Before the 1920s heart disease was rare in most of the western world. Yet through the 20s right up until the 70s the incidence of heart disease rose to become one of the most deadly ailments of modern times. In fact some have said that it is actually the West’s number one killer.

The strange thing is that during the same time the amount of butter that we consumed dropped by over 25% from which we could all conclude that butter is not a cause of heart disease.

So what is the truth about butter? Why should we eat it and if our conclusion is that butter is actually good for us then why have we been told for so long that it is actually harmful to consume lots of quantities of butter or indeed any animal fat for that matter.

Well firstly let’s look at what butter has got in it that’s good for us starting with the vitamins. Butter is very high in vitamin A and that’s needed to ensure that both our adrenal and thyroid glands function properly and here’s where the time that heart disease comes once again in that both of these glands are important for proper functioning of both our hearts and cardiovascular system.

Vitamin E which is also found in butter as well as vitamin A are quite strong antioxidants which again play an important part in keeping the body healthy. Butter also contains lecithin and that’s used for ensuring that the cholesterol and other fat constituents in butter are properly assimilated and metabolized.

Yes I mentioned cholesterol and butter is a good source of dietary cholesterol but did you know that cholesterol is also an antioxidant? In fact cholesterol is a highly potent antioxidant that is quickly released into the blood when our body senses that we have eaten too many foods containing harmful free radicals.

Now here’s the strange thing. Would it surprise you to learn the fact that some of the foods which contain the highest levels of these harmful free radicals are actually the very same that had been touted over the last few decades as being healthy for us that is margarine and other highly processed vegetable oils.

Now in this short response I won’t go into details but it’s worth knowing that butter is beneficial in aiding the immune system for good gastrointestinal health, in the growth and development of children and over the years a number of studies have found that butter consumption is helpful to guard against arthritis, osteoporosis and as it’s a good source of iodine as I’ve mentioned earlier good functioning of the thyroid gland.

Now when you consider the damage that other man made hydrogenated fats have caused mankind over the last few decades it strikes me as odd that intelligent people are still touting the supposed benefits of these types of fats. But there again I suppose some people will say anything if they’re paid enough money to do so.

This is a copy of the comment I made on a low carb forum post