Biggest study yet shows butter isn’t bad for you and ‘is not a heart risk’

BUTTER is not bad for you and does not raise the risk of heart disease, a major study claims.

Scientists found that eating one tablespoon a day had no significant link with cardiovascular disease and strokes. It could even marginally help reduce the risk of diabetes.

The research is one of the largest studies to be carried out on the health effects of butter.

It adds weight to demands for an end to the ‘demonising’ of butter and other saturated fats.

The study follows reports earlier this month that the Government is reconsidering its advice to restrict saturated fat intake to limit the risk of heart disease, after two recent studies found no link.

For more than 30 years, Britons were warned by official guidelines to avoid butter and full-fat milk in a bid to reduce the number of deaths from heart disease. The advice, first issued in 1983, called on the country to significantly reduce its fat consumption. But in recent years experts have been increasingly saying the 1980s advice lacked any solid evidence. Some claim it may have even increased obesity by encouraging people to eat more carbohydrates.

In the latest research, scientists from Tufts University in Boston, US, analysed the results of nine studies published since 2005 from 15 countries, including the UK, covering nearly 640,000 adults. The researchers found that a daily serving of butter – 14g or roughly one tablespoon – was associated with a 1 per cent higher risk of death.

But consumption had ‘no significant association’ with any type of cardiovascular disease, including coronary heart disease and stroke. A smaller sample indicated that a daily serving of butter was associated with a 4 per cent lower risk of type 2 diabetes – although researchers said this needed further investigation.

Their paper said: ‘In sum, our findings do not support a need for major emphasis in dietary guidelines on butter consumption.’

Senior author Dr Dariush Mozaffarian added: ‘Our results suggest that butter should neither be demonised nor considered “back” as a route to good health.’

Study researcher Dr Laura Pimpin, now at the UK Health Forum, said: ‘This suggests that butter may be a “middle- of-theroad” food: a more healthful choice than sugar or starch; and a worse choice than many margarines and cooking oils – those rich in healthy fats such as soybean, canola, flaxseed, and extra virgin olive oils.’

Dr Aseem Malhotra, a cardiologist and adviser on the National Obesity Forum, said: ‘This high quality study clearly reveals that decades of demonising butter has been a huge mistake.

‘I follow the advice I give to my patients, which is providing you cut the consumption of sugar and other refined carbohydrates the regular consumption of butter can be very much part of a healthy diet.’

But Tracy Parker, of the British Heart Foundation, warned that the findings ‘do not give us the green light to start eating more butter’ and called for more research.

‘Part of a healthy diet’