I eat a lot of butter because I believe it makes my brain work better. A new paper says it may help me in other ways. From the abstract:
Compared with those with the lowest intake of full-fat dairy [= “whole milk, cream, ice cream, yogurt, full-fat cheese and custard”], participants with the highest intake (median intake 339 g/day) had reduced death due to CVD (HR: 0.31; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.12—0.79; P for trend = 0.04) after adjustment for calcium intake and other confounders.
70% reduction is huge — so large it makes the idea of direct causation (butterfat lowers CVD risk) more plausible. (However, there is a lot of uncertainty in the estimate.) The alternative is that butterfat intake is correlated with the true cause — a behavior difference, say. But that correlation would have to be very high, which isn’t terribly plausible. Measured differences between the high-fat group and the low-fat group were small.
Stephan Guyenet reviews other evidence that supports the idea that this reduction is no fluke. Other studies have found similar effects.
Thanks to Paul Sas.
I eat cultured butter from pastured cows every day. It’s one of my so-called “super foods” along with fermented cod liver oil (from Green Pastures). I discovered the virtues of butter after reading Weston A. Price’s book, and have made it a staple of my diet ever since. Stephan does provide an amazing review of the evidence for its health benefits.
the p for the trend is barely significant
Aaron, since you’ve researched the effects of butter, do you have an opinion as to whether it’s the fat itself that has the beneficial effects, or some other substance (or substances) that co-occur with the fat?
Alex, from my reading, I’ve gathered that a large part of the health benefits of butter come from the fat-soluble vitamins it contains, such as carotenes, D3, E, and K2. But it also contains a good fatty acid profile, with a significant amount of omega-3. And it contains conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) which –that appear to be very important in many physiological functions and possibly anti-cancer effects (in some animal studies).
Then there’s the self-reported anecdotal evidence of softer skin with fewer blemishes made by people who switch to using a lot of butter in their cooking. Here’s a nice blog post about a study comparing butter to margarine: https://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2009/10/butter-vs-margarine-showdown.html.
About 9% of the fatty acid in milkfat is butyrate (where the name butter comes from I would think). This fatty acid is unique to milkfat…other fat sources in the cow don’t have it. Butyrate is known to support the colon (both differentiation and maintenance of colonocytes, as well as support of neurons which control the muscles that propel stuff through the lower gut). Usually it comes from fermentation of soluble fiber by enteric bacteria…one of the reasons to eat an apple a day…and/or to take probiotics. Don’t know if butyrate that you eat makes it to the colon without being digested by the small intestine…but even then it would get dumped into the circulation in chylomicrons and presumably make its way to the blood supply in the colon. It would make sense that having butyrate in the food supply for baby calves would help their guts develop until their fecal flora increase enough to take over the job. Human babies take a few months to develop fecal flora; not sure about calves.
That study was in Australia, where I think most cows are grass fed. Worth keeping in mind, in other parts of the world. I do use grass fed butter (we always call it that, brings to mind huge sticks if butter grazing in the fields) but I’ll have to start looking for GF milk, yogurt, cottage cheese etc.
I would like to suggest another explanation. But first the back story. Despite my name I am of Scandinavian heritage. My grandparents on my mother’s side came from Denmark and my father didn’t learn to speak English until he went to grade school. He spoke Norwegian at home. As some of you may know the north central Midwest was heavily settled by Scandinavians. My father had a joke about some Norwegian community in North Dakota that laid out a cemetery. They finally had to shoot somebody to get it started. ( Norwegian-American humor I guess )
Most of the world is lactose intolerant. From Wikipedia “The frequency of decreased lactase activity ranges from as little as 5% in northern Europe, up to 71% for Sicily, to more than 90% in some African and Asian countries.” So… perhaps high consumption of dairy fat leads to long life but I think that it is simply genetic. My sub theory is that exposure to cold winters helps — the cold stresses the body in a good way. Both my parents lived to 93 despite having “unhealthy” lifestyles. One Grandmother lived to be 96 after having 5 children and the other Grandmother lived to be 86 after having 17 children. So… dairy fat? I love it but I doubt it. Simply a coincident indicator.
Hi Seth,
I am experimenting with butter consumption while trying to learn how to play the guitar, and so far I can really see a positive effect: on days when I eat lots of butter I feel my dexterity improves quite a lot. This got me thinking about the numerical test that you designed for your computer. Could the speed improvement in solving simple math problems be partly due to the brain working better, and partly to better dexterity? (speed of typing in the result).
In my case, it seems to be doing both. I can read music faster (I have no formal training so basically I’m just learning how to read guitar tabs by myself), I learn new chords faster, and I can keep up my concentration for longer periods of time.
The only problem is that my guitar doesn’t have a strap, so I can’t (yet) test whether standing up helps me learn better than sitting down.
Mara, better dexterity is due to the brain. On the days that you “eat lots of butter” how much butter do you eat?
Nile, you write “I would like to propose another explanation.” Another explanation of what? And what’s your alternative explanation? The amount of lactase in the body depends on the amount of lactose in the diet. When you eat more lactose, your body starts making more lactase. When you eat less lactose, your body makes less lactase. That may be the reason for the differences from place to place in lactase activity.
About 75g (in multiple sittings). Not sure whether that qualifies as “a lot” in your experiments, but I find it difficult to eat more without getting nauseous (though eating small amounts many times during the day certainly helps, when feasible).
Thanks, Mara. I’ve been eating 60 g/day, which is half a stick/day. I eat it in small amounts throughout the day.
Well, I live in France so I buy the 250g sticks of butter (made in Normandie) which are the standard here – not always easy to measure how much you eat, I guess 60-75g is the average amount. I try to keep this up 3/4 days per week, and eat no butter, or less than 15-20g on other days.
Did the study find any *overall mortality* improvement with full-fat dairy? (The abstract doesn’t make this clear.) If not, you’re just trading off one cause of death (CVD) for some other causes of death. Meaning the other way to say “butterfat makes you *less likely to die* from CVD” would be “butterfat makes you *more likely to die* from all causes other than CVD”.
Do you just eat the butter plain, not on anything? That sounds really nauseating. Then again, so did/does drinking straight vegetable oil, I suppose…
just for kicks i tried butter instead of canola oil for my SLD oil two out of the last three days — that’s about 2 1/2 tbsp per day. i plug my nose and rinse for about two minutes after eating the butter — i don’t taste anything.
i haven’t noticed any brain effects — should i notice them without a test?
as far as mood goes, i’ve been crabby the past few days, more than usual, but i got some bad (financial) news this week, and maybe that’s why.
appetite suppression is very strong. dunno if it’s the butter per se or if it’s just that i changed something.
q, thanks for reporting results. You can notice the mood changes without a test. You can’t notice the mental quickening without a test.
I haven’t looked in here for a long time for the reason that I thought it was becoming boring, however the last several blogposts are beneficial high-quality so I guess I’ll add you back to my regular bloglist. You are worthy of it my friend