There is No Such Thing as 'Plant Butter'

The food processors who produce a popular brand of ‘spread’ now have come out with a product that they have misnamed ‘plant butter.’ It comes in varieties that contain olive oil or avocado oil, but the one I looked at online ALSO contained the dreaded ‘canola’ oil (a trade name for rapeseed oil) and ‘pea protein.’ 

OK, here’s the thing: I live in the dairy capital of upper Michigan, Menominee county. My home is a former dairy farm, as are the two homes nearest mine. There are several currently-working dairy farms on my road. And so I know: butter is a DAIRY product. It comes from cows’ lady parts (or goats’ lady parts or sheeps’ lady parts, or I suppose yaks’ lady parts) and there is no such thing as a ‘butter plant’ with udders you can squeeze to get ‘plant butter.’ 

It used to be that dairy farmers were more defensive of their product. They would raise a fuss if imitation soy based drink was called ‘soy milk.’ They would give out awards to local restaurants who used real butter and not margarine or spread. 

I grew up eating margarine as a kid because of our society’s fat-phobia. Now I learn that the butter-substitutes we used back then were very unhealthy— full of trans-fats, hydrogenated oils, and over-refined cheap oils. 

Now we know that healthy fats are important in the diet— see the 1957 study from Kekwick and Pawan ‘Metabolic Study in Human Obesity with Isocaloric Diets High in Fat, Protein or Carbohydrate’ in Metabolism Clinical and Experimental, a scientific journal, which shows that diets high in fat were more effective in producing weight loss. 

My answer to the ‘plant butter’ scam: eat real butter. Grass-fed butter like Kerrygold is good if you can afford it. If you are dairy-sensitive, try ghee, which is made from butter. You can make it yourself at home, and I’m planning to write a blog post about it once I try making some myself.

If you want extra-virgin olive oil or avocado oil on your food, don’t buy ‘plant butter.’ You can just brush some of the actual oil over your food. You can even do this with low-carb gluten-free bread substitutes such as ‘Atkins Diet Revolution Rolls’ or one of my own recipes (I will share the latest version on this blog, soon.)

RECOMMENDED READING:

Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes, 2008 Reviews the science behind dietary theories like low-fat and low-carb.

Real Food Keto by Jimmy Moore & Christine Moore, NTP, 2019 Chapter 4 will educate you about fats— the good and the bad.

Ketotarian by Dr. Will Cole, 2018. If you just have to do a ‘plant based’ diet, you can still do keto. Author was a podcast co-host with Jimmy Moore.

Carbohydrate Binging on #MeatlessMonday

Evidently the vegetarian community has been trying to sell 'Meatless Mondays' for quite a number of years now. The idea, I guess, is if they guilt people over their meat eating enough to eat vegetarian meals just once a week, they will get 'hooked' on the less-than-ideal vegetarian diet restrictions.

The problem with actual Meatless Monday menus is that the place of zero-carb meats is being filled by high-carb items such as whole grains and legumes (beans, peas, lentils.) Do any of us actually need MORE carb binging in our lives?

And the alarming thing about Meatless Monday is that it isn't being kept a private matter. School lunches are also a target--- not just in some oddball private academy which only allows vegetarian families to send their kids there, but regular schools that normal citizens have to send their children to. Should schools really be promoting a high-carb, less healthy, more restrictive way of eating to young kids who don't know about nutrition yet?

There are no scientific studies that I know of that associate a meatless diet with weight loss and the kind of health benefits we get from a low-carb diet. During my vegetarian days, I believed them when they said 'there is no such thing as a fat vegetarian.' But that was a lie. Anyone on a carb-based vegetarian diet is at great risk of the health problems associated with carb-eating, including obesity.

But you can do both vegetarian and low-carb, can't you? Well, technically yes, but the combination is more expensive and much more restrictive. On the modern version of the Atkins diet, vegetarians are advised to allow themselves more carbohydrates while on the Induction level. What does this mean? Some people have to stay near the Induction level to lose any weight at all--- so this means that starting a couple of levels above Induction is going to mean some vegetarians won't get into ketosis and get the benefits of that state, and some with bad metabolisms may never lose weight on it.

Instead of #MeatlessMonday, I much prefer #FastingMonday. Because I know meat is not bad or a sin, but instead it is the kind of food God or Nature provides for meat-eating critters like lions, bears, and humans. Let the sheep and goats of the world eat meat-free. Let rabbits. Just don't impose meatlessness on fellow humans who need meat in their diet to remain healthy.  It is a cruelty.

#FastingMonday is better than #MeatlessMonday because: lower in carbs

The “plant-based diet” movement wants everyone to have #MeatlessMonday because they feel if they force a bit of vegetarianism on us, we will get hooked. Not just get fatter and unhealthier as I did when I was a vegetarian.

But what happens when the typical eater goes meatless? This is what happened when I did as a teenager: I skipped the meat main dish and ate larger portions of whatever non-meat dishes we had. Mostly, that means CARBS. And increasing the carbs means increasing the health problems.

Reason of the Day: Fasting is Lower in Carbs than “Meatlessness”

Have you ever heard of the “Diseases of Civilization?” These are the diseases that are rare or non-existant among tribal peoples eating their traditional tribal diet. Like, for example, the Pima Indians of the American Southwest. The Pima Indians were a slim, fit people. But then settlers settled down near them and hunted the game they would have hunted. And so the Pima Indians had to add “civilized” food to their diet. Mostly biscuits made from flour. And the Pima Indians became notable for obesity and a high rate of diabetes. All because of a massive increase in refined carbohydrates in their diet.

Fasting is the ultimate low-carb diet. There are zero carbs— or near zero when you resort to some of the allowed fasting fluids like home-made bone broth or having a touch of butter or MCT oil in your coffee, tea or broth. 

On the other hand, if you go meatless only on the vegetarians’ #MeatlessMonday, you will be eating quite a load of carbs. If you are cutting back on carbs on normal days, you will be eating a massive carb load if you eat the recommended vegetarian dishes. And if you are truly low carb and eat a typical #MeatlessMonday slew of meals, the carbs, including sugars, you take in will be enough to give you symptoms. I tend to fall asleep in the afternoons when I pig out on carbs, and get headaches and have very low energy.

Don’t Let #MeatlessMonday happen to you!

Fasting is so much better for you! It controls blood sugars in diabetics, helps with weight loss, and helps in the prevention of many diseases. See “The Complete Guide to Fasting” for more information.

#FastingMondays can be easy to do. Just, when you get up in the morning have a big glass of (distilled) water. After that, you can have other fasting fluids as desired: black coffee, plain tea, herbal tisanes (‘herb tea’), and home-made bone broth. This last requires some advanced planning, however. But bone broth is so good for you it is worth the trouble to make it regularly!

When you feel a hunger pang, try a drink of a fasting fluid. Tea and coffee sometimes make you unhungry. But sometimes we mistake thirst for hunger, so just a glass of water might do the trick. 

Hunger comes in waves. Distract yourself by doing something, and by the time you are finished, the hunger will likely be gone.

#FastingMonday does not need to be an all-day fast if you are new to fasting. Fast until lunchtime this time, fast until suppertime the next time, and before long you will manage a full all-day fast on Mondays.

A ketogenic diet is better for your health than ‘Meatlessness,’ and if you are on a keto diet, you may have skipped meals already without meaning to, because you are just not hungry when your body is in ketosis. If fasting on #FastingMonday is too hard for you now, get on a healthy ketogenic diet (like original Atkins at Induction level) and after your body adapts to fat burning, try fasting again. (You can do the ketogenic diet as a vegetarian, there is a book coming out about it, but it may be more expensive and require more processed food, and be harder on the global food supply.)

Human beings, like lions, tigers and bears, are meat-eaters. There is no scientific proof that any meat-eating species can suddenly evolve the ability to eat a meatless diet and thrive. So out-tough the #MeatlessMonday crowd by taking the concept to the next level: #FastingMonday! 

Why do vegetarians need the euphemisms 'vegan' and 'plant based?'

When a group of people constantly need new names for themselves and have to keep adding new terminology and coining new terms, it's a sign there is a problem.

In the case of vegetarians who are now 'vegans,' a term not in my smaller dictionary, one of the reasons may be intolerance.

Historically, there have been many kinds of vegetarians. Some were strict vegetarians. Others ate eggs, milk or both. Lacto-ovo vegetarianism is a term for those who ate  both eggs and milk. There were even vegetarians who ate fish! I think one reason for the militant 'vegans' of today is that they didn't want to accept those who couldn't go to their extreme as fellow vegetarians.

There is also a history of vegetarians insulting those who ate meat. 'Dr' Linda Hazzard (1868-1938), the 'fasting specialist,' had nothing nice to say about meat eaters. It was like she felt they were somehow dirty inside, not pure like her. At first adopting the term 'vegan' may have gotten away from that history, but since there are 'vegans' bullying meat-eaters on Twitter and telling them to die, I think they may need a new term soon.

Enter 'plant-based.' People talk about a 'plant-based' diet. There is even a commercial for fake butter that brags that it is 'from plants.' Promoters of vegetarianism tell people to go on a 'plant-based' diet because some people are relieved not to hear the words 'vegetarian' or 'vegan' which sound somewhat cult-like.

It is possible to do a keto, low-carb diet as a vegetarian or 'vegan,' but it ain't cheap. Vegetarians mostly eat a lot of soy-based processed foods like soy 'milk' or soy based meats or cheeses, or tofu. This not only costs money, but is hard on the planet. Soy and grain growing takes a lot out of the soil, and grazing land used to produce sheep and cattle cannot be plowed up and used to plant more soybeans. If everyone on the planet woke up tomorrow and decided to go 'vegan,' vast numbers would die because there won't be enough vegetarian food to go around. And the quest to grow more soybeans and grains would lead to marginal lands being farmed and crop rotations being ignored. Do we really want another ecological disaster like the Dust Bowl?

Until vegetarians open their minds and realize that meat eaters are not the enemy and that there are sound reasons for many to eat meat, they will probably need to go on creating euphemisms.

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To learn more about 'fasting specialist' Linda Hazzard, read the true-crime book 'Starvation Heights' by Gregg Olson. 
To learn more about the keto vegetarian diet, read 'Ketotarian' by Dr. Will Cole, who does a podcast with Jimmy Moore.