Improve digestive health
Another acid found in butter has proven it could be helpful for your stomach and digestive system. The short-chain fatty acid found in butter, butyrate, is also produced by your body to help you digest. Butyrate specifically helps your colon cells in the digestive process. It can decrease inflammation in your intestines and keep your electrolyte levels regular (via Healthline). Due to its anti-inflammatory properties, it is believed butyrate could even help treat stomach ailments like Crohn’s disease.
Other fats in butter can also keep your digestive system in tip-top shape. The glycosphingolipids in butter can protect you from gastrointestinal infections (via Don’t Waste the Crumbs).
“Short- and medium-chain saturated fatty acids have important antimicrobial properties,” according to the The Weston A. Price Foundation. “They protect us against harmful microorganisms in the digestive tract.”
Preventing infection in your gut is particularly helpful for at-risk populations like older people and children, according to Body Ecology.
Increase your calorie intake
It is possible to have too much of a good thing. One of the main issues with butter is that it is high in calories — roughly 102 calories in one tablespoon, similar to a medium banana (via Ochsner Health). While that doesn’t seem like much, if you inadvertently overdo the serving size you could be looking at extra calories and extra weight over time.
“Theoretically, adding just one serving per day to your diet without making any other changes could lead to approximately 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms) of weight gain over the course of a year,” according to Healthline.
Using butter in moderation can be okay, but choosing to use butter is troublesome for your health if you are already consuming a calorie-rich diet. High-calorie diets can be good for athletes or those who need to gain weight. Otherwise, you may experience an increased body fat percentage, an increased risk of diseases or certain cancers, and put your digestive system under heightened stress (via Livestrong).
Your cardiovascular health could be at risk
The overwhelming general belief for many years was that butter was bad due to its saturated fat content. Saturated fat makes up about 63% of total fat in butter, followed by the “good fats” — monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat (via Healthline).
Recently, the tables have turned on whether or not saturated fat causes heart disease. “One meta-analysis of 21 studies said that there was not enough evidence to conclude that saturated fat increases the risk of heart disease, but that replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat may indeed reduce risk of heart disease,” according to Harvard Health.
While there may not be a direct link to saturated fat and cardiovascular issues, you could be making worse health decisions trying to avoid it. “People don’t just remove saturated fat from their diets. They replace it with something else,” Walter Willet, chair of the HSPH Department of Nutrition, told Harvard Public Health.
And it’s not just butter that has saturated fat. It is also found in cheese, milk, nuts, vegetable oils, and yogurt.
Whether you’re on the “yes” or “no” side of the argument, it is wise to limit your saturated fat if you have heart disease (via WebMD).
Source: Healthdigest.com
