(06-10-12) Should butter be banned?

by Ben Hirshberg

(NaturalNews) Butter has gotten a bad reputation in the health world for being
high in saturated fat, which supposedly causes heart disease. Butter
consumption in the United States has plummeted as a result of health experts'
butter condemnation. This is unfortunate, as butter is a bona fide health food
due to its high vitamin content, butyrate levels, and abundant conjugated
linoleic acid.

The doctor who wants to ban butter
Not everyone believes that butter is a health food though. Dr. Shyam Kolvekar
is so adamantly against butter consumption that he believes the food should be
banned. Dr. Kolvekar is quoted as saying, "By banning butter and replacing it
with a healthy spread the average daily fat intake would be reduced by eight
grams. People should also avoid any foods that are solid at room temperature
like cheese and red meat."

Dr. Kolvekar is misguided on multiple fronts, starting with the assertion that
foods that are solid at room temperature are unhealthy. By this logic locally
grown, organic broccoli would be unhealthy. Does he intend for us to drink all
of our food?

Kolvekar is also misinformed about fat being harmful. Most health experts have
realized that not all fats are unhealthy, but the majority still vilifies
saturated fat as a nasty, disease causing nutrient.

Saturated fat is looked down upon mainly because of the work of Ancel Keys, a
doctor who published influential fat-loathing work starting in the 1950s. Keys
found correlations between fat and animal fat intake and heart disease in
several countries and became famous for pointing those correlations out.
However, correlations between fat and animal fat intake and heart disease did
not exist in several other countries using data that was available when Keys
vilified the macronutrient.

Besides his false belief that solid foods and saturated can be healthy, Dr.
Kolvekar also fails to understand that butter actually has a lot to offer from
a nutritional standpoint.

Butter's many health benefits
Butter contains significant amounts of vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, and
vitamin K2 as well as butyrate and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). The
importance of sufficient vitamin levels are well stated and accepted in
mainstream health circles, but the importance of butyrate and CLA are not as
well known.

In various studies, butyrate has been shown to protect against mental illness,
improve body composition and increase energy expenditure, decrease intestinal
leakage, and reduce inflammation. CLA is important too, being associated with
increased heart health, reduced tumor growth, decreased stomach fat, and
increased fat loss in overweight subjects.

Not all butter is equally beneficial though; grass-fed butter contains
superior health benefits. This is because grass-fed butter has higher vitamin
and antioxidant levels, higher CLA levels, and a higher omega-3 to omega-6
fatty acid ratio.

Dr. Kolvekar advises against eating butter despite its extensive health
benefits. Don't be fooled, butter should not be banned.

Sources for this article include:

www.bulletproofexec.com/butter-infographic/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk
http://www.whale.to/a/butter.html

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