Butter is happening for a moment. In 2024, the US consumption per capita hit its highest in about 60 years. The effect of fat on heart health seems to be dissolved for a long time: today, fat is inside and it is carbohydrates, sugars and processed foods that are outside. But a new scientific study states that eating butter is associated with early death. So: Is butter really bad for you?
By reaching an answer, it is involved to understand that not all fat are the same. At a chemical level, there are chains of fat carbon atoms; Some are saturated – which means that each carbon atoms are clinging to two hydrogen atoms – while others are unsaturated – some carbon atoms are bonded for only one hydrogen. They can dramatically affect structural differences of how they interact with fat body. Saturated fats, for example, increase cholesterol levels, a fatty molecule that collects in the arteries and can contribute to heart disease. They do this, in part, partially disabled receptors in the liver which is extracted from the bloodstream and dumped into bile. Dissaturated fats, by contrast, actively reduce cholesterol levels by activating these similar liver receptors.
Most of the fat in butter is saturated. Therefore, the reason is that butter should have a negative effect on heart health. In fact, random-controlled studies are good evidence that changing butter with plant-based oil can reduce cholesterol.
There is more bad news for butter-lovers. The new study published by writers at Massachusetts and Denmark on 6 March in Jama International Medicine depended on the data of three long -lasting tests of American medical professionals. For about 33 years, 220,000 nurses and doctors have been regularly surveyed about their lifestyle, diet and health. Many people have been killed in this time. The authors found that, after controlling demographics, diet and other aspects of lifestyle, those who ate the most butter (average around a tablespoon per day) was a 15% risk of mortality compared to those who avoided the goods. Conversely, people who consume the most plant-based oils, such as canola, soybean or olive oil-all have low levels of saturated fat-16% lower mortality than people who consumed minimalist.
And, although the study could not show that butter increased the risk of dying of heart diseases, consuming more plant-based oils reduced that particular risk. Instead, butter-eating was associated with more deaths than cancer. Authors found that ten grams of butter daily appeared to reduce the risk of cancer mortality by up to 17%instead of the plant-based oil.
Such observation studies are rarely cut and dried. George Devi Smith, an epidemicist at Bristol University, says that there are other differences in health-related behavior among groups: twice as a smokers twice in disgusting butter-batons, for example, as a butter-disorder. They argue that it is not possible to control completely for such differences, which means that some non-dynamic factors may occur in sports.
If you bind your butter, choose your options wisely. Margarine contains less saturated fat than butter (and modern varieties are free from hydrogenated or trans -vots, which negatively affects cholesterol levels), but is connected to high levels of type -2 diabetes. If you want a certain swap, however, olive oil is probably your best bet.
© 2025, The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved. From The Economist, published under license. The original material can be found on www.economist.com
