Without going all Paula Dean on you, there are a lot of (health) reasons to enjoy butter and to eat it often.
Is Butter Healthy?
There has been some a lot of anti-butter propaganda in the past, and even a time when margarine and vegetable oils were considered healthier options (not so much). But the fact is, there is a lot of research and documentation on the health benefits of butter, such as the following…
1. Help Avoid Heart Disease
But doesn’t butter (and other saturated fats) cause heart disease? Again, not so much…
As this article explains:
Heart disease was rare in America at the turn of the century. Between 1920 and 1960, the incidence of heart disease rose precipitously to become America’s number one killer. During the same period butter consumption plummeted from eighteen pounds per person per year to four. It doesn’t take a Ph.D. in statistics to conclude that butter is not a cause. Actually butter contains many nutrients that protect us from heart disease. First among these is vitamin A which is needed for the health of the thyroid and adrenal glands, both of which play a role in maintaining the proper functioning of the heart and cardiovascular system. Abnormalities of the heart and larger blood vessels occur in babies born to vitamin A deficient mothers. Butter is America’s best and most easily absorbed source of vitamin A.
and
Butter is also a good dietary source cholesterol. What?? Cholesterol an anti-oxidant?? Yes indeed, cholesterol is a potent anti-oxidant that is flooded into the blood when we take in too many harmful free-radicals–usually from damaged and rancid fats in margarine and highly processed vegetable oils.3 A Medical Research Council survey showed that men eating butter ran half the risk of developing heart disease as those using margarine.4″
2. Joints
Butter is the only source of a unique “anti-stiffness” factor that helps avoid or reduce problems like arthritis in the joints. This same nutrient helps prevent calcification in other parts of the body (hello arteries).
The catch? This special “anti-stiffness” factor is only found in raw, un-pasteurized butter. Eat much of that lately?
3. Tooth Health
Turns out teeth can heal.. (say what?)
Butter contains many important fat soluble vitamins that are necessary for many aspects of health, including oral health. It is necessary for the teeth to remineralize (from the inside out) and it contains a nutrient known as “Activator X” (now known as Vitamin K2) which Weston A. Price found was instrumental in oral health.
This post talks about how to boost oral health from the inside out and this post shows my daily routine for improving oral health.
4. For Children
Most kids love butter, and I’ve seen many kids go so far as to take a bite out of a stick of butter. Turns out, they are on to something important as butter is a source of many nutrients that kids need for proper growth.
“Chief among them is vitamin A. Individuals who have been deprived of sufficient vitamin A during gestation tend to have narrow faces and skeletal structure, small palates and crowded teeth.16 Extreme vitamin A deprivation results in blindness, skeletal problems and other birth defects.17Individuals receiving optimal vitamin A from the time of conception have broad handsome faces, strong straight teeth, and excellent bone structure. Vitamin A also plays an important role in the development of the sex characteristics. Calves fed butter substitutes sicken and die before reaching maturity.18″
5. The Thyroid
Many people these days struggle with underlying thyroid problems and it turns out that the movement away from butter (along with some other factors) could be contributing to the problem.
The specialized medium chain fatty acids in coconut oil make it a superfood for the thyroid and when combined with butter, it creates a powerful support for the thyroid. Butter contains Vitamin A and a highly absorbable form of Iodine, both of which support healthy throid function.
6. Cancer
The Weston A. Price foundation covered this in depth:
“In the 1940’s research indicated that increased fat intake caused cancer.5 The abandonment of butter accelerated; margarine–formerly a poor man’s food– was accepted by the well-to-do. But there was a small problem with the way this research was presented to the public. The popular press neglected to stress that fact that the “saturated” fats used in these experiments were not naturally saturated fats but partially hydrogenated or hardened fats–the kind found mostly in margarine but not in butter. Researchers stated–they may have even believed it–that there was no difference between naturally saturated fats in butter and artificially hardened fats in margarine and shortening. So butter was tarred with the black brush of the fabricated fats, and in such a way that the villains got passed off as heroes.
Actually many of the saturated fats in butter have strong anti-cancer properties. Butter is rich in short and medium chain fatty acid chains that have strong anti-tumor effects.6 Butter also contains conjugated linoleic acid which gives excellent protection against cancer.7
Vitamin A and the anti-oxidants in butter–vitamin E, selenium and cholesterol–protect against cancer as well as heart disease.”
7. CLA
Conjugated linoleic acid or CLA for short is a “good fat” found in grass-fed butter, dairy, and meat. (In fact they’re 3-5x higher than their grain-fed counterparts.) I explain exactly why CLA is so great in this post, but in summary studies show it may 1) fight cancer, 2) reduce inflammation, 3) soothe asthma, 4) boost the immune system, 5) promote weight loss, and 6) strengthen bones.
Sounds like something I want more of!
Bottom Line: The Source Matters
Pasteurized store-bought butter is certainly a step up from any type of vegetable oil product, but grass-fed raw butter is the best choice when it is available. I get Kalona brand butter (from here) and use it in our cooking and even in my coffee.
This article was medically reviewed by Dr. Scott Soerries, MD, Family Physician and Medical Director of SteadyMD. As always, this is not personal medical advice and we recommend that you talk with your doctor.
Do you love butter? How do you eat it? Share below!
Avocado Breakfast Bake
Hi Katie,
Do you know where I can get Kalona Butter? Butcher Box says they don’t offer it, but that is where your link goes to. Thanks!
Sorry about that! I think that link used to go to Tropical Traditions and changed, but they don’t carry it anymore either. I’ve found at Whole Foods and through local co-ops
Hi Katie 🙂 just wondering at what age did you start giving raw butter and coconut oil to your babies? I’m not finding it easy to find an answer on the internet. Thank you 🙂
gradually humans get tossed a blemish or two from the health guru’s of big brother stating that all this butter, margarine, and other dairy products that promote healthy balance and vitamin rich with minerals and probiotics sell there product. but when you use BUTTER ! with your foods it enhances flavor and ease of eats, there is one major griller food connoisseur , who garnishes his steaks with Butter as an anointing.
Butter we’ve discovered is healthier than margarine. But when recovering from Stage 4 cancer I avoided all forms of fat and oils. Cells smothered in fat and oil is often a catalyst for cancer I learned from Dr. Warburg’s studies.
After your cancer’s gone and you have a clean bill of health. then by all means enjoy the butter! I do, dribbling down over my popcorn!
I’m not sure how else to connect with you other than to comment here – hopefully you get the message as I know you are have many followers! I am looking for research on the Weston A. Price diet. Obviously, he did his own research while traveling and that is what the diet is based on. But I wondered if you could point me in the direction of studies that support his view, specifically ones that would show better outcomes for those who eat meat products from healthy animals versus industrialized meat. Thanks so much for your time!
Hi everyone, I finally found grass fed butter in my city.. but it’s $11 for 1/2 lb ! I bought some anyway, and tried Katie’s gingerbread Latte recipe (amazing), but I just can’t spend that type of money on butter when I use it so often. I live in Canada (Edmonton). Does anyone have any advice on where I can find some that might be a few dollars cheaper, or anywhere online that would ship here? Thanks!
Were you paid by the dairy industry to write this article or something? I can’t believe that the words “healthy” and “butter” can actually be in the same sentence. You might as well write an article that talks about the “health” benefits of smoking. Oh wait. People actually used to believe that smoking was healthy because the tobacco industry had used medical doctors to promote smoking as healthy for decades and people smoked like there was no tomorrow only to die of cancer just like people are eating dairy today like there is no tomorrow only to die of breast, prostate cancer and so many other diet-related and preventable diseases.
I recommend that you visit these links by medical doctors who do NOT get paid by the dairy industry in order to get an idea of the truth the dairy industry tries so hard to keep hidden and successes to do so because they have millions of dollars:
youtube.com/watch?v=Rm9Cu_cVFfg
nutritionfacts.org/topics/dairy/
youtube.com/watch?v=FjTXnmea5Pc
youtube.com/watch?v=8m6VErjH5VY
I also recommend that you read the book “The China Study” (written by Dr. Campbell who grew up on a dairy farm) and watch the documentary “Forks Over Knives” where medical doctors expose the dangers of animal products to our health.
Plus, you shouldn’t be consuming dairy for ethical reasons anyway.
This is exactly the reason I write posts like this, because there is such misinformation and indoctrination when it comes to saturated fat. If you missed it, there has been a lot of emerging science disproving the lipid hypothesis (just a hypothesis, by the way) and the idea that saturated fat is problematic. I’ve included some below since you seem to like studies. I think it is absolutely hilarious that you think I am paid by the dairy industry, since (1) I am not paid by anyone to write this blog (2) I advocate grass fed humanely raised butter and have problems with the way most dairy is raised. I also don’t ever give my family pasteurized or non-organic dairy.
The China Study was flawed research and has been disproven by people much smarter than Dr. Campbell (Here is one article by a well-researched reformed vegan: https://deniseminger.com/2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fallac/
The documentary Forks Over Knives is based on this flawed science.
Animal products have been consumed for centuries and there is no record of any traditional culture that survived or had long lives on a vegan diet.
I don’t have any ethical problem whatsoever with consuming ethically raised butter from a local farmer where I’ve seen that the cows are properly cared for and raised in a healthy way. You may, in which case, please leave the butter for the rest of us, but eating animal products is not an ethical issue for me and I don’t really like being told on my own site what I should and should not ethically eat. It seems that you would prefer to read other blogs that are more in line with your ethical preferences.
https://chriskresser.com/new-study-puts-final-nail-in-the-saturated-fat-causes-heart-disease-coffin/
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/fats-and-cholesterol/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/saturated-fats-wont-raise-heart-disease-risk-omega-3s-wont-reduce-it-study/
https://chriskresser.com/for-a-healthy-heart-stick-to-butter/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100209124352.htm
Your source, tropical traditions cannot sell raw butter (thanks to the government). Your post indicated that if it’s pasteurized, it doesn’t have all those benefits. For the sake of those who don’t have access to raw dairy, can you clarify the difference between grass-fed (pasteurized) butter and regular old butter? I can buy grass-fed cultured butter at HEB here in Houston, is it even worth it since it’s made from pasteurized milk?
I would also like to know that!!!
I was feeling extremely down in March and had my 25(OH)D levels tested and they were 15! I was vegan for 10 years and about 11 months post partum and nursing on demand. I took my vegan multi-vitamin and 2000 IU vegan D2 and whatever was fortified added to that number… my body wasn’t synthesizing the D2 well at all. So I’ve since transitioned to vegetarianism and have noticed an improvement. Were taking a D3 supplement and have noticed a huge difference!
I plan to start getting a little of unprotected sun exposure each day. 🙂