I haven’t really looked into the saturated fat thing on my own, though. Maybe someday. We don’t use it in crazy amounts here, but I do believe that to absorb fat-soluble vitamins in things like carrots, you need a fat with it, so butter goes on all our toast, etc.

Good old Michael Pollan. He’s wrecking many a bistro hamburger for us Americans, isn’t he?

Your site is just lovely, and what a great concept. I wish I had time to peruse more; I think I could get lost in your articles quite quickly!
God bless,
Katie

I’ll be the first to tell you that you should always choose butter over margarine (if those are the only choices). I don’t fully trust “engineered” margarines that supposedly contain “good” hydrogenated vegetable fats, mainly because I have a philosophical problem with “engineered” foods to begin with. (I think I’m in good company here!) We eat butter in our household—but in moderation. To be fair, Shelley did express something of the same sentiment (complaining about cooking using “Paula Deen” amounts of butter). “Healthy” and “unhealthy” fats fall on a spectrum with butter somewhere in the middle (and trans fats so far in the “unhealthy” direction that they count as poison in my mind).

I am very wary of any source of nutrition information that has an agenda or strong point of view about food behind it. It’s very easy to selectively report research studies in these sources. I prefer to go directly to PubMed when I have time, but it takes a lot of time and effort to sort through and evaluate the value of the studies. I think very few of them investigate butter specifically, as this is a very difficult study to conduct, especially long-term. Double-blind and placebo controlled is nearly impossible because people can taste butter, not to mention that everyone eats all kinds of foods. More common are longitudinal studies that look at overall diet and lifestyle choices. It’s not possible to pick out just butter’s effects from these studies.

My complaint about Shelley buying the chicken was not that it’s not a good nourishing investment… it is, definitely! It was only that it seemed to be too much of the mere $20 allotted for the week. If a little more money were available for a week of food, that chicken would definitely be more appropriate. (And I’ll give her points again for her love of homemade stock—we love that too although I don’t make it enough!)

I do agree that with butter, meat, etc., the animal’s feed is important. This is both logical and empirically provable—it’s not hard to analyze the meat from corn-fed and grass-fed cattle and see which contains what molecules. I am thrilled to have finally found a good source of grass-fed beef (just in time, as Michael Pollan has made it impossible for me to stomach conventional CAFO ground beef anymore). I can’t eat burgers in restaurants, but at least I can enjoy them at home again!
.-= Robyn´s last blog ..Anointing of the Sick and Last Rites =-.

You would be surprised at how many people spent half their $20 on a whole chicken, mostly because the bone broth you can get from it is second-to-none in frugality and nutrition. It’s not all about being full, it’s about being nourished.

We love our dried beans around here, though, to stretch the rest of the meals! Katie

Lisa wins for pointing out the importance of ingredients like dried legumes and whole-wheat flour in a healthy, real-food diet that’s affordable, for eating more fruits and vegetables than an occasional bit of cabbage, for having the wisdom not to try to do everything at once, and for mentioning The Joy of Cooking, which is the only cookbook you’ll ever need. But I am highly biased and my vote should not count because I’m related to her, and of course we think alike on a lot of things!
.-= Robyn´s last blog ..Anointing of the Sick and Last Rites =-.

The link to the lenten reflection didn’t work, but I corrected it and found it. Wow, it was really good!

Best,
Sarah

PS – Looking forward to your secret guest posts!
.-= Sarah´s last blog ..Toddler Rules of Engagement, a.k.a. everything is MINE!!! =-.