Blast from the past Bhutan

When I first visited Bhutan, I was a bit skeptical of drinking buttered tea. As a child of the 80's, I grew up being told that fat, especially saturated fat, would clog your heart like pouring hot fat down the drain, and kill you. Not only that, the theory went that we would all become grossly obese from eating fat because it was so high in calories. 40 years later, I'll let you make your own judgment as to how well this theory has worked.

I started experimenting with low carb to see if it would combat my recently developed asthma. I can say that since I've started it, my symptoms have improved. The problem is, since I've had asthma for less than a year, so I don't know if this improved state is my baseline level of symptoms for this time of year, or if this has really helped. That said, I can't really think of another reason why asthma would improve in the middle of the heat and humidity of summer after being miserable all fall, winter, and spring. Last week I had a flare up of symptoms, and I decided that I should probably try dropping some of the carbs I had re-introduced into my diet. That means trying to increase my fat intake to make up for the carbs I'm not eating, and trying not to think about how terrible I've been told that is. While I try to use a lot of olive oil (I have the price of a bottle of EVOO at Aldi's memorized - and they recently raised it by 50 cents), I find that sometimes I just need a good hit of saturated fat to really feel full. The other morning when I was working, I was just so hungry, and didn't know what I had to eat that didn't have some form of carb in it. Then I remembered buttered tea...

Yes, that is a tea bag. I was in a hurry, and didn't want to butter some of my really good tea. 

I got the "Irish" butter at Aldi's because it is grass fed, and the theory is that grass fed beef and dairy is better for you. I really have to believe the people who say that after a drought we had several years ago. The local news ran a story about how local cattle farmers were feeding their herds candy, bread, and old pastries because it was cheaper, and a carbohydrate is a carbohydrate. I couldn't help but think that consuming products from those animals was equivalent to eating second hand Twinkies. If I want to decrease the inflammation in my body, I probably shouldn't be consuming animals that were eating inflammatory foods. So, how was the tea?

Buttery. I waited until my pat of butter melted, and took a sip. It tasted like butter. After a few sips, I was stuffed and didn't want any more. Later in the day, the butter was still floating on top, and not as congealed as I thought it would be. That said, I didn't finish my cup of buttered tea. It did what it needed to do for me. I'll have to remember this trick again when I need it. Some people in the low carb community go for fancy (expensive) MCT oil, or coconut oil in their beverages, but I had butter available and could check off another experience in my world exploration of tea. Perhaps generations of mountain dwellers know more than we do in the west.