Butter Today

A detailed Summary of Butter Today

Changing lifestyles have always influenced the approach to nutrition. Values and/or intimacy associated with the foods we as a society eat, have largely been washed away by a desire for easier and less time consuming preparations. We have traded in our 'larder' for refrigerators and keep foods for lengths of time unimaginable 75 years ago. What we eat these days is unfortunately based on convenience. Inherently, ready-to-eat foods are what we'll reach for when we feel the need to "fill the gap". Aspartame, monosodium glutamate, synthesized vitamins, and a host of preservatives are present in these foods to extend shelf life, increase flavour, suggest healthfulness, and increase the saleability to the demographics. With the trend of local, organic, and natural foods, now is the time to get back to basics by incorporating a fundamental nutritional building block - a staple in every professional cook's kitchen at home and at work - butter.

Compared to margarine, butter serves more as an icon of a nation that sustains the family farm and the related values of this lifestyle. Certainly not as lucrative as margarine, butter is a simple natural product made from crea

Butter's top-competitor - margarine, is marketed as a spread and sold in semi-liquid, soft (tub), and stick forms. It is made from a variety of oils derived from the corn, soybeans, cotton and their seeds. When ground, heated and pressed, the seeds exude harmless oils. The giant corporations that control the marketing of America's three top crops of corn, soybean, and cotton, are concerned with profitability. Profitability prevails as the primary concern, and compromises the nutritive value of the product by the manner in which oils are extracted from these crops. The process currently in use incorporates "various solvents with the ground or crushed seeds, uniting them with the oils and effecting a separation from the mash. After the solvent-oil mixture has been pressed, washed and strained from the mash, additional heat is applied (as high as 450F), which vaporizes most of the solvent" (PCCC, Jan 3, 2000). The continuation of this process involves further bleaching of the discolored mass, chemical deodorizers known as esters hide the stench of the rancid oil, giving off a pleasant butter-like smell. Overproduction is not a concern as margarine can sit on shelves for years and not lose 'value'. With a technique as refined as this, one can imagine the lack of care exercised in selecting the oil sources for this marketing tool we know as margarine.

All foods can fit into a heart-friendly diet when consumed in moderation, with consideration to personal dietary

Some common words found in the essay are:
Butter Chef, HDL LDL, PCCC Jan, Non-Hydrogenated Margarine, Lipoprotein LDL, margarine butter, milk solids, grams fat, butter rich, density lipoprotein, shelf life, Density Lipoprotein,

Approximate Word count = 995
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Science