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Butter consumption does not increase risk of death, chronic diseases

Researchers have found that the consumption of butter does not necessarily lead to diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and mortality, compared with other dairy products. These findings, however, do not imply any need for revision in already-established dietary guidelines in increasing or decreasing butter consumption, they wrote.

“The long-term effects of butter consumption on other major endpoints, such as all-cause mortality and CVD, are not well-established,” Laura Pimpin, PhD, from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy at Tufts University, Boston, and colleagues wrote. “To synthesize the evidence on the long-term association of butter consumption with major health endpoints, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective observational studies or randomized clinical trials investigating butter consumption and all-cause mortality, CVD including coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke, and type 2 diabetes in general populations.”

The researchers noted that evidence was needed for the effects of butter consumption on long-term health, for clinicians to make informed dietary recommendations. Previous guidelines suggest avoiding foods high in saturated fat, but current evidence implies that dairy products may have cardiometabolic benefits. Butter, having high saturated fat content, is questionable in terms of cardiovascular health.

The team conducted searches through online databases for randomized clinical trials and cohort studies, using search terms related to butter, dairy products and cardiovascular disease. The databases were searched from inception up until May 2015 with no restrictions on language or location. The investigators reviewed titles, abstracts and full-text articles, identifying nine publications to include in the meta-analysis.

Of the nine identified publications, there were 15 country-specific cohorts, including 636,151 participants with 6.5 million person-years of follow-up. There were 28,271 total deaths, 9,783 cases of incident CVD, and 23,954 cases of incident diabetes. There was a weak association between butter consumption of 14 g (or 1 tablespoon) per day and all-cause mortality, with a risk ratio of 1.01 (95% CI, 1-1.03; P = 0.045). There was no significant association between butter consumption and CVD (RR = 1; 95% CI, 0.98-1.02; P = 0.704), coronary heart disease (RR = 0.99; 95% CI, 0.96-1.03; P = 0.537), or stroke (RR = 1.01; 95% CI, 0.98-1.03; P = 0.737). There was also an inverse correlation between butter consumption and incidence of diabetes (RR = 0.96; 95% CI, 0.93-0.99; P = 0.021).

“Current dietary recommendations on butter and dairy fat are largely based upon predicted effects of specific individual nutrients (eg, total saturated fat, calcium), rather than actual observed health effects,” Pimpin and colleagues wrote. “Our results suggest relatively small or neutral overall associations of butter with mortality, CVD, and diabetes.” – by Rafi Naseer

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.