To Your Health

SAN FRANCISCO (The New York Times News Service) — Less than a dozen
 years after Dolly the sheep became the world’s first cloned mammal, grocers and
restaurateurs are digesting the fact that milk and meat from cloned animals could
soon filter into their supply chains.

The government took major steps toward easing cloned livestock and their offspring
 into the food supply in mid-January, when the Food and Drug Administration concluded
 they’re safe to eat.

The question is, will consumers swallow the new technology? And how will food
businesses cope if their customers balk?

Many food merchants are still framing their policies while they warily monitor public
opinion. The historic commercial debut of cloning comes in an era when a significant
 segment of consumers have rejected other foods the FDA deemed safe, such as
 milk from hormone-treated cows and genetically modified corn.

Cloning is an attempt to create a new animal using the DNA from an existing adult
animal. The FDA, while noting that livestock cloning produces many malformed or
 ill newborn animals, said cloned animals that survive for several months after birth
can be healthy.

They can reproduce normally and produce healthy young, the FDA said. The agency
 said it found no signs that food from healthy clones is harmful to humans, and predicted
that sickly clones would be excluded from the food supply.

Consumer groups, however, have called FDA’s positive safety assessment hasty and
 ill-founded. The Center for Food Safety said the FDA based many conclusions on
small or limited studies, many of them financed by cloning companies. Clones that appear
 healthy can have infections, or abnormalities that could affect food quality such as
unusual proteins or imbalances between protein and fats, the group said. Further studies
 should be done to evaluate clones and their offspring, the organization said.
—————————————————————————————-
http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/EMIHC254/333/8015/683221.html?d=dmtICNNews
—————————————————————————————-

"What?!" I can hear many of you saying, "Isn’t butter bad for you? I thought
 margarine and spreads were better because they’re low in saturated fat and
cholesterol?"

Be not deceived folks!
Butter is truly better than margarine or other vegetable spreads.
Despite unjustified  warnings about saturated fat from well-meaning,
but misinformed, nutritionists, the  list of butter’s benefits is impressive
 indeed:

Vitamins
Butter is a rich source of easily absorbed vitamin A, needed for
 a wide range of functions in the body, from maintaining good vision,
 to keeping the endocrine system in top shape. Butter also contains
 all the other fat-soluble vitamins (E, K, and D).

Minerals
Butter is rich in trace minerals, especially selenium, a powerful antioxidant.
 Ounce for ounce, butter has more selenium per gram than either whole
wheat or garlic. Butter also supplies iodine, needed by the thyroid gland
(as well as vitamin A, also needed by the thyroid gland).

Fatty Acids
Butter has appreciable amounts of butyric acid, used by the colon as an energy source.
 This fatty acid is also a known anti-carcinogen. Lauric acid, a medium chain fatty acid,
 is a potent antimicrobial and antifungal substance.

Butter also contains conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) which gives excellent protection
against cancer. Range-fed cows produce especially high levels of CLA as opposed
 to "stall fed" cattle.

It pays, then, to get your butter from a cow that has been fed properly.
Butter also has small, but equal, amounts of omega 3 and 6 fatty acids,
the so-called essential fatty acids.

Glycospingolipids
These are a special category of fatty acids that protect against gastrointestinal infections,
 especially in the very young and the elderly. Children, therefore, should not drink skim
or low fat milk. Those that do have higher rates of diarrhea than those that drink whole milk.

Cholesterol
Despite all of the misinformation you may have heard, cholesterol is needed to maintain
 intestinal health, but is also needed for brain and nervous system development in the young.
Again, this emphasizes the need for cholesterol-rich foods for children. Human breast milk
is extremely high in saturated fat and cholesterol.

Standing in direct opposition to all of these healthful qualities stands margarine and assorte
 "vegetable oil spreads." While these may be cheaper, you’d never eat them again if you
 knew how they were made.

All margarines are made from assorted vegetable oils that have been heated to extremely
high temperatures. This insures that the oils will become rancid. After that, a nickel catalyst is
added, along with hydrogen atoms, to solidify it. Nickel is a toxic heavy metal and amounts
always remain in the finished product. Finally, deodorants and colorings are added to remove
 margarine’s horrible smell (from the rancid oils) and unappetizing grey color.

And if that is not enough, in the solidification process, harmful trans-fatty acids are created
 which are carcinogenic and mutagenic. What would you rather have: a real food with
an abundance of healthful qualities or a stick of carcinogenic, bleached, and deodorized slop?

Some of you might be watching your weight and be rather hesitant to add butter into
your diet. Have no fear. About 15% of the fatty acids in butter are of the short and
medium chain variety  which are NOT stored as fat in the body, but are used by the
 vital organs for energy.

When looking for good quality butter, raw and cultured is best. This might be hard to
find, however.  Organic butter is your next best thing, with store-bought butter being at
the bottom. Remember what  we’ve said about commercially-raised cows; its worth
a few extra cents to get high quality butter for you and your family.

A brand of butter available in many markets is Anchor, imported from New Zealand.
In this country, all cattle are grass-fed, thus insuring a high nutrient content of their milk,
 butter, and meat.
——————————————————————————–
For more information on how to obtain quality dairy products, including Anchor Butter, check out
 the following web pages: http://www.realmilk.com and http://www.westonaprice.org
——————————————————————————–
Dr. Mercola’s Comment:
Very simply, butter is better. More specifically, organic grass fed raw milk would be the best due
 to its fatty acid composition and increase in beneficial fats like conjugated linolenic acid.
——————————————————————————–