I’m getting a lot of Facebook and email questions about butter and fat, probably related to a popular news magazine’s front cover, published in June, featuring a huge picture of butter with the words “Eat Butter: Scientists labeled fat the enemy.  Why they were wrong.”  So, the issues are whether you can eat all the butter you want, whether scientists ever labeled fat “the enemy” and whether scientists were wrong.  Has nutrition science been turned on its head?  Guess what?…it hasn’t, but you probably figured that out. Yes, all the news stories and internet buzz do make it sound like nutrition scientists have finally given you permission to run out and eat all the butter, butter cookies, high fat meats and bacon you want.  It’s as if butter has almost become the latest health food.  It hasn’t.

           Contrary to what’s in the popular press, science doesn’t “work” by coming up with these constantly changing and extremely opposing views, like a pendulum swinging on a clock.  You know; one week a food is the “work of the devil” and next week it’s “health food sent from heaven.”  Nutrition science “works” by evolution, not revolution, Evolution of thought occurs when you begin with known facts, you create a new thought or hypothesis based on what is known (not what is imagined or guessed), then you test and study this hypothesis to collect data, which you carefully analyze and use to draw conclusions.  Then, the work has to be verified by other, independent, scientists.  This is the scientific method.

           So, are certain types of saturated fats less damaging to your health than others?  Yes.  Is this new information?  No.  For example, we have known for quite a while, that a specific saturated fat in butter and chocolate, stearic acid, is “healthy” because it doesn’t lead to an increase in blood cholesterol, like some other saturated fats.  Stearic acid can be turned into oleic acid in the body by our own metabolism.  Oleic acid is a monounsaturated fat, the same type of fat found in olive oil, often labeled as a “good” fat.  In other words, when you eat foods containing stearic acid, the stearic acid does not raise your blood cholesterol because it is turned into oleic acid in the body. Both butter and chocolate contain stearic acid, in addition to other types of fats.  Stearic acid accounts for 12% of the fat present in butter and 20-35% of the fat in chocolate, depending upon which type of chocolate you are eating.

           These facts do not make butter or chocolate a health food; they are still very high in calories and very high fat.  The more fat of any type you eat, the greater the chance of being overweight.  Butter and chocolate are about 70% fat.   They are to be enjoyed in moderation; they are not fats to be eaten routinely.  If you want a little butter with your veggies, now and then, or a piece of chocolate, now and then, that never has been a nutritional concern.

          Today, in the area of nutrition science, there is a push to evolve our understanding of saturated fats so that we know exactly which ones cause the most unhealthy blood cholesterol values.  There is a large body of scientific evidence which demonstrates that saturated fat, as a whole class of fats, can raise blood cholesterol levels and increase cardiovascular risk.  The contemporary question is, rather, which exact saturated fat molecules are unhealthy or healthy, instead of lumping them all together as if they all have the same health effects.  The science of nutrition involves constant evolution and “fine-tuning” of thoughts.  Consider this: years ago, my grandma knew that being fat and eating too much fat was unhealthy.  In the 1960’s, knowledge about fat began to evolve to discriminate between the different types of major fat categories, saturated fat, unsaturated fat, and trans fat.  Now we know that trans fat can actually raise your blood cholesterol levels more than the saturated fat in butter; that’s why trans fat is being reduced or totally eliminated in the food we eat. 

          Do nutritional guidelines recommend that everybody be on a low-fat diet; has fat ever been labeled “the enemy” by nutrition scientists?  No.  A certain amount of fat is essential for your health and well-being.  Advice has always been focused on moderating your use of fat; your diet should contain no more than 30-35% fat.  This is far from a low-fat diet.  This is a diet that includes enough fat to make foods taste good and feel good in your mouth; it is not a diet, however, that recommends eating all the butter, meat, bacon and saturated fat you want.

          What’s the “no-nonsense nutrition advice” for today?  Simply this.  If you want to eat some butter, now and then, it is not a problem.  If you are overweight, like over two-thirds of all Americans, then the most important thing you can do is to moderate your use of ALL types of fat, not just substitute one type of fat for another.  If you are reading nutrition magazines and articles that say one thing one week and the opposite the next, that means you are not getting accurate nutrition information; consider using the NIH or the “Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics” websites.