New Study Gives You Permission to Eat Butter

Researchers say it has no relation to heart disease and may reduce diabetes risk
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 30, 2016 3:58 PM CDT
New Study Gives You Permission to Eat Butter
   (Shutterstock)

We might all owe Paula Deen an apology. A study published this week in PLOS ONE finds no connection between eating butter and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. On the contrary, researchers found eating butter might actually make people slightly healthier by reducing the risk of diabetes. Researchers from Tufts University looked at nine previous studies of more than 636,000 people who ate between one-third a tablespoon of butter and three tablespoons of butter per day, Live Science reports. For the purposes of the study, they called one tablespoon of butter a daily serving. Researchers found that eating butter was in no way associated with a risk of stroke or heart disease and reduced the risk of type 2 diabetes by 4%.

"Hallelujah," Gizmodo responds to the study, pointing out that warnings about the dangers of butter have been around since the 1970s. But that doesn't mean it's time to eat an entire butter sculpture. Researchers say that while butter may actually be healthier than sugars and starches, it's probably still worse for you than olive oil or some margarines. "Overall, our results suggest that butter should neither be demonized nor considered 'back' as a route to good health," researcher Dariush Mozaffarian says in a press release. Researchers did find that eating butter led to a 1% higher risk of death, though they chalk that up to the fact that "people who eat more butter generally have worse diets and lifestyles." (This guy found edible butter dating back to Jesus.)

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