Eating saturated fats over unsaturated fats is a real thing. Unsaturated fats are more difficult for the body to digest, which is why people complain about seed oils being in so many things. Saturated fats ended up being demonized in the 1950s and 60s as new research from studies like the Framingham study showed a correlation because high-fat diets, high cholesterol levels in the blood, and high rates of heart attacks. People were having heart attacks at historic levels, and doctors were desperate to figure out what the hell had changed in America to cause this. Now, just as a point of history, Framingham was the first time anyone had attempted to do a large scale epidemiological study before and use statistics to try and identify root causes like this. They literally created the field of study with this work. It's extremely high quality data and it was carried out by some of the best doctors in the country. People, rightly, trusted it. Eventually, we'd find there were key nuances, but not until the 80s and 90s after we started replacing butter with margarine and telling people to avoid cholesterol only to find it didn't stop heart attacks.
For the record, the seed oils in appropriate quantities are perfectly safe and often, very healthy to eat. You can eat soybeans, including their seed oil, marketed as canola oil, just fine. We can go down the list from walnut, to flaxseed, to palm oil, etc. All of that is safe if you're eating the fruits of the plant in a natural and normal way. In fact, people who eat some of these ethnic diets are extremely healthy people with very low rates of cardiovascular disease and cancers.
The issue with unsaturated fats is the quantity. Like we do with everything in the US. We went big. We industrialized it. We recognized that these seed oils didn't have to be treated as waste products from manufacturing other products. They could be harvested themselves and sold, not wasted. The free market doesn't like waste, that's lost value and lost revenue. So, when people found a use for it as a fat substitute, all of this seed oil that was previous regarded as waste and used as engine lubricant, became ultra cheap food additives. When we started taking it in in such large quantities, that's when we started seeing what happens when the liver can't keep up with it.
TLDR: Yes, eat your butter. There's nothing wrong with it as long as you're not eating too many calories. There's nothing wrong with a little seed oil in your diet either. But avoid the processed foods. Seriously, learn to cook your own food and use simple, fresh ingredients. Once you get the knack of it, you'll be infinitely healthier and happier for it.
Eating saturated fats over unsaturated fats is a real thing. Unsaturated fats are more difficult for the body to digest, which is why people complain about seed oils being in so many things. Saturated fats ended up being demonized in the 1950s and 60s as new research from studies like the Framingham study showed a correlation because high-fat diets, high cholesterol levels in the blood, and high rates of heart attacks. People were having heart attacks at historic levels, and doctors were desperate to figure out what the hell had changed in America to cause this. Now, just as a point of history, Framingham was the first time anyone had attempted to do a large scale epidemiological study before and use statistics to try and identify root causes like this. They literally created the field of study with this work. It's extremely high quality data and it was carried out by some of the best doctors in the country. People, rightly, trusted it. Eventually, we'd find there were key nuances, but not until the 80s and 90s after we started replacing butter with margarine and telling people to avoid cholesterol only to find it didn't stop heart attacks.
For the record, the seed oils in appropriate quantities are perfectly safe and often, very healthy to eat. You can eat soybeans, including their seed oil, marketed as canola oil, just fine. We can go down the list from walnut, to flaxseed, to palm oil, etc. All of that is safe if you're eating the fruits of the plant in a natural and normal way. In fact, people who eat some of these ethnic diets are extremely healthy people with very low rates of cardiovascular disease and cancers.
The issue with unsaturated fats is the quantity. Like we do with everything in the US. We went big. We industrialized it. We recognized that these seed oils didn't have to be treated as waste products from manufacturing other products. They could be harvested themselves and sold, not wasted. The free market doesn't like waste, that's lost value and lost revenue. So, when people found a use for it as a fat substitute, all of this seed oil that was previous regarded as waste and used as engine lubricant, became ultra cheap food additives. When we started taking it in in such large quantities, that's when we started seeing what happens when the liver can't keep up with it.
TLDR: Yes, eat your butter. There's nothing wrong with it as long as you're not eating too many calories. There's nothing wrong with a little seed oil in your diet either. But avoid the processed foods. Seriously, learn to cook your own food and use simple, fresh ingredients. Once you get the knack of it, you'll be infinitely healthier and happier for it.