Good afternoon! This day is FLYING BY and GUESS WHAT? Our landlord is replacing our hot water heater TODAY — it’s a miracle. Can’t wait to take a long shower tonight. 🙂
Mid-morning snack: a navel orange.
And lunch… another variation of the Flat Out Wrap! Sorry if you’re getting sick of seeing these, I just love wraps (and sammies) so much. 🙂
Today’s wrap was pretty basic: turkey, cheddar, and mustard.
With cucumbers and carrots on the side.
I had three pieces of Easter Crack (aka Resee’s eggs) and I wanted to take an interesting picture of them in front of Maggie, but she SHOVED my fingers down her throat right as I snapped the picture. HAHAH!
Isn’t that funny?
Butter Vs. The Fake Stuff
I receive emails from a great site called EBrand Aid, which reviews products on a "real food is best" philosophy. The most recent newsletter was about what was better — butter or the fake stuff. I wanted to share the newsletter with you, so here it is:
Butter or butter substitute? It’s an age-old debate that remains a very hot topic for health-minded consumers. The staunch butter backers wouldn’t dream of touching the fake stuff. Meanwhile, hard-line supporters of wanna-be butters are more convinced than ever that the real thing will harm your health!
The food sleuths at eBrandAid have crossed party lines and learned that whether you’re shopping for butter or a butter substitute there’s plenty of margarine for error!
Okay, so we promise to never repeat that bad pun again…but only if you promise to read on about the "great butter debate." Be sure to spread the news to your friends and loved ones!
The Great Butter Debate: For the past 50 years or so, butter has been blackballed by the many consumers who believe it causes heart disease or worse, because it contains high levels of saturated fat and cholesterol.
Margarine was introduced – and accepted – as a healthier alternative with less saturated fat and cholesterol. Turns out, these wanna-be butters were packed with trans fats (eek!) which we think are actually worse for your health than saturated fats. In fact, as butter consumption ebbed, heart disease boomed!
Fast forward to present day: The dairy cases are jam-packed with “healthy spreads” touting zero trans fats and other smooth-as-buttah claims. Unfortunately, many of these butter alternatives are packed with additives and preservatives.
The question still churns: Is butter really as unhealthy as we once thought? Let’s take a look.
Reality Check: True, “getting back to basics” is a popular cry of the times. Guess what? Our food sleuths found that adage applies to butter too! From a flavor standpoint, butter tastes pretty darn yummy! In our book, there is no savory substitute. But should we steer clear of this spread? The short answer is NO!
Plain butter is an all-natural food that is made up of only two ingredients – sweet cream and salt. Surprisingly, it comes naturally packaged with many nutrients that can help protect us from chronic disease.
Butter contains:
- A rich source of easily absorbed vitamin A – needed for a wide range of body functions, from maintaining good vision to keeping the endocrine system in top shape.
- Fat-soluble vitamins like E, K and D – all of which play a role in helping to maintain the proper functioning of the heart and cardiovascular system.
- Lecithin – a substance that assists in the proper assimilation and metabolism of cholesterol and other fats.
- Antioxidants – that protect against the kind of free radical damage that weakens the arteries.
Wow – all that plus it tastes yummy! Okay, that all sounds great, but what about the high calorie content, saturated fats and cholesterol… hmm?
Well, you may not know it, but whipped butter contains half the calories, half the saturated fat, and half the cholesterol of regular stick butter but still provides all the great taste! But don’t take our word for it. See for yourself.
Case-in-Point: Land O’ Lakes Sweet Salted Whipped Butter (1 tbsp, 50 calories, 6g fat (3.5g saturated fat), 40mg of sodium, 15g of cholestoral) INGREDIENTS: Pasteurized Cream, Salt.
Bottom line: Butter in moderation is not as unhealthy as once thought. The whipped varieties offer less saturated fats and cholesterol, but retain all that awesome buttery taste. Sometimes meeting in the middle actually pays off!
I LOVE BUTTER. I use it to make all my grilled items (like pancakes!). It’s cheaper than those sprays and it makes the food taste better. I keep a stick of butter in the fridge in a ziploc bag and I "paint" it onto the hot griddle before putting my food down. It can’t add THAT many calories when its just a light and melted-down smear, and boy does it taste GOOD (and it’s cheaper)!
Do you use butter, whipped butter, or fake butter?
I grew up in a margarine-only home. Butter was never an option – but WOW does it taste better. At restaurants I always need to have some with my bread, toast, etc from missing out all those years. I agree, a little bit of anything can’t be that bad. I do use PAM to cook though.