Butter isn’t as bad for you as you think

BREAK out the croissants, butter is having a comeback. A new study has debunked the myths about our favourite spread.

THE verdict is in on the battle between butter and margarine.

Your parents and grandparents might have been told different things over the years, but a new study has put to rest the beliefs that have abounded since the 1950s — that butter, full of saturated fats, is making us fatter and more prone to heart disease.

The study, authored by Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, Dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts in Boston, declared butter a “neutral” food.

Basically, this suggests it may not be bad for you, but its also not yet for the superfood list.

The study dispelled myths that have been capitalised on by the food industry for the last 60 odd years and found that there is no link between consuming butter and an increased risk of heart disease or stroke. It actually found that butter might play a role in slightly preventing Type 2 diabetes.

Twenty years ago this might have been considered an unhealthy breakfast, due to its saturated fat content. But butter and eggs are back!

The researchers analysed nine eligible studies representing 636,151 unique individuals with a total of 6.5 million person-years of follow up. The findings “do not support a need for major emphasis in dietary guidelines on either increasing or decreasing butter consumption,” the researchers wrote.

So where did the myths about butter begin? In 1955 at the World Health Organisation in Geneva, Ancel Keys offered what became known as his lipid hypothesis, claiming dietary fat raised cholesterol, subsequently increased heart disease.

Keys initially pointed the finger at all dietary fat as the culprit, but over time, he modified his argument to point the finger solely at saturated fat, and suggested that its unsaturated counterpart had many health benefits.

The American Heart Association quickly embraced Keys’ hypothesis, warning that butter, eggs, meat, and other saturated fat-rich foods contributed to heart disease and emphasising a low-fat diet to prevent heart disease.

This was a big win for the seed oil industry who quickly jumped on this and every advertising campaign now targeted the “health” benefits of seed oils and margarines which were loosely proven.

Eventually, Keys presented his Seven Countries Study, which argued countries where people ate more fat — particularly saturated fat — had more cases of heart disease.

But new research suggests it’s not that simple. We don’t eat butter or margarine by itself — instead we smear it on white bread and potatoes, and put it in cakes and biscuits.

Two huge changes over the last century have been our increased consumption of sugar and seed oils. It may be coincidence, but the statistical data of modern diseases such as heart disease and diabetes, which were very rare 100 years ago, is very interesting.

The below graphs show some figures that may challenge popular beliefs. The first one shows the obesity trend after the low fat guidelines were introduced in the United States.

Source: National Center for Health Statistics (US).

The second compares different countries’ male coronary heart disease (CHD) related deaths and their intake of saturated fats.

Saturated fat intake (total energy from saturated fat (%)) and CHD deaths per 100,000 people. Source data: Hoenselaar R.

These graphs don’t tell the whole story, but hopefully they influence us to continue to research and get to the bottom of what is causing modern diseases, rather than relying on a 60-year-old study.

Dr Tim Robards is a chiropractor and exercise scientist (B. Med. Sc, M. Chiro). Tim recently launched his unique exercise and diet program The Robards Method.