The heart disease epidemic started around 1920-1930 and is currently the world's leading cause of death.
Somewhere along the way, nutrition professionals decided that foods like butter, meat and eggs were to blame.
According to them, these foods caused heart disease because they were high in saturated fat and cholesterol.
But we've been eating butter for thousands of years, since long before heart disease became a problem.
Blaming new health problems on old foods doesn't make sense. As consumption of traditional fatty foods like butter went down, diseases like heart disease, obesity and type II diabetes went up.
The truth is, natural foods like butter have nothing to do with heart disease. In fact, real butter that comes from grass-fed cows is one of the most important foods you can eat for a healthy heart.
Saturated Fat is Not The Devil It Was Made Out to be
The reason butter was demonized is because it is loaded with saturated fat. In fact, a very high proportion of dairy fat is saturated, whereas a large part of most other animal fats (like lard) is also mono- and polyunsaturated.
Butter, being almost pure dairy fat, is therefore very high in saturated fat, the fatty acids in it being about 63% saturated (1). However, that really is not a cause for concern. The whole saturated fat, cholesterol and heart disease myth has been thoroughly debunked (2, 3, 4).
In fact, saturated fats can actually improve the blood lipid profile:
- They raise levels of HDL (the good) cholesterol, which is associated with a lower risk of heart disease (5, 6, 7).
- They change the LDL from small, dense (bad) to Large LDL — which is benign and not associated with heart disease (8, 9).
Therefore, saturated fat is not a valid reason to avoid butter. It is completely benign... a healthy source of energy for the human body.
Bottom Line: The myth about saturated fat causing heart disease has been thoroughly debunked. The studies show that there is literally no association between the two.
Grass-Fed Butter is Loaded With Vitamin-K2, The Missing Nutrient That De-Calcifies Your Arteries
Most people have never heard of Vitamin K, but it is one of the most important nutrients for optimal heart health. There are several forms of the vitamin. We have K1 (phylloquinone), which is found in plant foods like leafy greens. Then we have Vitamin K2 (menaquinone), which is found in animal foods.
Even though the two forms are structurally similar, they appear to have different effects on the body. While K1 is important in blood clotting, Vitamin K2 helps to keep calcium out of your arteries (10, 11).
High-fat dairy products from grass-fed cows are among the best sources of Vitamin K2 in the diet. Other good sources include egg yolks, goose liver and natto — a fermented soy-based dish (12, 13).
Vitamin K works by modifying proteins, giving them the ability to bind calcium ions. For this reason, it affects all sorts of functions related to calcium metabolism. One problem with calcium, is that it tends to leach out of the bones (causing osteoporosis) and into the arteries (causing heart disease).
By optimizing your intake of Vitamin K2, you can partly prevent this process from occurring. Studies consistently show that Vitamin K2 dramatically reduces the risk of both osteoporosis and heart disease (14, 15).
In the Rotterdam study, which examined the effects of Vitamin K2 on heart disease, those who had the highest intake had a 57% lower risk of dying from heart disease and a 26% lower risk of death from all causes, over a 7-10 year period (16). Another study found that the risk of heart disease was 9% lower in women for every 10 micrograms of Vitamin K2 they consumed per day. Vitamin K1 (the plant form) had no effect (17).
Given how incredibly protective Vitamin K2 is against heart disease, the advice to avoid butter and eggs may have actually fueled the heart disease epidemic.
Bottom Line: Vitamin K2 is a nutrient that most people don't know about, but it is one of the most important nutrients in the diet for heart and bone health.
Butter is Loaded With an Anti-Inflammatory Fatty Acid Called Butyrate
In the past few decades, heart disease has been believed to be primarily caused by elevated cholesterol. However, new studies are showing that there are a ton of other factors at play.
One of the main ones is inflammation, which is now believed to be a leading driver of heart disease (18, 19, 20). Of course, inflammation is important and helps protect our bodies from injury and infections. But when it is excessive or directed against the body's own tissues, it can cause severe harm.
It is now known that inflammation in the endothelium (lining of arteries) is a crucial part of the pathway that ultimately leads to plaque formation and heart attacks (21). One nutrient that appears to be able to fight inflammation is called butyrate (or butyric acid). This is a 4-carbon long, short-chain saturated fatty acid.
Studies show that butyrate is potently anti-inflammatory (22, 23, 24). One of the reasons fiber reduces heart disease risk may be that the bacteria in the intestine digest some of the fiber and turn it into butyrate (25, 26, 27, 28).
The name butyr-ate is actually derived from butter, which is the best source of byturate in the diet, by far.
Bottom Line: Butter is a great source of a short-chain fatty acid called butyrate, which helps fight inflammation.
In Countries Where Cows Are Grass-Fed, Butter Consumption is Associated With a Dramatic Reduction in Heart Disease Risk
The nutrient composition and the health effects of dairy products can vary greatly, depending on what the cows ate. In nature, cows used to roam free and eat grass, which is the "natural" source of food for cows.
However, cattle today (especially in the U.S.) is primarily fed grain-based feeds with soy and corn. Grass-fed dairy is much higher in Vitamin K2 and Omega-3 fatty acids, nutrients that are incredibly important for the heart (29).
Overall, there is no positive association between dairy fat and heart disease, although high-fat dairy products are associated with a reduced risk of obesity (30, 31). But if you look at some countries where cows are generally fed grass, you see a completely different effect.
According to one study from Australia, where cows are grass-fed, individuals who ate the most high-fat dairy products had a 69% lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease, compared to those who ate the least (32).
Several other studies agree with this... in countries where cows are largely grass-fed (like many European countries), high-fat dairy products are associated with a reduced risk of heart disease (33, 34, 35).
Bottom Line: The health effects of butter vary greatly depending on what the cows ate. In countries where cows are mostly grass-fed, dairy fat is associated with a lower risk of heart disease.
Recommending Margarine and Vegetable Oils Instead of Butter is a Crime Against Humanity
Mainstream nutrition gets a lot of things wrong, but the insane advice to replace butter with trans-fat laden margarine and vegetable oils is among the worst.
Margarine, not surprisingly, increases heart disease risk compared to butter (36). The same can be said for processed vegetable oils... several controlled trials show that they can cause heart disease and kill people (37, 38, 39). The studies say that these highly processed fats and oils increase heart disease risk, so it makes sense that we should avoid them if we don't want to get heart disease.
It's a no-brainer, right? Well, apparently not... The mainstream nutrition organizations are still telling us to eat them, even though these studies have been out for many years.
They just don't get it. When we replace real, traditional foods like butter and meat with crappy, processed pseudo-foods, we get sick. How many doctors, nutritionists, PhDs and decades does it take to figure that out?
Real food is the key to good health, processed junk food is not. Period.
SEE ALSO: 9 Lies About Fat That Destroyed The World's Health