BUTTER AND HEALTH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21450, 25 March 1933, Page 7 (Supplement)

BUTTER AND HEALTH

'■ Unlike many fats and oils, butter-fat !s easily and completely digested, only onehalf per cent, escaping absorption. About one-third 1 'o? butter-fat is olein, and it is owing to the low melting point of this substance that a great deal of the high dietetic value of butter is attributed. Highmelting fats are less easily digested than low-melting ones; and whereas only a trace of butter-fat is unused by the body, about 10 per cent, of bacon, mutton, and other fats remain undigested.

Up to a quarter of a pound of butterfat may be eaten a day; and this weight will fairly cover from twelve to sixteen slices across a loaf. Thinly-cut bread-and-butter persuades the consumer to take much more butter each day than would the same quautity of bread cut thickly ; and as butler contains a vitamin that is essential for proper growth and development of the bones, children with small appetites Should bo given several thin slices rather than one thick one. Butter and jam yield practically bodybuilding and heat-providing value per money expended, as one pound of the more expensive butter yields as many calories as three pounds of jam. Besides containing 80 per cent, of fat, butter contains casein and milk sugar, but when well-made, never more than 1 per ;ent., as both predispose to rancidity. A well-washed butter is practically free from caesin, and keeps better than one which, ;vhen worked, expresses much milky fluid, showing an excess of caesin. Practical Tests of Good Butter When cut, good butler should exhibit a fine, even grain,' which has been likened to that of steel. When boiled upon a metal spoon, it should froth and foam without much spluttering, a sign of margarine and ijiferior fats, and. when it begins to burn it should give a not unpleasant smell.' Very different from the ,tallovvy smell of animal fats. Cooked butter is indigestible, as the heat splits up the fat and liberates acids which irritate the stomach. This does not npply to melted butter. Cream is a luxurious form of butter: it contains up to 60 per cent, of fat when machine produced'and down to as little as 20/ per cent, in some hand-skim-med varieties. Ordinary cream contains 2k per cent, of protein and per cent., of milk sugar. When warmed, the pro em coagulates and the cream thickens, as in the manufacture of clotted or Devonshire cream. This' latter is recommended for nse by diabetics, as it contains no sugar.