Is Butter Good or Bad Fat?

Much of the recent conversation about healthy fats has centered around plant-based fats. There’s a lot of emphasis on olive oil and avocado. Experts still tend to recommend polyunsaturated fats and monounsaturated fats from plants over animal fats. Options like soy, canola oil, and corn oils are touted as healthy.

And while coconut oil has recently gained in popularity, mainstream experts still don’t recommend it. The American Heart Association officially recommended against it in 2017 because it’s high in saturated fat. You may have noticed from all of the coconut oil recipes on my site that I don’t agree with their conclusions.

Very recently there’s been a gradual return to natural animal fats, like butter, ghee, tallow, and lard. Thank goodness! These types of fat aren’t as dangerous as dietitians and other health “experts” told us in the past.

The Right Type of Butter

So, is butter bad for you?

Depending on how it’s sourced, it can be one of the healthiest fats you could eat. Butter from grass-fed cows is what you’re looking for. Dairy products from feedlot cows don’t have the same levels of nutrient levels, like vitamin K2 and omega-3 fatty acids.

Look for grass-fed unsalted butter, salted butter, or clarified butter (ghee). A high-fat diet isn’t necessarily bad, either. That is, as long as the fats are healthy and from naturally raised sources.

It’s only when a higher fat diet is combined with processed foods and lots of carbohydrates that you’ll have problems. There are plenty of reasons to enjoy butter, guilt-free!

Butter and Heart Disease

But doesn’t butter clog your arteries and increase the risk of heart disease?

A 2010 meta-analysis of nearly 350,000 people found no link between saturated fat and heart disease. A Japanese cohort study followed 58,000 men for an average of 14 years. In the end, the researchers didn’t find a link between saturated fat intake and heart disease. Actually, it was the opposite. The more saturated fat the men ate, the less likely they were to have a stroke.

A 2016 analysis in PLoS One looked at butter and the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and overall death. Researchers found butter didn’t cause heart disease. And those who ate butter were actually less likely to have diabetes.

Cholesterol and Butter

Butter is widely known as a good source of dietary cholesterol. Most people who avoid it are doing it for that reason. But cholesterol is a necessary antioxidant. Our body makes cholesterol if it has too many free radicals. These free radicals tend to come from damaged or rancid fats in deep-fried and processed foods.

So, it isn’t butter that increases the risk of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease. It’s the damaged fats and processed foods.

People like to talk about “good cholesterol” (HDL) and “bad cholesterol” (LDL). But it’s not that cut and dried. LDL cholesterol is only a problem when we have small, dense particles. Large, fluffy LDL particles don’t lead to blockages and heart attacks.

Butter and the Brain

Our bodies use cholesterol to repair damage in the body and will make it if we don’t eat enough. It’s also vital for healthy brain function. The brain houses 20% of our body’s cholesterol. Without it, we’re more likely to get neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Bottom Line: The Source Matters

Pasteurized, store-bought butter is a step up from any vegetable oil product. But grass-fed raw butter is the best choice. That is if you can find it. Pasteurized grass-fed butter is the next best option.

I get the Kalona brand of butter from here. I use it to cook with and I’ll even put a tablespoon of butter in my coffee. And I don’t care if my kids take a bite out of our healthy butter.