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Fifty years ago, a sea change began to occur in the perception of nutrition in America, and hence, the entire Western World. It started shortly after World War II when butter and other saturated fats became public enemy #1 through the apparent link between their consumption and heart disease.
Cholesterol-rich foods such as egg yolks and liver joined the list of vilified foods during the 1970s as the public was told by doctors, nutritionists, and the limited media outlets at the time (network TV and radio) that these foods were clearly linked to the epidemic of heart disease. The discovery that artery-clogging plaques – the main cause of heart attacks – were found to primarily contain cholesterol sealed the deal. Nevermind that the oxidized cholesterol found in processed foods (particularly skim milk) was the real culprit in the heart disease war.
Common sense seemed to dictate that avoiding all cholesterol-rich foods such as butter, liver, and egg yolks would somehow reduce one’s chance of a heart attack. Foods rich in saturated fat and cholesterol, oxidized or not, became inextricably linked to bad health, clogged arteries, and heart attacks in the psyche of most Westerners.
The Big Butter Mistake
About the same time the war against eggs heated up, a young scientist named Mary Enig discovered during her research that a serious mistake had occurred with regard to the studies linking saturated fat to heart disease. She discovered that the analysis had incorrectly grouped saturated fat along with trans fat (partially hydrogenated fats). How had this happened? The mistake evidently occurred because factory synthesized trans fats are very similar in chemical structure to saturated fats. So similar in fact, that researchers had grouped them together for analytical purposes.
Problem is, the seemingly insignificant, minor chemical difference between saturated fat and factory fat (trans fats) made all the difference in the world to the conclusion of the research. Dr. Enig found that when saturated fats and trans fats are separated into different groups, saturated fats were found to have NO LINK to heart disease while trans fats were found to have a very strong link!
Mortified, Dr. Enig tried her best to rectify this mistake by notifying her superiors and others in the industry but found that the freight train against saturated fat had already left the station. Dr. Enig eventually paid for her forthrightness with her career. Blackballed by the edible oil industry who aggressively opposed her findings as a threat to their profits and bottom line, she found herself unable to get grants, funding, or even a job within the industry to continue her work on the effect of fats on the human body.
Butter Demonized to Pave Way for Edible Oil Industry
The highly successful campaign to demonize butter as an unhealthy food loaded with saturated fat and therefore, a contributor to the heart disease epidemic, paved the way for the edible oil industry to create an entirely new line of products: margarine and other fake butter spreads. “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” and products like it began to line the supermarket shelves and Americans scooped them up in the name of better health. Butter substitutes like the very popular vegetable oil spreads are very cheap to produce – much cheaper than real butter. Replacing butter with margarine in the American diet proved to be a very smart marketing move for the edible oil industry and they rode this wave of profits for many years all the while falsely touting the certain improvements in public health that would result.
Even with the abandonment of butter in the modern diet, Americans continued to get fatter and fatter and the epidemic of heart disease showed no signs of abating. Ironically, the very margarine the public so willingly purchased instead of butter were loaded with trans fats, the very fats that ARE strongly linked with heart disease. How the edible oil industry managed to successfully demonize butter and all saturated fats all the while slowly and purposefully integrating trans fats into every nook and cranny of the entire processed foods industry is certainly an amazing marketing feat! Pepperidge Farms changed its wonderful line of cookies from using coconut oil to trans fats. McDonald’s changed the oil it used for making french fries from beef tallow to trans fats. It seemed the entire world had bought into the story that all saturated fats are bad for you.
Well, not everyone. Dr. Enig had quietly continued her pioneering work on fats and was now on the board of the Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF) which was founded in 1999. Even after the dangers of trans fats to health finally started to be exposed in the late 1990s through the work of the WAPF and others (reaching a crescendo with the addition of trans fats to product labels just a few years ago), the edible oil industry refused to stop the campaign against butter. A new line of products was introduced which have gradually, though not completely, replaced trans fat laden margarine. These products such as “Smart Balance” boast a so-called “heart healthy” blend of vegetable oils which, though not hydrogenated, are still unsafe to consume. The new process used to produce these vegetable oil spreads is called “interesterification” which is arguably even more dangerous to health than trans fats. Read about this deadly form of processing at this link.
In 1999, Sally Fallon, President of the Weston A. Price Foundation and friend of Dr. Enig, produced a series of lectures on “Why Butter is Better” and the “Oiling of America” to start getting the word out about the duping of an entire generation against butter and saturated fats. The fact that the media is no longer monopoly controlled and the rise of the Internet has allowed the public to actively participate in the spreading of the real truths about fats and health. Companies are beginning to switch to palm oil and away from factory fats in the production of cookies and crackers. Butter is again a growth industry, long demonized like chicken and duck eggs for its abundance of saturated fat and cholesterol. Even commercialized versions like Amish butter have many more health benefits that organic factory fat spreads.
If you are still unconvinced about the necessity of full-fat butter in your diet to achieve your best health, I would recommend that you contact the Weston A. Price Foundation to get your copy of Ms. Fallon’s lectures on the subject.
This unbelievable saga would make a great movie, don’t you agree?
Hallelujah ! Well said Sarah. I changed all my dairy to raw a few weeks back; and I am educating myself futher.
I am still in various minds as to what to use as a general cooking fat. I use butter where I can. Sometime I use virgin coconut oil (ie for stir fry) – but it does have an coconut flavour which may interfears with taste (as with butter). I am considering palm oil, or refined coconut oil. Matt Stone on 180 degree health advocated refined coconut oil … as its cheaper and lacks odour; and should not be damaged due to the resilience of the saturated fat (who knows?). Have you any thoughts on this Sarah?
Amen Sista!
I have never understood why people would pick margarine, a product full of chemicals over butter. Plus butter tastes so much better!
Hi Dale, raw butter is best, but if you aren't able to find this, get the best quality butter you can even if it is pasteurized. Raw butter continues to get stronger in flavor over time, so freeze what you will not use up in a few weeks. You can leave on the counter in a butter bell but know that the longer it is out, the stronger the flavor.
As a child my father would bring home raw butter from a family friend who had a cow-share program with local residents. We ALWAYS kept the butter in the freezer, and only removed it when we used it. I live in Washington state now, and even though we can buy raw milk and aged raw cheese off the shelf in a store, we do not have access to raw butter. It may be difficult to find, but research if your state allows cow share programs. You might be able to find a farm that will make the butter, or you can learn to make it yourself.
Hi Sarah,
I'm assuming you recommend butter made from raw milk since butter from the grocery store is presumably made from pasteurized milk? That being the case, what kind of shelf life can I expect from it A) In the fridge, and B) on the counter top?
As a kid, I remember butter going "rancid." I'd hate to have to throw out any.
Thanks…
Audrey, I would be honored and delighted if you linked to this post. I wish you the best with your series on moving toward real food.
Hi Sarah! I’m starting a series in the next couple weeks on making baby steps toward real food. My first post is going to be on butter. Mind if I link to this post?
Hi Audrey! I am a wife and mother of 2 who can see the benefits of eating a more natural and healthy diet and who wouldLOVE to learn how to make baby steps tword real food! I find it so overwhelming! How can I find out more about this series? Thanks!
The good news is that all you have to do is start eating traditionally and your body will heal itself naturally. Your body knows how to be healthy .. you just have to feed it the right fuel and the right fuel does not include anything made or processed in a factory.
I beg to differ that butter is better for you. Nutritionalists are still saying it isn’t.
Just because butter has saturated fat in it-I found a spread that the claims they make are the real truth–and it is way better than butter! Called Smart Balance-with less saturated fat than butter per serving and added vitamin D and OMEGA 3 Fatty acids that help reduce strokes, heart attacks and protect the heart’s rhythm-this is way better than butter–
So all you people who are in the butter is better camp! Butter’s got nothin on smart balance
because butter has no omega 3’s more saturated fat and is FAR worse for you!
When I told my nutritionalist I only butter the smart balance way–she was impressed I switched before I even signed up for a nutritionalist!
So people in the butter camp–all I have left to say to you is GO BIG, or go home!
@Sherry Troutman: You are woefully misinformed. Smart Balance is terrible for humans (I would think you would have been able to “know” this if you are so well informed, not to mention your “nutritionist” friend should certainly know better). Butter is always better than any “substitute”. Always.
But you, and people like you, seem to think you have all the answers because it’s a fake food product, which certainly must be better than something nature herself has given to us for centuries. Go ahead and eat your Smart Balance. I don’t think it’s a very smart thing to do and others here likely don’t stand with you on that, either.
I’ll take my butter any day of the week. Yes, Sherry, go big or go home should read go REAL or go home.
@SherryTroutman Do you know that the added Vitamin D and Omega-3 are both synthetic? I am a microbiologist and worked in the Dairy Manufacturing industry for many years. The added Vitamin A and D in milk are definitely synthetic, as well as your favorite Smart Balance. Butter on the other hand is one of the best sources of natural VitaminA and D, as well as fatty acids, including butyric acid, which is an anti-carcinogen; lauric acid, and of course the essentials omega-3 and omega-6. And if you buy butter that is made from the milk of grass-fed, humanely and organically raised cows, then you will have more omega-3’s and -6’s than a serving of salmon! And it’s all natural … not synthesized (or chemically manipulated) in a lab.
Look at your label. Look at butter’s label. Which can you pronounce? Which is sold in plastic?
Can anyone else tell that Sherry is clearly a smart balance shill?
Just go home. You are either a marketing liar or arrogant fool.
So, what does it take to clear out all the cholesterol and trans fats from my arteries that I ate when I (and my mother) didn't know better?
Your arteries are clogged not by “high Cholesterol,” but by a Homocysteine buildup in the blood from a lack of B Vitamins. Cholesterol is actually GOOD and neccessary for a calm nervous system, and the ability to make the biochemistry of happiness.
The whole Cholesterol thing is a lie created by Big Pharma to make a killing, killing people.
Shiitake Mushrooms are high in B Vitamins and also remove toxins from all cells in the body, including Heavy Metals lodged in Brain Receptor sites!
I just love the "Butter Was Framed" T-shirt from Kelly the Kitchen Kop!