Butter not that bad for you – it’s what you spread it on

BUTTER is not actually that bad for health but may have earned a bad reputation because it is often spread on unhealthy foods, research has suggested.

A review of nine studies involving more than 600,000 people found that butter was only weakly associated with total mortality and not linked to cardiovascular disease. It seemed to protect, slightly, against diabetes.

Traditionally, dietitians have advised people to cut down on animal fats.

Dr Laura Pimpin, who carried out the research – published in the journal

PLOS one – at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy in Boston, said people who ate a lot of butter often had worse diets in general.

“Even though people who eat more butter generally have worse diets and lifestyles, it seemed to be pretty neutral overall,” she said.

“This suggests butter may be a ‘middle-of-the-road’ food: a more healthful choice than sugar or starch, such as the white bread or potato on which butter is commonly spread and which have been linked to higher risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.”

Dr Dariush Mozaffarian, dean of the Friedman School, said: “More research is needed to better understand the observed potential lower risk of diabetes, which has also been suggested in some other studies of dairy fat. This could be real, or due to other factors linked to eating butter.”

However, health experts and charities warned against consuming too much butter. Tracy Parker, a dietitian at the British Heart Foundation, said: “Whilst the findings indicate a small or neutral association between butter consumption and increased cardiovascular risk, it does not give us the green light to start eating more butter. More investigations are needed.”