has such a fat content (fat content range 61.5-72.5%). In addition, there is "Peasant" oil (72.5-79.9%) and "Eksta" (80-85%). Ghee (or milk fat) can be 99%.
For comparison, in Russia, according to GOST R 52969-2008 [9] , the assortment also included less fatty "Tea Oil" with a mass fraction of fat of at least 50%. But in the tabular part of GOST 32261-2013 [10] , neither it nor "Sandwich" butter is already there. Remained: "Traditional" (82.5% fat content), "Amateur" (80%), "Peasant" (72.5%). In addition to fat content, acidity, microbiological indicators, the content of toxins and other parameters are regulated.
The overall assessment of the quality of the oil (according to GOST) is made on a 20-point scale, which summarizes the points for taste, color, smell, appearance, plasticity, packaging and information on it. If a product scores less than 11 points in aggregate, it is not available for sale. If 17-20 points, of which at least 8 points fall on taste and aroma, then the oil is classified as the highest grade.
So, what indicators should be guided by when choosing high-quality butter?
1. Verified trademark. Sometimes such lists of "best manufacturers" are ordered by the
manufacturers themselves, so it is better to choose your trademark at the intersection of several
38
authoritative and independent ratings. Among other things, this further increases the likelihood that pathogens have not entered the oil during production and that antibiotics have not been added to the composition.
2. Compound. As we have already said, there should not be any vegetable fats in the composition (otherwise this product can no longer be called butter). Only cream obtained from cow's milk and, sometimes, from the milk of sheep, goats and other dairy animals of economic importance in a particular region. In addition, vitamin inclusions, natural dyes (these can be E160a and E160b), salt are acceptable.
3. Exact match of the product name. A common marketing technique is to assign a definition associated with oil to a product. For example, margarine can be called "Classic" or "Useful", which automatically leads the consumer to the idea that it is butter, although it is not.
4. Correspondence of the category name and fat content. It happens that a pack is signed, for example, with the words "Extra" and "Traditional" in the expectation that, focusing on this marker, buyers will not pay attention to the actual fat content of 72.5%, corresponding to the lower category of "Peasant" oil.
5. The appearance of the briquette and packaging. A briquette in a damaged package and a deformed bar should not be bought. This appearance indicates that the oil was probably stored (or transported) in violation of technology, and pathogens could get into it. In addition, it is better to choose a briquette wrapped in foil that does not transmit light (and not in translucent parchment).
6. Physical properties of the briquette. Butter in a store refrigerator should retain a hardness that can be felt when pressing on the pack. If the oil gives in easily when pressed, then you should not take it, because in this case either the refrigerator is broken or a fake has come across. True, with the help of this criterion it is not always possible to completely identify a fake. Palm or coconut oils, unlike many other vegetable oils, remain fairly solid even at 20°C.
7. Color. A quality product is creamy white, pale yellow or beige in color. But you should not be afraid if the contents of the pack turn out to be not yellowish, but more saturated yellow. Most likely, this means that the product contains natural dyes, which, however, is allowed by both DSTU and GOST (if the mass fraction of carotene or annatto extract does not exceed the permissible norm). Such dyes are usually used to tint the "winter" oil, which is "too white" due to the seasonal characteristics of the feed. But there should definitely not be a dark thin layer on the oily surface (it is called "staff').
8. Smell. It is quite difficult to catch the aroma of high-quality oil (especially in the package and from the refrigerator) - it smells weak. Therefore, just sharp or strong odors should alert. Yeasty "aromas" can indicate the spread of bacteria, and a sour smell can indicate too long storage of the oil itself or the cream from which it is made.
If you still doubt the purchased oil, then you can try to check its quality at home.
• To do this, a piece can be dipped in hot water. High-quality butter, thawing, will spread evenly over the surface as a whole spot, and margarine will partially disintegrate into separate fractions.
• You can put a piece of butter on a hot frying pan. In this case, a good oil should foam with a creamy smell, and not just spread along the bottom.
• Another sign of quality is plasticity. Butter that crumbles when spread on bread probably contains too much water. Although the same sign may also indicate that emulsifiers are simply not added to the oil to increase plasticity.
Unfortunately, such folk methods of evaluation do not always allow you to objectively evaluate the product. Subjective determination of the status of physical processes "by eye" can scare the consumer
in vain if it seems that there is too little or too much foam in the pan, and the frozen piece does not want to be smeared on the bread crumb.
By the way, in order for the oil to be well spread, it is not necessary to store it in the freezer. It is better to keep in the refrigerator compartment with a temperature of about +3/+6 °C in a tightly closed oil dish or wrapped in foil so that the oil does not absorb foreign odors.
It is better if the butter dish is made of porcelain or opaque glass. The oil does not like light, and although it is stored in the refrigerator in the dark, if you take out the butter dish at every meal and leave it on the table until the end of dinner, then in this mode an opaque container is more suitable.
A standard package of oil (180-200 g) is usually consumed within 1-2 weeks and during this time it does not have time to deteriorate even without additional measures. But if the oil is not used very often, then the briquette can be divided into parts, each of them wrapped in foil and sent to freeze in the freezer even for 9-12 months.
In some countries (for example, in New Zealand), manufacturers of household appliances arrange a special compartment for oil in the refrigerator, equipped with air conditioning. In such a compartment, the temperature is higher than in the rest of the refrigerator, but lower than outside.
In the absence of a refrigerator (for example, in the country), oil can also be stored for up to 2-3 weeks if you use the following folk methods:
1. Vinegar wrap. First, the cloth or gauze in which the oil is wrapped must first be soaked in vinegar, and then the bundle should be placed in a saucepan under the lid, placing a piece of sugar next to it. It is more convenient to immediately divide the briquette into several portions, wrapping each of them separately.
2. Brine. The oil is placed in a glass jar, where water mixed with salt is poured. The jar itself is closed and placed in a dark place, and the saline solution in it is changed once a day. (By the way, more salty butter will last longer in the refrigerator than unsalted butter).
3. Cold water. If there is not even salt at hand, then ordinary cold water can extend the life of butter. You need to change the water in the jar twice a day, and keep the jar closed and in the dark.
But these are not all folk ways of storing butter. Let's see what unusual methods our distant ancestors used for this.
But what is useful to the gods is not always useful to man. Despite active attempts to rehabilitate butter as a harmless product, most experts still advise using it in strictly controlled and limited quantities. Then there will be no harm from butter.
Literature
1. US National Nutrient Database, source
2. Engel, S; Tholstrup, T (August 2015). Butter increased total and LDL cholesterol compared with olive oil but resulted in higher HDL cholesterol compared with a habitual diet. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 102(2): 309-15. doi:10.3945/ajcn.115.112227.
3. Laura Pimpin, Jason HY Wu, Hila Haskelberg, Liana Del Gobbo, Dariush Mozaffarian. Is Butter Back? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Butter Consumption and Risk of
Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes, and Total Mortality. Published: June 29, 2016, doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0158118
4. Guasch-Ferre M, Hruby A, Salas-Salvado J, Martinez-Gonzalez MA, Sun Q, Willett WC, et al. Olive oil consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes in US women. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2015;102(2):479-86. pmid:26156740.
5. Christopher E Ramsden, medical investigator, Daisy Zamora, epidemiologist, Sharon Majchrzak-Hong, research chemist, Keturah R Faurot, epidemiologist, Steven K Broste, retired statistician, Robert P Frantz, professor of medicine, John M Davis, professor of psychiatry, Amit Ringel, guest researcher, Chirayath M Suchindran, senior biostatistician, Joseph R Hibbeln, senior clinical investigator. Re-evaluation of the traditional diet-heart hypothesis: analysis of recovered data from Minnesota Coronary Experiment (1968-73). BMJ 2016; 353 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i1246 (Published 12 April 2016).
6. Puska P., Vartiainen E., Laatikainen T., Jousilahti P., Paavola M. The North Karelia Project: From North Karelia to a National Project. - Publishing House of the University of Helsinki, 2011. - P. 87 - 90.
7. Insect-based fat in your Belgian waffles soon?, source
8. DSTU 4339:2005. Vershkove oil (33963), source
9. GOST R 52969-2008 Butter. Specifications, source
10. GOST 32261-2013 Butter. Specifications (Amended), source
11. 2,000-year-old bog butter unearthed in Co Meath, source
An extended HTML version of this article is available on the edaplus.info website. Butter - useful properties, composition and contraindications
Eliseeva Tatyana, editor-in-chief of the project EdaPlus.info Yampolsky Aleksey, nutritionist
E-mail: eliseeva.t@edaplus.info, yampolsky.a@edaplus.info
Received 18.02.2021
Abstract. The article discusses the main properties of butter and its effect on the human body. A systematic review of modern specialized literature and relevant scientific data was carried out. The chemical composition and nutritional value of the product are indicated, the use of butter in various types of medicine and the effectiveness of its use in various diseases are considered. Potentially adverse effects of butter on the human body under certain medical conditions and diseases are analyzed separately. Considered scientific basics diets With application.
