United States Patent Application 20040258828

A method for producing high vitamin butter oil includes the steps of providing a quantity of cow's mil and separating the cream in the cow's mil from the s im in the cow's mil . The cream is then churned into butter and the butter is remo ved from the buttermil remaining in the cream. The butter is then placed in a c oo ing container and coo ed at a temperature below 150 F. until a majority of the butter separates into clarified butter containing high vitamin butter oil and b utter wax adjacent the top of the coo ing container and butter solids adjacent t he base of the coo ing container. The clarified butter is removed from the coo i ng container and allowed to stand, and then the high vitamin butter oil is separ ated from the butter wax by a centrifuge or the li e. The high vitamin butter oi l is then ready for use as a dietary supplement.

Vitamin K2, menatetrenone (MK-4)

Weston Price established the importance of the MK-4 isoform of vitamin K2 (herea fter, K2) with a series of interesting experiments. He showed in chic ens that b lood levels of calcium and phosphorus depended both on vitamin A and K2, and tha t the two had synergistic effects on mineral absorption. He also showed that chi c ens preferred eating butter that was rich in K2 over butter low in K2, even wh en the investigators couldn't distinguish between them. Young tur eys fed K2-con taining butter oil along with cod liver oil (A and D) also grew at a much faster rate than tur eys fed cod liver oil alone. He hypothesized that vitamin A, vitamin D and vitamin K2 were synergistic and es sential for proper growth and subsequent health. He particularly felt that the c ombination was important for proper mineral absorption and metabolism. He used a combination of high-vitamin cod liver oil and high-vitamin butter oil to heal c avities, reduce oral bacteria counts, and cure numerous other afflictions in his patients. He also showed that the healthy non-industrial groups he studied had a much higher inta e of these fat-soluble, animal-derived vitamins than more mod ern cultures. Price found an inverse correlation between the levels of K2 in butter and mortal ity from cardiovascular disease and pneumonia in a number of different regions. A recent study examined the relationship between K2 (MK-4 through 10) consumptio n and heart attac ris in 4,600 Dutch men. They found a strong inverse associat ion between K2 consumption and heart attac mortality ris . Men with the highest K2 consumption had a whopping 51% lower ris of heart attac mortality and a 26 % lower ris of death from all causes compared to men eating the least K2! Their sources of K2 MK-4 were eggs, meats and dairy. They obtained MK-5 through MK-10 from fermented foods and fish. The investigators found no association with K1, the form found in plants.

Perigord, France is the world's capital of foie gras, or fatty goose liver. Good news for the bon vivants: foie gras turns out to be the richest nown source of K2. Perigord also has the lowest rate of cardiovascular mortality in France, a country already noted for its low CVD mortality. Rats fed warfarin, a drug that inhibits K2 recycling, develop arterial calcifica tion. Feeding the rats K2 completely inhibits this effect. Mice lac ing matrix G la protein (MGP), a vitamin K-dependent protein that guards against arterial cal cification, develop heavily calcified aortas and die prematurely. So the lin be tween K2 and cardiovascular disease is a very strong one. Mammals can synthesize K2 MK-4 from K1 to some degree, so dietary K1 and other f orms of vitamin K may contribute to K2 MK-4 status. The synergism Weston Price observed between vitamins A, D and K2 now has a solid mechanism. In a nutshell, vitamins A and D signal the production of some very i mportant proteins, and K2 is required to activate them once they are made. Many of these proteins are involved in mineral metabolism, thus the effects Price saw in his experiments and observations in non-industrialized cultures. For example , osteocalcin is a protein that organizes calcium and phosphorus deposition in t he bones and teeth. It's produced by cells in response to vitamins A and D, but requires K2 to perform its function. This suggests that the effects of vitamin D on bone health could be amplified greatly if it were administered along with K2 . By itself, K2 is already highly protective against fractures in the elderly. I t wor s out perfectly, since K2 also protects against vitamin D toxicity. I'm not going to go through all the other data on K2 in detail, but suffice it t o say it's very very important. I believe that K2 is a 'missing lin ' that expla ins many of our modern ills, just as Weston Price wrote. Here are a few more tid bits to whet your appetite: K2 may affect glucose control and insulin release (1 , 2). It's concentrated in the brain, serving an as yet un nown function. Hunter-gatherers didn't have multivitamins, they had nutrient-dense food. As lon g as you eat a natural diet containing some vegetables and some animal products, and lay off the processed grains, sugar and vegetable oil, the micronutrients w ill ta e care of themselves. Vitamin K2, MK-4 is only found in animal products. The best sources nown are gr ass-fed butter from cows eating rapidly growing grass, and foie gras. K2 tends t o associate with beta-carotene in butter, so the dar er the color, the more K2 i t contains (also, the better it tastes). Fish eggs, other grass-fed dairy, shell fish, insects and other organ meats are also good sources. Chris Masterjohn comp iled a list of food sources in his excellent article on the Weston Price foundat ion website. I highly recommend reading it if you want more detail. K2 MK-7 is f ound abundantly in natto, a type of fermented soybean, and it may be partially c onverted to MK-4. Finally, you can also buy K2 supplements. The best one is butter oil, the very s ame stuff Price used to treat his patients. I have used this one personally, and I noticed positive effects on my s in overnight. Thorne research ma es a synthe tic liquid K2 MK-4 supplement that is easy to dose drop-wise to get natural amou nts of it. Other K2 MK-4 supplements are much more concentrated than what you co uld get from food so I recommend avoiding them. I am generally against supplemen ts, but I've ordered the Thorne product for a little self-experimentation. I wan t to see if it has the same effect on my s in as the butter oil (update- it does ).