Butter Is Major Source of Heart-Healthy Nutrients

Butter is one of the healthiest fats on the planet.

It’s not just a big pile of yellow-colored fat, there are many important nutrients in there, some of which have potent biological effects.

However, this does depend on the type of butter, and the amounts of these nutrients vary greatly depending on what the cows ate.

Butter From Grass-Fed Cows is a Major Source of Heart-Healthy Nutrients

Butter is basically just milk fat, also known as butterfat.

Butterfat is highly complex. It contains about 400 different fatty acids, and a decent amount of fat-soluble vitamins (1).

Fatty acids are actually more than just energy sources, some of them have potent biological activity.

As it turns out, many of the fatty acids in butter can affect our physiology and biochemistry in some way, leading to major health benefits.

This includes the fatty acid CLA (conjugated linoleic acid). It is popular as a fat loss supplement, and studies show that it can have powerful effects on health (2, 3).

Grass-fed butter contains 5 times more CLA than butter from grain-fed cows (4).

Butter from grass-fed cows is also much higher in Omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin K2, compared to butter from grain-fed cows (5).

As you can see, butter from grass-fed cows is a much healthier and more nutritious choice.

Butter Contains Saturated Fat, But Who Cares?

Butter used to be considered unhealthy, because it contains saturated fat.

However, this is actually not a valid argument against butter, because the saturated fat myth has been thoroughly debunked in recent years.

Two massive review studies were published recently, one in 2010 and the other in 2014. Both included hundreds of thousands of people.

These studies clearly showed that there is no association between saturated fat consumption and heart disease(6, 7).

Studies Show That People Who Eat Grass-Fed Butter Have a Lower Risk of Heart Disease

In countries where cows are largely grass-fed, the people who eat the most butter seem to have a drastically reduced risk of heart disease.The relationship between full-fat dairy consumption and heart disease seems to depend on the country in which the study is performed.

An impressive study on this was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, in the year 2010:

Smit LA, et al. Conjugated linoleic acid in adipose tissue and risk of myocardial infarction. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2010.

This study looked at the levels of CLA in the fat tissue of 1813 non-fatal heart attack patients, and compared them to 1813 similar subjects who had not gotten heart attacks.

Levels of this fatty acid are a very reliable marker for the intake of fatty dairy products, and this study was done in Costa Rica, where cows are grass-fed.

They split the subjects into 5 groups, from lowest to highest, depending on their levels of CLA. The results were fairly remarkable:

As you can see, the more full-fat dairy (like butter) people ate, the lower their risk of heart attack.

In fact, the people who ate the most were 49% less likely to experience a heart attack, compared to those who ate the least.

However, keep in mind that this was a case-control study, a type of observational study. These types of studies can not prove causation.

This study shows that people who eat more grass-fed dairy fat have a lower risk of heart disease, but it can not prove that dairy fat caused the reduction in risk.

But, at the very least, this study is pretty good reassurance that butter is NOT the devil it was made out to be.

Many Other Studies Have Shown Similar Results

This is far from being the only study.

Another study from Australia showed that people who ate the most full-fat dairy had a 69% lower risk of heart disease than people who ate the least (8).

Several other studies in European countries, where cows are generally grass-fed, have shown that dairy fat is linked to reduced heart attacks and strokes (9, 10).

Grass-Fed Butter is Super Healthy

Despite having been demonized in the past, real grass-fed butter is one of the healthiest fats on the planet. Period.

Editors note: Click here to Find a Local Farmer

DR. MICHAEL EADES ON THE CHOLESTEROL MYTH: "THAT'S NOT SCIENCE, THAT'S MARKETING"

Find more information on the video and on how statins are the wrong decision for managing cholesterol. The whole cholesterol problem is a myth. Cholesterol is produced by every cell in your body.  Also, cholesterol is a soft, waxy substance that lines your blood vessels; it's used in repair not congestion of vessels.  On the contrary, you need cholesterol for healthy hormones. Cholesterol helps your hormones with signaling between organs. Cholesterol helps your organs communicate more efficiently. How is that a bad thing? Statins, on the other hand, are bad for you. They cause memory problems. They reduce the strength and efficiency of your heart.

You know from your own experience that the taste of food is part of its enjoyment.  Most people like the taste of eggs, whether they're are sunnyside up, fried, scrambled, cooked in eggs and cheese and formed into a quiche, deviled eggs, or hard boiled and mixed with ham for a delicious sandwich spread.  Most people like eggs.  They taste good regardless of what you put on them.  So taste is an indicator of a food having healthy properties.

You also know that cheese tastes good.  And bacon.  And a hamburger that has a nice fat to protein ratio so that the burger has flavor.  Too many of the packaged burger meats you find in the supermarket today are 15% fat or less.  With that amount of fat there is so little flavor.  Go back to enjoying life.  Eat foods with flavor.  Eat beef with fat.  Eat bacon. Eat your favorite cheese.  And eat cholesterol rich eggs.  Key is don't over do it and avoid breads.  Find a way to enjoy these foods on a bed of spinach.  Your body will love you for it.

You Have All the Risk—Manufacturers Have No Liability

One cannot help but be shocked by that headline.  But it is one that is accurate when it comes to vaccines.  Regardless of how you feel about the safety or lacking thereof of vaccines, I do not like that ethical arrangement in which the consumer accepts 100% of the risk while the manufacturers have 0% of the liability.  What does that mean?

It means that if you or your child gets sick from the ingredients that appear inside a vaccine, you are out of luck.  It means that you cannot sue the drug manufacturer or the retailer who sold you the vaccine.  I can't think of any other market in which the consumer has zero protections.  

Dr. Tenpenny explains . . . 

Called “Division E—Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREPA)” Senator Frist (a medical doctor) handed the drug companies (a special interest group) more immunity than any bill that has ever been passed by Congress.

The legislation provides at least sweeping provisions:

1.   Immunity from all liability.  In the event of an outbreak of any kind, all drugs, vaccines or biological products are completely protected, even if it kills you. The definition is so broad it could include OTC pills such as Tylenol, Advil . . . and would have applied to Vioxx.

2.   The Secretary of HHS has complete authority to declare and emergency. The Secretary of HHS is an appointed, non-medical person who has not accountability to the general public. The president’s hand-picked teammate will have the power to mandate vaccines and other medications for the American people.

3.   Immunity from all accountability. Even if the Company’s dirty facility created a batch of contaminated vaccines that resulted in death or injury to thousands of people, the drug company will have immune from liability.

4.   Immunity from all law suits. A person who suffers any type of loss will be legally prohibited from suing the drug companies.

Through the PREPAct, drug companies have  immunity from almost everything, perhaps even murder. The bill’s language explicitly protects frivolous suits and sets a rigidly high standard for defining negligence. Even if a pharmaceutical company knowingly harms people, the company will be immune from legal prosecution unless the U.S. Attorney General initiates “enforcement action” against the drug company in the name of the claimant. This means the U.S. government would have to go to bat for the plaintiff against the drug company for the lawsuit to move forward.

Regardless of what you think of the efficacy of vaccines, how anyone can accept anything as mandatory means that they are willing to surrender their ability and freedom to choose for some purported good stated by the government.  I've written elsewhere on the efficacy of the measles vaccines.  Vaccinations do not provide lifetime immunity.  With regards to the measles virus, the only thing that provides lifetime immunity to that is a bout of the measles.  The measles vaccine does not provide you with lifetime immunity to the measles.  In fact, most of the people who acquired measles this past winter, like at Disneyland, had already been vaccinated.  Rely on your own immune system.  Trust it.  You'll be able to fight off most things.  The pharmaceutical industry tries to scare you into taking their drugs because they want to make money on your fear.  Be a smarter consumer, a smarter citizen.

Opting Out Of The Obamacare Tax: What Happens If You Don't Pay?

Kelly Phillips, Erb

Last month, the Obama administration announced that between three and six million households – about 2 to 4 % of taxpayers – would be faced with a penalty (or is it a tax?) at tax time for failing to secure “minimum essential coverage” to comply with the Affordable Care Act (ACA), sometimes referred to as Obamacare.

Under Obamacare, you’re considered covered if you have insurance through the government, including Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, retiree coverage, TRICARE, or VA health coverage; private insurance that you purchased on your own including COBRA coverage and coverage obtained through the Health Insurance Marketplace; or provided by your employer (even if you didn’t pay anything for the coverage). You’ll report coverage on your tax return (find out how here). Most taxpayers – about 130 million or so – will report coverage.

Of those that don’t have coverage (estimates range from 20 million to 37.5 million), most will avoid being subject to the penalty based on a waiver or exemption. Exemptions exist based on income or filing status, immigration status and religious affiliation – as well as the much-talked about incarceration exemption. A number of hardship exemptions are also available. (For more on exemptions and waivers, click here.)

Those taxpayers who can’t demonstrate essential minimum coverage and aren’t otherwise exempt are subject to a penalty – the shared individual responsibility payment – equal to 1% of income above the “filing threshold” or $95 per adult and $47.50 per child (up to $285 for a family), whichever is higher. That amount is figured and reported on the taxpayer’s 2014 tax return, payable by April 15, 2015.

For the 2015 tax year, the amount of the penalty increases to 2% of income or $325 per adult; in 2016, it jumps up again to 2.5% of income or $695 per person.

In terms of dollars, the CBO had initially estimated that by 2016, nearly six million taxpayers would be subject to an average penalty of $1,200. The overwhelmingly majority (80%) of those estimated to be at risk to the penalty were those in the middle class with incomes between $55,850 and $115,250.

Since that time, the numbers have been adjusted downward, based largely on the perceived success of policies purchased through the Marketplace and the increased number of taxpayers exempt under the rules. Those estimates – between three and six million households – are still just guesses. But the dollars associated with those numbers are the real mystery. You see, buried in the language of the 2010 law creating the Affordable Health Care Act (you remember, the “big f*cking deal”) is a bit of an out: There are practically no real consequences for not paying the penalty.

I mentioned this to Maggie McGrath, personal finance reporter for Forbes, while shooting video about the Health Care Act earlier this month. “Shouldn’t that be the real story?” she asked.

She’s right, of course. It should but oddly enough, nobody is really talking about it.

Why so quiet? Here’s my guess: nobody has a clue what’s really going to happen. You see, when the Act became news in 2010, rumors were flying about what would happen if you didn’t pay the penalty. It was politically tricky. The consequences needed to be enough to make you want to conform with the Act but not so onerous that Congress would be loathe to vote for it.

The final language in the Act declared that the penalty “shall be paid upon notice and demand” which sounds really intimidating. The language went on to note that the penalty would be “collected in the same manner as an assessable penalty under subchapter B of chapter 68″ which also sounds pretty serious – especially since subchapter B references some pretty nasty penalties for otherwise not complying with other sections of the Tax Code.

So what would the penalty for noncompliance be? Jail time? Nope. The language in the Act specifically rules out jail time, saying at Section 500A(g)(2)(A):

In the case of any failure by a taxpayer to timely pay any penalty imposed by this section, such taxpayer shall not be subject to any criminal prosecution or penalty with respect to such failure.

So, no jail time.

But that means that the IRS will chase you and lien your property if you don’t pay, right?

Nope. That’s not allowed under the Act.

At 500A(g)(2)(B)(i), the Treasury cannot “file notice of lien with respect to any property of a taxpayer by reason of any failure to pay the penalty imposed by this section.”

So, no liens.

Then, clearly there will be levies or seizures on your wages and account, right?

Nope. Not that either. Under 500A(g)(2)(B)(ii), the Treasury cannot “levy on any such property with respect to such failure.”

To recap then, by law, you have to pay the penalty. But if you don’t, you won’t go to jail, you won’t be liened and you won’t be levied for collection.

Is there anything that could happen to you if you choose not to pay? With no jail, no liens and no levies, it doesn’t leave the IRS a lot of room to work when it comes to collections. Congress actually managed to create, as I wrote in 2012 and in in 2013, an incredibly complex and burdensome law without any teeth.

Well, maybe some teeth. Baby teeth. The IRS might seize any part or all of your refund in order to satisfy your obligation. Might. IRS hasn’t come right out and said that it absolutely will offset your refund if you owe a penalty for failure to pay. However, in the Final Regulations issued on this matter, IRS noted that “[n]othing in this section prohibits the Secretary from offsetting any liability for the shared responsibility payment against any overpayment due the taxpayer, in accordance with section 6402(a) and its corresponding regulations.” That’s sufficiently passive aggressive, right? You’re on notice that the IRS doesn’t think that it’s barred from taking your refund. They’re not saying they will (for certain) but they’re not saying they won’t either.

So is there anything you can expect for sure? You can definitely expect a lot of letter writing and virtual shaking of the government’s fist at you. Maybe even some blustering, for good measure.

But real consequences? Other than that potential refund seizure and a guilty conscience, there’s nothing to keep taxpayers from opting out of paying. Will they? We’ll have to wait and see.

Want more taxgirl goodness? Pick your poison: follow me on twitter, hang out onFacebook and Google, play on Pinterest or check out my YouTube channel. For cases and tax related docs, visit Scribd.

Exercise Your Way to a Healthy Pineal Gland
She has a nice voice. She's articulate and her explanation is pretty good. And though I am not comfortable with her world view, she does lead you through a helpful exercise. 

Classification is a hardening. You don't want your pineal gland to harden. It should be malleable as she points out. Dreams in color is a sign of a healthy pineal gland.

Treatment Recommendations

• Eliminate and discard all non-stick cookware
• Eliminate Soy - Soy suppresses thyroid functions, imbalances hormones, and it has been shown to cause goiters (an enlargement of the thyroid gland) in previously healthy individuals, which shows that it disrupts iodine usage.
• Adhere to an Alkaline Diet - This is extremely helpful when curing any chronic disease. Reference the Body pH and Disease article to guide you.
• Balance Estrogen Levels (Women) - Excess estrogen slows down the thyroid gland. This means eliminating birth control medications, increasing the fiber in the diet, and avoiding all non-organic meats. Growth hormones in meats lead to imbalanced hormones. Reduce dairy intake, because milk often contains lots of estrogen.
• Exercise - Find a physical activity that is fun, and do it often. We believe that exercise could half the cure time in some cases, and curing is not possible without it.
• Hemp Fiber - This is a broad-spectrum supplement and a mild laxative.
• L-Tyrosine - Tyrosine is a natural amino acid which helps the body produce its own thyroid hormone. This is also known to help with the depressions that usually accompany hypothyroidism. Most naturopaths recommend that 500 mg. be taken 2-3 times daily.
• L-Arginine - Arginine is known to stimulate the thyroid and its hormones. It also improves immune function, improves fertility, and alleviates erectile dysfunction.
• Iodine - The thyroid needs iodine to function properly, and lots of people now suffer from iodine deficiencies. To test yourself, place some iodine (we use 2%) on your stomach. Make a dot the size of a silver dollar (or twice the size of a British 50p). If it disappears within 12 hours, then you are iodine deficient. Keep adding iodine in increasing amounts, until it no longer disappears in a 12-hour period. This works due to the fact that the body transdermally absorbs iodine at the rate at which it is needed. Do not use povidone iodine and do not orally consume iodine. This is especially an important precaution for those with Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Check the link for other options and considerations concerning safe iodine supplementation. Red marine algae is the only means to safely orally supplement with iodine, but beware of other types of underwater vegetation. Baked fish is the safest and most natural way to consume iodine, but beware of bottom feeders, shell fish, krill, and etc. Think kosher in regard to the choice of fish.
• Avoid all sources of fluoride - As already mentioned, fluoride suppresses the thyroid, and is likely to be the leading cause of hypothyroidism. Drink spring water, avoid soft drinks, use fluoride-free toothpaste, use a shower filter, and throw away non-stick cookware. Both coffee and tea naturally contain fluoride, so use iodine to compensate if these drinks are indispensable.
• Eat a natural diet - To help the body to heal itself, remove burdens on its immune system. This means that all processed foods, artificial flavors, colors, preservatives, white flour, white sugar, table salt, hydrogenated oils, aluminum, high fructose corn syrup, and etcetera should be eliminated from the diet. Organic food is the ideal. Do not trust marketing that reads "All Natural", because this phrase is intentionally unregulated, so that anyone may use it for anything. Read labels carefully.
• Chlorophyll - Supplementing with chlorophyll provides essential copper, helps oxygenate the body, builds healthy red blood cells, and it overall assists with skin health. Chlorophyll is a safe method of orally supplementing with copper. Those who are using our Colloidal Copper Lotion are unlikely to need more copper.
• Pears and Apples - The ancient Chinese discovered that pears have a powerful tendency to balance hormones; especially in women. Pears help most when mixed with or juiced with apples. Try our pear juice recipe, and drink it regularly.
• Zinc and Selenium: Studies indicate that severe zinc or selenium deficiencies can cause decreased thyroid hormone levels. Never take zinc on an empty stomach. Brazil nuts are high in both zinc and selenium.
• Coconut Oil: Buy organic, cold-pressed, coconut oil from a health food store. Take around 1 teaspoon of it daily. You can also use it to cook with, but be warned that it smokes at low cooking temperatures, so it should only be used for low-heat cooking. Coconut oil speeds the metabolism, encourages production of the thyroid hormone, and kills candida yeast.
• Avoid Canola Oil: Canola oil interferes with the production of thyroid hormones, amongst its many other dangers. Treat canola oil like the abominable, genetically engineered, poison that it is.