Like Butter

 

After years of being maligned in favor of vegetable oils, butter is getting a retrial.

A brand-new study from the British Medical Journal reports that replacing the saturated fats in butter with linoleic acid–rich fats such as corn, sunflower, and soybean oil not only failed to improve cardiac health markers, but also presented an increased mortality risk in some cases.

Although the American Heart Association stands by its stance that a diet low in saturated fats is heart healthy, swapping butter for linoleic acid–based oils has never been shown to reduce the risk of heart attacks or deaths. Scientists believe that the unsaturated nature of the vegetable oils makes them less stable and more prone to oxidation, which then promotes inflammation within the body.