Is butter bad for you?

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Butter is having a moment. In 2024 American consumption per person hit its highest in almost 60 years.

Long-standing fears about fat’s impact on heart health seem to be dissipating: today, fat is in and it is carbohydrates, sugars and processed foods that are out. But a new scientific study reports that butter-eating is associated with an early death. So: is butter really bad for you? Reaching an answer involves understanding that not all fats are alike.

At a chemical level, fats are chains of carbon atoms; some are saturated—meaning every carbon atom clings to two hydrogen atoms—while others are unsaturated—meaning some carbon atoms bond to only one of hydrogen. Those structural differences can dramatically affect how those fats interact with the body. Saturated fats, for example, raise levels of cholesterol, a fatty molecule that gathers in arteries and can contribute to cardiovascular disease.

They do this, in part, by partially disabling receptors in the liver which cause excess cholesterol to be extracted from the bloodstream and dumped into bile. Unsaturated fats, by contrast, actively reduce the levels of cholesterol by activating these same liver receptors. Most of the fat in butter is of the saturated variety.

It therefore stands to reason that butter should have a negative effect on heart health. Indeed, there is good evidence from randomised-controlled studies that replacing butter with plant-based oil can reduce cholesterol. There is more bad news for butter-lovers.