Unsalted raw butter occupies a position of singular importance within the Primal Diet. Aajonus consistently identified it as probably the most effective and important food to help people get well, especially when combined with unheated honey. It is listed among the easiest raw fats to digest, assimilate, and utilize, alongside raw eggs, raw cream, the fat in and on raw meats, no-salt-added raw cheeses, fresh coconut, avocados, stone-pressed olive oil, and other non-vegetable cold-pressed-below-96° Fahrenheit oils.

Raw butter is fundamentally a dairy fat, the product of cream that has been churned such that the body of the fat separates and consolidates. When the body makes and converts cream into particular fats, two-thirds of the cream will be made into butter. This means butter represents a partially pre-processed form of cream fat, one in which a significant portion of the cholesterol has already been broken down and utilized prior to consumption. As a consequence, when a person eats raw butter, the liver does not need to produce the full spectrum of bile required for cream, it only needs to produce two-thirds of it.

In the Primal Diet framework, butter is not merely a food, it is a comprehensive biological tool. It cleanses, dissolves, lubricates, fuels, protects, rejuvenates, and helps reproduce cells. It is described as feeding virtually every part of the body, including bones, connective tissue, cartilage, tendons, muscles, organs, glands, eyes, arteries, and the vascular system. The sole exception Aajonus noted was the brain and nervous system, which require cream for thorough nourishment due to cream's water-soluble properties that allow it to penetrate places butter cannot reach.

When Aajonus could not get raw milk and raw butter, he had to eat much more raw meat to compensate. He described the combination of raw milk and raw butter as providing pleasurable, soothing, and calming properties that cannot be fully replicated even by alternatives such as coconut milk.

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Raw butter is described as the most digestible of the dairy fats. The body uses approximately 60 varieties of cholesterols (bile variants) to digest raw cream. Because butter represents cream in which one-third of the cholesterol variants have already been broken down and utilized during the buttermaking process, the liver only needs to produce two-thirds of those bile varieties to complete digestion of raw butter. This makes raw butter substantially easier on the liver than cream.

By contrast, raw cream is described as the most complicated dairy fat for the liver to digest, requiring all 60 varieties of bile to break down the 60 varieties of fats in the cream. Eating too much raw cream causes bloating and slows digestion. Aajonus explicitly stated that butter is more digestible and more easily digestible than cream, and that butter is better than cream as a general fat source for most purposes. He said: "Butter is so easily digested. It only takes a third of the normal cholesterols. Produced by a third of the types of bile that the liver produces. So butter is better."

Aajonus enumerated the following specific actions and properties of unsalted raw butter in the body:

• Strengthens organs and glands. The fat in unsalted raw butter strengthens the organs and glands.
• Heals eyes. Explicitly identified as one of the functions of raw butter fat.
• Cleanses arteries and vascular system. Raw butter fat dissolves plaque made from hardened and/or crystallized cooked fats, primarily from vegetable fats.
• Chelates and escorts byproducts and waste from the body. Acts as a carrier to move toxins and metabolic waste out of the system.
• Lubricates bones, cartilage and teeth. Provides biological lubrication to hard tissues.
• Feeds the brain and nervous system, though not as thoroughly as cream does.
• Utilized for all body-fat needs: cleansing, dissolving, lubricating, fueling, protecting, rejuvenating, and helping to reproduce cells.
• Heals and corrects all skin conditions. Aajonus demonstrated this through experiments with animals. He stated: "I know that raw butter mends skin disorders pretty rapidly." He described raw butter as capable of correcting "any kind of skin disease" and said: "raw butter will correct any kind of skin disease" and "butter for long enough will clear up any skin condition, will heal any skin condition."
• Minimizes infection. Specifically described in the context of trauma recovery.
• Cleanses dead cells and other waste. Removes cellular debris as part of its detoxification role.
• Makes existing tissue strong. Fortifies and reinforces viable tissue.
• Helps the body replace cells killed by injury. When paired with raw meat, raw butter supports cellular replacement following trauma.
• Feeds and lubricates any part of the body except the brain and nervous system (which it feeds partially but not thoroughly). The brain and nervous system are more completely nourished by cream.

Raw butter has not been heated above a cow's normal body temperature (approximately 96–104°F). It stays soluble, malleable, and fluid at body temperature. Once butter is heated to pasteurization temperature, it no longer changes ions, and it will dry out and harden in the body. Pasteurized (cooked) butter does not stay fluid at body temperature and therefore cannot perform the same cleansing, lubricating, and fueling functions as raw butter.

Aajonus stated: "Like unheated honey, although the labeling requirements are different, 'Raw' butter hasn't been heated above a cow's normal body temperature. Raw fat, like raw butter, cleanses, lubricates, protects and fuels the body easily. Whereas heated and pasteurized fat often store as cellulite or other hard-to-use or nonutilizable waxy fat."

Regarding cooked fat generally, Aajonus noted that even cooked animal fats will not solidify in the arteries, they stay fluid at human body temperature even when cooked, but they produce gout, arthritis, rheumatism, and osteoporosis over time in older years. However, the full spectrum of healing and cellular nourishment only comes from raw butter.

If fats are heated above 104° Fahrenheit they are rarely digested, assimilated, or utilized properly.

• Cream is water-soluble when it enters the body and can penetrate cells without the body needing to bind it with lecithin or other emulsifying compounds. Cream does not need to be broken down into a water-soluble substance, it already is. This is why cream reaches places butter does not.
• Once cream is made into butter, it is no longer water-soluble in that way. The body must put it through a process, though not a demanding one.
• Butter feeds and lubricates bones, connective tissue, cartilage, tendons, muscles, virtually everywhere, but not the brain and nervous system as thoroughly as cream.
• Three ounces of cream per day was the average minimum Aajonus recommended. When cravings are present, a person needs a lot of cream. Once cravings stop, the person can drop down to butter.
• Butter is always better for the general fat needs. Cream is for specific needs.
• If someone is very thin and their body is very starving, the bowel will not receive cream because it gets digested before reaching there.

Raw fat generally, and butter specifically, is critical for protecting the body from industrial toxins. People who eat diets low in fat often develop immune deficiencies sometime in their lives. Raw fat ensures cellular reproduction when raw meats are eaten. The body can, to some extent, turn sugars, starches, and proteins into fats, but not nearly enough, and it is a long and exhausting process.

Butter and cheese together (as animal fats) are usually eaten with coconut cream to ensure enough lipids are available to escort toxins out of the body. However, butter alone is a significant fat for dissolving and enveloping free-radical metallic minerals.

Eating plenty of raw fats including unsalted raw butter provides healthy fat that gradually cleanses the system of useless fat or fat that has bound with toxins and stored by the body. While a person detoxifies stored toxic cholesterol, the blood cholesterol level may soar because some toxic cholesterol enters the blood to be carried to the bowels and excreted, or through the skin. This is not a cause for alarm, it is a cause for celebration, as that process rids the body of cellulite and other toxic fatty storages.

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The defining characteristic of genuine raw butter is that it has never been heated above the cow's normal body temperature, approximately 96°F. Aajonus clarified: "'Raw' butter hasn't been heated above a cow's normal body temperature." Labels stating "raw" do not automatically guarantee this. Raw butter stays soluble, malleable, and fluid at body temperature. Pasteurized butter has been heated to pasteurization temperatures, changes its ionic structure, and will dry out and harden in the body.

Freezing butter is one of the most important practical concerns Aajonus addressed in multiple experiments and discussions. His conclusion: never freeze butter. He repeatedly stated that freezing butter loses approximately 80% of its nutrient value. His experimental evidence:

• He divided groups of sick animals (dogs and cats with skin disorders caused by feeding them frozen meat) into two sub-groups: one receiving fresh, unfrozen raw butter; the other receiving the same butter after it had been frozen.
• All animals healed, but those receiving the frozen butter took five times longer to recover their skin disorders.
• The group that received unfrozen raw butter healed in as little as one week. The frozen group took five weeks, in the worst case (mange) six weeks.
• The worst-diseased animals were put in the non-frozen butter group, and even they healed three to five times faster than the less-sick animals on the frozen butter.
• Aajonus calculated: "That means it loses 80% of its nutrient value by freezing it."
• He stated explicitly: "Frozen butter doesn't cause disease but it restricts healing by five times."
• "Any kind of frozen product is going to have problems... it won't be as contaminated as eating cooked, but it certainly is less healing."

Aajonus said clearly: "I talk about ice cream. Never butter. Never butter. Never ever said that. Only ice cream. And that's to get people to eat more, get more fat on them. Still not the best thing to do." He distinguished his advice to ever freeze ice cream (briefly, for eating purposes) from his absolute position of never freezing butter.

He stated: "I would no longer call frozen foods raw foods anymore because it processes them greatly."

When he described the mechanism of freezing damage: "When you see a thing frozen, what happens? When it thaws out, it immediately melts and goes into decay. Whether it's animal tissue, fruit, vegetable, no matter what."

He noted: "Even if the butter goes into [a warmer state, even soured state], keep your nutrients."

Historically, before refrigeration (before approximately the 1940s), all commercial butter was sour. Only people living on farms had fresh sweet butter. Aajonus stated: "Sour butter is good butter because..." (the transcript cuts), implying that sour raw butter is still beneficial. People who have access to raw dairy farms have always had sweeter, fresher butter. Sour raw butter simply represents an advanced stage of fermentation, not spoilage.

Raw dairy never spoils; it simply becomes varieties of cheeses, including butter that becomes a blue cheese. Even when butter becomes strongly fermented, it remains beneficial. Raw butter left at room temperature can become a kind of soured blue cheese variety, this is not waste but a transformed food.

• Room temperature up to 80°F: Raw butter can be left unrefrigerated and enjoyed soft for as long as two weeks.
• Room temperature at 90°F: Raw butter remains flavorful for two days or more unrefrigerated.
• Direct sunlight: Do NOT expose raw butter to direct sunlight. Exposing butter to sunlight for an hour or more causes it to sour.
• At 80°F: Butter will get soft and melt.
• Body temperature (98.6°F): Raw butter remains fluid and soluble. Pasteurized butter does not.

Aajonus's preferred storage method: Refrigerate raw butter until the day before use. Then put 1½ cups in a 2-cup wide-mouthed glass jar and leave at room temperature so it stays soft and flavorful. Many people on the Primal Diet eat 3–8 ounces of butter daily and keep a daily schedule preparing raw butter for the next day or two.

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Raw unsalted butter must be obtained from farmers or trusted sources, never from conventional stores. Aajonus described a network of Amish farmers and specific small dairies as appropriate sources. He advised using a product list to verify rawness and quality.

Aajonus provided highly specific guidance on packaging contamination for butter:

Parchment paper: When he received butter wrapped in parchment paper, he trimmed 1/16 inch of butter from all surfaces, because toxins used to make paper are easily absorbed into butter.

Plastic (#5 or otherwise): As long as the butter is not frozen, plastic will not leach into butter significantly. However, there is a slight toxic film on plastic surfaces that will be leached into butter. From plastic containers, he scraped the surfaces of the butter. He noted that the same company (Grazin' Acres) freezes all their butter unless you specifically ask them to send it non-frozen, underscoring the importance of always requesting non-frozen butter.

Store-bought butter and market handling: Aajonus stated he always scrapes anything he gets, regardless of source, because processing facilities use bleaches and ammonia on equipment and packaging, which gets onto the food. "I will scrape the outer part of any meat that I lose. Fish, chicken, ground meat. Doesn't matter." This scraping principle was extended to butter as well.

When asked about cultured butter from farmers who freeze regular butter but never freeze the cultured butter (cultured using a sour cream culture left for a few days), Aajonus confirmed: "Cultured butter is fine."

Because blender blades are cold metal, butter placed directly in a blender will chill, stiffen, and cause ingredients to freeze up. The recommended method: cap the jar with the blender washer/blades/base and immerse the entire assembly in mildly hot water before blending. This heats the blades along with the ingredients so blending is easy.

For general warming of butter: place it in a jar and immerse in water that is mildly hot, only as hot as the hand can tolerate. Aajonus described using water at 102–110°F to slowly warm butter.

When melting a cold stick of butter (approximately 40°F coming out of refrigerator) in a jar in water at 102–110°F, Aajonus noted: "How long do you think it's going to take to get the heat into that cold stick of butter? 45 minutes, it'll take an hour, before it starts barely dripping on the sides. Hour and a half before you've got about a hundredth of a millimeter of it melting." This slow, gentle warming process is intentional, it gradually melts out toxic waxy vegetable oils and processed fats stored in the body without damaging the butter itself.

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When eating raw meat, Aajonus consistently recommended eating butter with it to direct the meat's nutritional value toward cellular rebuilding rather than energy production alone. He stated explicitly: "When I refer to [the rule about] raw meat, you eat butter with it. Always butter."

The biochemical reasoning: if you eat raw meat alone, it goes toward energy production. If you eat raw meat with butter, it goes toward rebuilding cells. He confirmed this: "You are correct if you are not eating butter all day. Since you are eating butter all day, it is better not to eat it with your meat meal." This creates a practical nuance, if someone is consuming butter throughout the entire day in various preparations, they do not need to add additional butter specifically to meat meals.

Cream is difficult to digest and can coat the meats and prevent proper digestion of raw meats. Therefore, Aajonus advised against eating too much cream with meats. If cream is in a sauce with the meat, it should only be a part of the sauce, not the major component. Butter does not have this coating problem.

The butter/honey mixture is one of the most fundamental pairings in the Primal Diet. It is made of equal portions of unsalted raw butter and unheated honey. This combination is specifically identified as the primary source of "quicker healing." Aajonus stated: "I found that butter is probably the most effective and important to help people get well, especially when it's in a combination with unheated honey. So, raw, unsalted fat [raw, unsalted butter] is the primary source of quicker healing."

The butter/honey mixture is a core component of the home remedy kit. Where raw butter is not available, the following three alternatives may be substituted in remedies that suggest the butter/honey mixture:

1. Raw avocado mashed with an equal portion of unheated honey 2. Fresh coconut cream (juiced from the meat of fresh whole coconut) mixed with an equal portion of unheated honey 3. A stone-pressed or cold-pressed-below-96°F oil mixed with an equal portion of unheated honey

After eating a honey/butter mixture, it is best to have kefir soon after for the minerals.

The moisturizing lubrication formula, described as being on, combines butter, egg, and lemon (with optional honey if digestion is difficult). This is one of the most recommended formulas for fat delivery throughout the entire body. Aajonus stated: "If you want to get a fat that you can digest quickly, then I suggest the moisturizing lubrication formula... a combination of egg, butter, lemon. If you want that in it. You don't need those. But that's the basic occurrence."

This formula was specifically used in Aajonus's animal experiments on skin disorders, he described it as his preferred method for administering butter's healing properties. For human cases, it is the primary fat-delivery formula.

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Aajonus described his personal skincare formula: "My primal facial body care cream has butter, coconut, just a tiny bit of honey and oil jelly, and that's the best for skin ever. It's phenomenal." He described it as containing butter, coconut (cream), a tiny bit of honey, and petroleum jelly. He described this as currently very warm on the skin and effective.

Aajonus described a topical hair treatment: Melt the butter down. Use approximately half butter and one-third bone marrow. Apply to hair. Leave on for a week without washing hair. Quantity: about four ounces, depending on hair length. Butter has long been used topically for skin and hair condition.

In the Jeff case study, the butter was warmed and mixed with raw meat and honey pâté for both internal consumption and direct tissue support. The principle that butter minimizes infection, cleanses dead cells, and makes tissue strong extends to both internal and topical use.

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Many people on the Primal Diet eat 3–8 ounces of butter daily. This is described as a typical range maintained on a daily schedule.

A stick or two of butter per day (combined with large amounts of cheese) was identified as potentially problematic for women, associated with ovarian cysts. This is described as an excess level, not a standard therapeutic dose.

Aajonus advised tablespoon quantities based on the individual's size and condition. For example, in workshop settings: "A tablespoon for you, two and a half tablespoon", demonstrating that dosage is individualized rather than fixed for all people.

"Butter is the most important fat to eat the most of, but you need to eat enough raw cream. I would say, and I average this out, everybody needs 3 ounces of cream a day." Butter is the primary fat; cream is a necessary supplement. If someone drinks 16 ounces of raw cream a day, they may eat no butter that day and still be adequately covered. But cream as a primary fat rather than butter is less efficient for general body feeding.

Raw butter alone, when consumed in the context of mushroom poisoning or severe chemical exposure, is used in whatever quantities can be tolerated, "lots of raw butter in every way I could consume it."

Aajonus kept 1½ cups in a 2-cup wide-mouthed glass jar at room temperature for daily use, refrigerating the remaining supply until needed.

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Raw butter can be eaten directly, soft from room temperature, by the tablespoon or ounce, throughout the day or with meals.

Equal portions of unsalted raw butter and unheated honey. Can be kept at room temperature for spreading. Will last at least 10 days unrefrigerated (Aajonus took it backpacking in Hawaii for ten days). When refrigerated, it firms into a fudge-like texture. Variations:

• Add powdered raw walnuts or pecans blended in with the honey and butter, refrigerate, becomes like fudge
• Add a couple drops of vanilla extract and/or raw carob powder to the above, "really delicious, it's like fudge"

Combination of egg, butter, lemon (with optional honey if digestion needs support). Referenced as. Blended together, warm butter slightly in a jar immersed in mildly hot water before blending.

3 tablespoons of unsalted raw butter, warmed until melted, poured and mixed into raw fish, raw beef, and unheated honey pâté (made in food processor). Used both for very ill patients and as a general way to combine raw meat with butter for cell-building.

Raw ground beef with butter only, described as Jeff's morning meal. Simple direct combination.

Mix raw butter with dried raw meat. Aajonus described letting butter melt at room temperature in a space heated to about 90°F so the meat will absorb those fats. References the Native American pemmican tradition. Uses New Zealand completely grass-fed beef, sliced thinly and left to air-dry on plates.

From the recipe book: 2 servings using 6 ounces unsalted raw butter (or olive oil or flax oil), 1 slice garlic clove, 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger root, 1 pinch turmeric, 1 pinch freshly ground cardamom seed, 1 pinch freshly ground cloves, 1 pinch nutmeg freshly ground, 1 teaspoon fresh red onion (optional). Warm butter in an 8-ounce jar capped with blender washer/blades/base, immersed in bowl of mildly hot water for 5 minutes. Blenderize all ingredients together on medium speed for 15 seconds.

1–2 servings: 2–4 ounces raw pecans or walnuts, pine or hazel nuts, sunflower or pumpkin seeds, or peanuts; 4–8 tablespoons unsalted raw butter; 1–2 raw eggs; 1½–2 tablespoons unheated honey. Blenderize nuts in 8- or 12-ounce jar on high speed until flour. Add remaining ingredients and stir. Blenderize on medium speed for 20–25 seconds until smooth. Alternative: substitute coconut cream for butter.

1 serving: 3 ounces raw sunflower seeds, ½ teaspoon unheated honey, 1 raw egg, 1 tablespoon unsalted raw butter. Blenderize sunflower seeds in 8-ounce jar on high speed for 5–10 seconds. Add butter, honey, and egg, stir together. Blenderize on medium speed for 15 seconds. Spread mixture evenly on plate. Let stand in refrigerator for 2 hours. Cover with any sauce.

1 serving: 3 tablespoons soft unsalted raw butter, ¼ to ½ fresh hot pepper, ¼ tomato, 2 tablespoons grated Monterey Jack cheese, 1 slice fresh garlic (optional), 1 tablespoon red onion (optional), 1 serving of pasta substitute. Blenderize butter, tomato, and other ingredients together.

16 tablespoons unsalted raw butter (room temperature), ¾ cup no-salt-added hard raw cheese (room temperature), 2 tablespoons unheated honey. Slice cheese into 1/8-inch slices. Place all ingredients in a 16-ounce jelly jar and blenderize until smooth. If ingredients do not blenderize smoothly, place jar in a bowl of warm water (not hotter than a finger can tolerate). Used as filling for raw cheesecake.

1 cup raw walnut halves, 4 large raw Medjool dates (stones removed, chopped, room temperature), 2 tablespoons unsalted raw butter (room temperature). Place all ingredients in food processor and blend until ingredients begin to clump into a ball. Spread and press evenly into bottom of baking dish. Place in freezer to stiffen while making filling.

Raw chocolate made from whole raw cocoa beans blenderized with raw egg, raw fat (mostly unsalted raw butter and a little raw cream), and unheated honey. Aajonus reported that making his homemade chocolate this way, using primarily unsalted raw butter, eliminated the addiction he had experienced with other forms of chocolate.

Butter can be part of a sauce served over raw meat. Each person can find 100 out of 400 sauces they like. If butter is part of the sauce, the person does not need to eat extra butter separately. This approach makes eating raw meat very simple and very tasty.

4–6 ounces of fruit eaten with 3–6 ounces of raw butter (or raw cream, raw coconut cream, or avocado, in any combination).

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The butter/honey mixture is so foundational it functions as its own food category in Aajonus's system. Equal portions unsalted raw butter and unheated honey. It is the base for multiple home remedies, the cornerstone of the home remedy kit, the first food offered to people in crisis, and a standalone food that can be consumed throughout the day. When backpacking or traveling, it is the primary fat-protein-energy food Aajonus carried.

When butter is cultured (using a sour cream culture, left for a few days before churning), it produces a soured flavor. This form is more readily available in areas where farmers freeze their regular butter, because cultured butter is typically never frozen. Aajonus confirmed that cultured butter is fine. Historically, all commercial butter before approximately 1940 was sour, because widespread refrigeration did not exist, only people who could afford ice had refrigeration. "So everybody's butter was sour. There was no butter that was not sour on the market. So sour butter is good butter."

Aajonus stressed that butter should never be frozen. When frozen, it loses approximately 80% of its nutrient value (as measured by healing rate in experiments, five times slower healing means four-fifths reduction in efficacy). Frozen butter is "not raw anymore, really." It still heals, the animals in the experiments did recover, but at dramatically reduced speed and effectiveness. He stated he would eat frozen butter if that is all available, but would always prefer unfrozen.

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Aajonus described a sustained public disagreement with Sally Fallon over whether freezing destroys nutrients in butter. Sally Fallon's position: freezing does not destroy nutrients in butter or dairy. Mark McAfee (of Organic Pastures Dairy in California) took the same position.

Aajonus's position, backed by animal experiments and laboratory analysis: freezing destroys approximately 80% of the healing value of butter. He stated: "Sally Fallon and everybody else says freezing does not destroy nutrients, they were full of chemicals." He described having conducted the experiments in the early 1990s, before meeting Sally Fallon.

He reported: "I even had a scientist back me up and then Sally edited it out of a brochure that was written for raw milk." A second scientist (mentioned but unnamed) also experimented with frozen cream and frozen butter and found that freezing denatured the nutrients in those fats, making them less effective or ineffective. Sally Fallon responded to Aajonus's public criticism by stating she would have some of her people eat frozen and non-frozen butter to test the results.

Aajonus described this conflict directly: "I just chewed up Sally and Mark for that on the internet and Sally came back and said, well, I'm going to have some of our people eat frozen and non-frozen." He expressed frustration: "She says, freezing your butter doesn't harm you. I've shown her the experiment. Complete denial."

He also described a situation where a company (apparently offering a centrifugally separated butter oil) was taking the butter up to 110°F and calling it raw. Aajonus rejected this: "That's just... No, Price didn't. They just want to make packages. See, what they do is they take the butter and they centrifugally spin it to be able to get the high quality oils out of it... So you have pure like a ghee without cooking. But because they store it at temperatures about 50 degrees, it solidifies. It's like any butter does." He demanded written documentation of temperature thresholds and stated the company confirmed 110°F maximum, a temperature he considered unacceptable.

A Russian general recorded in his log that during WWI, as long as his troops consumed raw dairy (including raw butter), their hair and skin remained supple, brilliant, and resilient. Three months after exhausting the raw butter supply and resorting to olive oil, the men's hair, nails, and skin dried. Several weeks after regaining access to raw dairy, the men's hair, nails, and skin became supple and moist again. Aajonus used this historical account as evidence that pressed oils, even stone-pressed olive oil, cannot replicate the lubricating, protecting, and strengthening properties of raw butter.

Aajonus described a man named Ramjeet who lives mainly and merely on three foods: raw milk, raw butter, and raw almonds. He described this man as maintaining abilities throughout his life that few people glean. Aajonus commented: "What does that say about the food-industry-owned USDA's food pyramid?" He noted that the simplicity of such a diet appealed to him, and he attempted it for over one year, raw milk, raw butter, and raw nuts. He was kept "vital and young-feeling and looking" but was energetically unsatisfied and unable to achieve the vigor Ramjeet demonstrated. He attributed the difference to being raised in a toxic industrial world on a toxic diet, as opposed to Ramjeet's lifelong clean environment.

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