Can butter kill you?! Is it healthy or will it be the death of us?!
Well, it all depends on who you ask.
According to a study conducted by researchers at Tufts University, “butter consumption is only weakly associated with mortality” and has only a slight impact on diabetes. In addition, the research concludes there is no a link between butter and heart disease.
But you shouldn’t go vacationing at the Land O’Lakes just yet.
Further analysis conducted at Harvard has other researchers crying foul. In the blog “We Repeat: Butter Is Not Back” the Ivy Leaguers blast the media for misconstruing the research.
“Butter is not ‘back,’ and the study authors didn’t find this either,” the post reads.
It is true that butter may not be as bad for you as white bread or refined sugar. However, you’re kidding yourself if you think butter is a health food.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest also called the Tufts study misleading. The organization slammed the study’s authors for masking butter’s effects on heart disease.
“One would not expect any single food to matter, since people who eat butter don’t necessarily eat an overall diet that is high in saturated fat,” CSPI Nutrition Director Bonnie Liebman stated.
“Furthermore, the new meta-analysis based its conclusion on cardiovascular disease on only four observational studies, and two of the four studies masked the impact of butter on the risk of cardiovascular disease by statistically ‘adjusting’ for blood cholesterol levels.”
So, Can Butter Kill You?
The truth is butter is high in saturated fat and nobody disputes those foods should be replaced with unsaturated fats like nuts and fish.
My take? I’m not concerned about whether butter can kill you. After losing 265 pounds, I view it as unnecessary fat and calories. It’s that simple.
I used to love it, but I really haven’t missed it since cutting it out of my diet. In fact, none of my recipes of really suffered either. You’d be surprised by how overused it is.
If you want to lose weight I would strongly suggest trying to eliminate it from your diet as well.