
Researchers have found more evidence that butter is heart-healthy - prostoalex
https://qz.com/909320/researchers-have-found-more-evidence-that-butter-is-heart-healthy/
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clock_tower
Could we get a less audacious title? The article's about how butter appears to
be healthier than corn oil -- and that, in general, the health differences
between butter and linoleic-acid-based vegetable oils may be a wash. This is
pretty interesting, but it doesn't upend the apple cart quite as
comprehensively as the current title suggests.

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ythn
Too late, I'm already drinking a cup of liquid butter to help my heart

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brendangregg
bulletproof coffee, hold the coffee

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surfmike
"The subjects were broken into two groups. One was given a diet in which
liquid corn oil was used in place of usual hospital cooking fats (including
butter and hydrogenated oils) during meal preparation. The other group
received meals cooked with common margarines and shortening. "

Where is butter in this study?Am I missing something?

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burkaman
Butter is a type of shortening, but I don't know why it's phrased like that.
The actual study mentions butter:
[http://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i1246](http://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i1246)

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emptybits
I'm not sure the study had much to do with butter. It mentions butter just
once but leaves it very unclear how much butter was actually involved (versus
"shortening").

The study talks extensively about "shortening" which is primarily a vegetable-
based product now AFAIK. FWIW, the Wikipedia article tells us "the term
"shortening" seldom refers to butter, but is more closely related to
margarine."

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burkaman
Yeah it's very confusing. Maybe these words meant something different in 1968.

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anigbrowl
On a side note, there's more than one kind of butter. I hate mainstream US
dairy products; most of them are from Holstein cows which have the highest
milk production of any breed but whose milk tastes insufferably bland to me.
If you can get milk from Jersey cows, the difference is like night and day -
much higher butterfat content.

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09bjb
Try Kerrygold, 100% grass-fed and grass-finished...or the U.S. equivalent.
You'll never go back.

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anigbrowl
That's exactly what I had in mind but I didn't want to sound like a butter
commercial XD

I grew up with it and I'm baffled by what passes for butter in the American
market. We probably spend twice as much on food as is average for the amount
we consume, but it seems both tastier and healthier. Part of why I have
negative opinions of capitalism is the inescapable fact that the baseline of
food quality is _so bad_. The most popular and well-known food brands, which
take up the most shelf space in most supermarkets and are thus the default
choice for many consumers are just awful. They're somewhat-to-direly awful
nutritionally, they don't taste good, and many people are so conditioned to
sugar and artificial flavors that they find real food weird at first.

I feel like this is a serious social problem. What seems like a large majority
of Americans _don 't know how to eat well_ and this causes all kinds of
second-order problems - not just things like obesity and diabetes, but things
like criminal recidivism too. The idea of nutrition and healthy eating in
prisons is treated by most people as a contradiction in terms, as if diet
didn't have any impact on self-control, learning ability and other factors
that are likely to impact future behavior. (This is sadly far from an
exclusively American problem.) When people aren't properly nourished they
under stress and when they're under stress they make poor decisions.

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beachstartup
lower middle class and struggling people can't afford to eat well and don't
have the time to cook. this probably won't change for another 30 years. sadly,
most will probably die before this problem is fully addressed.

don't worry, all the rich educated people already know exactly what the deal
is. just take a look at any expensive restaurant menu or high end supermarket
in california, texas, new york, etc.

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anigbrowl
Nope. You can eat healthy even if you're poor; it's just more boring and
repetitive. Most of what I know about nutrition and cooking I learned in high
school, which was a) long ago and b) nothing fancy by American standards. I
make a fuss about this stuff _because_ I've got a lot of experience of being
poor and I'm keenly aware of the tricky challenges of making food choices when
you have very little money.

I'd ask for a refund on that snide tone if I were you, it's not helping your
argument.

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failrate
My stance has always been that butter is so delicious that I am willing to
accept a reasonable amount of risk, whereas I find margarine so foul that I
would rather eat food without any fat than consume it.

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analog31
Amusingly, I quit butter for that reason. I had a major health scare just over
a year ago, and despite being skeptical of dietary advice in general, I
decided that at least I could lose weight. So I cut butter out of my diet. The
result was that I ate a lot less food overall, because it eliminated most of
my favorite snacks, such as buttered toast. Sure, I missed it, but I've gotten
slimmed down, and am having no problem keeping it off so far. It took months,
but the day arrived when I actually enjoyed a piece of toast with no butter!

So, this has more to do with me hacking my own brain, than about any sort of
nutritional science.

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failrate
In my case, I lost the weight by eliminating a lot of carbohydrates from my
diet. The only way I would bother touching a piece of bread would be if it was
unusually delicious.

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analog31
For me, butter was the lubricant for stuffing myself with carbohydrates.

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DougN7
First salt, and now butter? How long until we find out sugar is a super food?

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crusso
Sugar was the default super food for decades as a result of the 70's and 80's
push to lower dietary fat.

It's only been recently that the medical community has realized that sugar is
actually the number one hidden danger in the modern diet.

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ktRolster
In the 70s people were pushing "low-glycemic index" diets. That precludes
sugar.

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e40
Different people that were pushing high carbs, though.

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gozur88
I remember all the talk about "carb loading" for athletes and how many people
decided "If atheletes do it, I should do it too."

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amalag
If they want to research they should research cultured butter. It was the
traditional way to make butter. The culturing of the milk into yoghurt does
change it.

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surfmike
Maybe butter's good but their accompanying picture is pancakes with syrup, as
if that's ok to eat now as long as it has butter.

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lvspiff
sounds like a plan to me - put butter on it makes it healthier!

Donuts? Butter glazed maybe! Fries? Fry em in butter! Starbucks? Instead of
cream add butter! Forget the BigMac sauce I'll take butter!

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duderific
Ironically putting butter in coffee is a thing now...in keto/paleo diets
especially: [http://www.thekitchn.com/whats-the-deal-with-butter-in-
coffe...](http://www.thekitchn.com/whats-the-deal-with-butter-in-
coffee-190911)

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blafunke
Hahah yeah they definitely had coffee with butter in it back in the hunter
gatherer days.

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amelius
One component of butter, butyrate, has been shown to have many health
benefits. See e.g. [1] (not endorsing this reference, I just link to it
because it was easy to find and it references a lot of relevant literature).

[1] [https://selfhacked.com/2016/05/07/health-benefits-
butyrate-d...](https://selfhacked.com/2016/05/07/health-benefits-butyrate-
derivatives-sodium-butyrate-phenylbutyrate-trybutyrine-butyric-acid-butyrate-
prodrugs-butyrate-producing-bacteria/)

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zardo
Butter may be healthful! (In a comparison with another believed to be
unhealthful dietary choice)

Corn oil has a very high Omega6:Omega3 ratio.

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tbv
There is quite a bit of evidence to support that a diet rich in animal fats,
and poor in vegetable oils has many advantages, including higher HDL
cholesterol, lower LDL cholesterol, and improved thyroid function.

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ASpring
Interested in sources supporting this.

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paulcole
This is what's so great about online nutrition journalism. Love butter? Great
there's an article that backs up your beliefs. Hate butter? Even better,
there's an article for that, too!

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dennis_jeeves
I've been having more than 100 gms of butter every day for the last 4 years.
I'm on a ketogenic diet. I _have_ to do it. Helps a lots with my sub-optimal
health. Questions welcome.

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ZeroFries
What health conditions are you trying to treat with your diet?

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dennis_jeeves
I was originally trying to alleviate my sleep problems. After I switched my
diet to a ketogenic (only meat, eggs and diary) not only did my sleep improve
dramatically but a whole bunch of other things that I did not expect: mood,
digestion, acidity(not sure about this), stamina, cold tolerance, fat
redistribution in the body (reduced tummy flab, but less gaunt face.) etc.

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umberway
Butter is good for you provided you don't fry with it. If overheated it
supplies more than the usual amount of inflammatory compounds. Instead, fry
with ghee (clarified butter) or tallow.

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greglindahl
Is there any evidence that people frying with butter actually damage
themselves?

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coldcode
I only use butter and duck fat. Nothing better than cooking with duck fat.

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lucidguppy
This is like comparing cigarettes to menthols.

Both are poisons.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYTf0z_zVs0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYTf0z_zVs0)

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mjevans
I hypothesize that if a comparison contrasts a suitable quantity of buttering
/ fat for flavor and refined sugars for flavor (because who actually uses
molasses/etc) then either hybrids or fat biased foods will be easier to
process and regulate for most individuals.

