Health benefits of butter, grass fed raw cream butter, stress, fight or flight, coping with stress, Americans and fast food, Zetia, Zocor, cholesterol

Did You Know…

By: Mike Furci (mike@bullz-eye.com)

02/12/2008

Furci Home / Fitness Channel / Bullz-Eye Home

A column by Mike Furci that brings you research, trends and other info to help you with your fitness, health and nutritional needs.

…the origins of butter go back thousands of years? For hundreds of years, people around the globe have prized butter for its health benefits. It’s only during the past 50 years that the medical establishment has unsuccessfully tried to prove that consuming butter is detrimental to our health. Millions of dollars have been spent in research trying to prove that saturated fat in butter and cholesterol in our diet were to blame for coronary heart disease, only to find that the exact opposite is true!

One hundred years ago, when the average annual per person consumption of raw cream butter was 18 pounds, heart disease was almost unheard of. Fifty years later, during the margarine and corn oil era, heart disease was the number-one killer! Yet, the American people are still being indoctrinated to believe that a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet is a healthy way to live. Recent research, however, has proven that high cholesterol people live the longest.

Even butter made from pasteurized cream is healthier than the highest quality margarine. But grass-fed raw cream butter is a completely natural food essential to our health. Following is a long list of health benefits from consuming grass-fed raw cream butter:

1. Butter is rich in the most easily absorbable form of Vitamin A necessary for thyroid and adrenal health.
2. Contains lauric acid, important in treating fungal infections and Candida.
3. Contains lecithin, essential for cholesterol metabolism.
4. Contains antioxidants that protect against free radical damage.
5. Has antioxidants that protect against weakening arteries.
6. Is a great source of Vitamins E and K.
7. Is a very rich source of the vital mineral selenium.
8. Saturated fats in butter have strong anti-tumor and anti-cancer properties.
9. Butter contains conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which is a potent anti-cancer agent, muscle builder and immunity booster.
10. Vitamin D3 found in butter is essential to absorption of calcium.
11. Protects against tooth decay.
12. Is our only source of an anti-stiffness factor, which protects against calcification of the joints.
13. Anti-stiffness factor in butter also prevents hardening of the arteries, cataracts, and calcification of the pineal gland.
14. Is a source of activator X, which helps our body absorb minerals.
15. Is a source of iodine in a highly absorbable form.
16. May promote fertility in women.
17. Is a source of medium-chain triglycerides, which are not stored in our bodies as fat tissue.
18. Cholesterol found in butterfat is essential to children’s brain and nervous system development.
19. Contains arachidonic acid which plays a role in brain function and is a vital component of cell membranes.
20. Protects against gastrointestinal infections in the very young or the elderly.
(Farmstead Fresh Newsletter) 

…stress is your body’s way of dealing with situations? When you feel stressed, your body reacts with a series of events. Your brain senses a crisis and triggers the adrenal glands to release adrenaline, which is basically natural speed. Your heart rate and blood flow quicken to give cells extra oxygen and nutrients. Cortisol is released to help the body repair itself later on. Endorphins surge to act as painkillers. Your pulse and breathing rate spike; pupils dilate to let in more light for increased vision; perspiration increases and digestion slows. The body is in a heightened state of arousal.

The reaction our body feels from stress is the "fight-or-flight" response. Your stress response can help through tragedies or help you adjust to a change in life, such as a new job. However, chronic stress can negatively affect your physical and mental health. Stress is a major cause of health problems.

The emotional signs may include: anxiety, difficulty sleeping, depression, anger, trouble concentrating, worry and feeling agitated.

Physical signs may include: fatigue, overeating, anorexia, muscle tension, stomach ailments, high blood pressure and headaches.

Some ways of coping with stress include: exercise, talking about it, acceptance of things outside your control, meditation, relaxation and sleep. (HealthAtoZ.com)

…in a survey of 13 countries, Brits are the number-one fans of fast food in the world? Americans are a very close second with the French coming in last. Britain and the United States love their fast food. When asked if they agreed or disagreed with the statement, “I like the taste of fast food too much to give it up,” 45% of Britons agreed, 44% of Americans agreed and 37% of Canadians agreed. The French strongly disagreed with the statement, with 81% rejecting it. The French’s dislike of fast food is perhaps why they do not have the obesity problem of other countries. As processed food becomes more popular around the world, obesity is becoming a larger world-wide concern. (yahoo.com)

…a clinical trial of Zetia, a popular cholesterol lowering drug, revealed it has no medical benefits? According to pharmaceutical giants Merck and Schering-Plough, the trial was supposed to show that Zetia could reduce the growth of plaque in the arteries. Instead, the plaque grew at twice the rate in patients taking Zetia along with Zocor than in those taking Zocor alone. “This is as bad a result for the drug as anybody could have feared,” said Dr. Nissen, who is chairman of cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic. This study was completed in April of 2006 and these results show why Merck and Schering delayed the results for so long. They both share in the profits from these drugs and this is a serious setback. (NewYorkTimes.com)

Another one of countless reasons why we should not trust the pharmaceutical industry. It is true Zetia lowers cholesterol 15-20 percent in many patients, but like all other cholesterol lowering drugs, total mortality from cardiovascular disease is not lowered. These drugs should be avoided.

…there are literally dozens of Google search types and tips you can use? Lifehacker.com has made a list of the top 10 most obscure Google web search tricks. Most people have no idea how many different types of searches you can use Google for.

• Do you want to know what time it is in a particular city, like Las Vegas? Just type: “what time is it Las Vegas”
• To track the status of a flight, simply type the airline and flight number. “Continental flight 2304”
• Google has a built in converter calculator. To find out how many teaspoons are in a quarter cup, type: “quarter cup in teaspoons”. To find out how many seconds in a year, type: “seconds in a year”. To convert US dollars to Euros, type: “USD in Euro”.
• Search pages that are “better than” or “similar to” to find alternative pages. For instance, to find music that sounds similar to another, you could type: “sounds similar to ZZ Top”. This will give you lists of music that people have said sounds familiar to ZZ Top.
• You can use Google as a free proxy. When you want to check out a web site your company has blocked, use Google’s cache to get a peek. Type “cache:name of site.com”
• Find related terms and documents by adding a tilde (~) to the search term. For example, Googling “~nutrition” returns results with the words “nutrition,” “food” and “health” in them.
• You can remove affiliate links from searches. To avoid seeing a search result of a particular site, type: “-site:name of website.com”
• See Images of people, objects, etc. Type the search term then click on images to see photos of results.
• You can search for a face. If you want to see photos of a person named Mike and nothing related, add “&imgtype=face”.

Questions or comments? Send them to mike@bullz-eye.com.