I only wish I could find some raw goat butter.

Either way, it can be complicated. First of all, artificial Vit. A is added to commercial butter/cream, whereas raw milk and cream naturally contain beta carotene which your body converts to Vit A. Other than that, there’s about twice as much vitamins, calories, etc. in butter as cream, owing to the water content of cream.

There’s also the cattle breed aspect: Holsteins (about 90% of dairy herds) have been bred to produce a LOT of milk, up to 15 gallons/day (using Monsanto’s rBGH hormones), with a low butterfat of 3%. Guernseys and Jerseys both produce much less milk, but with a 4-6% butterfat content, thus their milk is richer and more flavorful than other breeds. Their milk also contains much more beta carotene which colors their milk yellow, particularly when grassfed, and especially in the spring when the grass is growing like crazy. Spring milk of Jerseys and Guernseys is especially high in Vit K and other vitamins, per Weston Price’s observations. My Jersey cow’s cream varies in color from a pale creamy yellow in winter to a deep yellow in June… her butter and cheese made in the different seasons are likewise colored. Nearly all commercial cheese and butter have coloring added, either natural or artificial, because Holstein milk makes a fairly white butter, almost like lard, which would be very disconcerting to consumers.

By the way, beta carotene also colors the fat of Jersey steers, one reason why Jersey bull calves are practically given away at birth ($10-20 vs $130+ for Holstein calves) and why full-grown Jersey steers are usually discounted at the sale barn…. consumers expect beef with white fat and would distrust yellow Jersey fat as “weird”. But those who’ve eaten Jersey steers swear that no better beef exists because of this yellow fat. Makes sense to me… yellow fat has more vitamins, and thus more taste, than does the pallid white fat of feedlot grainfed beef. Guess I’ll find out for myself soon… my first Jersey steer will be processed in January.

Finally, there’s the species aspect: Goats convert all their beta carotene in grass and browse to Vitamin A, one reason why goat milk, cheese and butter are always stark white; this preconversion means there is much more bio-available Vit A in goatmilk products than in cow’s milk. Also, due to their preference of eating deep-rooted weeds, trees and shrubs (rather than all-grass), goat milk has a higher mineral content than that of even pasture-fed cows.

Well, this probably is far more information than anyone really cares to know… hazards of esoteric dairy knowledge, I guess. LOL

Leniza and Josh, that’s very interesting about the eyes and makes sense. I find it funny that we’re told things like “the bones stop adding calcium after age 20″ and such, as if there’s no improvement beyond that age and nothing you can do about the body. I think the body has an incredible ability to heal itself given the proper fuel.

Ed, have at it. mg per 100 calories is the way I found most of the numbers, so I converted the others as best I could.

Tom, there are lots of good ways to eat liver that can sorta mask the taste. Liver and onions isn’t the only option. It goes well with apples and bacon. These might help out too: Liver chili and liver in El Pato.

Kelly, hmmm….liver braunsweiger. That sounds tasty!

James, not sure about the raw cream. A raw milk person would know more than I would.

Cheers
Scott

I was wondering if raw cream would have the same amount of vitamin A that butter does.

Thanks
James

Kelly

The only gripe I have (and I noticed this when I did my own articles on the fat soluble vitamins) is that liver is a particularly rich source for most of them. I can do butter and carrots for my vitamin A, cod liver oil and salmon for my vitamin B, spinach for my vitamin E and eggs and milk for my vitamin K…but liver is one food I have never managed to stomach.

I’m very curious about reformulating the vitamin content of food as micrograms per 100 calories, rather than a pure weight ratio. I don’t think that we can fairly compare butter to milk on a per-100g basis. I might drink a pound of milk, but only eat an ounce of butter, at dinner.

If I have time, I might reformulate the vit-K table on a per-calorie basis and post it here.

For example from my diet today, three large eggs provide 2 mg (11% of RDA), half an avocado has 1mg, 2 oz cream cheese has 1mg, 3 oz canned salmon has 1mg…. and these are for grocery store products. I’ll bet grassfed and organic (most of what I eat) would be a lot higher in Vit E, as well as in other vitamins.

I love your blog… lots of useful info here!

I’ve read the same stuff from both Chris & Stephan, but it was a LOT of info to condense, you’ve done a great job at that and I plan to link to this in a post soon.

Thanks for doing all that work!
Kelly