Butter and Saturated Fats May Actually be Good for the Health

Butter, cheese and other dairy products may actually be good for the health, contrary to the common notion that they aren't according to NY Daily News.

The new study published in the British Medical Journal found that butter and cheese may not be as bad for the heart for as previously thought. The researcher involved in the study has found that long-maligned saturated fats actually have minimal risk of heart disease and stroke. What's more, saturated fats may even protect against these conditions.

Aseem Malhotra, an interventional cardiology specialist registrar at Croydon University Hospital in London says that "almost four decades of advice to cut down back on saturated fats found in cream, butter and less lean meat has paradoxically increased our cardiovascular risks." He insists that it is finally time to bust the myth of the role saturated fats play in heart disease and related conditions.

Malhotra leads an online debate in the British Medical Journal website that challenges the demonization of saturated fat. He suggests a shift focus from patients' overall cholesterol or blood fat to whether or not they have a healthy balance of cholesterol in the body sourced out from different food types. Dr. Malhotra has also confirmed that obesity rates in the United States skyrocketed despite a relatively huge drop in the amount of calories consumed from fat. One of the reasons why this is so is because when fat is removed from a particular type of food, that food automatically tastes different.

This has been compensated for by the food industry by introducing and adding sugar as a replacement for saturated fats which then becomes a possible independent risk factor for a metabolic syndrome that can lead to diabetes, according to Daily Mail. Dr. Aseem said that the government's obsession with cholesterol has resulted to over-medication of millions of people.